Pulling his hand back with a disgusted grunt, he stormed away to the lab. Giggling for the first time in months, I pulled on my jumpsuit and zipped it up.
Noticing for the first time since I’d arrived; I was out of the cell and unsupervised. Without a guard watching my every move, it was suddenly strange to walk around without an armed chaperone.
For a moment, I just stood in the bathroom doorway and just observed my surroundings. I could see the lab technician studying my urine sample. He was sucking it up with a little eyedropper and dribbling it on some slides and papers.
The lab looked like any I’d seen at a hospital; centrifuges, shelves filled with boxes labeled ‘gloves’ and ‘syringes’, and vials of blood standing upright in little plastic trays.
I haven’t had a blood test in weeks. Whose blood is that?
I guess it was a little naïve of me to think that I was their only specimen, but I wondered if there were any more like me.
Tip-toeing away from the bathroom, my bare feet made quiet patting noises as my skin made contact with the white tile floor. Staying close to one wall, I moved down a secluded hallway. Fluorescent lights buzzed monotonously above me and reflected a blinding iridescence off the polished floor.
The hallway was long and wide with no identifying signs or pictures, just stark and bland.
Every so often I’d come across a closed door, not unlike the one on my own cell. I wondered if I should open one and have a look. Maybe there was someone just like me in there, afraid and alone.
Placing my hand on one of the door handles, I contemplated whether or not I should.
What if there’s a crazy person in there?
Seemed rather likely in this place. I’d only been here for a couple months and I’d already danced with the prince of insanity.
No happy endings in this place, I’m sure.
With my hand still on the door handle, I decided to take a chance.
Why not, got nothing to lose.
Holding the latch down with my thumb, I yanked the white door wide open.
“Oh my god!” The words fell from my lips as I searched for something to hold the door open with. Scanning the small room, I discovered a tray of empty food near the sink. Grabbing it without losing my grasp on the door, I wedged the tray between the frame and the self-closing door.
After securing my escape route, I rushed to the side of the restrained occupant. “Let me get you out of this!”
Ripping off the Velcro straps, I had an unpleasant flashback of Meyers and his disgusting antics. Pushing the disturbing thoughts to the back of my mind, I focused all my energy on the task at hand.
After freeing all four limbs, the patient sat up on the cot. “Are you alright?”
“Yes, thank you.” Ocean blue eyes stared back at me with deep gratitude as she massaged her swollen wrists. Stroking her shoulder-length blonde hair maternally, I surmised she couldn’t be much more than eight years old.
“What’s your name sweetheart?” I asked, seating myself beside her on the cot.
“Jessica.” She replied, her tiny voice hovering between shy and afraid.
“I’m Cassia.” I thrust my hand toward her eagerly. Moving her petite hand slowly towards me, she accepted my gesture. Feeling her warm little hand in mine nearly made me jump with joy. I felt like it had been years since I’d been touched gently by another human being.
“Why on earth do they have you here? You’re just a little girl!” I felt a lump form in my throat as my imagination flew in all directions. All I hoped was that she hadn’t had to endure the torturous tests and inhumanities that I’d lived through so far.
Uncertainty clouded her young expression as she searched my face with suspicion. I could understand her reluctance to trust strangers; this place quickly teaches a person that no one should be trusted.
Smiling at her, I hoped that I could gain her trust. Frankly, I was just ecstatic to have some normal company again. Apparently deciding to confide in me, she spoke quietly as though telling me her darkest secrets.
“I’m…’mune to everything.” Confused, I frowned as I tried to decipher what she meant. Thankfully, she chattered on while she reached up and began braiding a section of my long black hair.
“When I was in my mommy’s tummy, she had a bad disease called…” She pursed her little lips and scrunched up her face as she tried to recall. “AID.”
“AIDS?” I offered, my heart sinking as I foreshadowed her mother’s fate.
“Yup. But I didn’t get it.”
My brow knitted together again. I’d heard of babies being born free of AIDS when their mother’s had it. It didn’t totally explain why they’d consider her immune to ‘everything’.
Jessica continued to tell her short life story.
“Daddy told me that the doctors tested me a lot…to see why I was…’mune.”
“Immune.” I corrected her softly.
“Immune. He said they looked at my blood and it was…different.” My heart literally stopped. I could feel it pause as I held my breath, waiting for the next sentence.
Was she…like me? Maybe I wasn’t the only one. I didn’t know whether to feel elated for myself or pity for her.
“Different?” My voice was but a whisper as I urged her to continue.
“Yah. The doctors said that I couldn’t catch a cold, or the flu or even something called cancer.”
Knowing my own medical history and lack of illnesses, this young girl seemed to be molding herself into my own life story.
“Jessica, I’m going to ask you something very strange, but it’s very important that I know, okay?”
Her big blue eyes turned serious as she stopped playing with my hair and stared up at my face.
“Do you have a birthmark…right here?” I touched my pointer finger to the center of my chest. I’m sure my heart was pounding so hard that I could feel it banging against my finger.
This could be the moment, the moment where I discovered I wasn’t truly an anomaly in this cruel and cold world.
That maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t alone.
Jessica opened her mouth to tell me the one thing I desired to know—whether or not she was like me. An alien among humans. An oddity in the world of the normal.
“I…” She uttered but was abruptly cut off by a man yelling just outside the door.
“Find her!” A male’s angry voice emanated from the hallway.
“Uh oh.” My heart began pounding under my ribcage as I wondered what they would do to me if they discovered me wandering about their secret facility.
“We have to get out of here.” I said in a hushed voice as I clutched Jessica by both shoulders and looked her directly in the eyes. Her eyes wide with fright, she nodded and we both got off her bed and walked carefully towards the door.
“Check every room!” The deep voice hollered.
Sliding my fingers between the door and frame, I bent over to remove the tray from its position. Cautious to be silent, I gently lay the tray on the floor and pushed it about two feet away from me.
Jessica whimpered lightly beside me as we heard several of the men in black run by, their dress shoes tapping on the polished hallway floor.
I’d never been a woman of faith, but I wasn’t above praying, especially at this moment. “Please, please help us.” I whispered just under my breath.
Ironically, within seconds of my impromptu appeal, one of the men shouted. “Check the north hallway!”
The frantic rapping of shoes faded into the distance. An eerie silence enveloped the hallway.
My pulse was racing so hard I could hear my blood rushing behind my eardrums. Carefully, I opened the door just a crack. Pressing my right eye against the sliver between the frame and the door, I scanned the hallway for movement. Satisfied that the hall was clear, I turned and offered Jessica my hand.