Imprisoned (8 page)

After twenty minutes, the man who had told me to check-in came up to me. “You need to pick it up. Your heart rate is barely moving.”

I turned to him, confused how he would know my heart rate. “What?”

“You heard me. You’re not here to take an evening stroll. You’re here to lose weight. Now move it.”

I stared at him a moment, taking in his muscular arms and cold eyes and had a flashback to the night before when Hansen and Dimples had dragged me out of my house and brought me here. I was about to tell Mr. Muscles to shove it when I also remembered being tasered. Twice.

Then Mr. Muscles pressed a button on the treadmill, increasing the speed of the belt and I had to jog to keep from falling. I reached for the button, but he spoke sharply. “Don’t touch that. I want you to run for twenty minutes before you slow down.”

Afraid of what would happen if I disobeyed, I kept running, hating his guts more and more with every step.

This was nothing like doing laps for track. That had been my choice. Now, I was being
forced
to exercise. Even worse, I wasn’t able to decide how hard to exercise. Rage at Mr. Muscles pushed adrenalin through my body, helping to keep me going, but after ten minutes my side began to ache and I desperately wanted to stop running.

How did he even know my heart rate? Then I remembered the chip that the not-so-nice doctor had injected under my skin. She’d mentioned that it could read my heart rate.

I frowned, loathing this place even more than before. Alyx was right when she called it a hell-hole. How long was I going to have to stay here? I didn’t know how much of this place I could take.

I looked at the readout and saw twenty minutes had passed since the Exercise Nazi had increased the speed. I punched the button, slowing the treadmill down, and began walking at a more comfortable pace. After I’d caught my breath and gotten a drink at the drinking fountain, I decided to try the elliptical. I still had over an hour that I had to spend here and I wanted to get through it alive.

A lot more people had arrived to work out while I’d been in the middle of torture Morgan time and there weren’t many pieces of equipment available. Then I saw one elliptical that wasn’t being used and hurried over to it. Another girl reached it a moment after I did. I recognized her from the bathroom that morning. She was the one who’d made me move to the back of the line for the shower.

“I was here first,” she said, which she and I both knew was a lie.

Anger at all that I was going through emboldened me. “No you weren’t.”

Her eyebrows went up. Evidently she wasn’t used to being challenged. “What did you say, new girl?”

“My name’s Morgan. And I said
I
was here first. Not you.”

She looked at the people who were nearby and I realized we had an audience.
Great
. Then she leaned toward me so only I could hear. “I’ll let you have it this time,
Morgan
, but you’d better watch yourself.”

I watched her walk away, but rather than feeling victorious, I felt alarmed. The last time I’d stood up for myself it was to Lori and I had ended up here.
What have I done now?

Chapter Eight

“That took some courage.”

I looked at Harley, who was using the weight machine next to mine. “What do you mean?”

“That Beth is a bad seed. I wouldn’t cross her if I was you.”

Exhausted, sweaty, and hating life, I scowled at him. “What am I supposed to do? Let her bully me?”

He shrugged. “You can do what you want.” Then he turned back to doing leg lifts.

I was already worried about what Beth was going to do to me. I didn’t need someone else reminding me of the danger I could be in. I’d been here less than twenty-four hours and already I’d made an enemy. That was even faster than with Lori. I was breaking all kinds of personal records.

I looked at the clock and saw it had been nearly two hours since I’d checked in. I was supposed to meet with a counseling group at eight o’clock so that I could be “re-educated”, but I was sticky with sweat and wanted to shower first. After wiping down the weight machine, I tossed my towel in the hamper, then took the elevator back to my floor.

When I went into my room, Alyx was sitting at her desk working on homework. She turned to me when I walked in. “How was it?”

“Awful, if you want to know the truth.”

“Which part?”

“Well, the only part that wasn’t was your friend Livvy being nice to me and showing me around. Thanks for that.”

Alyx smiled. “You’re welcome. I know how sucky it is to be new and not know anything.” She paused. “What did you think of Austin?”

“Who?”

“The guy who runs the gym.”

“I hate him with every fiber of my being.”

Alyx looked shocked. “Why? What did he do to you?”

Embarrassed that he’d basically accused me of slacking, I said, “I just thought he was a jerk.”

“This is the muscular, good-looking guy?”

Then I remembered that Alyx probably worked with him. “He’s muscular, yeah.”

She seemed to be thinking. “Yeah, I guess he can be a bit bossy sometimes. But he’s basically a nice guy.”

“Maybe to you.”

She turned back to her homework. “I’ve got a lot to do.”

“I’m gonna take a quick shower before my counseling thing.”  I paused. “Where do they meet, anyway?”

She turned back toward me. “On the ninth floor where we have school.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

After my shower I felt a bit more human. When I arrived on the ninth floor, I saw a board posted with several sheets of paper. Each one had a room number and a list of names. I found my name on the sheet for room five. It was the same room where I had my English class earlier that day. Since I knew exactly where that was, I was able to walk down the hall with confidence.

A moment later I reached the room and saw that the desks had been pushed to the sides and instead eleven chairs were arranged in a circle. Several kids were already there. I sat down and waited for my “re-education” to begin, skeptical about the whole process. I didn’t need to be brain-washed about the way this world thought—that would never happen—I just needed a way to get out of here and back home.

Other kids trickled in and at eight o’clock on the dot, a slender woman my mom’s age walked in, a tablet computer in her hand. She sat in one of the chairs in the circle and crossed one fashionably-trousered leg over the other, then looked at each of us. I noticed one chair was still empty. So did she. She looked toward the door and sighed, clearly irritated to have any delay.

Just then Billy walked in. He went straight to the empty chair and sat down, immediately slouching and not making eye contact with anyone.

“So nice of you to join us, Mr. Foster.”

He ignored her and continued staring at the floor.

This didn’t seem to bother her, so I assumed she was used to it.

“Let us begin tonight’s session. First, I need all of you to check-in.” She held up her tablet and I noticed that there was a card reader attached to it. One by one, each of us, even Billy, stood and waved our cards in front the reader. “Very good.”

Once we were settled, she said, “We have two new members of our group tonight. Please welcome Chad Beacon and Morgan Campbell.”

All eyes rotated between me and the new boy. Several of the kids said hello, but most just stared. Suddenly I remembered the large bruise on my face and almost reached up to touch it, but was able to keep my hands in my lap.

Deciding not to let myself be intimidated by these kids—after all, they must have done something wrong to be assigned to the counseling group too—I kept my chin up. My gaze flitted from one to the other, stopping on Billy, who was staring at me, a small smirk on his face.

What did he do anyway? I wondered.

“My name is Mrs. Reynolds.” She paused. “As always, we begin with the pledge. All arise.”

As I stood, I noticed most of the others didn’t seem in a hurry to stand and felt a sudden kinship with the group. These kids were like me—they hated the way things were too.

Mrs. Reynolds began saying the pledge and most of the kids half-heartedly followed along. When we finished, she spoke. “Don’t sit yet. You know that was unacceptable. How many times do I have to tell you? We’ll continue to repeat the pledge until I’m satisfied with your recitation.” She looked at each one of us. “Now let’s try that again.”

We all spoke as one, this time with a little more enthusiasm. “I pledge to always follow the rules and to take care of my body. I will strive to put the good of all above the desires of one. A healthy me is a healthy world.”

Mrs. Reynolds smiled. “That was better. You may sit.”

We all did as instructed.

Mrs. Reynolds spoke again.  “Now, last night we were discussing how it’s important to follow the rules so that society can keep order. Morgan, Chad, what are your thoughts on following the laws that society has put in place?”

“I think they suck,” Chad said. Everyone laughed but Mrs. Reynolds did not look amused.

“Perhaps you’re not familiar with the rules of this group, Mr. Beacon,” she said. “Outbursts like that will cause you to forfeit two meals.” She smiled. “Which two would you like to forfeit?”

Chad’s face blanched and everyone got quiet. He swallowed and I could see his Adams apple move. “I guess breakfast?”

She typed something into her tablet computer. “Breakfast it is.” She glanced at him. “Two days in a row.” She set her tablet down on her lap and turned to me. “What about you, Morgan?”

“Me?” Fear trickled down my spine like sweat after a vigorous workout.

“Yes. What are your thoughts on the importance of rules in society?”

Her eyes locked on me and I wasn’t able to look away. Afraid I would say the wrong thing and be punished, I hesitated.

“Speak up,” she said.

I reminded myself that this whole thing was just a farce—a fake world that I would soon be leaving. I just had to pretend until I could find a way to escape. “Well, I guess it’s important to have rules so that you know what to expect.”

She smiled, evidently pleased with my answer. “Very good, Morgan. Very good.”

Her praise, though it was for an answer I had made up and didn’t mean, helped me to break my gaze. I felt the others looking at me, but I ignored them. Especially Billy, whose smirk I could see in my mind’s eye.

For the rest of the session I was able to come up with answers I knew Mrs. Reynolds wanted to hear and got through it without any punishment. No one else got in trouble either. When we were done she told us we could go, but asked me to stay behind. As I watched everyone file out, worry coursed through me and I wondered what I had done wrong.

Finally, the last person left the room and Mrs. Reynolds turned to me. “How are you settling in, Morgan?”

“Okay, I guess.” I hoped she would get this over with quickly—my imagination was filling with all kinds of horrible punishments for what I may have done.

“Good. I’m glad to hear it.” She paused. “Here at Camp Willowmoss we want our campers to develop good habits. Not just to lose weight, but to cultivate a healthy lifestyle—a lifelong way of caring for their bodies. Now, as you know, there are those who are here for other reasons. That’s what our counseling group is all about. Some people make poor choices and they need to be reminded why we have the rules that we have. Take you, for example. I’m sure what you did wasn’t done maliciously. Nevertheless, you broke an important rule.”

As I sat silently, I wondered where she was going with her lecture.

“Here at Camp Willowmoss we believe in second chances. Most people leave here with a new attitude and are ready to become productive members of society. There are some, however, who have no intention of changing their ways. Not only that, they want to bring down as many other people as they can.”

Alarm bells rang in my mind. Did she somehow know of my desire to try to escape? Could she tell I hadn’t been sincere in my answers during the counseling session?

“Morgan, I have a good feeling about you.”

The alarm bells quieted as I listened to her. Plainly, she had no clue about what was going on in my mind.

“As much as we want to, we can’t be everywhere so we rely on other campers to help us out.” She watched me for a moment, then said, “How would you like to shave some time off of your stay?”

“Really?”

She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Yes.”

“I would like that.”

“I thought you would.” She paused. “You can earn points which can go toward shortening your stay at Camp Willowmoss.”

That’s great, I thought. Maybe I’d need to work extra hours in my job or something. “What do I need to do?” I couldn’t help it. My voice betrayed how eager I was to earn these points.

“You just need to share information with me.”

I felt my early release slipping away. “What kind of information?”

“Anything that you think we would be interested in. I think you’ll know it when you hear it.” This time when she smiled, it seemed evil.

“Okay.”

“Can I count on you, Morgan?”

What was I supposed to say? “Uh, I guess so.”

“Good.” She stood. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.” Then she turned and left the room.

I stayed in my seat, trying to process what I’d just been told. If I ratted people out, they’d let me go early. I had no idea how early, but any time I could take off of my “stay”, as Mrs. Reynolds called it, would be good. But could I do it? Could I be a snitch?

I left the classroom and went to the elevator, my mind going a hundred miles an hour. Did I care enough about the people I’d met to keep their secrets? Not that they’d told me any, but what if they did? Would I be willing to risk losing their friendship to benefit myself?

Chapter Nine

When I got back to my room, Alyx wasn’t there. I wondered if she was working out. The night before when I’d arrived she’d just finished a workout.

Though I still had an hour until lights out, I was completely wiped out and decided to go to bed early. After getting ready for bed, I noticed a stack of blank food journal pages on my desk. Groaning with exhaustion, I decided to fill them out in the morning and instead crawled under my covers and was asleep the moment my head touched the pillow.