Prisoner (Perfect Humans, Part 4)

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

My whole body hurts when I wake up, especially my face. As I lift my fingers and carefully touch my nose, I notice that it’s clearly broken and still covered in dried blood. I must be a wonderful sight to look at.

I look around. Grey stone walls, an iron door with a tiny hole in it through which some light enters my cell. No window, no bed, nothing to make my small cell any friendlier. Then again, there wouldn’t have been much room for any furniture. I can barely lay down on the floor without touching a wall.

Slowly to not increase the burning pain in my limbs, I stand up and take a look through the window in the door. Another wall, just as gray and boring as the ones that form my cell. Great.

”Hello?”, I call out. ”Is anyone there? Can somebody hear me?”

”Yeah. You didn’t expect to be alone around here, did you?” The voice seems to come from a woman and she’s close. The cell next to mine? Is there a cell next to mine?

”What’s going on here?” I ask.

”You’re in prison, genius.” Another voice, male this time. ”You should know why you’re here. Or are you innocent?” He laughs. That was clearly a joke.

”No, I’m not”, I answer anyway. ”So, what kind of prison is this? Are they going to conduct medical tests on us?”

”Are you dumb?” The woman again. ”We aren’t suitable for medical testing, too many genetic differences. Why do you think they used mice back when animal testing was still allowed? No, nowadays the computer simulations are good enough to erase the need for any actual tests on living beings.”

”Don’t be so hard on her”, the man chimes in. ”She probably only knows the conspiracy theories. You can’t really blame her for that, I bet she’s a secondary and doesn’t have a very high education.”

”Excuse me?!” I feel a little bit attacked.

”Hey, it’s just the truth, honey”, the man says. ”You secondaries aren’t given the best education to keep you silenced.”

”So you’re what, a primary?”

”Exactly. We commit crimes too, you know.”

I’m baffled. ”Why should a primary ever commit a crime? You’re given everything you want!”

”But it is soooooo booooring. Do you know how exciting a bank robbery can be? I robbed at least four banks before they caught me!” The man sounds proud but I can only shake my head. I can’t believe it. Those who already have everything commit crimes just because they are bored? Then again, that sounds rather typical.

”But aren’t primaries put in a special prison?” I ask instead of continuing this frustrating conversation. ”Why am I here?”

”This is a special prison for primaries and high profile crimes”, the woman explained. ”What did you do, girl?”

”I’m a part of the resistance”, I say.

”Not high profile enough. They wouldn’t put you in here for that.”

I’m about to tell her about our heist when I hear someone come down the corridor. A guard? I try to see more of the outside of the cell, but the window is too tiny to get a good look at anything. Until the guard stops in front of my door and looks me right in the face.

”Prisoner, step back from the door, face the wall and place your hands on your back”, he commands. As I don’t want any more pain inflicted on my battered body, I follow his words. As soon as I’m in position, he unlocks the door, walks in and handcuffs me.

”You’re being taken in for questioning. Any useful information can lessen your sentence, but if you resist, your sentence will be death.”

Right to the point this guy. For his girlfriend, I really hope that he takes a bit more time for foreplay in bed.

The guard drags me along the corridor past several cell doors similar to mine. Finally, we reach a shiny white door with a sign attached to it.

Interrogation Room it says. How nice, at least they label everything.

The guard knocks on the door, then opens it. The whole room is painted in an eye watering white that seems to glow and even the desk and two chairs are white. From the ceiling hangs a bright light. After the darkness of the cell, it really hurts my brain.

On one of the chairs sits a woman. She’s wearing sunglasses, probably to shield herself from the unpleasant effects of the room. Interesting way to wear someone down, I must say.

The guard pushes me down on the empty chair and immediately leaves the room. For a few minutes, there is silence, which makes the whole situation almost unbearable.

”Where are the embryos”, the woman finally asks. I’m kind of relieved, I had wondered if Alexander had gotten away. But if that’s the first question the woman asks me, they probably didn’t catch him.

”I don’t know”, I answer. Truthfully. Someone else is supposed to handle the redistribution of the embryos.

”Where does the resistance hide.”

”They don’t hide.” Let’s see how long I can avoid lying.

”Tell me the name of the one who stole the embryos.”

”Alexander.”

”Last name?”

”No clue. I even doubt that Alexander is his real first name.”

To my surprise, the woman smiles.

”Did you get everything?” She asks seemingly nobody.

Suddenly, the room turns from white to gray, as if the walls had been illuminated.

”Yes, we got her brain responses to your questions. We can now locate where they usually meet up and who has the embryos now. They plan to distribute them to lower class families.”

”Thank you for your cooperation”, the woman says with an even wider smile. ”You’ll be taken back to your cell, in case we need you again.”

The way back to my prison feels eternal. They had scanned my brain? I didn’t know that was possible but it seems that the whole room was specifically built for that. Now I could only hope that Alexander had been smart enough to change the plans after I got caught.

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References:

Why Do Medical Researchers Use Mice?

Brain decoding: Reading minds

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