Locked Together (In Chains) (2 page)

Tears sting my eyes. “I’m sorry ma’am. May I have permission to speak please?”

“No, you may not. It’s this one.” She points me out to a male guard who has entered the kitchen; he crooks his finger at me to follow him. I haven’t brushed my teeth yet. I don’t want to ask the woman but the male guard looks a little friendlier.

“May I have permission to speak sir?”

He continues walking. “Go ahead.”

“Can I brush my teeth sir?”

He gestures with his hands. “Look around. Do you see a washbasin or a toothbrush?”

Okay, I guess I was wrong about him being friendlier. “No sir, but I was hoping you would let me use the washroom before I begin work.”

He grabs the back of my t-shirt and pushes me along in front of him. “Not my problem,” he says.

I hate this place. I’m going to read the rest of those rules later to find out when we are supposed to be allowed to brush our teeth. I feel dirty and I don’t want my teeth to start rotting, I’ve always taken good care of them up till now. We exit the building and are now in the courtyard. I relax a little as we walk along, it’s nice to be out in the fresh air, the sky is blue and the sun feels warm on my skin. We’re heading towards a large field. The Pound is surrounded by a razor wire fence. I guess I should be thankful there aren’t any gun towers. Slaves are already at work, pulling up the veg and digging over the earth. The guard points to a male slave. “You. Show her what to do.”

The slave smiles at me. He looks like he’s in his late teens; his hair is straight and reaches his shoulders. “You were the one making all the noise last night weren’t you? You’re not a slave are you?” I shake my head. “My name’s Cole, what’s yours?”

I smile back at him; he seems like a nice guy. “Savannah.”

“Well Savannah, we’ve got to pull up these potatoes. Grab them here,” he places his hand at the base of the leaves, “and pull.” I grab the next plant along and after a couple of tugs it comes up easily. He takes the potatoes from my hands and checks them over. “If they look good, put them into that crate over there,” he says. “If they’re rotten, put them into the brown sack.” We work in silence for what feels like an hour. This seemed easy at the beginning but now I’m feeling hot and sticky, my back is aching and my hands are sore.

I hear the sound of an engine and look up as a truck pulls in; the slaves begin loading the crates of veg onto the back of the truck. “Where are they taking the veg?” I ask Cole.

He shrugs. “I dunno, they come a couple of times a week to take stuff.”

“What, all of it? We don’t get to keep any of it?” I frown.

He shrugs. “We can keep the stuff that’s damaged.”

I’m beyond mad. I’m definitely making a complaint. I wrench more potatoes out of the ground and hurl them into the crate. “I suppose the laundry is contracted out too, isn’t it. The pound gets paid for cleaning other people’s dirty laundry.”

“I dunno anything about the laundry, only level threes work in there,” he says.

I stop what I’m doing and look at him. “What are these levels? What level are we? And where do the people in level three sleep and eat and why are we kept separate?”

Cole laughs, “Whoa, that’s a lot of questions Savannah.”

“I’m sorry, but I think my boyfriend is level three.”

He stares at me, his eyes wide. “You’ve got a boyfriend who’s a slave?”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m pretty much a slave myself right now.”

He frowns at me, then bends down to uproot another potato plant. “So, can you answer any of my questions?” I ask him.

He slowly nods his head. “Sure, but we need to work while we talk, I don’t wanna get punished, I want to eat today.”

“I’d consider it punishment to be forced to eat the food here.” I rub my back before pulling out another plant.

“Okay,” he says, “level one is for slaves that are gonna be sold soon. Level two is where they keep the kids. Level three is where you get put if you make trouble. I dunno where the level threes sleep or eat, I don’t ever see them but I hear level three is nasty.”

I grip his arm. “In what way? Tell me?”

Cole looks up and I follow his gaze, the guard that slapped me earlier is heading towards us. She crooks her finger at me. “Come with me.”

She grips my arm and leads me towards one of the buildings. I glance back at Cole; he’s busy pulling more potatoes. My stomach is churning, have I done something wrong? “Where are you…” I stop myself mid question. “Permission to speak please ma’am.”

She sighs. “Go ahead.”

“Where are you taking me, ma’am?”

“You ask too many questions,” she says as we enter a building. She opens a door and shoves me inside. A man wearing a white coat is staring at a computer screen. He glances up at us.

“F51199GH, new admission,” the guard tells him.

He frowns at me. “She’s human. My training has been with Neanderthals.”

The guard shrugs. “I was told to bring her here; I’m just doing my job. Her reproductive system is probably the same, give her a shot and perform the usual tests.” The man opens his mouth to speak but she holds her hand up to silence him. “I know, she’s human, but go through the process anyway so we can complete the records.” She turns to leave. “Call me when you’re done.”

The man types information into his computer and then gets some supplies from his medical cupboard. He fills a syringe with liquid. I back away as he approaches but he grabs me and jabs the syringe into my arm. I rub the sore spot and scowl at him. “What did you inject me with?” I don’t even know if this guy is a proper doctor.

“Open your mouth,” he says. He’s holding a cotton bud, I guess he can’t do much damage with that, so I open my mouth and he swabs the cotton bud along the inside of my cheek and places it into a plastic container. “Sit down,” he says as he points to a chair beside his desk. He wraps a tourniquet around my arm and jabs me again with a needle, I watch as my blood fills the syringe.

“When can I expect the results,” I smirk at him.

He glares at me and points to a set of scales against the far wall. “Step on those.” I stand on the scales and watch the dial. Hmm, I’ve lost weight. I glance down at my stomach, it does look flatter. “Get over here,” the doctor says. His rudeness is beginning to get on my nerves. He points to the chair and I sit back down.

He opens a drawer, takes out a nit comb and begins dragging it through my hair; it feels like he’s pulling my hair out at the roots. “Ouch.” I put my hand up to my head. “Stop it. I don’t have nits.”

He glares at me. “It’s either this, or I shave off your hair.”

I stare at him, open mouthed. His eyes are cold and hard. I put my hands in my lap and watch as strands of my hair fall to the floor as he continues to drag the comb through my long hair. I’m relieved when he finally finishes. I rub my hand over my sore scalp.

“Pee in this,” he says. He hands me a small plastic cup. I look around for a toilet but the only door is the one we came in through. I glance at the cup, then at the doctor. “I said pee in it,” he repeats.

“Where’s the toilet?” I ask him.

“There isn’t one. Stop wasting my time.”

I place the cup on his desk. “I’m not going to be able to wee in front of you.”

He picks up the telephone and presses a button. “I’ve finished with the slave,” he says. A few minutes later the door opens and the guard enters. “She refused a urine test,” he says to her.

“She’ll be punished,” she replies as she grips my arm and leads me out of the room.

CHAPTER THREE

Savannah

My stomach is rumbling. I wasn’t allowed to eat lunch, as punishment for refusing a urine test. Kayden wasn’t at lunch either, but he should be at dinner. I’m worried about him. Amy is boiling potatoes and I’m frying a small amount of some fatty, unidentifiable meat. I must be hungry, because I’d actually consider eating this.

We feed the slaves and as they line up along the yellow line to be taken to the dorm, we sit down to eat ours. I gag at the feel of the meat in my mouth, it’s all gristle. After a few minutes of chewing and trying to force it down my throat, I give up and spit it out.

The guard opens the door and Kayden and the other level three slaves enter. As soon as he gets through the door I run at him and fling my arms around his waist, almost knocking him off his feet. I press my head against his chest and squeeze him tight. He’s hot and sticky and I can feel his heart thumping. He wraps his arms around me and kisses me on the top of my head. “I’ve missed you Savannah, I’ve been worried about you. Are you okay?”

I want to tell him how awful it is but I fear it may be even worse for him and I don’t want him to worry about me. “It’s been okay, I didn’t expect it to be great. They break a lot of rules though, Kayden. I want to make a complaint; do you know how I should do that?”

He sighs. “Let it go baby, they won’t listen to you, it’s not gonna make any difference. Just do what they tell you till you can get the hell out of here. Please.” He cups my face in his hands and gazes down at me.

“I heard it’s nasty in level three.” I blink up at him, trying to hold back my tears.

He smiles and pushes the corners of my mouth up with his thumbs. “Smile for me. I don’t see many happy faces in here.” I plaster a fake smile across my face but it feels more like a grimace. Kayden laughs softly. “Ten out of ten for effort baby.” He’s such a goof but he always manages to put a genuine smile on my face. My smile slips as I spot a guard approaching us.

“Dinner’s over. You’ve got thirty seconds to line up at the door.”

I whip my head around to glare at her. “He hasn’t eaten-”

Kayden spins me back around to face him, clasps my cheeks in his palms and presses his lips against mine. As his tongue probes my mouth I stroke my hands across his back. I’ve missed his kisses. He slowly pulls away and places his lips to my ear, his breath tickles me. “I love you Savannah. Keep your beautiful mouth shut, please,” he whispers.

My eyes are glued to him as he waits on the yellow line. As the guard unlocks the door, Kayden turns around and blows me a kiss. “See you tomorrow, beautiful.”

I’ll never get used to the sound of the door caging me in at night. I pace the floor. I’m upset that Kayden didn’t get time to eat and I want to go home. If I can’t go home I want to spend the night in Kayden’s arms, I want to feel safe again. I Take a deep breath and stare at the list of rules and regulations. It says here that fifty percent of the produce grown is supposed to be used to feed the slaves. From what I saw this morning, they seem to be selling ninety percent of it. It’s wrong; they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this. “Hey,” I shout out loud enough so everyone in the room can hear, “do they have ever have fire drills?”

A guy in the bunk nearest to me pops his head up. “What’s a fire drill?”

“It’s when they set off an alarm on purpose, they pretend there’s a fire and you guys practice getting out safely. Have they ever done that?” He shakes his head. “Well, according to their rules, they’re meant to have a drill every month.” A sea of heads look in my direction, all have blank expressions on their faces. “This matters because if there was a fire, no one here knows what to do, we’d probably all die.” Shivering, I hug myself and pace the floor again. “We should be getting half of what’s grown in the field. We’re meant to get a shower and brush our teeth at the end of every day.”

“You can’t make them do what they don’t wanna.” I look towards the owner of the voice, a skinny guy who doesn’t look any older than seventeen.

“How do I make a complaint? Does anyone know?” They’re ignoring me; most of them are lying back down to go to sleep. “It’s worth trying; we can’t be any worse off than we are now. If they ignore my complaint, well, we outnumber them. We could refuse to work until they listen.”

“Great idea.” It’s another male voice but it’s coming from the back of the room and I can’t see him. “You’re gonna get us all punished. Why don’t you shut up and let the rest of us get some sleep.”

“How about you shut up Joe,” says a girl of about eighteen, she’s tall and she looks muscular, I wouldn’t want to mess with her. “Let’s hear what she has to say.”

I give her a weak smile. “Thank you. I was just thinking,” I say quietly, “that if they don’t listen we can refuse to work and that might make them listen. Maybe I can get in touch with my brother and he can contact the media, we may be able to get some public support.”

The girl speaks up again, “I dunno what media or public is, but it sounds good to me.” She smiles at me. “My name’s Kate.”

“It’s a stupid idea.” This time it’s a girl who disagrees with me. “They’ll punish us all, we’ll all be worse off.”

“They can’t punish us all,” Kate says. “Count me in. C’mon, who else is gonna join us?”

My stomach is fluttering, I think I may have started a revolution; Kayden’s going to kill me. A few slaves raise their hands but most of them mutter at us to be quiet so they can get some sleep. Maybe not a revolution then, if only a few of us do it, it’ll be easy for them to punish us. It’s probably for the best but I will make a complaint. I crawl onto my bunk. I’m feeling tired but my mind is running through scenarios of what I’m going to say when I complain.