Island Girls

by Rodzil LaBraun

  "Could be," I said casually, even though it was a legitimate possibility. We chatted a little more as I ate my meal. Mostly about the food and the design of our quarters. Nancy explained that the dishwasher was embedded in the countertop. When you attempted to place your food dish there the door would slip open to reveal a space underneath big enough for your container. Once you pull your hand away it closes. It wouldn't open again without the proximity of another dish. When the door slid silently out of the way, the space was empty again. There was no sign of the previous container.

  Just as I was about to open my mouth and announce that I was ready for a shower, the door to the outside slid quickly into the ground. There was no warning. No swoosh. It just went bye-bye without a sound. If I had been looking the other way, I would not have been able to confirm that it actually disappeared into the floor.

  "Oh, I guess I'll have a look outside before my shower, in case something changed."

  "It is probably the same as yesterday," Nancy told me. "I can check while you get your shower, if you want."

  I gave Nancy a good hard look. She just said something that was a red flag for me, like she didn't want me to go outside just yet. Why? She also didn't seem too eager to go herself. It was more like she wanted me to go through with the plan to wash up. Was she up to something? Could she really be someone other than she says? Or, maybe I'm a little stinky.

  "I'll take a quick look first," I declared. "Would you like to join me?"

  "Sure, why not?"

  I stepped out the door into the sand. Everything looked, smelled and felt exactly the same as the day before. The sand was comfortably warm, as was the air. The sun was bright. The tiny lapping waves could have been an audio recording if I wasn't seeing them with my own eyes. Or, at least I thought that I was.

  "Why don't we have any shoes?" Nancy asked from behind me. I was just about to go place my feet in the water to make sure that it wasn't an optical illusion. Her question was a good one. They provided us with clothes, even socks, but no shoes. Or, maybe she was trying to distract me.

  "I don't know," I replied, chuckling to myself that it was my turn to play ignorant. I walked toward the beach intent on feeling that cool water on my feet. This place was too unreal for me to just take everything for granted.

  Nancy was following me at a distance. I made sure to look around curiously as I went, just in case she planned on sneaking up from behind me. Isn't that what someone would do if I was getting too close to discovering something important?

  "I don't know what all is in that water," she said to my back. She was getting me even more suspicious now. What is it that she is trying to keep me from finding out?

  I stepped onto the slightly darker sand to find it indeed wet. In fact, it felt against the bottom of my feet and between my toes exactly as it looked. Then the gentle wave washed in, rising up over my ankle. The water was real, alright. I took a few more steps.

  "I saw fish in there yesterday," Nancy told me as she stepped onto the pier. "There could be piranhas, snakes, or electric eels for all I know."

  I had fully expected that something new and useful was going to be revealed. Nancy's banter practically led me to that conclusion on its own. Instead, I was disappointed that it wasn't the case. Everything was as it seemed. The water was a little warm yet refreshing. Just like water is. We must be in a tropical location or in the middle of summer. And, sure enough, I spotted a few fish out a little deeper. Nancy wasn't hiding anything after all.

  "Have you put your feet in the water?" I asked her. It sounded like a weird question coming out of my mouth. I just got the idea that maybe Nancy was an android. Stupid, I know, but something crazy was going on. I might as well examine all possibilities.

  "Yeah, I did yesterday. That's when I saw the fish. The water looks so clear that I hadn't considered what might be in it. That's when I went to get a shower."

  "About the shoes," I said. "I would assume that the administrators of this facility have determined that we don't need any shoes. The floor is soft and warm. Bare feet are much better for sand. The pier might be a splinter hazard, though."

  "It's not real," Nancy replied. At first, I didn't realize what she was talking about. Was she finally ready to reveal the truth about our situation? No. When I stepped up onto the pier I understood. It wasn't made of real wood. The texture was exactly the same as the walls in the barracks.

  I looked around at our island then. There were at least twenty palm trees visible. Were they real? They were growing at different angles, convincingly. I didn't see any coconuts, though. There were some smaller trees and bushes scattered around as well. Upon closer inspection I came to the conclusion that they were not fabricated after all.

  So far, the only things that were not what they appeared to be were the obviously man-made constructions. The barracks, the pier. It was just a different technology than what I was used to. There may be places like this close to where I live, at the residences of filthy rich people, and I wouldn't even know it. Once again, I was barking up the wrong tree.

  I circled the barracks to see what else was within our reach. As Nancy had claimed yesterday, there was an exercise area, and table, and a hammock. A wall roughly twenty feet high separated us from the rest of the land. We could be on an island or the shore of a mainland. It was hard to tell with our limited exposure.

  The smooth tan barrier rose straight up and ended in the sky with a clean edge. There was nothing on top. Two more walls ran from the main wall way out into the water. It was far enough to discourage someone from trying to swim around it, assuming the water was too deep to walk it.

  Where the walls joined the builders had put round towers. Judging by the curve on our side I would estimate that they were maybe fifteen to twenty in diameter. About ten feet from the ground the surface of the towers were dark gray. Windows, it seemed. We were being watched. Well, that was no surprise.

  The table had a bench on each side, suitable for seating four people at a time. That matched the barracks design. Perhaps we should be expecting more residents? Upon contact I found the material to be the same as the building and the pier.

  The hammock could hold two adults at a time, but only if they were fine with touching. The exercise area was mostly free weights and pulley systems. There was no treadmill or stationary bike. And that was pretty much it. There wasn't much to do.

  "If you aren't going to take a shower, I'm going to," Nancy explained. She was tired of waiting on me. She had seen all this before. Her first day of exploring satisfied her curiosity and it was now easy to see why. I told her to go ahead.

  When it was my turn, I was surprised to see how nice the shower stall was. Shelves and a seat were embedded into the wall. The water came directly from the ceiling instead of a shower head. The center twenty inches wide created a rain like experience. Though soft to the touch, soap and dirt rinsed away very quickly. The water turned on and off automatically as you stepped in or out.

  I had to finally conclude that we were indeed in a prison. Though simple in design, it was quite comfortable. The question was, what was our crime? If we are guilty of a major infraction, why were we being treated so nicely?

  Nancy and I talked some more after changing our clothes. We both put on the next outfit in the drawer which were a variation of the previous. Still keeping with the orange and black color scheme. We talked about our lives before coming here, our friends and families. And our jobs.

  Nancy was a secretary for a medical firm executive in Dallas Texas. She had been married once, but no children. She divorced her husband after three years, though they separated after just 8 months of being married. She claims that he turned out to be more of a selfish, inconsiderate asshole than she realized.

  At age thirty-four, Nancy still had some youth to her. She exercised daily, but not fanatically. She was a member of a few clubs and had dozens of friends, including two close friends, Mary and Cindy. They were also secretaries at the same company.


  The scar on her leg had come from a rafting accident with her husband. His lack of concern for her welfare during that incident was an early clue that the marriage wasn't going to work out. His flirting with the twenty-year old raft guide didn't help either.

  Of all the personalities that I could have been locked up with, I was fortunate that I got Nancy. She was pleasant to be around. She was pretty, too. The more she smiled and laughed the prettier that she got.

  I kept checking the refrigerator to see if our next meal had arrived yet, but it had not. We weren't hungry yet. I was just trying to figure out how they got it in there. I happened to be standing on the beach looking at the tall wall behind the barracks when the door slid up into place, sealing us out of our quarters. So, that was how it was done.

  At a time while we are both outside, they would enter the building from below. That must be how they got me in there, too, without Nancy noticing. That raised two immediate questions for me. One, would I be about to use that same passageway to go down below and escape this place? Two, are they in the process of bringing us another roommate right now?

  I stood close to the entrance to our barracks anticipating the answers to both of those questions. I just needed to wait for the door to rescind. While I was waiting, a new noise caught my attention. A horn, almost like an air raid alarm, sounded on the other side of the building. It was coming from the main wall or the towers. It ceased after six repetitions.

  Running around to check out the source, I was shocked to see a narrow section of the twenty-foot tall wall receding into the ground. It was just like our barracks door. Only twenty feet tall and about six feet wide. Through that gap I saw more sand, and a table. It was in the middle of a walled in section that was a hundred feet or more square. A similar door did the same thing on the far side.

  The table in the center was square with four chairs on each side. These were of a bulkier construction, made to look like log furniture, though I seriously doubted that it was. On the far wall on each side of the opposite door were activity sections. As I walked into the space, I then realized that all four corners of the square area had sports and games available. This was our recreation center, apparently.

  Nancy followed me hesitantly. I was used to that, always being the first guy to walk into the unknown. It happened in the military, too. Fortunately, I was also super observant.

  There was a rock-climbing wall, of sorts. Handholds and footholds covered a section of the plain sandy colored wall. There appeared to be a fence type barrier above it to keep you from climbing over and out. Another section had hoops and balls, rings and pegs. Hand-eye coordination stuff. There was a flat grassy section in a corner with a few soccer balls. A small goal had been built against wall, but not through it. The final corner had an obstacle course with ramps and rope nets.

  As my mind processed my surroundings I began to wonder about a few things. Were we now receiving recreation time? Why was the table built to seat sixteen people? And where did the door on the far side go?

  I started jogging toward the other doorway as Nancy called out from behind me. Evidently, she was not going to follow me just yet. It was only natural to think that there was an escape opportunity there. But I knew better. No one would build this place so incredibly well, with extensive security measures, just to accidentally allow me to wander out the exit.

  I stopped in the middle when I recognized the building on the other side of the doorway. It was another barracks. Only that one had a blue circle instead of an orange one like ours. Just then, a shirtless man stepped into the recreation arena from that side. He appeared to be wet. Maybe he was in the shower when he heard the horn and only took the time to put on some shorts. That would mean that his barracks was not currently sealed off, though.

  He gave me a hesitant wave. I did not return it. I was still completely in recon mode. The man was athletic looking, but not as muscle bound as me. He had the square jaw line that many women found attractive and carried himself with some confidence as he slowly approached. His shorts were black with blue striping.

  We were still thirty feet apart when another figure appeared behind him. A woman. She was wearing solid black shorts and blue t-shirt with black striping. That was their theme colors, then. They lived in the blue cell, us in the orange. The woman was petite and athletic looking as well. Both of these newcomers were younger than us.

  "Hi," the man said as he continued forward. "I'm Zach."

  "Joah," I replied.

  "Joah?" he asked. I got that a lot. People often thought that they misheard me when I told them my name. Then again, he might be thinking that I'm speaking another language since the word is totally foreign to him.

  "Yeah, Joah," I replied as I raised my hand in a symbol of 'stop' more so than a wave. He took my hint and stayed ten feet away. "This is Nancy," I gestured behind me as I heard my roommate approach in the sand.

  "Is it just the two of you?" he asked. I nodded. "Mine is named Lin," he gestured to the matching woman from his barracks. It was interesting that he called the woman his and assumed that Nancy belonged to me. They must have a different kind of dynamic at their barracks. Or, more likely, this guy had a tendency to sound like a sexist asshole.

  Lin did not approach as fast as Nancy did. But when she did, I was almost taken by surprise. She was utterly beautiful. Of Asian descent, she had a beautiful young face and a slender toned body. Her muscles were visible but not bulging. We took a moment for everyone to say hello to each other.

  "Were you in the shower?" Nancy asked Zach. That's when I noticed a little flirtatious blush on her face. I found it more comical than insulting.

  "No, I was swimming," he replied.

  "Oh my God," Nancy replied. "I hope there aren't any sharks out there."

  "Me, too," Zach replied with an ornery grin. He just noticed that she was flirting.

  We sat down at the table, because it seemed like the natural thing to do. It was right there, like it was specifically designed for this meeting. Only for a lot more people. We compared our living arrangements and found them to be identical, including the beach. We were apparently on an island or a very narrow peninsula. I expected our places to be the same but small talk was a quick way to learn people. And I was intent on understanding the other people in this prison as well as I possibly could.

  They had the same set of circles embedded under the skin of their forearms. Zach told us how he tried to remove them. When Nancy asked him how that went, he revealed something new. Something very important. He was punished for trying to remove the implants. It was the same way as when he refused to return to his barracks the previous night. Pain. I remembered hearing him scream.

  What caused the pain? He didn't know. He just received instant pain throughout his entire body for a very brief instance. No one appeared to be aiming a weapon at him. Our captors evidently had a foolproof way of keeping us in line.

  CHAPTER FOUR:

  "So, what do we do now?" Lin asked after a pause in the conversation. She had a very pretty round face with sexy large eyes. Her straight black hair was pulled back over her ears and ended below her shoulders.

  Lin was only twenty-one years old. She had just started her job as a Phlebotomist when she came down with a very bad case of the flu. She fell asleep in the emergency room and woke up here. It was eerily similar to my situation.

  Zach was young, too. Only twenty-two years old. His age explained why some of the stupid shit came out of his mouth. But I had the feeling that the guy just wasn't too bright to begin with. He never bothered to go back and retrieve his shirt either. Being bare chested in front of women was probably a routine thing for him. He was fit, for sure. But not near as bulked up as me. I was halfway tempted to rip off my shirt and challenge him to a bouncing man-titty contest. Though I would win easily, that sort of action did not match up with my agenda.

  Zach had been arrested at a block party in Los Angeles. Things got out of hand when some of his friends started fighting the
cops. He came to their aid, like a stupid friend should, but doesn't remember anything after that. Always an underachiever, my words not his, he worked as a caddie and country club errand boy.

  "I guess we play some games," Zach replied. "Apparently, that is why they provided this place."

  "Isn't anyone curious why they set up this arena for us?" I asked.

  "Not really," Zach answered first. "This place is much nicer than anywhere that I have ever lived. As long as they keep feeding me and surrounding me with beautiful women, I'm not going to complain anytime soon." He gave Nancy a wink with that last statement.

  "I guess," Nancy blushed again. "I mean, there is nothing that we can do but wait for someone to show up and tell us what is going on."

  "I'm curious," Lin replied. She immediately went to the top of the intelligence chart that I was keeping mentally. "I understand that they want to keep us occupied. Exercise and games will go a long way to accomplish that in a prison. But I don't even know why I am even here. I've never committed a crime in my life."