The Facility

By Chloe Kraft

You've been in the Facility almost as long as you can remember. But now there are murmurs of people organizing, people trying to find a way out, people trying to escape. You're afraid, because the Facility is all you've ever really known. And if you do manage to get out, what will happen to you? Can you even fit into normal society? And if you can, will you lose your friends forever?

Length: Novella (22,000 words)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chloe Kraft
• Release date: May 13, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458038791

Chloe Kraft

Chloe Kraft is sixteen years of age. She writes constantly and attends high school in her spare time. Currently, she lives in the Middle Of Nowhere with her mother, her siblings, and her dogs.

Book preview

THE FACILITY

by Chloe Kraft

Copyright 2011 by Chloe Kraft

Smashwords Edition

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Seraphim

Jari

Nick

Mihpares

Seraphim 2

Jari 2

Nick 2

Terra

Seraphim 3

Jari 3

Nick 3

Mihpares 2

Seraphim 4

Seraphim

There are murmurs. But then, there have always been murmurs.

These are new murmurs.

It is normal for you to murmur. You are prisoners, after all, or not prisoners like they claim, but you are not allowed to leave, so you are prisoners.

Prisoners murmur.

There has always been talk of revolting. Always. Since before you came here so many days weeks months years ago. You never murmur, not ever. You know it is futile.

But…notsofutileafterall, the new murmurs say. The general ones, broadcast so all can hear. You don’t know whether to believe them or not. You want to, but so much time and this has never happened before so it can’t be possible but the murmurs say it has happened. And Felix has been missing for three days (insolitary,themurmurssaid), so it could have happened.

It could have.

And if it hasn’t, why would there be new murmurs? People trying to organize a rebellion and secret meetings and uprisings.

All because Felix had asked to go early.

Well, no.

That wasn’t all he did…

After they laughed at him, hit him to the ground, his partner Terra (themurmurssay) says he stood back up and he wasn’t supposed to, but he hit them back and yelled at them and everyone heard, lots of people heard because the training rooms aren’t quiet or soundproof but Terra was the one who heard most of all. And when you heard the murmurs yesterday you were going to ask Terra at the meal hour, but she wasn’t there. And the place where you eat meals is so small, there are so few of you (onlyfiftyleft) that you would have seen her.

You would have.

Where was Terra? you wonder. You don’t know because there have been no murmurs about her other than the ones about Felix, which really aren’t about Terra at all.

But it makes you believe more, it does, because no one leaves the Facility once they are admitted as a patient unless they are dead and it was right after Felix and the timing was too perfect because the trainers and guards and scientists would want to keep what had happened with Felix quiet and it was Terra’s fault so they would want to punish her so it isn’t likely that she had suddenly just died of overwork.

But if she had, they wouldn’t tell you.

No one tells prisoners anything.

Not ever.

You don’t think Terra is dead, though, because psychics are too powerful and too valuable to waste. Even you, one of the weakest. Terra and Felix are two of the strongest and they won’t kill them, not if they can help it, which of course they can.

"It’stonightateight." A sudden murmur in your ear startles you. You look up with a mixture of surprise and shock. You sit alone at your metal lunch table, eating your food all by yourself. Today it is yellow. It’s all the same; you’re not even sure why they bother dyeing it. Yellow food tastes and is shaped just like grey food and green food and blue food and red food. But the point is that you do not engage in murmurs and you never have. Everyone knows that.

But…this time you are involved in the murmurs. At least a little. You don’t know Felix very well (can’tknowanyoneverywell,notinhere), but you like Terra. Even though everyone likes Terra, because she’s nice, nice to everyone, even you. And you also like to stay out of trouble. You like to keep your head down.

But you are curious, so you look around the completely silent cafeteria for the source of the murmur. Someone at a metal table identical to the one you are at (identicaltoallofthetables), someone you do not know, catches your eye and nods his head slightly. Not enough for anyone else to notice. You focus on him.

"Whatis?"

You can feel the relief in his answering murmur. He had been tense, worried, maybe that you would just ignore him. You can feel that. But unlike Terra or Felix, you cannot read thoughts or secret reasons behind feelings. You are only empathic. But unfortunately for you, they count empathy as a psychic ability.

"Themeeting."

Oh, the meeting, the one you’ve picked up vague general murmurs about over the past three days. The one about rebelling and Felix, the one where there will be out-loud talking which will be strange because you prisoners only talk to your captors because they can’t read thoughts which is why you prisoners murmur for secrets, or maybe they’ve got technology now to read murmurs from all the experiments they’ve performed on you and the others now so maybe it doesn’t even matter. You don’t know.

"Whereisit?" you ask tentatively. You don’t want to be in trouble, but you want to try and help Terra or at least find out what’s going on. Maybe others know more than you do, because you know that other people have made alliances or even friendships in here. You keep to yourself, just observing people from far off and judging and forming opinions without being judged in return. You are not part of the grapevine. So you are too often out of the loop, and you don’t like it but it’s too late to make friends now.

You wonder if the person you are talking to can feel your uncertainty, your ambivalence about your conversation. You know his name is Nick. But you do not know the extent of his psychic abilities. Can he read what you are thinking even now? Does he know your name is Seraphim? Does he know you were named after an angel because when you were born, your father believed you were a gift from Heaven? Does he know anything about you at all, either from just plucking it off the top of your head or from observing you?

"Inthegarden," Nick murmurs, not giving any sign that he has read your thoughts, and you nod. You know where the garden is. It is really not a garden: it is a large, enclosed greenhouse. But it is private and that is the point because you need privacy because your captors do not take kindly to escape