Prisoners of HYDRA

2.

I woke up in a dark room with concrete walls. When my eyes opened, my eyesight was blurry and my mind muddled. I tried to remember why, but couldn't. What the-?

Get up.

I did, somewhat confused by the voice that came from absolutely nowhere, but for some reason it felt familiar.

Go to breakfast. After that your experiments will begin, your training exercises after that, and then another mission. Same as always. Do we really have to tell him that everyday? It's kind of starting to get annoying. Oh sorry, I didn't realize that this thing was still- um, just go already.

I tilted my head, confused. Who was the owner of the voice that ordered me? Why did the voice have authority over me? What were the experiments? But I was mostly confused about myself. Who was I? Where was I? Why did everything in my body ache? How did I have words to speak if I didn't have any memories? What were memories? But the most important question in my mind was: Where the heck was breakfast?

Then a nasty smell settled in my nostrils, making me wrinkle my nose. What was that horrible stench? I followed the aroma and was kind of slightly relieved to find that at least one of my questions was answered. I had found breakfast.

If that's what you could call it.

The things littered all over the table looked like nothing but a bunch of a glob and slime. Apparently it was edible slime, however, because people were eating it, shoveling it into their mouths using their hands like they were animals.

I slowly sat down on one of the table benches and looked at the nastiness before me, contemplating whether or not to eat it. I am hungry, I thought as my stomach growled. I inched my hands toward the stuff, then paused and withdrew it. Not that hungry, I decided.

What was next on my to-do list?

Oh, yeah. Training exercises. What was that?

"Subject 273-1027," a voice whispered harshly. I whirled to look at the whisperer. It was a boy with soft brown curly hair and big brown eyes that were filled with concern and looked like he'd dealt with a lot of hardships. He probably had.

"What?" I whispered back, ignoring the fact that I had absolutely no idea who this guy was.

"What's the plan for today? Should we go out the back exit?" the brunet asked softly, leaning forward secretively. He shook his head. "Nah, too obvious. Maybe the ceiling vents I saw in room 7474? Nah, I'm pretty sure we tried that already. Maybe-"

"Look," I interrupted, "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know who you are. I can't remember anything, and..." I took a deep breath, trying to calm down.

The brown-haired boy slapped his forehead. "Right, I forgot... Look, you were brainwashed." He gestured to the inhabitants at the table, who were still chowing down on the gross substance that was supposedly food. "We... we all were. Every time we start to remember something, they electrocute us until it disappears. It's been a while since I've been wiped. They don't know that, but-"

"Who- who's they, though?" I interrupted, running my fingers through my hair wildly. "I... I'm so confused!"

The boy put a finger to his lips. "Shhh... they'll get suspicious." After a moment of silence, nothing happened. Then he grabbed the slime. "Look, this is you."

"Why is that me?" I asked indignantly.

The boy rolled his eyes. "Because it just is, okay? Work with me here." He held the clump of goo up on his palm. "This goo once had a life. A good life, a bad life, I don't know. And after you've been brainwashed, neither do you. The brainwashing lasts, I don't know, two or three days? Then the memories come trickling back, like water through a dam. You can get away with pretending you didn't get your memories back for a while, but then the guards always eventually catch you and brainwash you again. Meanwhile, the goo is working for the guards as a mindless slave. It has to fight in arenas, kill, be experimented on, and then goes back to its cell until morning. No breaks, no retirement. The goo is stuck forever, with total allegiance to the people that wrong it forever."