The light blinded Jeremy as the panel slid to the left leaving him standing at the doorway of a long corridor. It was painted in a sterile hospital white and the doors lining each side were of the same color. Even the floor was covered in white linoleum. The only imperfections were the flickering light bulbs every few lights down. Jeremy turned around to see if the woman had gotten up, but the blow he had dealt to her chin seemed to have left her down for the count.
"Good job J. Now you've hit your first woman. I'm sure mom will be happy to hear that." he joked.
Jeremy stepped into the hallway slowly and began to walk. As he passed the white doors, he peered inside of the tiny wire reinforced windows set in the center if each one. All of them looked exactly the same. One chair, one bed, one table, a toilet and a sink. They were also missing their occupants.
"What happened here?" Jeremy wondered. "Where could everyone be?"
He continued walking down the corridor and realized there was a window straight ahead of him about twenty yards away. Jeremy broke into a run. He was sure these would also be reinforced, but at least he would be able to see where he was! As he got closer to the window, he noticed something odd about the lighting. He slowed down to a walk and as he slowly reached the window, he saw what was strange. The light wasn't coming from a sky. He gripped the wire with his fingers and shook it in frustration. The scene outside was not of grass or trees or even some desolate parking lot. What Jeremy saw was worse. He was staring at a bunker. Not another building, but the inside of what looked like some place where planes were kept or things you didn't want found were stored.
"Aaaargh!" yelled Jeremy in exasperation. "What is this place?!" He stepped away from the window and turned around. "Nothing is as it appears...indeed." he thought aloud.
Jeremy started to walk back in the direction he had come. He looked at the doors as he passed. "I am inside of a building that has been built inside of a building," he said. "Who does that?! Who really sits down and says to themselves, 'Self, I think I'm going to build a building...and you know what would go good inside that building? Another building!'" Jeremy was at his wits end at this point. He was almost at the point where he had begun running toward the window previously, when something caught his eye. One of the doors. He walked back to the last door he had passed. This one was different. It was the only door with a label on it SNS02EP13 in small red print under the tiny window.
"Should I?" Jeremy asked himself. "Well I won't get anywhere standing here and it's either this or go back to the room."
Jeremy put his hand on the silver handle and turned it. The door wasn't locked. It actually turned and swung open quite easily. As he stepped through the door, he saw that this room was different than the rest. It had the bed, chair, sink, and toilet, but instead of being empty, there was a man sitting at a desk! Jeremy thought to himself,”Why didn't I look in the window this time?”
The man at the desk didn't bother to look up as Jeremy came in. He was too focused on the paper in front of him and the cage of mice beside the notes he seemed to be writing. There was music playing softly from a small device by his elbow. Jeremy was about to creep back out and leave this possible captor to his work when he realized the man was wearing a white gown. The type of gown a person would wear inside of hospital. “Except this isn't a hospital,” Jeremy thought. He decided to see what the man was doing. Besides, maybe the man knew something about this place. Jeremy remembered his father once telling him, “J, if you don't know, ask or you'll never know.” His father was always giving him advice along those lines. Jeremy took the other chair by the bed and moved it by the man's desk. All this time, the man never stopped writing his notes and looking at the mice.
The cage held about 3 mice. Each had it's own area in the glass cage, but couldn't see the other mouse due to the walls built between them. A mouse in one section was laying on the bedding, staring at one of the walls. The mouse on the other side of the wall was doing the exact same thing. If the wall wasn't there, Jeremy would have sworn they were staring at each other. The third mouse seemed to have it's own agenda. It was walking around it's section sniffing the corners, stopping to scratch at the wall, and occasionally looking at the other wall. It's section was the largest, but it didn't seem to notice. “It looks like he wants out.” Jeremy said out loud.
The man stopped writing his notes and looked up. His eyes where blood-shot and had bags under them. His short straight black hair hung down to his ears and looked as though it could use a good wash.. His pale skin, which probably wasn't as pale as it seemed due to the florescent lighting, had a hint of sweat on it. He stared at Jeremy steadily despite his thin, shallow appearance.
“What?” he asked in a low voice. One that seemed too deep for someone his size and stature.
Jeremy swallowed visibly. This man didn't appear to be wrapped too tight and this made him a little uncomfortable. He almost wished he was back in that metal chair.
Almost.
“I was just saying,” started Jeremy. “He looks like he wants to get out of that cage. Like he -”
“What would you know about it?” the man interrupted.
Jeremy stopped talking and contemplated running from the room. His previous experience with people here didn't really make him want to stay and find out what this guy might have in his pockets, but considering the fact gowns didn't have pockets made him even more nervous.
“I've been working on these mice for 5 days,” he continued, “and not one of them have ever gotten out. Even with the door wide open, they still don't seem to be able to find the way out.” The man looked at the mice and smiled. “As long as I keep giving them a bit of treats here and there, they don't want to go. Look at the those two.” He pointed to the ones that seemed to be staring through the wall at each other. “Those two are stoned out of their minds” He chuckled. “I could take the whole top off of the cage, and they wouldn't even notice!”
Jeremy looked at the man's face as he spoke. The look he saw was not unlike that of a child telling his parents about the new toy he had gotten.
“And what about that one?” asked Jeremy, referring to the one in the larger section.
A cloud seemed to have grown over the man's face at the mention of the third mouse. “That one...he's nothing but trouble. No matter where I put him, he is always looking to get out.” He looked at the other two mice. “You're like one of those lab rats that pushes the pleasure button instead of the food button until it dies, but you..” He tipped his head at the third mouse while turning to face Jeremy again. “You just keep looking your gift horse in the mouth.” The man looked at Jeremy and said, “Are you one of those lab rats that pushes the pleasure button instead of the food button until it dies? Or are you like Peter G. here? Never happy, always looking for a way out of your little surroundings. Wanting out of the mundane life. Which one are you, Mr. Colin?”
Jeremy jumped out of his chair. “How do you know my name?!” he yelled.
“Everyone here knows your name. You're the newest addition to the group.” the man said with a smirk on his face.
Jeremy stared at the man hard with steel in his eyes and said “I'm not part of any group. I don't know what you are and what you think this is, but I'm NOT part of any group.” His voice was like gravel, coarse and growling. “You might be off your rocker, but I'm not.”
The man continued to look at Jeremy with amusement. “I used to think I was the sane one too. I used to think they were all crazy and I was okay. Then they introduced me to Sonya. She read me my case files, all about how sick I was and how much better I had been doing with the tests they had given me.”
Jeremy was suddenly more attentive than he was before. He stopped thinking about how he was going to have to knock this man out as well and began to listen to what he was saying.
“Sonya saved me. Once she told me the kind of person I was, I knew I had been brought to the right place.” The man's eyes had taken a glossiness to them and seemed to lose focus, like he was looking through Jeremy and not at him. Jeremy had a flash of the two mice staring at each other through the wall. “Sonya gave me medicine to help me focus, to help me keep my mind on track. She took me to the “Wall Room” on the lower level and showed me the video they had of me. She told me I would never have to be that way again, as long as I stayed here. Then she gave me these mice to look over and study. I take care of them. The other people in the other rooms, they have their own tasks to keep them busy, to keep their minds straight.”
“But, there isn't anyone in the other rooms. You're the only one here. You and me. You don't know that?” Jeremy asked. His voice was quiet, almost a whisper. His hands where gripping the back of the chair tightly.
“The people in the other rooms keep to themselves. They mind their business and I mind mine. I stay in my room and do my task. Watch the mice. Sonya told me to watch the mice, so that's what I do.” the man replied.
Jeremy was at a loss for words. The only other person he found in this place was completely gone in the mind and didn't even know he was the only one here! Jeremy sat back down in the chair and watched the mice. The music on the device changed and he recognized the song. It was “The Song Remains The Same.” He laughed softly. “How ironic,” Jeremy thought. “Here I am sitting in some fun house where all the rooms are the same, all the doors are the same, and this guy sits here all day doing the same thing. What have you gotten yourself into J? How are you gonna get out?” Jeremy watch the third mouse the man had called Peter G. “I'm with you buddy,” he thought to himself. “I'm not gonna turn out like this guy.”
The man appeared to have gone back to writing his notes on the mice. Jeremy got up and walked toward the door. It looked as though he wasn't going to find any help with the man at the desk. He went into the hallway and looked down the hall to his left. That way went back to the rooms, the other way led back to the window. Jeremy seemed to have two choices in this matter. Then something hit is brain like a shock. The man! The man at the desk said that the woman, Sonya, had taken him to...what was it?
“The 'Wall Room' on the lower level!” he yelled.
There was more to this place than it seemed. The man at the desk knew more than he thought he did, or maybe he pretended not to know. Jeremy decided not to go back in the room with the man at the desk. The person he wanted to question wasn't in that room. Jeremy turned left and bolted down the hallway back to the rooms.
“Relax, Sonya. No one is here to hurt you. I would just like to ask you a few questions.” thought Jeremy in a thick European accent as he made his way back down the corridor.
There was a slightly devious smirk on his face.
© 2009 by Laira Reid
