The military guys crowded her, pushing at her chair without her consent.
"Hey what the fuck?" she said, tucking her arms in so they wouldn't get bapped.
"I warned you," the suit said mournfully before they were out the door and down the hall. The nurses were all looking on with sad looks on their faces.
She didn't like it. She had expected at some point a consequence for not signing the NDA but she didn't expect it then. Not when she was in the midst of celebrating an actual victory for herself.
She was sweaty and tired and so not ready for it.
"Where are we going?" she asked, resigning herself to now belonging to the military.
"Classified," the suit replied. And wasn't that just peachy? How the fuck could a place she ended up be classified? She would know about it somehow, wouldn't she?
She was rolled up and into a van. Just a normal ass blue van for wheelchairs. She wasn't a fan. She missed driving already.
Clarissa had told her that there was a way to drive with your hands and she wanted it more than anything. Though she probably couldn't drive if she was trapped in prison. Guess there were some things she had to sacrifice.
The drive in the van was long. She didn't bother asking them where they were going. Part of her wanted to irritate them with tons of questions. The other part of her just kept her mouth shut. There were guns in the van with them and she really didn't fancy being the test subject for them.
The suit had warned her after all. Not that she thought the military would disappear her exactly but it was starting to get close to that idea. She really had no clue where they were going.
They drove in the desert for what felt like forever and eternity before they ended up at a military base. She figured this was where she would get off and go to desert jail.
Why did she have to pick the desert? She should have gotten in military custody on a tropical beach or some shit.
What she wasn't expecting was for the van to straight up drive onto a plane. She didn't even know planes could be big enough for just a van to be on it. The van was strapped down as the military people all left it, finding seats on the edge.
She was left alone in the van. Of course she was.
It didn't help that the weird buzz she had been feeling since she got into the van just intensified. She didn't like it. It was like they were spamming her with some kind of unseen energy. It tickled her skin, making her edgy.
The suit was the last person to check on her, making sure her chair was secured down before saluting her and getting into a seat.
She had no idea why the bastard saluted her. It felt very sarcastic. She'd need to get him back somehow.
When the plane took off, she was nervous. It didn't take long for her to be just simply bored. There was no TV and no card games. She was basically stuck twiddling her thumbs.
So she did what she normally did after physical therapy: she passed out.
Waking up was an awful experience. She was thirsty, there was a crick in her neck, and as far as she could tell, they were still in the air.
She tried to go back to sleep but it just wasn't happening so she ended up thinking of different ways to fuck with the suit.
She could pretend she changed her name to Analise. She could act surprised that her legs didn't work. She could try and talk in that alien language she always dreamed.
She immediately scratched that one. She wasn't fond of the idea of being shipped off to padded walls.
But it got her curious. Could she recreate the sounds? They were all weird chirps and buzzes. Some of them didn't feel natural for her to even hear let alone speak. There was one particular chirp she heard a lot and she thought why the hell not, she was bored.
She made the chirp and for half a second was proud of herself but startled when the van beneath her lurched a bit. She threw her arms out, hoping that would steady her.
The van didn't move again but it freaked her out. She was chirping in some kind of robot speak. Maybe the van could understand her? That was a weird thought so she shelved it and decided to not chirp again.
Until an hour later. When she was so completely bored she was ready to tear her own hair out. She chirped again, not surprised this time when the van moved a little bit.
So she tried a different sound, a low hum. It was almost too low for her to recreate but she did anyway. The van didn't move this time. Disappointing.
It became a game to her. Find the sound that would make the van move.
There weren't many but occasionally she would find one and it started to bring her joy. There was so little else to focus on anyway. She needed some kind of stimulation.
When the plane started to descend she almost cheered. She had no idea where they were going or what she was about to roll into but she was determined to take it. She had to. This was the choice she made.
When the plane landed, the military dudes all descended on the van again. They sat next to her as they backed it out of the plane.
It was absolutely hilarious to her when she finally saw where they were. It was straight up a tropical island. Awesome. Her dreams came true.
She hoped her cell would at least have a view.
The van pulled up to a nondescript building and then she was being unstrapped and pushed towards the door.
The hallways were boring. All bare concrete with no color or directions. Prison for sure.
They wheeled her down the hall a bit before she was brought to a different door. It was just as gray and boring as the walls themselves.
"This is you," the suit said before swiping some kind of card against a black box on the door and opening it.
It was a whole ass apartment. A studio, for sure but it was legitimately not what she was expecting. It even had a window! She could see the beach from her new home. What the fuck?
"Did I miss something?" she said hoarsely, throat still dry.
"What do you mean?" the suit asked as the military guys wheeled her into the middle of the room and straight up fled.
"Like this is a pretty decent place. I thought it was going to be some kind of prison cell or some shit," she said, peering around.
It was decorated drably that was for sure. Everything was in muted grays and whites. But it was still far nicer than she was expecting.
"This is where you will live. You are not yet authorized to leave the room, so don't. The door will be locked so you probably won't be able to leave anyway. There's food in the kitchen. I'll come by when I get your authorization paperwork done," he said with a nod and then he was gone, not letting her ask more questions.
So she went exploring. There was indeed food in the cabinets and everything was blessedly low enough for her to reach in her shortened state.
The bed looked pretty comfy not that she was all that sure she'd be able to get out of it once she got in.
She had literally just figured out how to lift herself. And now she realized going to the bathroom was going to suck.
She managed, barely to use the bathroom but getting into bed was a daunting idea.
There wasn't all that much to do. No TV or hidden games. Not even a damn book. She was basically going to sleep and eat and that was it. And stare at the beach, she mused, glancing at the window.
There wouldn't be all that much to see but at least it was something. She was also curious if she could make more of the sounds from her dreams. Now that she was alone, she could try the louder whistling ones.
Determined to get into bed first, she managed to slide herself in without falling and with a lot of sweat. Tucking herself in was weird but it felt better, more secure. She was in a completely unfamiliar place with only the suit as her guide after all.
She tried the whistle and was almost disappointed when nothing happened. She didn't think the bed would jerk or anything but it would have been cool.
She continued with that until it became boring as sin and decided then was a perfect time for a nap.
She spent the next few days in her new limbo. Her arms were fucking tired from all the lifting and pushing and the way her right arm twinged made her not so confident she hadn't pulled something.
She ate the food, grateful most of it didn't require cooking. She was on a diet of toast and some kind of cold soup. It wasn't ideal but she wasn't about to figure out how to cook when lifting her arms fucking ached.
When the suit came back, she could have almost cried. Something to fucking do dammit.
"You're not authorized yet. I just came to check on you," he said.
"I'm going fucking nuts, man. There's nothing to do," she spat out quickly. The suit startled, glancing around the room.
"Oh," he said. Oh. Oh. What an asshole the lucky bastard. He got to do fun things while she was stuck in a box with a window.
"I will seek to remedy this," he said with a nod and then he was gone. He didn't even bother asking if she could feed herself, the prick.
She knew, logically, she was just cranky from being bored and exhausted from having to take care of everything herself. It didn't stop her from glaring at the door after he left.
He came back with a deck of cards and a shrug.
"It's all I could get," he said and then he was gone again. Didn't bother asking how she was. Nothing.
She was so sour about the conversation that she straight up went to bed. She didn't bother with her new cards, leaving them on the counter where he had placed them.
Her dreams were extra wild that particular nap. There was some kind of robot fight. The grunts and screeching of metal were burned into her brain. She woke up with a gasp.
And then she was grumpy again. That was not a refreshing nap whatsoever.
Fuck. She would just kill for an actual comfy bed and a TV. She never thought she'd miss the hospital she was stuck in but she definitely did.
She got up, arms shaky from overuse, and rolled towards the counter. It was just low enough that she could easily play solitaire. So that's what she did. For what felt like hours. Again and again she shuffled the cards.
This went on for a few more days. Right as she was starting to run out of soup, the suit came back.
"You're cleared to leave the base. Here's your badge. You must always wear this," he said, handing over a lanyard.
"And if I don't?" she grabbed the lanyard snarkily. She was so done with the damn room.
"A major headache happens. Just wear the damn badge," he said, voice dripping with exhaustion.
"So I'm free to just wheel around?" she asked, putting the badge around her neck.
"Yes. If a door doesn't open with your badge, you can't go into that room. Your clearance level is low so you'll only have access to common areas. Don't get into trouble," the suit said before bolting.
Damn. She'd never get to ask him the questions she wanted to. Like where the fuck did she get more food?