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Even at the young age of five, the white walls were suffocating. It seemed like no matter where I went, with the exception of one rainbow-walled room, that was all that I was surrounded by. Even the orderlies that came every day stayed in their crisp white uniforms that never changed. I never understood why they wouldn't allow for anything else, but I was never one to question things back when I was that vulnerable
Looking back, the day it happened seemed like any other, at least at first. I had risen at the same time as the others and was washed and dressed before being led into the rainbow room. The only difference today was, in place of the blonde overseer that had been with us practically since birth, a brunette man fidgeting in a uniform that was slightly more wrinkled than it should've been. He was already showing much more emotion than I had ever seen one of them do as his frown became a wide grin upon my arrival. I'll never know why it was me, sitting on the floor against the wall that caused his change, but that was the moment that the day went from ordinary to, well, something else.
“Hello.” Crouching down close to the floor, he met me at eye level. I only waved back, too nervous at a new face to actually reply, but he didn't seem to be discouraged.
“You're number fifteen correct?”
“Yes.” The tattoo that had always been on my wrist showed as much.
“Perfect. I'm here to take you to do some tests today, okay?”
“But Papa is the only one who does that.” His expression seemed to dampen, though it peeked right up when I continued. “Are you taking me to Papa?”
“I am,” He says. Standing up from his crouch, he reaches out a hand for me to take, not letting go once I was next to him. “Now we should get going before they miss us.”
I was back in the white halls, this time behind the man. I didn't question where we were going, but I couldn't help but be confused. Every time I was taken out for as long as I could remember we always went the same way. But this time? This time we were taking turns into hallways that I had never been around. It wasn't until the red lights flashed and the alarms sounded that I knew something was very, very wrong.
At the first flash, the man picked me up, and by the time the alarm had started, he was already rushing down flight after flight of stairs until there were no more to pass. Taking us into a room filled with pipes and tanks, he finds the one he was searching for and finishes his sprint just in front. By the time the man set me down I was sobbing. I didn't know who he was or why we were running. The only thing I knew was that I wanted to run back upstairs to my papa. The strange man took me into his arms, trying to calm my distress as he wipes at the stream of tears, before settling me with a look that was much more serious than before.
“I need you to listen to me young lady,” He said once I had quieted down enough for him to speak. “I'm going to need you to go into that pipe for a bit alright? You stay there and then you crawl to the other side and run until you find someone nice and not in white alri-.”
I didn't get a chance to respond. Instead, the door slammed open, and footsteps piled in as he hid me deep enough in the pipe so that I couldn't be seen, getting just far enough away that no one would dare look inside of it. I don't know why I didn't shout where I was to the men in white, or why I chose to listen to the man that scared me more that the shock collar punishment I was sure to get, but I was glad I did. Not even a moment later they had slammed the nice man to the ground, red flying through the air and so many things pointed in his direction. It was then that I decided to listen to him, crawling deeper into the pipe as a loud boom echoed around me. I didn't know where I was headed, but I just kept moving and didn't stop until I had my first taste of the forest floor, running all the way into a small town by the name of Hawkins.