4. Room 203

When every question was answered we were picked up by our guardians. Mr. Carter was one of the first ones to pick me up. He smiled at me and asked me to follow him. I did what I was told. We had to walk quite the distance.  Not once had I opened my mouth. 

We had to take a couple of turns and walked in several corridors. You could not see clearly what was behind all those doors you would see from time to time. Nowhere were any plates with directions on them. For a short moment, I wondered how people could work in such a place. This place felt like a maze. I would get lost within a few seconds. 

When we had entered an elevator Mr. Carter asked me, "Are you okay, Alice? I know you have to process a lot of information. I'm happy to answer any questions." I didn't really want to talk but now everything had settled a bit I had some questions. "What are those tests the doctor talked about?"

Mr. Carter's face lit up and he responded, "Ah yes, the tests. We need to know everything about your body before conducting the procedure. So we need to make a couple of scans, do some blood and allergies tests, and going through your medical history. Also, a personality test will be taken, that way we can match you to the best suitable family for you."

I just nodded my head and again remained silent. When the doors opened we walked into a kind of waiting area with a desk. Behind it was a woman. "Good afternoon Miranda, how are you doing?" Mr. Carter asked the woman behind the desk.

She looked up, surprised, and answered, "Jim! Long time no see, I've been well, and you?"

"Good, good just doing my job, which leads me to my next question. Where do you have room for this lovely lady?" He asked while turning towards me.

"Let me see, what is your name sweetheart?" I looked up at the lady's face, it was warm and welcoming. "Alice Brown," I said lowly. She ticked onto her keyboard and looked at the screen in front of her. "Yes, I have a room for you, room number 203." She then took something and put it onto the counter, "Here is her wristband, and the rest of the things she needs are already prepared and waiting on her bed." Miranda said to Mr. Carter.

"Thank you, Miranda," and he took the wristband. He asked me to held up my wrist and so I did. It looked like the ones you get when you're in the hospital. It had my name, age, and a unique number on it.

I followed Mr. Carter through the long hallway. Almost at the end was my room. He stood in waiting by the door, to let me through first. I stepped into the room and looked around. It had four beds, two on each side. By the feet of the beds were bags, they all look the same. Next to each pillow was a little stuffed animal, all were different. Still looking around, I was startled by the voice of Mr. Carter. "If you look at the bags, you will find one with your number on it. The bag contains clothes, towels, and all the other necessities."

I walked up to the bags and found my number. My bed was on the left side next to the window. My view was quite depressing. It showed me an open yard where teenagers were hanging out. But it didn't look nice. It was all paved and another fence was around it, with a lot of security present. I wondered why.

You could see they have uniforms here. The boys wore light grey uniforms and girls light green. The uniforms were kind of prison uniforms, but they also reminded me of something you would wear in a hospital.

"I'll leave you, so you can get changed. When I come back I expect you to be changed and have your old clothes folded."

"Why do we need to wear this?" I asked while pointing at the uniform.

"We want you to completely disconnect with your old life so the clothes you wore there need to go," he explained. I didn't want to leave my hoodie as it was one of Alexander's but I guess I don't have a choice. He went away and I changed. Shortly after he came back and took the clothes from me.

"Try to settle in a bit, more will come this way soon. I'll see you again. Have a nice day." I just nodded my head and watched how he left the room. I sat down on the bed, took my stuffed animal in my hands, and sighed.

How will I survive this?