The December Protocol by Devin Hanson

Author:Devin Hanson [Hanson, Devin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-05-17T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

FIFTEEN

Handwriting sample from a 2nd grade student, circa 2123.

I wish all the wujin were gone.

My mama says that Jenna has gone to heaven.

I do not know if there is a heaven, but I hope there is.

Because then there would be a hell, and all the wujin would go there.

When I grow up, I want to be a police man so I can find my sister.

It was the seventh day of Angeline’s imprisonment. When the lights came on in the morning, she was already awake and slowly stretching out muscles that had stiffened overnight. She had never been so sore in her life. Even when she had fallen off the escalator and broken her arm it hadn’t hurt as much. The soreness was a different kind of hurt though. Her broken arm had been a stabbing pain and felt like someone ramming red-hot nails through her skin to the bone beneath. Her pain this morning had a wholesome throb to it. She knew muscles had to be torn down and rebuilt before they would grow stronger, but she wished there was an easier way to do it.

Two cages over, Adora woke and rolled out of her cot with a limber ease and started going through her own stretches. Angeline watched her, envious of the other girl’s fitness. She had never had much interest in playing sports in school, and now she wished she had.

With her stretches completed, Angeline didn’t have anything else to do. She was ravenously hungry, but the jailer had not yet returned to give them their food and water for the day. Her stomach growled and she settled down on her cot to wait.

Next to Angeline, Jasmine rolled over in her cot, and Angeline caught a glimpse of the girl’s face. Jasmine had been crying. Her cheeks were blotchy, her eyes red. Angeline opened her mouth to ask Jasmine what was wrong then shut it again. To hell with Jasmine. She was probably just feeling sorry for herself.

Time was impossible to track. Without some reference to go on, she had no idea what time it was. For all she knew, the lights would go out at noon and they would sleep through the afternoon and spend all night awake. The best way they had to keep track of time was their own stomachs and the usually regular visits of the jailer.

Angeline paced her cage for a while, then returned to her cot to lie down again. She played with the I.V. catheter in her arm then forced herself stop touching it. Still the jailer didn’t return. To help take her mind off her empty stomach, she went through the motions of keeping herself clean, taking the time to give her long hair a good cleansing.

Jasmine still had not gotten out of her cot. She had her blanket pulled up over her face, with only the top of her head showing. Angeline stared at Jasmine, hating her. How had she ever considered Jasmine to be her friend?

Finally the door swung open and the jailer walked in.

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