The man felt powerless as two strong hands grabbed him by his shoulders and effortlessly spun him around like a child’s toy. Then another pair of hands joined the first and promptly grabbed him on both sides, around his own bound and partially numb arms. Then he was hastily led about twenty-five paces from where they had been. The hands unceremoniously dragging him along as the man labored to keep up. He could no longer feel the boy clinging to him but could hear his faint footsteps behind. He assumed the boy was being “helped” just as he was. As they reached their new destination, they suddenly stopped and the hands let him go. Then he could feel the rope around his waist being removed and then a tugging at his wrists, the zip ties at long last being cut off. The man stood there still blindfolded, vigorously trying to massage the feeling back into his long dead hands.
Finally the blindfold was taken away and the man opened his eyes only to see blackness. Slowly his eyes acclimated and he realized it was almost completely dark. The sun had long set and the night sky was overcast, not a single star could be seen. Not even the moon showed its face. He could see the dim reflection of light from the other side of the building but this side remained a black undefined void.
The man then heard a sound behind him and quickly turned to see some shadowy figures there. Instantly several bright lights blinded him again. He reflexively turned his head away from the painful glare while at the same time consciously trying to get a better look at his captors. He could see very little, there were five or six of them and they were armed. All he could really see was their silhouettes in the darkness as the brightness of the lights kept him from seeing any real details.
Behind him he heard a faint sob and turned again to see the boy, still blindfolded and standing illuminated against the wall. The man knelt down in front of the boy using his own body to shield him from the blinding light. He then reached behind him, removing the burden from the terrified child.
The boy opened his eyes and slowly tried to focus. The man stood there kneeling in front of him, making sure his was the first face the boy would see. After what the man thought to be an eternity the boy’s vision returned and he finally smiled as he recognized the face of the man standing in front of him. The man couldn’t help but smile back.
The soldier in command abruptly interrupted the tender scene. “Strip!”
The man thought he misheard somehow, “What?”
The soldier repeated himself and made it clearer the second time. “Strip down! Take everything off and put it in here!” the soldier in charge barked at them, while pointing to what appeared to be a large plastic garbage can that one of his men just put down in front of the two.
A wave of fear suddenly rushed over the man and in his desperation wondered if he might charge the soldiers and he and the boy could somehow get away. He quickly recognized the absurdity of the idea. There was no getting away. All along he just assumed that he was going to die and terribly, in a way he came to accept it, but the boy, not the boy.
The boy began to cry.
The man spoke directly to the commander, nearly begging, “Please don’t do this …”
The commanding officer signaled to his men who then spread out on each side preventing their escape. They then brought their pistols up at the man and prepared to fire. The soldier was shouting again and this time the man thought he heard the commander’s voice cracking. “This is your last chance! Take all of your clothes off now!”
The boy started taking off his clothes, his tears flowing freely.
CHAPTER FOUR
They stood there naked in the cold and the glaring lights assaulted them. The cruel shadows of their trembling bodies cast on the wall behind and their breath was briefly caught in the lights of the soldier’s guns before it vanished into the night air. They couldn’t see their tormentors but they were undoubtedly there. The man was freezing and the icy ground was already making his feet numb, he wondered what more they would have to endure. He thought how much easier it would have been to die there at first and been done with it. But he couldn’t, he couldn’t leave the boy behind. He was all the boy had. The man defiantly put himself between the boy and the soldiers. The boy just stood there, he was no longer crying but instead blankly staring into the light.
The commanding officer spoke up. “Go through the door into the building.”
The man puzzled, “What door?”
“To your left, go inside.”
One of the lights that had been menacing them now pointed to a door just to the man’s left. Under the glare of the painful lights he hadn’t even noticed it. The man found the latch and opened the door and as it swung open the creaking gave it away as the one he heard just minutes before.
He had no idea what was beyond the door but thought it could be no worse than this. He hoped it could be no worse than this. The man told the boy, “Come on, let’s go!” but the child only stood there in his trance oblivious to the world, staring into the light as if he had made some great discovery. The man went back and took the boy by his small hand and led him through the doorway. The child did not say a word as he was effortlessly pulled along, he seemed a million miles away.
They entered inside and the lights strained the man’s eyes again, but they quickly adjusted. The building was heated and as they entered they found immediate relief from the freezing night air. They stood at the end of a long hallway, at one end the door they just entered through and at the opposite end another identical door. Between the two there were four open doorways on his left and a single closed door halfway down the hall on his right. Ten feet in front of them, between the first and second doorway on the left, was another soldier with his rifle pointed at the ground. The lights behind him made for a large and intimidating shadow figure. The man couldn’t say for sure but it appeared there was something unusual about his face.
The officer in charge appeared in the doorway behind them. “Go into this room,” gesturing to the first room on the man’s left. Under the revealing lights he could now see the soldier clearly for the first time. He wore the same camouflaged fatigues as all of the other soldiers the man had seen that day but with two exceptions. He and his men were also wearing some type of respirator masks and rubber gloves. Now he understood the reason why he had found it difficult to understand the soldier’s words. He then remembered the word “quarantine” from the previous soldier’s conversation.
The man again took the boy by his hand and pulled him inside.
The room was roughly twelve feet square and looked and smelled new. Obviously it had been constructed very recently. The floor was made of a smooth poured concrete and in the center of the room was a small metal grate covering a drain. As they first entered, the man thought the room was empty but once inside noticed several items that could not be readily seen from the hallway outside. There was a large metal washtub. Inside it there were two large towels and several smaller washcloths. There was also a single large bar of soap. Beside the tub was a metal folding chair. On the seat of the chair were what appeared to be several pieces of men’s clothing neatly folded. Behind the tub there were a number of large white buckets that the man would soon discover were filled with clean warm water.
The officer in charge addressed the man from outside in the hall, “Clean yourselves up and put on those clothes.” The officer never entered the room and after he spoke turned away from the man and boy, always keeping them in view but never again looking directly at them.
The man took the items from the tub and set them on the ground. He then took one of the large towels and wrapped it around the boy’s waist, the towel dragging on the floor. The man then took the clothes out of the chair and sat the boy down.
The boy sat there silent in his spell. He sat in the chair frozen, staring through the far wall and into some special place the man could not see. The man had never seen the boy like this and was becoming increasingly worried.
He then checked one of the buckets. With his finger he tasted the contents and as he
first thought it was pure clean water, a rare gift in the man’s world. Using both hands he took a large scoop of water from the container and brought it to his mouth, he nearly choked as he greedily swallowed it down. Without even thinking he took another. The man then looked to the guard out in the hall. The soldier was standing just beyond the doorway with his face partially concealed in the shadows. The man couldn’t decide if he was being watched or not but it only took him a second to realize he didn’t care. He took another handful of water and turned, offering it up to the boy. The boy wouldn’t take it and as far as the man could tell the child didn’t even know it was there at all.
The man decided he would go first and poured the water into the metal tub. The warm water felt good and it quickly removed any last trace of the chill he had felt outside. He made fast work of it taking a washcloth and scrubbing away at the dirt that covered him from head to toe. Soon enough he felt clean and several of the cloths lay across the rounded metal edge of the tub, each darkly stained with what the man thought were weeks or maybe even a month’s worth of accumulated grime. He wasn’t entirely sure. By the time he finished he used half of the small cloths but left the remaining half for the boy. He knew the boy needed them just as badly as he had.
After drying himself off, he went to the small stack of clothes. There were two sets each of T-shirts, sweatpants and white cotton socks. He took the larger size of each. The sweatpants were a dark gray with a draw sting to hold them up. The shirt was a lighter shade of gray and across the front said “Property of University of Nebraska-Lincoln.” The man left off the socks as the floor was wet and he knew it would only be worse before they were through.
The man carefully poured out the dirty water into the drain and replaced it with the last of the precious clean water. He then stood the boy up, removing his towel and tenderly set him in the tub, the warm water engulfing him. There was still nothing from the boy. He began washing him and at the same time tried to be reassuring, speaking to the boy in a soothing tone. “You’re going to feel a lot better after this. You really have needed a bath for a while now,” as he washed the boy’s back and shoulders. No response. The man took the bar of soap and washed the boy’s hair and then gently pushed him under the water to rinse it. The boy floated back to the top in the same vacant state as when he went under. The man was starting to feel desperate and afraid.
The man continued talking and washing him and really wasn’t sure if his words were intended to put the boy at ease or himself. “It will be all right, you’ll see,” he told the boy, even if he hardly believed his own words. The boy remained motionless, gazing into his own little world somewhere far off in the distance, far beyond the four walls that held them. The man continued to anxiously scrub away.
The man methodically washed the boy from top to bottom and was now nearly finished, the entire time the child remained unaware. Out of the blue the boy quietly mumbled something incomprehensible.
“What?” The man was surprised by his sudden words.
“Eaters,” he repeated.
Right away the man knew what he meant.
The boy went on matter-of-factly, “They’re Eaters. That’s why they want us clean. They’re going to eat us.” The boy began rocking back and forth in the tub, rocking both the water and himself into a frenzy. The water began splashing over the sides and onto the floor and by now the boy had nearly talked himself into complete hysteria, the entire time hypnotically repeating over and over, “That’s why they want us clean, they’re going to eat us!”
The man tried to quiet him but the boy was not having it. “No they’re not! It’s just your imagination! SHHH!” He wished he could completely believe it himself. He tried to still him but the boy couldn’t hear a word the man said. The boy continued in his mania all the while repeating over and over how they were going to be eaten. The guard at the door noticed the commotion but never said a word or entered the room. Finally the man wrapped his arms around the boy to hold him still and said in a stern and loud voice, “Joshua!” He said it again, this time gently shaking him. “Joshua!” Hearing his name seemed to break the spell the boy had been under and he immediately quieted down. The man held on to him a few seconds to make sure and the reassuring tone resumed once more. “No they’re not. We’re going to be okay. You’ll see.” By now the soapy water had returned to its calm and so had the boy, the boy curiously looking around the room as if he just arrived. Although he did not speak, it was clear he was no longer off in his different world. He lifted the boy up out of the tub and said, “Let’s get you dressed,” and the man felt as if the world had been taken off of him.
The man took the remaining clothes and dressed the boy, knowing before he started they were much too big. They appeared to be made for a small adult man or possibly a woman. The socks were too large and bagged at the ankles, they barely held onto the boy’s small feet at all. Since the floor was still wet the man decided it best just to leave them off. The white T-shirt was too long and went nearly to his knees. Worst of all were the light blue sweatpants. They were several sizes too big and even with the drawstring as tight as possible were still quite baggy, most of the pant’s legs settling comically at the boy’s ankles. Altogether the motley collection made for one very sad looking little boy, but the man recognized they would just have to do.
Just as they finished, the man was startled when the commanding officer’s voice broke the silence, “Come with me.” The soldier had been so still the man had forgotten he was there the whole time discreetly watching. With their socks in hand they both walked towards the door.
The commander stood there in the hall blocking the outside door, the door they first entered through. The man knew where the door led to, it was the only door he knew. He knew it led to freedom. The soldier stood there deliberately blocking their chance for freedom, he pointed up the hallway and coldly told the two, “That way.”
They walked down the hall as they were instructed. The second guard had moved back and was now obstructing the other door at the opposite end of the hallway. That guard didn’t speak a word but just rigidly stood there with his rifle, intentionally frightening the man and boy. The one behind got their attention again, casually ordering them to, “Go to the last room on the left.”
As the man walked down the long hall he peered, discreetly as he could, into the second and third rooms. But the lights were out and he couldn’t see a thing. At a glance they appeared to be empty, but then the man remembered the room with the tub first appeared empty to him. He wondered what secrets the other rooms might hold.
Shortly they reached the fourth room with the commanding officer right behind. The two didn’t have to wait very long for another order, “Go in. You’ve got everything you’ll need for the night.” They walked into the room and turned around to face their captors. The soldier continued in his unfriendly manner, “We have guards posted, you won’t be able to see them but they’re there. Someone will come talk to you in the morning.”
The two soldiers began walking down the hall and as he was going, the one in charge finally told the man and boy, “If you know what‘s good for you, don’t try to leave that room.” The man didn’t know if the soldier had intended for that to sound as menacing as it did. The two of them just stood in their new prison cell watching them walk away.
The first thing the man noticed was the floor, as he was barefoot it was really no surprise. The floor in the first room was cold concrete while the floor in the hallway outside was some type of rough wood. But the floor in this room was a finely finished wood, the man thought pine. Someone had gone to the effort of sanding this floor down, probably many times and sealing it with some type of gloss wood finish. The planks were smooth to the touch and almost felt like glass.
The rest of the room, on the other hand, was very much unfinished. The inside walls were not complete. There were no doors hung yet, and then there was the ceiling. The man just now noticed there was no ceiling. It was very dark but there a
ppeared to be beams high above the walls. The man tried to think if the first room had a ceiling; he had been too preoccupied to notice. The room appeared to be the same exact size as the first and was illuminated by eight small but powerful LED lights mounted at the top of the walls in even intervals. He speculated as to what their source of power was.
The room was sparse but livable and the man wondered how long they might have to stay here, or if they might ever leave at all.
Only a quick glance was needed to see there was not much in the room. There was a twin-size bed mattress placed right on the floor. Its soft clean sheets looked so inviting, and although it was small, it was enough for the man and boy. On top of it were a large pillow and heavy blanket. The man appreciated that the three items together would provide them with a warm, comfortable rest that they seldom got to know.
The only other item in the room was in the opposite corner against the wall. It was another large white bucket identical to the ones that contained the bath water, but this one held different items altogether. The man walked over and picked it up. After a cursory look, he walked back and emptied the contents on the bed.
Joshua (Book 1) Page 3
