Eyera (The Eyera Series Book 1) Read online

No one moves. We all look at each other hoping one of us knows what is going on, the guard gets annoyed that we are defying his orders, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a metal rod, and snaps it and we flinch. A girl in the middle jitters and begins to freaks out, her movements puts pressure on our shackles and we move too.

  “What are they going to do to us?” she whimpers making the others freak out too.

  A boy at the other end tries to calm her down.

  “Babe look, look at me, we are going to be fine,”

  The doors open and a guard walks in; his uniform is identical to Lieutenant Larcival apart from the stripes. This guard has two which represents he is lieutenant’s second. The lieutenant second walks up to the boy and unlock his cuffs and shackles pulling him forward, the girl notices and calls out for him.

  “Haston!”

  The boy turns around quickly, he is scared, but he puts on a brave face for her.

  “It’s okay babe, I promise you I will be all right,” he says sweetly.

  The lieutenant second chuckles.

  “You shouldn’t be promising things like that.”

  The girl looks at him with worry.

  “What does he mean by that? What are you talking about?” she whimpers.

  The lieutenant second ignores her and ushers the boy out in which the girl screams his name, pulling the shackles making us nearly fall.

  “Haston come back!” she screams.

  The lieutenant second storms over to the girl, he grabs her by the collar and spits in her face.

  “Shut up!” he roars which doesn’t do anything as she continues to scream his name; getting louder each time, lieutenant second backhands her across the face, and she falls making myself and others stumble.

  “I said shut up!” he spits.

  The girl hiccups with tears running and snotty nose flowing. A red raw hand print marks her face. I move forward to the girl, but the guards take a step forward daring me to continue, I bite my gums and withdraw. They leave and we wait a while.

  The door opens and the lieutenant second stands at the doorway empty handed, he dips his head signalling the guards and they march unlocking a boy, they drag him forward and he squirms.

  Time passes again, and the lieutenant second comes back in. They are killing us one by one, it’s going in order. I panic. I’m not ready to die. The lieutenant second walks up to the girl and takes off her shackles and cuffs; he touches her, and she cries out desperately trying to get away. He is furious and curses a horrible name.

  “Get her outta here now, prepare her for the special treatment, I’ll be there in a moment.” he rages.

  The rest of the guards run over pulling out their clubs hitting her, one smacks her hard across her head and she stops crying, she is silent, I think they killed her but I look closer to see faint breathing, she’s knocked out. They drag her limp body, and the other guards unlock the cuffs from the boy, and he cries silently as he gets taken out. The guards leave the room leaving me by myself. What is the special treatment? So many questions spiral out of control. I worry about the things they can do to me. I play with my fingers biting my nails short, my hands are clammy, it’s been a while since they took everyone else. The doors bash open and I freeze. The lieutenant second marches over, sorting his uniform and bends down staring toxically.

  “Try anything, and I end you,” he warns.

  I gulp hard and nod fully understanding.

  “Good,” he says expressionless.

  He takes off my shackles and cuffs, and I follow behind, he leads me through the doors and into another room. Hundreds of computers with workers on chairs typing fast, I’ve not seen technology like this, the screens are transparent and people are touching them with their fingers or using pens, no wires are connected. A woman sits at the back of them room chewing gum loudly.

  “Is this the last one?” she says in which the lieutenant second nods.

  The woman signals him to go forward, the door opens and the room is dark, I can work out that there is a chair and some sort of machine above.

  “Sit.” he says which makes me cringe.

  The lieutenant second sighs, clearly annoyed. He puts my hands on the resters and restrains them tightly, he pushes my head back and puts a cold metal headgear on my forehead, so I cannot move, he winds something, and it comes across my face.

  “This might sting a little,” he says as he puts wires underneath my eyes forcing them open, my eyes start watering as I feel cold air entering. He steps out leaving me alone. I try to move again, but only my legs are capable of movement, my eyes sting and water drips out profusely.

  The room rings as the machine hums. A boxed device appears in front of me, lens adjusts, peering into my eyes, it clicks and a powerful bright flash blinds me making colourful splotches of colours. Lieutenant second comes in and takes the restraints off and the wires from my eyes.

  “If only the other kids were this cooperative,” he says.

  “Wha- what- what was that?” I ask.

  “Your identity – now move it,” he says leading me out of the room.

  He takes me to an elevator my vision is fuzzy, he presses the button above sixteen. The doors open and I step out seeing water on the tiles.

  “You need to get cleaned up,” he says.

  I tiptoe across the room, sweet soap lingering in the air and heat etches on my skin. I go through an opening to see a female guard, I walk to her slowly, and she hands me a towel. I accept feeling the warm fabric in my hands. I go through the silver doors seeing a large shower and a large drain dipping into the middle filled with dirt and blood. White tiles makes the blood stand out. I take off my boots and socks and leave them on the side. I tiptoe over other people’s blood and walk into the shower putting the towel on the hook. I take off my ribbon placing it on the hook too. I strip off my claggy clothes tossing them to the side and twist on the tap. Cold water shoots out making me squeal. After a few minutes, the water warms up, I grab a bar of soap in the pot and scrub my skin roughly, rendering it red raw. Dried blood and dirt falls off and slides down into the drain, the lukewarm water cradles my skin washing the soap off my bruised aching body. I scrub my hair and face rinsing off the soap and wash my ribbon too.

  I turn off the showers and wrap a towel round me, picking up my dirty clothes, the guard hands me a fresh set of clothes.

  “They will be big on you, you will be giving the correct size tomorrow morning, I also need your clothes,” she says.

  I give her my clothes, and she looks at my ribbon.

  “I will need that too, you are not allowed to have anything that you brought in.”

  I pick up my ribbon holding it tightly not wanting to give it up.

  “You don’t understand I need it,” I say begging pathetically.

  The guard reaches to her side, and I see a taser, she looks at me asking if I wanted to continue to push her buttons. I look at the ribbon tracing my fingers lightly and give it to her.

  “Once you are ready, come out.” she says leaving.

  I pat till I am bone dry, the clothes are warm, and they smell fresh too, they are the same as the other kids. I put on the underwear and then the white jogging bottoms, they are loose around my hips, feeling them slipping down, I put on the long sleeve white T-shirt and it’s super baggy. I put on the black combat boots and head back out. The lieutenant’s second takes me out of the showers and back to the room where I was in shackles. Three people are standing in a line looking fresh and clean, their bruises are visible and their ankles shackled together. I look at Haston seeing his eyes puffy and red. I look down seeing the girl is not with us anymore.

  “Move it,” the guard orders.

  We move in sync as the guards take us back to the cells, they unlock our shackles one by one, my eyes meet Haston, and he looks torn. He gets forced into his cell and so do I. The guards close the doors, and I lay on my bed feeling exhausted, my mind wanders to the girl, where is she and what happened to her? What did the
y do? I let questions run wild in my head, pinning me down. It’s too much. I feel droopy. I close my eyes laying on my back feeling myself drifting off, hoping I get some sleep.

  CHAPTER twenty-four

  I wake up to a knock on the window, Linxston holding up clothes. I force my tired body up, I’m physically tired, hungry too, it seems like days I’ve had something to eat. My mouth is dry and my throat hurts. My feet dangle over the bed and I push myself up, feet gently touching the cold floor, I take lifeless steps, tiny blisters sting. I rest my head on the door looking at Linxston, I can barely keep my eyes open from the lack of sleep. Linxston opens the window and delicately puts the clothes through; I extend my aching arms and accept.

  “You have five minutes to get changed,” he murmurs.

  Linxston looks left and right and hands me a small bottle of water and my eyes pop out, my pulse thumps hard. I make my way back to the bed sitting down eager to drink, I twist the cap off and bring the water to my parched lips taking mouthfuls of the cool refreshing liquid, particles exploding inside my throat. I appreciated water more than anything. I stop, catching my breath through the process and decide to save the other half just in case I don’t see it again. I place it underneath the bed and pick up the clothes inhaling the scent of bleach. I take off my baggy clothes putting on the correct size, the long sleeved T-shirt hugs my body tightly. I pull on the jogging bottoms putting them over my bruised legs, and they fit perfectly resting on my hips. I put on the black combat boots lacing them in one knot and tucking the laces into my boots.

  The door opens and two guards stand. I step towards them and their eyes darken like death, white gloves touch my shoulders as they guide me. Cells are empty, not a person in sight. The guards push me through the iron bars and we turn left to a set of doors. Pushing it open, children and teenagers sit on three rectangle steel tables eating food, some laughing amongst themselves, others quiet and some make small talk. I didn’t think Eyera would have a cafeteria, I figured they were not capable of things like that. The guards stand at the side of the doors and usher me to queue. People move like they are in the military; strict and formal. A girl stands to the side holding cream plastic trays as people take it from her, I study the girl carefully. Her light numb eyes lack any form of emotions. The queue moves forward, and I get closer to her, I stare at her inexpressive face, it’s as if no one is home. I trace down her face seeing black wires on her bottom lip to top lip sewn shut. I cannot form an expression as if my brain has been short circulated. The girl stares into the distance not blinking; nothing is there. People behind shout as I hold up the line. I take a tray that has four shapes structured on it. At the canteen workers rush behind the long metal table serving food. I’m stricken with an unpleasant smell, dead flesh of animals singeing my nostrils, I scrunch my nose in disgust. I place my tray on the metallic railing sliding along as the queue moves. A woman with short reddish brown hair cups a spoonful of carrots and drops it imperiously on my tray, she scoops mixed peas and sweetcorn and chucks it on the tray, peas rolling off. I slide the tray down and she follows too glaring, she scoops up a light green sauce filled with flesh.

  “Oh no, I’m fine, thank you,” I say politely.

  Her dark impulsive eyes bulge out as if I offended her.

  “Yes,” she says in a thick accent holding the food.

  “I'’m good,” I say sliding my tray down, she stops the tray by slamming her fists down bursting of fury.

  “I said I don’t want it,” I say trying to keep calm.

  My ears fill with silence as the cafeteria becomes silent.

  “You do now,” she says as she throws the food on my tray, it splashes over the vegetables and onto the floor. I roll my eyes seeing steam from her ears seconds from exploding. I proceed down the line coming to an end, a fridge holding multiple of bottled water, people grab one and I take one too. I look around for a place to sit, a group of people leave the table and I quickly make my way towards it. My boots hit the grey ghost floor, powdered blue walls stretch along, and light shines on the tables. Eyes gaze upon as I take a seat that is held up by a pole, placing my food on the table not bothering to pick up cutlery as I’m not planning to eat this slop. My mind lingers to the girl with sewn lips, a blank face but her eyes screamed for help.

  Trays hit the table startling me from my thoughts. I look up seeing four people, a boy who looks two years older than me grinning and the others look roughly my age.

  “Eethia is grumpy, but I’ve never seen her pissed like that, ever. Ha! It was very, very amusing,” he says with a broad smile showing off his pearly teeth.

  He stabs his fork into a piece of carrot and plops it in his mouth crunching loudly.

  “Didn’t ya guys find it funny? No, no one? Come on guys it was hilarious,” he says laughing holding his sides as if they were about to split.

  The boy on his left fidgets, his tawny brown eyes twitch and scrawny body jitters from time to time. The girl rolls her viridescent eyes not impressed, her auburn bristled hair ripples down to her shoulders, her light brown skin covered in a few visible scars on her wrist. The boy next to me devours his insipid food, slurping and munching, bits of food landing on his clothes and in his canary frosted tip blonde hair, sauce dripping down his cheeks, he smacks his lips and uses his tongue to clean up the remaining food. He looks up from his tray and at me, cheeks puffed and nods, his slated-blue eyes dart back to his food. He is tall and muscly; I feel minuscule next to him. I noticed that he breathes unusually like he needs a machine to keep him alive. I face back to the cheerful boy.

  “How rude of me for not introducing ourselves. I’m Cyren, pleased ta meetcha,” he says as he sweeps his ash hair with tints of blue.

  “This is Raiya, Orin and that rather dashing feller next to ya is Parrish,” Cyren says.

  The rest eats their food but Cyren keeps his stare on me, I shift in my seat. I look around the cafeteria some people look off, something about them don’t seem right, just like the girl with sewn lips. A boy and girl sit on a table in front, their backs are dead straight staring like they are in another world, they have no expressions on their face, it’s deadpan like they are dead, but they are not.

  I notice Orin’s lip jitter and his shoulders jerk, and he squints. Cyren notices my stare, but I cannot look away.

  “Ya know it’s rude ta stare, ya parents ever taught ya that?” he says in a high pitched voice.

  “Sorry,” I mutter feeling ashamed, slowly sinking. Cyren chuckles and shakes his head.

  “Oh it’s okay, ya can ask if ya want too, no harm,” he smiles.

  Orin brings up his fork but as he is shaking so much peas and sweetcorn rolls off. I lean closer to Cyren and whisper.

  “What happened?”

  Cyren leans closer too.

  “Just letting ya know, he’s not deaf,” he says bluntly which makes me turn a shade of red.

  “The same thing as what happened ta the gal over there, punishment.”

  He gets closer again.

  “Orin was a skilled thief before all of this, ya do desperate things. He wasn’t like this, all jumpy and twitchy, thanks ta Eyera of course,” he says sarcastically. I wait for Cyren to finish as I can see he has more to say.

  “And they did this ta him.” Bringing Orin’s arm to the table, my eyes widen and mouth opens as I see his hand is missing.

  “This is what Eyera does ta us,” Cyren retorts.

  All of them look hurt and angry, they have seen stuff far worse than I have, they’ve been affected in many ways, they all experienced what Eyera can do and it sickens me.

  “That girl with her lips sewn, she back chatted and as punishment, they made sure she will never do it again, they can do whatever they like to us in here whenever they feel like it,” Parrish says.

  “How does she eat?” I ask.

  “Injections,” Parrish responds.

  “Injections?” I question.

  “Uh huh, it’s a device that keeps her alive,” C
yren says.

  I look at the girl again feeling sorry.

  “The worst thing of all is the drug,” Raiya says making the rest shudder.

  My head snaps in confusion, the drug?.

  “What drug?” I ask puzzled.

  All of them stare like it’s something I should be aware of.

  “The drug that makes you like that,” Raiya points at the boy and girl on the table.

  “It’s used for extreme punishments,” Parrish shivers.

  Eyera has damaged these people and punished them to extreme limits, they want us to feel fear, to feel useless, powerless and afraid our whole lives.

  “Now as we gave ya a little background, ya tell us what ya did,” Cyren asks spinning lights on me.

  I didn’t want him to ask, but I knew he was going to, terrible memories flood, Hadrian being beaten to near death because of something he done and I have no clue what he did.

  I can see both of the guards covered in hot sticky blood oozing from their wounds. I killed two people. I put two lives in my hands and I chose their fate. I took them away from their families. It’s my fault that their son or daughter is fatherless, one thing I thought I never do is kill.

  The build up and anticipation of them waiting to hear what I did lust out. I string my words into a sentence.

  “I killed two of their guards,” I say.

  They stare for what seemed to be eternity, I can’t work out what they are thinking. Cyren eyebrows furrows, Raiya squints, Parrish mouth is partly open and Orin gazes. They look at each other, and all of a sudden a burst of laughter erupts. They carry on laughing for a good minute, Cyren holds his sides and holds one finger in the air, I roll my eyes not in the mood.

  “Ohh this is precious, ya a funny one,” Cyren laughs.

  “You nearly had me fooled,” Parrish chimes.

  “Alright killer, no seriously what did ya do?” Cyren says.

  I don’t reply, Cyren watches carefully, and then his eyes fall realising that I’m telling the truth.

  “Ya telling the truth,” he says which makes Raiya scoff.