I noticed he didn’t wear a uniform like a CO, nor did he wear scrubs like some of the men who worked in the infirmary unit as orderlies or whatever they were. Instead, this gorilla of a man wore a polo shirt and jeans, which in a prison setting was odd to see. I hadn’t seen anyone in street clothes in months, so it was a bit alarming. Did he even work for the prison? Had someone from outside sent him to get me? I had no idea who he was, and it didn’t seem like I’d get my questions answered anytime soon.

  “What the fuck is this place?” I asked through my chattering teeth. I hugged myself and looked around some more, astonished.

  I kept looking around and around. My mind was racing with a billion crazy thoughts: They’re about to kill me. I’ll never see my mother again. They are going to steal my organs and sell them on the black market. They’re going to give me some incurable disease.

  I looked over and squinted at that CO that I thought was Anderson. His back was turned this time, though. The lights were so bright, I couldn’t tell if it was actually him. He was standing there like a statue, not saying shit. I jumped when the door to the side of me swung open and five people filed into the room like soldiers ready to do their bidding. I could tell the people were either doctors or scientists because of the way they were dressed: white coats, holding clipboards, and most of them in glasses. Telltale nerd shit. And a bad sign for me. They all just looked like they were ready to experiment on somebody. I shivered as I thought about a scene from a mad-scientist movie I’d seen.

  “This is Inmate Heiress, the last one requested,” the man who’d carried me there said to the group. “Everything has been done to get her ready for incubation and then testing. All four phases have been completed, according to plan. She’s ready on the scale of one to ten.”

  “What! What the fuck are you talking about? Incubation?!” I screamed.

  Just as I did, the hulk bastard grabbed hold of my wrist, bent it at an angle, and twisted it. That shit made me drop to my knees. The pain rocked through my wrist and traveled up my arm so fast, I swear to God it hit me in the brain. He had done a pressure point hold on me. I’d heard about those being used in prison. Damn! That shit hurt! It actually made me dizzy.

  “Ahh!” I shrieked, blinded by the pain.

  “I told you to be quiet and stand still,” the man said as he finally turned my wrist loose. I let out a long breath and used my good hand to hold on to my aching wrist. I stayed on the floor, shaking and ready to pee on myself.

  “Back to what I was saying . . . African-American female, in the thirty-year category. Good health upon entering the program. No known history of diseases. Prime candidate for injection with K1250992, and pre- and post-testing of B1250993,” the man told the group.

  I could not believe my fucking ears. I was completely flabbergasted, to say the least. These motherfuckers were actually talking about giving me some unknown disease to test some unknown drug! The big man stepped closer to me and I shrank farther down to the floor. My body was curled into a ball. He didn’t care. He grabbed me under both of my arms like I was a toddler and picked me up.

  I finally got to see his face. He had a huge scar on the right side of his face that ran the entire length from his temple to his chin. His right eye was white and glassy, like he’d lost it in a fight or got it poked out. He looked like he’d been in one hell of a battle and had come out of it pretty fucked-up. His nostrils were large like an animal’s, and they opened and closed every time he breathed. He was the ugliest person I had ever seen. He looked like a bad guy from a movie or comic book.

  My heart sank into my stomach. This couldn’t be good. Clearly, he had bad intentions and so did everyone in the room. In the hood, no one would believe me if I told this story. We always spoke conspiracy theories about shit they did to people in prisons, but I was living it.

  “She’s a prime candidate,” the man said.

  Another man stepped forward from the nerd group. He was a short white man with red hair. He wore thick oyster-shell glasses and had a red handlebar mustache, like the ones you’d think you’d only see in movies from the past. Although he was short, I could tell he was muscular. He had a thick neck and his white coat was tight on his thick arms. He reached out to touch my face and I immediately cowered away.

  I turned my face away as tears slid down my cheeks. I wanted to run, but it was like my feet were stuck there. Besides, where would I run? I was in the belly of the prison or somewhere that was on lockdown and there was no escaping it.

  “I see that she is in decent condition. Despite it all. Eyes look clear,” the redheaded white man said, flashing a small pin-light in my eyes like I was a specimen being examined. This was the craziest thing I had ever seen. I felt like I was having a bad dream or like I’d gotten stuck inside a Stephen King novel.

  “Okay—well, then, my work here is done. She’s all yours to do whatever you see fit. But our company paid good money for this one, so make sure you get more than one use out of her. In other words, try not to kill her on the first try, like the last couple of disasters we had,” the man who’d carried me there said.

  When he said that, something inside me snapped like a string inside my brain had popped loose. I didn’t know if it was the finality of it all or if it was just my natural-born instincts to survive. But I lifted my foot and kicked that big bastard in his balls so hard, I was surprised at my own strength. I kicked him so hard, I hurt my own foot and I almost fell doing it.

  “Argh!” he growled, crumpling to the floor.

  Then I stomped on the white doctor’s foot, whirled around, and pushed through the group and beelined for the door. I made it out into that long-ass hallway and started hauling ass like my life depended on it, because it fucking did.

  I could tell a bunch of them was chasing me, because even without looking back, I could hear the pounding of feet. I don’t think I have ever run that fast in my life. Whether I’d make it out of the area or not, I didn’t have shit to lose at that point. I needed to get the fuck out of there. I was finally at another door and I heard a loud bang. I knew they couldn’t have been shooting after me.

  I felt something whiz past my face and then I felt a sharp pain in my back. My body lurched forward, and I became lit up with an electric jolt. I had been tased. Now I had a general idea of how people who got electrocuted in the electric chair felt. Even my brain buzzed with the shock of the electricity.

  “No!” I screamed out as I crashed to the floor in what seemed like slow motion.

  There were about twenty-five people running toward me now. I finally gave up and just lay down on the floor, crying. My body couldn’t move. It was like I had no control over my limbs. I was fucked. The big guy was over me in no time. He grabbed me on the top of my head by my hair. I guess he was pissed I had kicked him in the balls and had run, which apparently wasn’t part of whatever plan they had for me.

  “Get the fuck up!” he growled. “You little stupid ass. You can’t get out of here, no matter what you try.”

  I looked up into his face and he seemed more like a monster than he had earlier. I swore I saw demons dancing in his eyes. He dragged me back down that ominous hallway. Once we were back in the room, I noticed that the redheaded doctor was huddled with the others.

  “She still has a lot of strength and cognitive ability, I see,” the doctor commented. The other doctors were scribbling wildly on their clipboards. “We usually don’t test on this type of subject. You told me she was ready.”

  “I’m sorry. That won’t happen again. She was just losing her fucking mind for a minute,” the hulk said. “She’s definitely ready. I made sure of it.”

  “Our test subjects need to be in more of a weakened state. I don’t know if she is right for this. We can’t afford to have her corrupting the other test subjects who’ve been broken down,” the doctor said.

  “No, no. She’s good. She will be perfect. That was just a fluke, I’m sure. We did everything by the book with this one,” the big man said, sounding almost like he was pleading.

  He sounded like a wimp all of a sudden. If I could have just put my hands around his throat, I would squeeze him until all of the life left his body. I hated him and I didn’t even know him. The feelings were instantaneous, and they made my insides rage like an inferno.

  “Okay. Let’s get her undressed and tied down. We don’t need another episode of that,” a different man in a white coat said.

  Still weak from the Taser shot I’d taken, I started weakly flailing and kicking again. Fuck that! I am not going down without a fight. That’s when I got a look at the CO and it was Anderson! I could see him clear as day now. He was moving toward me with a stick in his hands.

  “I’m not fucking taking off my clothes for nobody! I fucking cannot believe you, Anderson! You bastard! Why didn’t you just let me die in solitary! You fucking traitor! Karma will catch up to you!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. I saw Anderson and the big guy coming toward me. I knew whatever was going to happen next wasn’t going to be good.

  “Shut the fuck up and take your fucking clothes off!” the big man gritted, grabbing me roughly.

  “Fuck you!” I screamed, and I spit right in his fucking face.

  He wiped my spit from his face and looked at me. His one good eye seemed as if it had turned completely red; he was so mad.

  “I’m not taking—” I started to say, but my words were cut short.

  The next thing I felt was a sharp pain in the back of my head. Somebody had definitely hit me, I was sure. Next the room started closing in around me and my ears were ringing. I had been knocked to the floor. I knew this because although my eyes were kind of out of focus, I remembered landing on the floor with a loud thud. Then darkness overcame me. All sight and sound had ceased for me.

  I had definitely been knocked out, because I didn’t remember a thing after that. And one thing was very clear and for sure, I wasn’t leaving this place unless some kind of angel or miracle came through for me. I was laid out and not aware of what would happen next.

  11

  IN A LOT OF PAIN

  When I opened my eyes, the pain that shot through the back of my head was crazy. I winced as I tried to get my eyes to focus on my surroundings. I started moving my arms and legs, and that’s when I noticed I was tied down by my wrists and my ankles. It was a strange feeling and I was alarmed, to say the least. The restraints were painfully tight, and each time I flexed, they dug into my skin.

  “What the fuck? Help!” I screamed out, fighting against the restraints.

  But when I did that, the pain in my head just intensified and I was kind of forced to relax my ass back down on that bed. Every inch of my body ached like I’d been in a twelve-round boxing match with the old Mike Tyson.

  “Hello,” I heard a soft voice say to me.

  I moved my head and looked to my left and then my right. I saw a petite black woman dressed in scrubs.

  “I’m Lisa, a nurse, and I’ll be here with you for a while.” She was soft-spoken and had a calming smile on her face. “If you calm down, it’ll make it easier on you,” she said, smiling again. “It’s the only way to make these days easier . . . not fighting.”

  I didn’t know whether to curse her out or be nice, since she was being so nice to me. She was the first friendly face I’d seen in hours. Her name was familiar too, but I couldn’t remember why. With my mind still so fuzzy, it hurt to even try to remember where I’d heard her name before.

  “What are y’all doing to me?” I cried out as I tried to pull my arms and legs out of the restraints again. My skin felt like it would rip apart—that is how tight they had those things pulled.

  “I’m not doing anything to you. I’m here to make sure you get what they want you to have, and that you don’t vomit in your sleep and choke to death, or that your heart doesn’t stop . . . things like that. You know, to keep you alive and thriving,” Lisa said, and she went about taking my vital signs.

  I can’t even front. Although I was in a fucked-up position right now, that woman’s voice was so soothing to me. She wasn’t aggressive or mean at all, and she looked like she wouldn’t harm a fly, because she was so small. If I wasn’t so weak, in so much pain, and tied the hell down, I probably would have gotten up and tried to make a run for it, knowing damn well Lisa wouldn’t be able to take me down.

  “You should calm down and relax. There’s really nothing you can solve by being upset, except you will make yourself sicker,” she said.

  “Sicker? I wasn’t sick when they brought me here. So, how am I sick now? I need answers. I have rights. I’m a prisoner, but I know that I have rights!” I exclaimed.

  “I understand,” she said. “We’ll need to get you cleaned up. I just want this to go easy. Can you cooperate with that?” she asked, her voice still level like I wasn’t just screaming at her ass.

  I sighed loudly. “I guess I have no choice,” I relented, relaxing back on the bed. I closed my eyes and said a silent prayer. Then Lisa moved around the bed. She unlocked the arm restraints first. Of course, I was thinking about punching her and trying to escape, but I quickly changed my mind. First of all, my legs were still strapped down, and second of all, that hadn’t worked out so well for me the last time.

  Instead of fighting or trying to escape, I let Lisa help me get out of the dirty, disgusting hospital gown that I had been wearing for days after those bastards stripped me, probed my body like I was a lab rat, and knocked me the fuck out. She helped me sit up and get off of the bed. When I looked around at the place we were in, I was in awe. It was some kind of high-tech, Back to the Future type of laboratory.

  There were ultramodern hospital beds, with all sorts of machines connected to them, and also computers and monitors and machines built into the walls. There didn’t appear to be any doors, just glass windows that resembled observation decks. I could see through the glass in front of me and there were huge silver tanks behind the glass. There were people in white lab coats inside the room with the tanks, moving around them, jotting down information from small rectangular computerized boxes on the tanks. To the left of the beds was a table filled with syringes, gauze, pill bottles, and small bottles of liquid.

  The inside of this place immediately reminded me of something from a science-fiction movie or book. It definitely was clear that this was some sort of testing laboratory. It wasn’t something that I’d ever think I’d see inside a prison. It also wasn’t someplace I had ever envisioned myself ending up.

  “Where are we? What is this place?” I asked.

  Lisa didn’t answer, but she wore an eerie smile, almost a smirk. She was being weird. It was like she hadn’t heard my question clearly.

  “I’m not smiling or laughing. What the fuck is wrong with you? What is this place, and why am I here?”

  Lisa’s face got serious, but she still didn’t answer me. She continued getting stuff prepared for me to use for a bath.

  My insides warmed up. I was getting angry. Forget being scared. I hated to be ignored. It made me feel like she was trying to play me like I was lame.

  “I’m supposed to be in prison, not in a fucking lab, like a monkey or rat. This is not right. How are they getting away with this?” I kept talking, although she wasn’t saying a word. “I know that I have basic human rights. I didn’t consent to any of this. Whenever I get out of here, I’m going to sue, and I’ll take it to the media. This shit is not right.”

  “Are you ready to get cleaned up now?” Lisa asked, ignoring my rant and still wearing a partial smile. There was something very scary about her, in a Stepford Wives type of way. Why was she just smiling like that? It was like she was high on something, because this was definitely no smiling matter. Lisa’s eyes were vacant too. It made me wonder if they had programmed her in some sort of way. I thought that I was starting to sound crazy as hell, but I knew what I was seeing, and it wasn’t normal.

  Lisa led me into the bathroom, and it appeared to be out of place in the facility. There were regular old tiled prison shower stalls and old-fashioned sinks that had separate spouts for hot and cold water. There were scratched up Plexiglas mirrors above the sinks. The walls were supposed to be white, but as with everything else in prison, they were faded, old, and dingy until they appeared the color of yellow stomach bile.

  The draft inside the bathroom felt like every window in the place was open. I was freezing and the goose bumps and chattering teeth gave that away. I looked around for anyone else, but it was just Lisa and me. I thought about trying to overpower her, but I changed my mind. I didn’t even have the strength to fight a baby in that moment.

  “Take all of the time you need. Just be sure to use the disinfecting soap that is in the pump in the shower. It may burn your cuts, but they’ll heal, and they need cleaning,” Lisa said.

  When she said that, I looked down at my body, particularly my arms and legs. Sure enough, my arms and legs were covered in small cuts and scratches. I imagined I got those while I was fighting to escape from the bastard who’d snatched me out of my bed and brought me to this place. The memory of exactly what had happened to me was still very fuzzy in my mind. It hurt my brain to even try to remember every detail.

  Lisa stood while I walked slowly into the shower stall. Clearly, there would be no privacy, as the stall did not have a curtain or any barrier to keep her from being able to see me. I inhaled deeply because the water was so hot, but it was also soothing. I exhaled and let the water run all over my body. With the way things had gone since I’d been whisked away to this crazy place, only God knew when I’d get another chance to take a shower.

  “Be sure to use the soap,” Lisa reminded me while she stood like a weirdo and just watched me.

  She made me feel very uncomfortable, so I closed my eyes and just imagined that I was back home, in my old apartment living my old life. I pictured my mother and I thought about my grandmother and my cousin Jillian. It was a false sense of security, though. After about fifteen minutes, Lisa cleared her throat to remind me she was there.