She woke with a gasp. Choking on water that had filled her lungs. She rolled onto her front and lifted herself shakily onto hands and knees. Coughing and throwing up, as soon as her stomach had emptied itself of anything and everything, and there was air in her lungs.. it hitched in her throat. Why was it so dark and cold?

"Hello?" she tried to get out.

Her throat hurt. A lot. It was raw and raspy, like she had just finished screaming at the top of my lungs. She took a shaky breath and tried again.

"Hello? Someone? Hello? Anyone?"

Nothing. Empty silence. And black. She couldn't even see a hand in front of her face! Her breathing started to speed up. Her head was pounding, stomach twisting with fear and anxiety.

"I don't know where I am, or what's going on...I don't even know how I got here! Wait...I don't even bloody know who I am! Why don't I know my name?!"

Her lungs felt like they were being squeezed by a vice, she couldn't get enough oxygen to the brain, she couldn't think straight, shallow short breaths, her head felt like it was going to explode.

"I can't breathe!"

Everything was fuzzy, more than it already was. She was going to pass out.

She woke with a gasp, for a second time. Still in darkness, still with no idea how she got there or where 'there' was. Pushing herself in a sitting position with knees pulled up to her chest, she wrapped her arms around them, trying to make herself as small as possible. She didn't like the dark.

"Okay," She said her voice sounded high pitched, "I know one thing about myself. Not helpful, but it's a start. Deep breath, in through the nose and out through the mouth."

Closing her eyes, she tried to concentrate on something, anything but the cold and dark...

"My name. What is my name? Why can't I bloody remember that?" She whispered.

She tried harder, squeezing her eyes shut, trying to think, trying to remember. It felt like a big wall was built around all her personal memories, all the details of who she was, where she came from, all the details...it was like grasping at fog, slipping through her fingers.

"Great" she thought, "I can remember what fog is and how it works, but not my name?"

A sharp stabbing pain shot through her head, from right between eyes straight to the back of her head. She thought she almost had something, a letter, two letters, maybe part of her name. But it slipped through her mental fingers. Her breathing started to quicken.

"No! Don't have a panic attack again, you bloody idiot," she scolded herself as she rubbed her forehead, "that doesn't help the situation! How come I know what a panic or anxiety attack is, but nothing substantial? No details of who I am! Bloody wonderful, now I'm a memory loss patient who is talking to themselves. This is stupid. Ok, don't worry about the name thing...yet..my current situation is what?"

Taking a deep slow breath she opened her eyes and stretched out a shaking hand. Eyes were useless in this situation, the other senses should work. Right?

"What can I feel?" she whispered to no one but herself. "It's cold, really cold. The ground feels...hard, and thick...metal? It's got holes, like a grate, rough, too small to fit my hand...the walls? Feel the same. Wonder if I can touch the roof? What can I smell? Stale old air and motor oil and sterilization cleaners...like at the dentist or hospital."

When she concentrated on the strange mixture of smells it made her empty stomach turn, and she could feel the bile rise. She threw up nothing but more water. Wiping her mouth, she got her shaking legs under her, in a crouch, looking up trying to see the top. She stood up. Before she reached her full height, she slammed her head on what was obviously the top. She dropped to the grated floor, now with a nasty gash on her forehead. She could feel the trickle of hot sticky blood slowly run down her face.

"Bloody hell! What the actual shuck? It's like a box..no more like a cage!"

Just as she came to the horrible conclusion of 'I'm stuck in a metal cage in pitch black, with a bleeding forehead and no memory of anything'; she heard a loud shrill grinding of gears. With a start the metal cage began to rise. The abrupt movement made her fall onto her side from the squatting position she was in. She curled into a ball, her back pressed against the cold metal wall. She tried not to cry...crying was not going to help. But the hot tears leaked out the sides of her tightly shut eyes anyways.

"I don't know my name. I know I don't like small dark places. I don't know how I got here or where I'm going, just up...and the cage is moving faster."

She could feel her throat closing up again, it was getting harder to breathe.

What if I'm a captive? What if I'm trapped here? Was I kidnapped from my family and put me here? What're they going to do to me? Leave me here to die? Take me out and torture me? What if I'm all alone?

She couldn't stop the awful thoughts floating around her brain.

I need a weapon! Something to defend myself!

With something her panicking brain could grasp onto, she pushed herself back to a sitting position, wiped the blood out of her eye and started to crawl forward, slowly, using her hands to feel in front of her. She made that mistake with the top of this shuck cage.

"Shuck? That's the second time I used that word...it's a weird word...I obviously wacked my head harder than I thought"

Talking to herself again. Her hand brushed something hard, but it wasn't metal this time. She felt around a bit more. It was a box. A wood box, using her hands to find the top, trying to open it. Nailed shut. That's no help.

Just as abruptly as the metal cage started moving it clanged to a sudden stop, jolting her into her side again, scrapping her arm against the wood box. And then a loud alarm sounded, echoing all around the small metal cage she was trapped in. She slapped her hands over her ears. It shut off just as abruptly. The silence was just as loud as the alarm. She held her breath, slowly scooting into the corner of the cage. She strained her ears to hear anything.

She heard it, quietly at first, but rapidly getting louder...the deep rumble of voices. Wild, deep voices, all yelling over each other, nothing making sense, muffled by the cage. The noise was from above her. She tilted her head up, terrified with what was about to happen.

Who was up there? Will they hurt me? Kill me? Are they the ones who put me in here? Are they my captives?

More awful thoughts swirled around her mind. She couldn't hold her breath anymore, she let out a small whimper.

A loud clanging and a slow squeak of the big solid metal doors opening up. And blinding bright warm light blasted into the cage. It hurt so much after being in the cold dark for so long. Blinking and rubbing her stinging eyes, she looked up. Everything was hazy and distorted like trying to open your eyes underwater. Blinking a few more times everything slowly came into focus. And the bodies of the voices were clearer. She could also make out some of what was being said. It did nothing to lessen the fear and panic.

"Do you see the poor shank?"

"Wonder what they look like? Probably look like klunk in a shirt! Kinda like you Dave! HA"

"SHUT IT MAN!" yelled the boy obviously named Dave.

"Wonder how old he'll be?"

"Wonder if they are blubbering down there klunking their pants! Like the last shank!"

"I'm never going to live that down?!"

"UHG, it still smells like feet down there!"

"Hope you enjoyed your one way trip, Greenie!"

"It's a one way ticket!"

The bodies standing around the box all belonged to boys, all of them- some younger, some older, some short some tall, light skinned and dark skinned. But all boys. All dirty sweaty teenage boys. She shrank back in the corner of the dark cage, willing herself to become even smaller, squeezing her eyes closed, biting her lower lip trying not to whimper or cry. If she didn't move would they go away?

"Hey! Where's the Greenie? 'Aint we supposed to be getting a fresh one today?"

"Slim it Fry, he's down there, probably hiding, klunking his pants...the stupid greenie."

Some of the words these boys were using sounded so weird and foreign, but at the same time it tickled something at the back of her brain.

"SLIM IT!" a voice louder than the rest yelled, the chattering boys feel silent. "Ya, I don't see the Green Bean either, obviously he's hiding. Newt! Go down and check. I don't think this shank is gonna put up a fight. Especially if he's hidden' Uh, we got ourselves a weak one. I don't have time for this shuckin nonsense"

He? I definitely knew that I'm NOT a HE... If they were all expecting a boy, what will they do with me? Why am I here? They were expecting a boy...but I'm most definitely a girl.

There was a loud clang and the metal cage swung a little. A small frightened gasp escaped her lips, accompanied with a small whimper. Her eyes met the boy's as he spun around at the sudden noise. It was his turn to let out a gasp. His eyes went wide. He stood there with his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide with shock.