A Different Kind Of Bars

Chapter 5

Jim grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and dragged me like a sack of potatoes. My legs continuously bumped against the ground and created their own steady rhythm.

I was dragged through an ever turning hallway. The hallway appeared to be all concrete and it was slowly sloping downwards. As we went further down the hallway the concrete appeared to have more and more cracks in it.

When I was almost convinced that the tunnel would cave in because of all the cracks I found myself and the rest of the group standing in front of a locked metal door. On it was a series of different buttons.

Adam knocked on the door and said, "A.G.07062020,#108." As he was saying it he pushed a button and the door started to creak open. I catalogued in my mind exactly what he said and which button he had pushed.

When the door was fully open I saw a guard standing behind the open door. He was a stocky man and on further inspection I noticed that his eyes were closed. He welcomed our group in and none of my escorts responded.

He sighed and then pushed another button, closing the door we had just gone through. We all faced forward and saw that we were standing in front of another identical door. Once again Adam said the same code phrase, which was what I was assuming it was, and pushed a similar button that was in the same place as the one on the other door. This door opened smoothly and we walked through.

I was officially in my eerie new dwelling place. I thought about my old life, and how much I would miss it. I looked back and saw the metal door close,  sealing me in my new home.
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Our group continued to walk through the ever winding series of halls and Jim continued to drag me. Not caring if my head hit against the walls that I was staring at.

These walls were white and I noticed that they were sparklingly clean. So much that I could see my own reflection in them. When I could finally muster enough strength to look up for the first time, my eyes stung, since it was so bright.

LED lighting was all along the ceiling and illuminated our path. It seemed almost as if we were in a futuristic lab.

As our group walked onwards I focused on trying to memorize the map of halls in my mind but I could not. There were too many twists and turns.

Our group often came to cross-sections and eventually the people walking beside me thinned out. At the fourth or fifth cross-section our group faced, Adam and most of his men turned in the opposite direction as the rest of the group did.

As soon as they left Jim let go of me and I was forced to walk onward. The only remaining people in our group was  Jim, one guard and me. The three of us continued on our long arduous walk, in silence. However if I went too slow Jim would snarl at me which made me immediately quicken my pace.

After a few more minutes of walking we once again stood in front of another cross-section and Jim ordered me to stop. I halted right after I heard his command and prepared for the worst.

I looked at his hands and watched as he pulled out a bandanna and tied it across my eyes. All I saw was pitch black, with my eyes closed and open.

Wherever we would walk next, Jim did not want me to see. I decided for this reason that it must be important. As soon as we started walking I counted my steps. 200 forward, 127 right, 31 forward, 157 left, 18 forward, 32 right, and 89 forward.

I also noted that we stopped every time before we switched directions. Every stop, I heard the guard who had snapped at me earlier, pull out something before we continued. He must have had a key or access card to get through each door.