The Fabulous Killjoys
“Please stare into the center of the moving shape. I’m so happy to be alive. Everything is going to be fine. Did I take my medication today?”
I stared into the network of spinning circles that rotated before my eyes. As usual, I felt my mind begin to slow down, senses dampened by the words of the soothing voice that pulsated out of the speakers surrounding me. I was almost asleep as the video finished with its almost mocking last line: “Keep working hard. Goodbye.” Two women clad in gray jumpsuits entered the square room and escorted me out and into the long white hallway containing the doorways to hundreds of identical rooms. At exactly the same time, exactly 199 other inmates and escorts exited their rooms and began the Morning March. Numbly, I joined along.
The march took us to Hall 001. The doors slid open without a hitch, and I was ushered in with everyone else. My escorts sat me down in Seat 55. Metal cuffs encircled my legs and my torso, securing me to the chair. With perfect precision, square openings in the tables sprouted plates with cutlery and “food” for every inmate. And pills. The pills are the most important part. I don't know exactly how they work, but the screw with your mind. They make you calm and submissive. I used to fight the wardens when they tried to feed them to me, but recently, I decided that If I was going to be cowed, then I would be cowed all the way.
"Okay 55, your turn."
Open goes my mouth, in go the pills, down goes the water-substitute, and into quicksand my thoughts run. Part two of my daily sedation completed. All around me, the other inmates have been fed their 'medicine' and are methodically consuming their, um, food. I'm not sure exactly what it is that pops up on our plates each day, but it harbors our calories and vitamins, so I eat them. Once all the other inmates and I done, the restraints retract and I'm lead out of Hall 001 and back into the corridor behind the kids from Seats 1 to 54. As we march to our work stations, the next 200 inmates are being lead into Hall 002. I've learned not to look at the passing groups. Any attempt at contact with another inmate has only lead to punishment. And being punished is the worst thing that can happen to you at Battery City Juvenile Detention Center 097. The first time, they just take you back to your Correction Chamber and replay the hypnotic video. The second time, you get hypnosis and pills. Third, they put you in a Restrainer (much like the Hall Seats, but with more straps), play the hypnotic video on a loop, and give you an extra serving of pills every day for the next twenty days.
“Please stare into the center of the moving shape. I’m so happy to be alive. Everything is going to be fine. Did I take my medication today?”
I stared into the network of spinning circles that rotated before my eyes. As usual, I felt my mind begin to slow down, senses dampened by the words of the soothing voice that pulsated out of the speakers surrounding me. I was almost asleep as the video finished with its almost mocking last line: “Keep working hard. Goodbye.” Two women clad in gray jumpsuits entered the square room and escorted me out and into the long white hallway containing the doorways to hundreds of identical rooms. At exactly the same time, exactly 199 other inmates and escorts exited their rooms and began the Morning March. Numbly, I joined along.
The march took us to Hall 001. The doors slid open without a hitch, and I was ushered in with everyone else. My escorts sat me down in Seat 55. Metal cuffs encircled my legs and my torso, securing me to the chair. With perfect precision, square openings in the tables sprouted plates with cutlery and “food” for every inmate. And pills. The pills are the most important part. I don't know exactly how they work, but the screw with your mind. They make you calm and submissive. I used to fight the wardens when they tried to feed them to me, but recently, I decided that If I was going to be cowed, then I would be cowed all the way.
"Okay 55, your turn."
Open goes my mouth, in go the pills, down goes the water-substitute, and into quicksand my thoughts run. Part two of my daily sedation completed. All around me, the other inmates have been fed their 'medicine' and are methodically consuming their, um, food. I'm not sure exactly what it is that pops up on our plates each day, but it harbors our calories and vitamins, so I eat them. Once all the other inmates and I done, the restraints retract and I'm lead out of Hall 001 and back into the corridor behind the kids from Seats 1 to 54. As we march to our work stations, the next 200 inmates are being lead into Hall 002. I've learned not to look at the passing groups. Any attempt at contact with another inmate has only lead to punishment. And being punished is the worst thing that can happen to you at Battery City Juvenile Detention Center 097. The first time, they just take you back to your Correction Chamber and replay the hypnotic video. The second time, you get hypnosis and pills. Third, they put you in a Restrainer (much like the Hall Seats, but with more straps), play the hypnotic video on a loop, and give you an extra serving of pills every day for the next twenty days.
