Shattered by Jody Calkins
Author:Jody Calkins [Calkins, Jody]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Emery Road Publications
Published: 2017-11-21T16:00:00+00:00
CHAPTER 33
EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, after I had paced the floor all night and assessed the condition of the kids in their glass units (still lying on their beds), Lynne walked through the double doors. She pushed her eyeglasses up the bridge of her nose as she settled into her desk chair. I took a closer look at her and felt the corners of my mouth rise before I could stop myself. Darkness beneath her lashes shadowed her complexion, suggesting lack of sleep.
With a yawn, she rose from her chair, walked out into the hall, and stood before a large display panel. Her hand moved across the touchscreen. With each button she pressed, the machine made a boing sound.
Suddenly, an automated female voice came over the speakers.
âThis is your wake-up call. Please proceed to your washing stations. You have twenty minutes to prep for todayâs task.â
âWhat happens if theyâre not ready by then?â I asked. But I knew she couldnât hear me. She was humming to herself as she walked down the hallway and looked inside each of the units. The kids were able to stand and walk now, but their movements appeared robotic. Were they brainwashed? Did they need to wait for verbal cues before they could move? Or were they being drugged with a vapor flowing into their rooms through the ventilation system?
After the twenty minutes were up, the automated voice said, âPlease proceed to the door and wait there to be released.â
Each kid responded obediently.
I was impressed. I had never seen any of the kids respond in such a way. I had imagined the academyâs staff of enforcers pulled their hair out every day during their breaks. Then again, the bad kids were punished with three nights in solitary, so that must have helped.
Lynne waited in the hall. The two men who helped her the night before arrived through the double doors and stood by her side as she entered a code into the main panel by her office. All the doors opened at once and the kids stepped out into the hallway, forming a single line. Then she instructed them to follow her.
We walked to the far end of the hall and entered a large room containing more glass units. Only the units were empty like the ones in solitary, and outside each one was a wooden bench. She called out four names and told them to wait by the first unit.
I watched as kids of similar ages broke out of the line and went to sit on the bench. Then she repeated the process for the remaining nine units. Forty kids in all, divided into ten groups of four, waited for their next instructions.
Then she told two kids each to go inside a unit. Once each unit was filled, she entered a code on a display panel which closed the doors, locking the kids inside. Only none of the kids seemed alarmed. She touched the screen again, hitting a âStartâ button, and turned around to face the units.
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