Episode 1
The hum of the florescent pale green bulb outside my cell door is enough to drive one mad if not ignored. The screams of men, women, and children hang in the air as if suspended by wires, echoing off of the steel and stone with a haunting reverberation. No mercy is shown to enemies of The Collective. It takes all my strength to stop from shivering. The floor of my steel cell bites with an unrelenting cold at the results of my last reeducation. The bruises and cuts are a constant reminder of my defiance against such a mammoth force. As if man is an animal that can be beaten into submission. Those that are strong in mind and will end up in a place like this, those who did not fall prey to propaganda and false promises of peace. Any and all that disagree in anyway with The Collective will meet my fate…
”For the good of the populace, curfew has been changed to 6pm”… Mother…her voice echoing through the city like a horn sounding attack; even in my icy tomb her voice pierces my soul and fills me with disdain. My stomach begins twisting in knots as anxiety attacks with swiftness that only anxiety knows…life is ending soon, and I feel that mine has been a struggle against the inevitable.
Who I am is not as important as what I have witnessed. In the grand design I am but one drop of rain plummeting towards the sea of existence. I can’t help but to laugh a bit when I think that maybe I am exactly where I belong. That all events leading up to this moment were aligned perfectly…I certainly was not working towards this outcome, so what exactly went wrong?
The tiny slat in my door looks as if it’s gasping for breath, as the light outside my cell flickers and sputters as it burns its last beams of life. The darkness envelops me like the embrace of a lost love. I welcome the cold chills, any feeling other than my burning rage is a welcome departure, but I lament the moans of pain that seemed to grow louder and louder, words that were barely audible become slightly clearer…but cries for help will do no good here. The deafening sea of moans is overlapped with fast heavy footsteps. The sheer size and magnitude of the ones that know no mercy is enough to strike fear in the heart of the hardest of hearts. Their massive frames barrel down the hallway to the first detention cube. Those that have just arrived would quickly discover how much worse their lives would become.
The moans quickly fade to shouts as The Ferrum Manus begins their new cycle of reeducation. The view of The Collective is that, one either assimilates or dies. I always thought that reeducation was some twisted game between the Ferrum Manus and The Collective. How many can the Ferrum Manus persuade to assimilate into the Collective each cycle…this will be my 8th cycle. I am not sure how long a cycle is, I only know that my wounds never have time to heal before the next cycle begins…but with the severity of the beatings if given enough time I don’t think these wounds would ever heal. The elite guards come to reeducate me themselves, you would think by now they would expect me to fight back. Every cycle I survive makes me wonder more and more why I am being kept alive, surely it would be easier to just kill me and be done with it. I am not sure how much more torture my body can bear, no matter how severe, they will never break me of my hatred or contempt of their kind!
The Ferrum Manus are the enforcers of The Collective’s will. It would be nice to think that if there was no resistance to The Collective that the Ferrum Manus would disappear; but at the same time it is agencies such as they, which require a resistance to The Collective in the first place. Not to be melodramatic but it does seem like a conundrum to which there is no answer.
Out in the hallway five men dressed in gray jumpsuits make their way from cell to cell. This is The Collectives final offer of absolution before the reeducation begins. One of the men will slide a tray through the slot in the door with the symbol of the Collective, if someone breaks and takes the symbol, then they are released to another facility in transition to assimilation. The only difference between this facility and the other is the type of reinforcement of The Collectives ideals. I only know of that place because of the many offers I have overheard while my torture took place.
“This can all end if you accept The Collective.”
The men are at my cell. The guards’ voice is soft and calm; it won’t be in a few minutes. I slowly raise my broken frame from the cold metallic floor, only to summon the thick red fluid from my lungs to spit on the offering and shove it back at the Ferrum Guards. The door swings open, the sun like glow from their flashlights flood my cell, the beams of light dancing around as they muscle their way in through the door, this pure light makes me think for just a second how much I miss the outside world. Without warning or notification I am lifted onto my feet by two huge hands by way of my neck, so fast that I almost black out from the force, and just as quickly as I am on my feet, I am slammed in the stomach with the business end of one guards shock batons. The electricity shoots through my body making my insides feel as if they had just been hit by a truck, dropping me onto all fours.
The icy metal floor burns my hands, or at least I thought that until I looked and saw the boot crushing my fingers, my observation is short lived as another massive boot swings up into my ribs breaking at least three on my right side. I am raised up by another pair of huge hands on the front and back of my skull… through all my hacking and spitting of blood I hear a shock baton growl to life as I am brought to my knees with my head pulled back and my face to the ceiling. With inhuman force I am slammed in the chest with the newly birthed shock baton, causing me to cross my arms gripping my torso in pain. As I pray for my heart to stop, I try not to concentrate on the growing pool of blood dripping from my mouth to the floor as my hands begin to become soaked in my thick red liquid. Another blow to the back of my head quickly follows, putting me in complete darkness once again…
TO BE CONTINUED!