Blue Fire (Edited)

Chapter 9: No Way Out

Elaine descended the stairs and entered through another locked door into a short, white hallway. Yet, even the hallway seemed like it belonged to an entirely different facility. The lighting was strong and harsh. Elaine lingered a bit, moving her head in an orbital motion, looking around like a child in an unfamiliar place. The walls were all white, resembling the lab she had first snuck into, and even the ceiling was made of plain white tiles. However, there were no windows in sight, creating a sense of claustrophobia that crept into her very bones. Inhaling deeply, she could smell a faint odor in the air, possibly from cleaning products; it reminded her of hospitals. She shuddered, feeling a chill despite the apparent warmth. Her escorts grew impatient with her pace, and the bulky man behind her gently nudged her as he motioned for her to continue following Mr. Rutherford. She realized Rutherford was giving her a tour of the facility where she was now a permanent resident. Her other escorts were left behind as they crossed the last door, and their absence, coupled with the closing door, gave her the sense of finality she had been dreading. There really was no way out of this place, she thought to herself.

Elaine found herself in the circular area situated in the center of the facility. She realized that to her right was an enormous gymnasium with glass walls, and Elaine could see people working out. What caught her attention was the uniform everyone wore. In the gym everyone was dressed in a gray shirt and black pants, reminiscent of a boarding school. While all the others, gawking at them, were wearing blue jumpsuits. She then continued to note the medical rooms on her left along with a library lounge.

'Great' She thought to herself, 'Next they'll make me workout daily and drink green smoothies. What a weird place.'

There were about a handful of people sitting in the lounge chatting. As far as Elaine could tell, nobody seemed distressed or in pain, and her initial idea of a creepy dungeon where people were experimented on and tortured began to crumble. If anything, the residents looked relaxed and leisurely.

Looking up, she saw a circular balcony surrounding the top landing, but she wasn't quite sure what lay beyond the glass.

When Mr. Rutherford noticed her staring at the balcony, he pointed and said matter-of-factly, "That's an indoor jogging track."

Elaine continued to swivel her head around, taking in everything, and noticed that people were beginning to fizzle out and disappear to their rooms, she assumed. She was secretly staring at everyone's faces, trying to find the man with the bright blue eyes that she had seen in the lab earlier. She wondered if they even kept him in this place or in a totally different place altogether. Part of her felt drawn to the strange man, but she wasn't sure why and was not comfortable enough with her thoughts to linger on it.

Rutherford continued to lead Elaine, weaving through the tables towards the hallway on the opposite end. Once they got there, she realized that what she had thought to be a hallway was actually a dead end with a set of stairs, one on the right and another on the left. She figured that answered her question on how she could get to the second floor. They ended up ascending the staircase on the right and found themselves in another closed-off hallway. The wall to their right was entirely made of glass, allowing Elaine to look out onto the racetrack and see part of the landing below. Again, the wall to her left, the ceiling, and the floor were entirely white, not a color in sight, not even a painting hanging on the wall. The blandness of the white color used everywhere was irking her. There was a stark contrast between this place and her colorful apartment.

They then passed a hallway on the left with a sign reading "Females (1)" near the entrance. She was perplexed, but Mr. Rutherford began to explain.

"The top floor branches out into eight hallways in total. The first four we will encounter are for females, and the following four are for the males that reside here. They are separated by a wall in the center. The only way to the other gender's half is if you take the other staircase up from the bottom floor, or by going through the jogging track outside. We strongly discourage mingling and will know if you decide on going to the other side. We monitor everything here. If we disagree with your decision, we will let you know via the cuffs on your wrist. We will send out a small shock in the beginning as a warning. Know that if you do not heed that, the voltage will be incremented by 50 volts every 5 minutes. So I strongly suggest you never try to test that. You may not be able to withstand as much as others here." He concluded with a smirk.