I woke, nauseous and weak. My body ached like I’d been run over. My eyes wouldn’t focus and my limbs were so heavy, I could barely move. My heartbeat felt ragged, its rhythm irregular.
A door opened. Through blurred vision I watched as a woman was carted like a burlap sack full of potatoes into the room and laid on a cot. The man exited, and the process repeated three more times before I lost consciousness again.
I don’t know how much time passed before I woke again. A woman beat pitifully on the door, yelling about her son. She looked so out of it, she could barely hold her head up. She pressed her forehead to the door as she curled up on the floor beside it.
I thought it was the noise that roused me. Then my body seized, my skin got hot and tingly as sweat poured out of me. The sweat smelled tainted. I was expelling the toxins they’d shot into me. My head pounded behind my eyes with immense pressure, but I couldn’t lay there vulnerable. My fight or flight instinct was too strong. The room swam in a dizzying swirl as I pushed to a seated position. Big mistake. Nausea swelled and I barely got my head over the side of the cot before my stomach erupted.
The door opened. I heard a muttered, “Shit! We got a sick one in here.”
Strong male hands lifted me and carried me into the bathroom. They set me on the side of the tub. “Look at the sweat pouring off her. Her clothes are drenched,” one muttered.
“Yeah, she can’t go out there like that. It’s too cold. I’ll see if I can round up a change of clothes. There should be something in the bin that will fit. She’s not that big. I keep telling Jillian that crew she hired is going to go too far one day, and then we’ll all be up shit creek.”
The other man snorted. “Know-it-all-Jillian? She doesn’t give a damn about these women. For her, it’s all about her precious process.”
“Well, she’d better start giving a damn. No product means no service. No service means no cushy job. I’ll be back in a sec. Don’t let her fall in. I’ll get someone to clean the room out there,” the first guy said and left.
I didn’t know who Jillian was and with my stomach still dry heaving, couldn’t bring myself to care. I filed away the information to examine later when my stomach wasn’t turning itself inside out.
A large hand smoothed my braids out of my face before resting on my forehead. “Hey! You’ll be all right in a bit. The morons that brought you here gave you too much sedative. Most of the girls sleep it off, but every now and then someone has a reaction to it. I guess it’s your lucky day, huh?”
I leaned my head into his palm, which felt cooler than my body. Later, once I felt better, I could plot my escape. I learned young to pick my battles and choose my timing wisely. Sometimes you only got one shot.
“Let’s get you cleaned up. You want to make a good first impression,” my helper said. He turned the nozzle and water poured into the tub. “We don’t have linen supplies here. Best thing is to use your shirt to wash you down. Don’t freak out. I only want to help.”
I said nothing as he tugged my long-sleeved tee over my head. Underneath I wore a compact sports bra in black. He ran the shirt under the stream until it was saturated, rang out the excess water, and proceeded to wipe me down. The cold water felt so good, I felt my senses reviving.
“Do what you have to do to survive. Nothing matters but life, you hear me, baby? Everything else can be dealt with and overcome, as long as you have life.” My mother’s instructions rang in my head.
The other guy returned. “They cleaned up the mess. I found a pair of sweats that might be a little large, but they’ll get the job done. She say anything?”
“Nope. Been as docile as a lamb. Probably still drugged to the gills,” the one washing me said.
“I’m telling you, we need to start checking what they’re pumping into these women. I don’t care how safe and temporary they claim it to be. Any drug is dangerous if you overuse it,” the first guy ranted.
“Nothing we can do about it now. She seems to be coming out of it. Help me get her dressed and back on the cot. With a little bit of food and water in her system, she’ll be just fine.” He wiped my face, and I forced my eyes opened. An older gentleman with kind eyes, lightly wrinkled brown skin, and salt-and-pepper hair stared down at me.
“Thank you,” I murmured, truly grateful. I hadn’t been shown much kindness from men in my short life.
“You’re welcome. When we get you back in the main room, there’s ginger-mint tea in a jug in the fridge that should help your stomach. Once it settles, try to drink as much water as your body can handle and eat to regain your strength. Despite your adverse reaction, the drug should wear off quickly and you’ll be right as rain in no time,” the man said.
I gave a weak nod to acknowledge I’d heard him.
They helped me to dress in the borrowed generic sweat suit and toted me back to a different cot. The one I’d been on had been removed and the floor cleaned. The room smelled strongly of bleach and my stomach gave another lurch.
The older gentleman left and returned seconds later, holding a cup in his hand. “Drink this. It’s the tea I told you about.”
The scents of ginger, peppermint, and honey was a welcome relief from the chlorine. I grasped the cup with both hands and held it under my nose.
After a few moments passed, the man said, “It works better if you drink it.” There was humor in his voice.
I took a sip, moaned as the flavor wet my tongue, and took a larger one.
“That’s good. Drink, eat, and rest. Everything else can wait.” He patted me on the shoulder in a fatherly gesture and left the room.
I glanced around, noting there were five other women passed out on cots and the one woman still sitting on the floor near the door. The way her head canted against the wall told me she’d fallen asleep.
The tea soothed my stomach, but I still felt drained and sluggish. I finished it off and set the cup on the floor. I didn’t know why I’d been targeted or who it was that had captured me. The only thing I knew with any certainty was that for now, they meant me no harm. Even if they had, I was too weak to do anything about it. It was best to do as the man had said, regain my strength and bide my time.
To that end, I lay on the cot, wishing I had a pillow and blanket. The room was cold, even for someone with my high metabolism. I curled into a ball to conserve body heat and fell into a light doze.
Over the course of time, several more women were brought in until all of the cots were full. Someone had picked up the woman on the floor and laid her on the cot. From their scents, the rest of the women were noninfected, except for the young, light-skinned woman who’d been beating on the door. Her scent was something I’d never smelled before. Not quite infected, but not totally noninfected either. It was a puzzle I didn’t have the energy to figure out.
One by one, they began to rouse. There was bewilderment, fear, anger, and many questions. Where am I? What happened? Who did this to me? What do they want?
The woman on the cot next to me, who appeared older than the rest of us, came awake flailing her fists as she kicked out.
“Hey, hey! You’re safe,” I told her in a loud voice.
She sat up with a lurch, glanced around wildly with glazed eyes, and tried to jump to her feet. Her legs buckled, and she dropped to the floor.
“Take it easy. The drug is still in your system.” Rising, I put an arm around her waist and helped her sit on the cot again.
“What’s going on? Where am I?” she demanded.
“We don’t know,” I said. “What do you remember?”
Her eyes half-closed, like she was thinking hard. “I was walking home from the bus stop. I’d just gotten off work.”
“You’re a medical professional?” I asked, noticing for the first time that she wore scrubs underneath her sweater.
“A nurse. Started feeling sick, dizzy. I don’t remember what happened after that,” she said.
I nodded, motioning to the rest of the women in the room. “You were taken. We all were.”
She looked around the room with an expression of dawning dismay. Then she returned her gaze to me. “What’s your name?”
“Cherise,” I said, forcing a faint smile. Be friendly and nice. Blend in. Until I knew what we were up against, there was safety in numbers.
“I’m Pia. Do you have any idea where we are?” Pia asked.
I shook my head. “I can tell you where we aren’t. We’re not in the city.”
“How can you tell?” one of the other women asked, joining the conversation.
“There’s no traffic. No electronic billboards loudly advertising products. No buses announcing stops and destinations. All the normal city sounds we take for granted are missing.” As I’d lain there regaining my strength, I’d had plenty of time to think about it.
Cara shot to her feet again, crossed to the door and began beating on it. Only a few years younger than myself, she had dark, fear-filled eyes and long, curly brown hair. She reeked of desperation. “I have to get out of here. I need to find my son.”
Pia did a double take. “You have a child?”
“Yes.” Cara strode to the door and pounded on it. “Open this door, you bastards! Where’s my son?”
“Cara’s been trying to get information on her son since she roused. They won’t tell her anything except that he’s safe,” I explained.
“Like I’d believe a bunch of kidnappers,” Cara yelled the last word at the door.
“How long was I unconscious?” Pia asked.
“A couple of hours. It was the same for all of us. I believe I was the first one to be brought in. There isn’t a clock, and they removed all of our electronics. At most, I’d estimate that I’ve been here a day. They come in, drop off a woman, and leave without saying a word. Whatever they want us for, they were prepared. There’s a bathroom through that door. Over in that corner is a small fridge with food and drinks. There’s even a microwave. They don’t intend to starve us,” I told her.
Pia glanced around like she was looking for something. Her shoulders slumped and she looked at me again, continuing the conversation. “You have no idea what this is about? I mean, why us? Why now? Why bring us here?”
A woman with olive skin, a narrow face and high cheekbones who’d remained quiet up until now, spoke up from where she huddled on her cot. Her long black hair flowed around her legs as she rested her chin on her knees. “One of the men who grabbed me said something about an alpha wanting me.”
Alpha? Only the infected had alphas. I worried over this new information, my thoughts racing.