Chapter 8: Brief Tour

Alexis gets his first, in-depth look at the operations within the Facility.

Alexis sat beside Jasper and continued to reassure him that he didn’t blame him for his situation. Despite that, the siren refused to let the blame slide off of him, even after Alexis told him he had no other choice. They had used Dante as a tool to get his brother to talk. When the NHSF agents had threatened to throw Dante into the maximum security facility, he spilled everything he knew. The maximum security facilities were intended for A-ranked “monsters” which posed the biggest threat to humans. In those facilities, those who stayed there never saw the light of day again, and that terrified all of them. 

“You’d better watch how you act in here, Alex,” warned Jasper, his expression dark. “They’re probably itching to throw you in with the so-called ‘dangerous’ nonhumans.”

“Yeah, I know,” Alexis said, frowning. “They warned me earlier.”

“Then you gotta be extra careful, ‘cause these guys will call in all sorts of s**t, even if you’ve done nothin’ wrong.”

Alexis shook his head and frowned, then looked pointedly at the manilla envelope and small box which sat on top of his “uniform” on his cot. 

“That,” remarked Jasper, pulling a similar envelope from under his pillow, “is your ‘welcome package.’ ‘Cause, y’know, they want you to feel so welcome here in paradise. Has basic necessities: toothbrush, comb, soap, etcetera.” He opened the envelope and pulled out some papers, passing them to Alexis for him to look over. “I’ve only skimmed most of it, but it pretty much summarizes to say that we’re lucky they don’t kill us outright for being, y’know, not human.”

“They hate us so much already, do they?” Alexis said, solemn. 

“I dunno, but from what some of the others here have said, this s**t’s been going on for much longer than they let on,” Jasper said, keeping his voice low. “It’s like… some underground, shadow organization kind of deal. There are people who’ve been here for years, man. Or, well, not here here, but they’ve gone from place to place…or so I’ve heard.”

“What do you mean?” Alexis looked up from the introductory page he’d been reading.

“Man, this�"this right here�"is for, y’know, screening ’n’ junk. They take nonhumans from all over the States and bring us here so they can find out who’s dangerous and who’s not.” Jasper ran a hand over and around his head, expression tired. “According to these papers, if you’re in certain ‘classes,’ like Class F, G, or H, then you’re probably safe to let go. Pretty obvious that they aren’t gonna be trouble, ‘cause those classes are mostly looks, no abilities. The other ones, though, they gotta test for a long time…some of them, well, they are probably never getting out of this s**t-shack. If you’re Class A, B, or C, you’re pretty much screwed. That means they think you’re gonna be a threat, and then you’re locked up in a high-security joint and are in there for life�"whether  you’ve done anything wrong or not.”

Alexis dropped the papers and sat stock-still on the edge of the cot, his eyes fixed forward and wide in terror. Jasper glanced from the scattered papers to his friend whose lips went taut and limbs quivered.

“A-Alexis, what’s wrong?” the siren asked, his hand meeting the harpy hybrid’s shoulder.

“General Marx…he kept calling me dangerous,” Alexis said, shaking. “What if they sort me and I’m a class A? I�"I don’t want to stay here.”

Jasper stared at Alexis, wide-eyed.

“N-No, man; there’s no way you’re like that�"you aren’t dangerous. They don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Alexis crossed his arms close to his body and opened his mouth to speak, but a loud bell sounded down the hall and silenced him.

“C’mon, that’s the bell for lunch. They don’t like it when we’re late.” Jasper moved to the edge of his cot and sighed. “Just… don’t think too much about it right now.”

Alexis slowly followed Jasper to his feet and walked with him to the door. The siren glanced out the small window and pulled it in. The two walked down the hall, and as they did so, more nonhumans joined them. The harpy hybrid’s eyes moved back and forth from each of the nonhumans around him. Some of them looked back at him, sometimes with a smile or small wave, sometimes with unease. Others only stared blankly ahead, their shoulders slouched and expressions down. Behind and ahead of them guards watched each of them.

Many of the nonhumans were obvious, and Alexis wondered how they’d hidden from humans for long. Some seemed too human to need to be there, but they likely hid their abilities. He had an easy time identifying some nonhumans, but others, he’d never seen anything like them. The ones that appeared completely human, he could only guess at. Jasper spoke to a couple of them, though not more than a few words as they neared the end of the long hall and towards a large set of swinging doors.

Alexis noticed the same barcode-like tattoos on the sides of each nonhuman’s head. He wanted to ask Jasper about it, but the siren was having a conversation with a vampire who seemed curious about Alexis. He decided he would ask later.

The group from their corridor entered a large, open cafeteria-style room. Other doors which circled around it opened and flooded the room with more nonhumans than Alexis had ever seen. The lower half�"his half�"of the doors held the men’s quarters while the women’s quarters must have made up the upper half. He noticed as more flooded the enormous room, the nonhumans mixed a little differently than in his wing. Nonhumans who looked like average humans came from a few doors, and others had nonhumans who appeared less and less like pure humans. 

The age groups also varied, as Alexis noticed teenagers and children leaving a section. The population consisted predominantly of young adults or middle-aged nonhumans. Alexis wondered if that had to do with experience levels. Overall, about two hundred individuals joined in the dining hall. The guards ringed the room in high perches and glass boxes near the exits. A line formed on one wall, where cafeteria workers dished plates with various foods behind glass panels. 

Jasper nudged Alexis, and the two of them followed their group to the end of the line. While they waited in line, Alexis looked over and around the heads of other nonhumans, trying to find Aisling. He wanted to help his friends patch things up, despite how stubborn the kitsune could be.

After receiving their trays�"containing food which looked only somewhat edible�"their group sat down on a long table. With so many people, Alexis hadn’t been able to find Aisling in the crowds. He sat between Jasper and a pointy-eared nonhuman whose pointed incisors poked out of his mouth. The conversations around them varied between recollections of life out of the facility and those who focused on how much they hated it.

“I know you were looking for Aisling, but we can’t mix until we’re let out of here. There’s a courtyard where we can go outside for a bit,” Jasper said quietly, shoving half of a biscuit in his mouth. “You can probably find her there, but she’s not gonna talk to me.”

“We’ll see about that.”