Gray Blood

Sacha woke up from another dreamless sleep and painfully eased herself in an upright sitting position. The drugs that the guards kept giving to her and everyone in the camp for that matter, were wearing her out badly and most of the time, she could hardly see straight. She adjusted the collar around her neck to move it a little lower, because every time she went to bed, the collar dug into her neck and always left painful stretch marks when she woke up. There was absolutely nothing to do in lock down that kept you very satisfied - she had learned that the very first day - except remembering. Over the weeks, Sacha’s family had slowly faded away from her memory and that had caused her to worry. She wondered if something was seriously wrong with her and thought that the drugs were bringing on an early-form of Alzheimer’s or some other disease that destroyed your memory. She had told the guards this in a panicked frenzy until they agreed to get her a doctor. The doctor listened to her babble on for a couple of hours made notes, ran a few a tests, and said she was perfectly fine, just a little home sick and that was causing her some discomfort. Sacha was more than a little homesick now, she was jail-sick and had tried to her best to be as well behaved as possible so she could finally see the sun. She also wanted to see her two brothers, Sean and Sammy, who were somewhere else in the camp and hopefully having a better time than she was. Probably everyone one was having a better time than she was, no doubt about it. Sacha got up slowly and walked around the room, letting the blood flow through her legs again. She stretched a little, walked around the room for what seemed like hours, fell on the bed exhausted, and then went back to sleep.
* * * * *
"Wake up child. Time for you breakfast." I opened up my eyes and looked at the general, the man who locked me up in the first place, with my lumpy oatmeal and water breakfast. It was pretty weird seeing him here with her breakfast since usually, one of the "cooks" a.k.a the food killer, gives it to the security guard that always stands by our door in case of an emergency and we all escape (yeah, fat chance of that happening), and then they unlock our steel doors, drop the food off, and leave. Then, I have to wait like eight hours to have dinner since I'm not allowed to have lunch with my group yet.
"Why are you here?"
"Its why are you here sir? Treat your authorities properly 721."
"Yes,sssiir." I managed to make it come out like a hiss but he didn't seem to notice.
"Good news for you child, you're being let out today." No way! Out of here? My gray prison? My crazy house? How ironic.
"Seriously? You mean, I get to go outside?" The general nodded, a small smirk spreading across his face.
"But while you are eating your nutrition,"-what the hell???-"I need to go over the regulations with you in being outside and with your group."
I nodded, reaching for the muck that they called my food and ate it as quickly as I could, ignoring my burning tongue.
"You are only allowed to stay with your assigned group at all times, except on Jia, which means you get to spend the day with any family or relatives that you have in the camp. If you have no family, then you will spend the day outside like any other day. Your group 721, which is group RSV, will start the day out at precisely 9:00 a.m. where you will spend your "free time"-oh now he has a sense of humor, ha ha-"with your group outside. You will be forced to take a mandatory group session every single day before you are taken inside for lunch. You will then spend the rest of your afternoons outside and then be taken back into your room to eat dinner and sleep. Got that child?"
"Yes sir." Not even General Irony could take away my great mood. I handed him my plate, and we stood up, walking to the door. The security opened the door and took my remaining breakfast from the general's hands, who immediately handcuffed me to keep me from escaping at any times, and led me through a maze of halls. Every hallway had doors with security guards by them, each with guns or weapons of some sort. From some of them, I could hear voices-all of people around my age or younger- either crying, screaming, laughing wildly, or banging something, most likely their heads.
I was a little scared to think that some of these kids had gone crazy and that i might have gone crazy but the general saw my nervous face, and explained with a knowing smile, "You have nothing to worry about 721. The children that you heard are the ones who have had either certain allergic reactions to something we have produced them or have injured themselves and are in serious pain. We have security to watch them just in case they try anything before they are allowed outside again. Everyone else is outside with their groups."
"Gener-, I mean, uh, er sir? When you say that everyone is outside, do you mean everyone in the camp?"
"Yes, but depending on the group you are in, you will only stay in one area. You don't ever mix with the other groups."
"Except on that Shia day right?"
"Only with your family on Jia, yes."
"What if your brothers or cousins or whatever get put in your group?"
"There is absolutely no chance of that happening. We have ways of keeping any of your family separated."
I finally stopped asking him questions and we both silently went through the many corridors until we reached a pair of double doors. There was a red button on the wall that the general pressed and voice answered through a speaker "Name, group, number?"
"General Treawl, Group RSV, Number 721." We waited several minutes before the voice replied 'access granted.'
General Treawl took my handcuffs off of me as the metal doors opened widely and I finally walked into the fresh sunny air.