Omega Sanction

Chapter Twelve

The noise woke Terri Dublowski out of a troubled sleep. The strip of lighting in the center of the ceiling was always on, giving her no idea of what time of day it was. She didn't move, but lay still trying to identify the noise. Her first thought was that it was a cat. Her neighbor at Patch Barracks had had one, a fat, hairy, ugly thing that had always been a nuisance.

She opened her eyes, still not moving. Her cubicle was ten by ten, with cinder-block walls painted off-white. A toilet and sink were in one corner. The bed was simply a mattress on a spring frame, with a rough wool blanket that she had wrapped tight around her.

Terri sat up, swinging her feet down to the smooth floor. The concrete was warm against her bare feet, a fact that had surprised her when she first felt it. How long ago that was now, she had no idea.

She didn't think her meals even came on a schedule, as there seemed to be long time periods where there was no food, then two or three closely delivered trays under her door. The man who delivered them wore khaki, was dark-skinned and spoke not a word. She had only seen him once. When she had opened the top slot to check when she heard him come one time, he had slammed her food tray against the slot, spraying her with food. She never opened the slot again when she heard someone out there.

Each time the sound of the steel door at the end of the corridor echoed down the hallway she tensed, afraid that she would be taken out again, but as time passed she wished for something to happen.

The low mewling sound came again, muted by the steel door. Terri walked over to the door and knelt next to it. "Hello?"

"It's Mary," the voice she recognized as Leslie's reached her. "I think she's losing it."

"Mary?" Terri called. "Mary?"

The pitch of the cry went higher, the sound echoing down the corridor.

"Mary!" Terri pressed her mouth against the slot. "You have to get control of yourself."

The cry was now a scream, undulating. It went on for almost a minute, then stopped. Then it began again.

"Mary!" Terri pressed against the steel door. "Please, Mary. You have to stop."

"They did something to us," Leslie said.

"What do you mean?" Terri asked.

"Didn't they take you?" Leslie asked.

"Take me?" Terri said. "Where?"

"To the room. Like an operating room. That's all I remember, until I was back in here. They cut me. In my side. There's stitches there."

"What did they do?" Terri asked.

"I don't know. I'm sore and I hurt."

"Me too," Cathy Walker chimed in. "They cut me on my right side."

"Why?" Terri asked.

"I don't know," Leslie said. "Maybe they took something out. Maybe they stole a kidney! I don't know."

"There's something in there," Cathy said. "I can feel it. They put something in me. Something hard. Can't you feel it?"

"I don't want to open the scar," Leslie said. "I don't know."

"Mary," Terri called. "Mary, did they cut you? Did they put something in you?"

There was no answer, only the cries. This went on for almost five minutes, the other girls, Leslie and Cathy, joining in, exhorting Mary to stop, but to no avail.

"Mary!" Terri yelled. "Talk to us, please!"

Mary laughed, a wild echoing sound. "They did it! They put it in me! But I got it out. I got it out!"

"What was it?"

Mary's voice dropped. "But I'm bleeding." She laughed again. "I got it out! I got it out!" She began screeching incoherently.

The sound of the door opening at the end of the corridor cut off their voices abruptly. Terri listened to the footsteps — booted feet — moving down the corridor. A cell door swung open. Mary's keening grew louder.

A voice cursed in a language Terri couldn't recognize. The boots came back down the hallway, Mary's voice with them.

"Leave her alone!" Terri screamed.

Both sounds were cut off as the hallway door slammed shut. Terri slumped down onto the floor of her cell.