Donovan groaned when the severe throbbing, pulsed through his head. When he struggled to reach his hands up to massage his temples, he found that he was tightly strapped onto a cool metal table. Squinting, he gazed around the painfully white room. It was stripped bare to its essentials; a small table, holding torturous equipment Donovan was sure would be used on him, and the table with which he was lying on.
He began pulling at the straps, screaming at the top of his lungs in clear panic. He did not want to know what happened to the other prisoners, and he certainly didn't want to experience it. A loud buzzing noise, boomed throughout the room, before a thick steel door slid open. Eight scientists, all dressed in their usual attire - all-white lab coats, and plastic protective glasses - walked into the bare room.
Donovan pulled at the straps with everything he had. The scientists rushed to him, making sure he was still harnessed in. When he couldn't escape, they moved towards a corner wall, pushing a well disguised button. Eight sets of keyboards slid out of the wall, and small screens lit up to create computers. They each logged into their computers, inputting data, ready to experiment on Donovan.
Donovan yanked at the tight leather cords, hearing a small creak in the straps. He pulled harder, fuelled with the anticipation of escape. With one last pull, Donovan broke free. The scientists turned back in confusion, some gasping in shock to see that a prisoner had broken free. Donovan didn't wait a second longer, he sprinted towards the door that the scientists hadn't even closed, entering a room filled with separate cells, all with prisoners locked in.
He couldn't just leave them there, he knew all too well just how much they longed for freedom. Making a split second decision, he bolted back into the other room.
By now the scientists had gotten over the shock, and tried recapturing Donovan, but he wouldn't have it. He was still exceptionally weak from lack of sustenance, but he was now running high on adrenaline. He punched a couple of scientists, knocking them out with one blow, and stole one of their key cards. As he ran back into the cell room, another door slid open, revealing a group of armed guards.
Donovan wound have to hurry if he were to escape the facility. He slapped the cards onto a pad, unlocking all the cell doors in the process.
"Hurry! We have to leave!" He screamed.
The detainees lifted their heads, jumping up to see that the doors were open. Most had lost hope of a better future, but with freedom in their grasp, hope burned red once again. Donovan opened another door, this one leading into a white washed hallway. At the end of the bare path, hung a sign glowing exit. They sprinted to the end of the hallway, Donovan unlocked another set of thick steel doors, they were getting closer and closer, to their well deserved freedom.
The last door however, required a pin, and facial biometrics to unlock. They couldn't escape. The prisoners hammered on the door, hoping it would open, but their endeavours were fruitless. Some fell to the floor, crying in a heap of depression and anxieties, others grew angry, banging on the door with extreme fierceness.
Donovan's heart hammered in his chest, as if it were fighting to flee its body. He was so close! So close to his long awaited freedom.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood at attention, while a spine-chilling shudder coursed through his body, something was wrong.
A rattling of metal on metal, caught everyone's attention. A cylindrical device rolled towards the prisoners, leaking a putrid white gas. Sleeping gas!
When the gas wafted over the prisoners, they dropped like flies, one by one. Donovan tried breathing through his shirt, but it was too potent. He coughed hard, trying to rid himself of the gas. Eventually, he too fell to the floor, ready to be transported back to his cell. The last thing he saw, was a team of bulletproof vested guards, cuffing his fellow prisoners.
*****
For the second time in a day, Donovan woke with a splitting headache. This time however, when he motioned to massage his temples, he wasn't strapped onto a table. He eased some of the pain away, sighing.
"Enough with all the noises! You're giving me a headache!" A disembodied voice suddenly cut in.
If Donovan was any more shocked, he would've jumped right out of his skin. He swivelled his head towards the voice so fast, it almost gave him whiplash. He caught sight of a small metal meshed window at the bottom corner of his cell. Curious, Donovan peeked through the window, glimpsing a petite brunette girl, rolling her eyes, and curling her lips upwards in vexation.
"Hey, who are you? I've never spoken to another prisoner before." Donovan tried making small talk, hoping to loosen the short tempered girl up a bit.
"Guess they're putting us closer, so they can keep a closer eye on us. Name's Bryn by the way." She added in her naturally lilted English accent. "Now shut up, and let me get some rest!" She snapped.
Donovan rolled his eyes at her temper, she really needed to work on it.
"Hey Bryn?"
"Didn't I tell you to shut up?!"
"I know, it's just, I don't think we should give up hope of freedom just yet."
After a moments of hesitation, Bryn replied, "Explain. What's your plan."
"They put us all closer together. It may help them watch us, but it also gives us a major advantage."
"And what do you suppose that advantage is?"
"One word. Communication. We can speak to each other, we can plan our escape to the point, work like one well-oiled machine. I need to redeem myself after screwing up so much. I just... need to save them, I need to save myself. I can't stay hear forever! I miss my friends, and family so much. What if I never get out? What if people just forget about me?" He began tearing up, as he let all of his anxieties, and vulnerabilities overtake him.
"Geez I never liked soap operas, and you're the living personification of one! You know, for such an irritating little twat, you might have a couple brain cells floating up there."
"Gee thanks," he rolled his eyes. "But what are we going t-"
He instantly cut himself off when he heard a line of guards banging on the cell doors. Cell by cell, they slid half a slice of stale bread, with half a glass of water through the small slots. So little food, must've been the first of their punishments for even thinking of escape. When they passed Donovan's cell, they continued walking, as if there wasn't a starving human being laying in the other side of that burning metal door.
"Hey! Hey! You forgot me!" He yelled, slamming his back onto the hard alloy door. The last time he missed the food, he lay in a barely conscious state, whimpering from lack of sustenance. As it was, they hardly had enough to go by, but if they missed the daily meal, they would have to suffer until the next puny meal came by.
The guards completely ignored him.
I guess that's what I get for starting a riot.
He sat back down laying as still as possible. He had to conserve as much energy as he could. If he kept moving, he'd use it all up, and would barely be able to keep his eyes open by the end of the day. Donovan eventually fell asleep, dreaming about his parents, and their stories of when they were younger, when there weren't giant police drones flying around the city, or mountains of rubbish piling the graffiti stricken parks, or when they didn't have a mandatory curfew to avoid the rabies filled creatures lurking in the night.
Humans really did destroy the world.