Escapism

five:: the room

We followed him through the long halls,

I occasionally gave glances to Andrew. He looked confused.. and worried. I was too.

We walked by multiple doors, each door had a different noise. The air was tenser than the time our mother walked us to the room to get tattoos. I stared at my tattoo for a couple of seconds as we walked. I was getting lost in thought when suddenly, we stopped.

We stood in front of a large metal door. Larger than all the doors. Taller than all of us, even our father. And our father was tall. Trust me.

It looked like one of those bank doors with the locks but without the lock. But it didn't have a door knob either.

I saw with the corner of my eye, Andrew glancing at me but I didn't look back. I was too invested In this door.

We saw Father put some passcode which immediately made a rattle sound from the door. It opened slowly revealing the room. And when I saw the room- my jaw dropped.

It was a room. With millions of father's workers. I didn't even know he had that many.

 There were kids, getting tested. But I froze at what I saw next  Tanks. Deep pools. Kids in the tanks.

No. No. This can not be happening. Tattoos were bad enough.

I shot Andrew a look and saw his mouth wide open. Our father didn't look to either of us, just staring straight ahead.

Neither of us had said a word. I wanted to protest, but I couldn't bring myself to. Who knows what he could do?

After a few moments, father broke the silence.

"Follow," he said gruffly.

We followed slowly behind him. I saw workers extracting kids blood and what scared me the most were the kids in the tank. They looked  like they were drowning.

I never really knew how to swim, since most of my time was occupied in the room. But once, when I was 4 I did go to a pool with one of my friends. Once.

I heard father speak and I immediately looked at him.

"Do you know what you did?" His tone was sharp and aggressive.

I didn't answer. I wanted Andrew to answer. But he didn't say a word either.

His voice rose. "Do you know what you did?"

I decided to take the sacrifice. And I spoke.

"We-" I tried to get the words out but I just couldn't. "We- I-"

I saw him losing his patience and he snapped.

"You both thought about sneaking out. You know the rules."

Andrew looked at me,  his expression uneasy.

"This is your home. Youre not leaving without permission."

Andrew and I quickly nodded. 

Father stared and studied our faces for a few seconds but looked back forward.

"Follow." is all he said.

I knew we were going to get some punishment. There was no hope now. We followed carefully before we stopped at a corner.

"...I'll run some.. extra tests." 

Tests? Punishment? Isn't that normal? 

"Put these on." He handed us a white sort of looking body suit. It was sleeveless and the pants were shorts. 

We went into the dressing room and changed.