Rising From The Ashes

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Recovery. That’s where all the females who’d been exposed or “mentally infected” by the male population were sent. It was a hospital-like place far away from our city, surrounded by wilderness. This gave limited options for escape as intended. We had always assumed that those who disappeared were killed for their crimes, it’s what the Officials had wanted us to believe to intimidate us into behaving. Yet all along they had been right here, suffering through “recovery”.

My recovery started right after my mother’s visit. They lead me from the holding building handcuffed and blindfolded and took me away. I’ve been here two weeks now. Two weeks was long enough to figure out how things worked around the place. It was enough time to know that I wasn’t going to be released any time soon. That I was trapped here indefinitely.

At first I was confined to my room, which was a vast improvement to my cell in the holding building. I had light and a bed and that was more than I could ask for by that point. There were no windows and the door was locked from the outside, so there were no chances for escape.

After a few hours I was retrieved from my room by a woman in professional-looking clothes, slicked back hair, and heels that made that click, click, click sound as she walked. She didn’t say much and I followed her without comment. I didn’t see any point in resisting just yet.

She lead me to a room that closely resembled a psychiatrist’s office, which made me frown. They were going to put me through therapy? That was their way to recover my wayward self? It almost made me laugh. Little did I know at the time that this was only a small part of it.

I was left alone in the room for awhile with the door locked, of course. Normally if I were left alone somewhere like this I would sit respectfully until whoever I was waiting for returned. However, considering I was more or less a prisoner I didn’t feel the need to follow normal social customs.

The first thing I did was search through the desk situated in the back of the room. There was nothing of interest in any of the drawers that were unlocked and I could find no way to get into the one that was locked. Other than the desk there were two dark vinyl chairs in the middle of the room. The leftover space was filled with bookshelves.

I was perusing through Females: A Guide to Recovery, when the door opened. A woman in her late forties stood before me offering a non-threatening smile, which only served to make me warier.

“Find anything of interest?” she asked and gestured to the book I held. With a fake smile to match her own, I slid the book back on the shelf.

“Oh yes, fascinating stuff,” I replied. Her pleasant expression showed that she either missed the sarcasm or was ignoring it.

“Why don’t you take a seat?” she suggested serenely.

“I’d rather stand actually, if you don’t mind,” I retorted and then began pacing.

I was starting to feel like a caged lion with all these locked doors and seemingly endless life of captivity I could feel stretching before me. And if I was a lion then this lady must be my trainer, here to condition me to do and believe as she said. I wanted to bite her head off.

I was startled from my violent thoughts by the woman offering me a cup of tea. How strange my world had become that I could very well be described as a violent person. Nowhere to be found was the once docile girl I’d been. Even stranger that this women who wanted to tear everything I stood for apart was hospitable enough to offer me tea. For some reason the thought made me burst into uncontrollable giggles.

“Something funny?” the woman asked. I shook my head quickly, stifling my random burst of laughter.

“Well, Kaydance, I should probably start by explaining everything to you,” she began and the still lingering smile dropped from my face. “My name is Melinda Cartwright and I am, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, a psychologist.”