Corrupted

by M. J. Kaestli

  “Welcome, Colin. It is my pleasure to present you with your award,” James said.

  “Oh really?” Colin replied. “I don’t remember doing anything to deserve this honor.”

  “Nonsense, Colin. Your outstanding performance in your civil duty has got you here,” James replied in the same light tone.

  “What exactly is here?”

  “You have been assigned a special project,” James answered. “You are starting your training immediately.”

  “When do I get to go home again?”

  “Your training will take a bit of time,” replied James.

  “Thanks, but I don’t want any special project. I like my civil duty just as it is. I would rather not have any promotion so that I may return home every night to Freya,” Colin said in the most confident voice he could muster.

  “I think you might feel differently when you learn what this project is,” James persisted.

  “I think you are wrong. There is no project or honor that I would accept if that means being taken from Freya.” Colin tried to uphold his false confidence.

  James looked at him for a moment. “The decision has already been made. I can’t undo this.” James looked him right in the eye.

  “So I am a prisoner then,” Colin replied.

  “If you choose to view it that way, then yes.” James nodded to the military officer standing by, who stepped forward and handcuffed Colin’s hands in front of him.

  “How was I not to view this situation as not being a prisoner?” Colin waved around his newly cuffed hands.

  “We could have done this the easy way,” replied James, “but you chose to make it difficult. I don’t want you to try to run, after all.”

  “Run where? Where would I go?”

  “You’re a smart and resourceful young man. I am sure you would find something to interfere with our plans if you put your mind to it.” James nodded to the military officer again, who came behind Colin and cuffed his ankles.

  Colin rolled his eyes at James, but knew anything he said would only make the matter worse. He attached a chain between the ankle and wrist cuffs, and James left the room without another word. The man grabbed his arm and guided him into another room.

  “I would ask you your name, but I hear people like you don’t have them.” The guy was massive, like most of the military personnel he had ever seen.

  “We do have names. We just don’t keep them for very long,” he replied.

  “Well, if we are going to be spending lots of time together, you know, getting super close and all…”

  “Right now, it’s Lewis.”

  “Lewis, eh? How long will you be Lewis for? I plan on staying Colin, you know, for as long as I can.”

  “I have a feeling this name will stick for a while.”

  ***

  “So just want to make sure I am clear. I have been promoted to a new post—it’s a cell?” Colin’s hands gripped the bars in the door, and he stuck his nose between the bars, trying to peer out further into the humid, dimly lit room.

  Lewis slid Colin’s meal through the delivery slot, and hesitated for a moment. “This cell is your own doing,” Lewis replied simply and then left the holding area.

  Colin wished the room was brighter; he wished he could see more clearly. He could not tell whether there were other holding cells beside him, or whether this was the only one. No sounds had come from around him, simply silence except for Lewis’s footsteps. It had been so dark when he was brought there, he didn’t have the opportunity to get an idea of where he was being held captive. He had counted his steps, tried to orient himself as to which direction he was going at every turn, but they had walked for hours, and he simply lost track.

  The only thing he was sure of was he wasn’t anywhere he had ever been before. This place, this cell, had to be farther underground than the walkways. This was the abyss, the secret network that was reserved for military use only. It was a black hole which not even Security could identify. He had no idea where it surfaced; all he knew was that it was so vast that this cell was completely unnecessary. Even if he could find an access, he would pop up somewhere unexpected, but most definitely somewhere in the city, under the dome, under the watchful eye of the State.

  It had been several days, not that he could really tell how much time had passed since he had seen any person other than this Lewis character, who obviously was assigned to guard over him. Colin, of course, had learned about solitary confinement; a form of torture to break him down. The reality was there was nothing worse that they could do to him than what had already been done. They took Freya from him; there was nothing left for them to take or to do. He knew now that whatever they had planned for him, they had no intention of returning him to his home. If only they would tell him why, but he supposed that was part of their game, part of how they were to break him.

  ***

  “James, why, what a pleasant surprise,” Colin said. “How nice of you to drop by for a visit.”

  “I see you have settled well into your new environment.”

  “Oh yes, and I am doing such great work in my new honorable position,” Colin shot back. “It feels so super amazing to contribute, you know, work for my food and water and such.”

  “Great to hear.” James slid a tablet into the meal slot. “You start your training today. Every night, you will leave this tablet in the meal slot for Lewis to charge.” He simply left without saying another word.

  Colin wanted to scream, punch the wall, kick, yell profanities, but he simply closed his eyes and held it in. He refused to give James that kind of satisfaction. He had to stay in control. Whatever this game was, he couldn’t let them win. If he broke, if he did anything to even let them think he was being worn down, it would be their victory. They could lock him up, take everything away from him, isolate him, but he would not give in.

  He sat on the small cot, leaving the tablet behind in the slot. The cell was made up in a simple manner. Other than a cot it contained an open shower stall, a toilet and sink, and one small and simple wooden chair. It was getting difficult for him to keep track of the number of days he had been stuck there, but he finally accepted the truth: it simply didn’t matter. Freya was gone; he was going to be stuck down here until the State found it more beneficial to kill him than to keep him alive.

  When food was brought to him, he would eat every last morsel. It was not within his strength to starve himself. It was not fear of losing his own life that stopped him, just simply a lack of willpower. He had tried to stop eating in the beginning, which had lasted one day. The more he started to accept his fate, the less desire he had to keep fighting

  “You are to take the tablet and begin your training,” Lewis said from outside the cell, jostling Colin back to the present.

  “What’s the point? You aren’t going to let me out of here,” Colin yelled from the cot without getting up.

  “You are to start your training today, or there will be consequences tomorrow,” Lewis answered, and left him once more.

  Colin remained right where he was on the bed. He didn’t care what the training was about; he wasn’t going to do it. There was a part of him that desperately wanted to pick up the tablet, to see whether he could send messages, or at least read or do a puzzle, but he already knew that wouldn’t be the case. The tablet would be locked. It would only have the information the State wanted him to look at, nothing more. So he simply lay there, closing his eyes, trying to put the tablet out of his mind until sleep finally took him.

  ***

  Colin was startled awake by Lewis cuffing his hands together. He tried to fight him off, but Lewis had been stealthy in his attack. His ankles had been chained and cuffed; once he was awoken by the chaining of his wrists, it was too late for him to be able to put up much of a fight.

  “Is this my consequences you spoke of? You sneaking in here in the middle of the night to fulfill some pervish gay fantasy of yours?”

  Colin knew his taunting would have n
o effect on military trained personnel, yet it still made him feel better. Without even acknowledging his remark, Lewis grabbed Colin, stood him up and slipped a hood over his head. The hood seemed quite unnecessary to Colin as they didn’t walk very far. He seriously doubted there would be an exit sign to help him escape as he walked.

  They arrived wherever it was that Lewis was taking him. Lewis unhooked the chain between his ankles and wrists, and then with the help of another man, hoisted Colin up. He instantly felt the cold water against his bare feet. Before his mind could adjust, his hands were chained above him. Fear shot through him.

  It was the first time since he had been taken that he was truly afraid. He suddenly understood what the hood was for. Not knowing what kind of torture was coming, the mind could create things that were so much more terrible than reality. If he could see it coming, at least he could prepare himself for it. The blow, the shock, the burn—at least you would know what to expect.

  A faucet was turned on, and he could feel a stream of freezing-cold water flow down his body. Next came a slight pressure near his navel. If his skin had not been so cold, he would have recognized it as a knife much sooner. Colin sucked in his breath, waiting for the knife to cut his skin. He knew Lewis—if it was still Lewis—would not stab him. The purpose of this was not to kill him, just break him down. The knife slowly ran up his stomach; he braced himself for the stinging pain, yet it didn’t come. He thought it must just be a fear tactic, until he felt his now cut open shirt be removed completely.

  Lewis would most likely start with a series of punches to his stomach, ribs, kidneys; Colin expected they would keep his face free of evidence. The cold water was mostly meant as mild torture, which he did feel as his entire body shook, and his teeth chattered. It was hard to brace himself physically when he had so little control of his body.

  A squeaking noise sounded beside him; the water started to warm slightly. For a moment, Colin wondered whether he was to truly be tortured physically, or whether Lewis would continue with his fear tactics. This thought didn’t hold long in his mind, as the water grew hotter and hotter, searing his skin. An aching pain started to radiate through his entire body. The hot water was not hot enough to burn his skin to the point of blistering, yet he could feel every individual droplet as hundreds of individual pin pricks.

  He heard the squeaking sound again, and the cool water came as an instant relief over his body. It did not last long, however, before the numbing of his skin turned into a new kind of pain—an ache that he felt down inside his tormented bones. The water was hurting his delicate, raw skin.

  The sound of footsteps indicated Lewis leaving the room. How long would I be left here? He had expected something so much more violent, but somehow, this was worse. If only Lewis would strike him, or cut him—that kind of pain he could endure. This was torture beyond his comprehension. Colin wanted it to stop. Whatever was on the tablet, he would do it. It didn’t matter anymore.

  It felt like hours had passed since Lewis had left the room—maybe they had, but maybe it had only been a few minutes. Colin could not tell; his mind was past keeping track, observing, trying to anticipate Lewis’s next move. All Colin knew was he wanted it to end.

  He was jostled out of his thoughts as something soft touched his side, followed by excruciating pain. His body thrashed violently. He saw stars behind his eyes, and then it was over. Colin tried to right his body position, trying to catch his breath, and then the sensation ran through him again, only this time it lasted longer.

  The electric shock stopped again, except this time, he didn’t have it in him to correct his body. He hung there limply from his wrists, his knees bent. Then it came again. This time, he vomited into the hood, nearly choking in his own fluid being pressed against his mouth. His bowels released; he had no control over any part of his body. The sensation came again; this time it lasted until Colin lost consciousness.

  Cold water splashed on him, jolting him back to the present. He looked around in a haze; his vision was blurred, and his eyes struggled to come into focus. The hood had been removed. Colin became aware of a great pain in his upper body just as another splash of stark-cold water hit his face. Some of the water had made its way into his nose and mouth, having been caught unaware. He coughed and choked and strained to stand up properly.

  The pain in his arms, shoulders, neck, back: it all led him to the conclusion that he had been left hanging there unconscious for a lengthy amount of time. The faucet turned back on, and Colin could not control letting a whimper escape his lips. The water, however, was not particularly warm or cold, more a tepid middle ground.

  “Wash yourself.” Lewis began to un-cuff Colin’s hands. It momentarily surprised Colin to not be restrained. He quickly realized that he was not in any way capable of fighting, which explained the abandonment of binding him. Lowering his arms from above his head was more painful than he could have anticipated.

  His wrists were bloodied and bruised from where his restraints had rubbed his flesh raw. It was difficult for him to stay on his feet, but he didn’t want to give Lewis any further excuse to touch him. For one of the first times in his life, Colin followed instructions and remained silent. Lewis told him to wash, and so he did.

  Lewis stood off to the side of the open stall, and handed Colin a towel and clothing once he finished. Another man came into the room as he dressed himself, and then they led Colin back to his cell. The unknown man walked in front, with Lewis closely behind. The tactic was not necessary; it was so difficult for him to walk, he could not fathom attempting to run. The three men walked in silence until Colin was locked back inside of his cell. He fell into the cot, and was asleep mere seconds after his head hit the pillow.

  ***

  The sound of Lewis delivering the meal tray woke Colin. It was difficult for him to comprehend how much time he had been sleeping. All natural cycles of sleep, day or night, had escaped his understanding. His entire body was stiff and ached down deep into his bones. He slowly rose up from the cot; it was quite difficult for him to find the strength. The tray consisted of a mere bowl of broth. It could have been days since he had eaten; it was all he would most likely be able to keep down. He sat on the cot and sipped the broth slowly. The warmth spread through his body. In only an instant it seemed he felt as if he could endure his suffering.

  Once the broth was finished, he rose up, more easily this time, and placed the tray back into the slot. He knew he would not stay conscious for long; he was still so tired, too depleted. As he sat back on the cot, his eyes focused, seeing the tablet which had been brought in for him, placed simply on the wooden chair. Colin did not know what awaited him on this tablet. All he knew was that he must read it; he must do what was required of him. He turned it on. It held but one icon, one file on the screen labeled Training. It was a simply laid-out file, not terribly different than the tool used during his training for Security.

  He was to read a lot of text with the addition of a few instructional videos, followed by a test to ensure he understood the information. It started with simple information on communications, all of which he had learned before becoming a Security officer. Why would they make me learn this again? It was elementary information. He worked on the course until Lewis returned, not just to take his tray, but to bring him more of the broth.

  Colin did not hesitate to retrieve the broth, although he was still cautious to sip it slowly. Once his belly had been warmed, he placed the tray back into the slot, and returned to his work. Colin wished the tablet would display the date, or at the very least the time, but this was all a part of his punishment. No more information would be given to him about his captivity.

  All he could do was study the file on the tablet. He knew what would happen if he didn’t work, and he didn’t know whether he could withstand another session. Colin studied until he could not stay awake any longer. He would have set it aside long before, but he kept pushing himself to keep going. There was no way to know whether he had done eno
ugh to keep himself safe, but he had done all that he could.

  ***

  Despite his inability to keep track of time, Colin thought it had been about a week since he had started his training. At first it was all sorts of things about communication devices he had already learned in his civil duty training. After he had worked for a day or two, he started to notice slight differences. It wasn’t just training him on the different types of devices that could send messages or data, but it was also teaching how to build it, and what it was made of.

  It was also clear that he was to be working with devices that had longer ranges than anything he had worked with previously. It was getting quite advanced, and then abruptly came to an end. There was more training to follow, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

  The next set of topics was really scattered and random. Nothing went into great detail, and then it switched to train him about something else on an elementary level. It didn’t make any sense. Why would they train me to be an expert in communications, and then what people used to call a jack-of-all-trades? Most of the training was in general labor, maintenance, agriculture, hand crafted weapons, and such.