“And, we’re here,” Moreno said.

The door was propped open and Jericho could see how disappointing the room was before he even entered. Once inside, his disappointment only further cemented. There was nothing special about his new room. It was similar to his previous prison cell apart from a few extra beds and the lack of physical bars keeping the occupants in. Two bunk beds were pressed against the walls on opposite sides of the room. When Jericho was told he would be getting a new room, he did not expect to be sharing it with anyone. There was hardly any space to move around, and Jericho realized the room was merely a place for him to sleep in.

“Meet your new roommates,” Moreno said. “Everyone, meet Jericho!”

Nobody turned to acknowledge Jericho or Moreno. The two that were in the room were self-absorbed on a tablet and a hand-held video game system.

Moreno cleared her throat. “I can easily take those away from you two.”

“So, do it,” The girl said. She sat on one of the bottom bunks.

“I can give Jericho the bottom bunk, and make you both sleep on the top bunks.”

“What?” The guy in the opposite bottom bunk turned his head, but the rest of his body remained in place, his hands still fidgeted with buttons on the tablet. “Why am I involved in this? There’s no point in having an empty bottom bunk. Don’t be petty.”

“I am not petty. What is petty is you two not saying hello to Jericho.” Moreno raised her voice. “Don’t make me tell you again.”

“Hello, Jericho,” the guy said. The words unnaturally left his mouth. “My name is Isaac. Nice to meet you!”

“Hey, Jer,” the girl said flatly. “I’m Zeta.”

Jericho nodded awkwardly. He was not wanted here and he at least hoped they were as this reserved when they went to bed. Annoying roommates would make his situation worse than it already was.

“Your greetings need improvement, but you two must be tired, so I’ll let it slide.” She guided Jericho from the shoulder. “Okay, let’s go.”

Jericho continued his tour of the dormitory. There were five other rooms, although only a few were inhabited. Jericho was unsure whether he felt better having fewer people around. Jericho looked around for cameras, but could not see any. If they had surveillance, then it was more discreet than an oblivious camera positioned at his face. He also had to consider the possibility that his voice was being recorded, but he usually spoke with meaning, so he did not worry about that as much. One thing Jericho did notice were the guards. He took note of everyone and recorded their appearances, stations, and routes into his head.

Moreno brought him to the bathrooms. There was a guard posted outside the three bathrooms. The guard sat on a stool outside and nodded to Jericho and Moreno as they entered the Men’s bathroom.

“Usually, I wouldn’t be allowed in here, but I think we can make an exception.”

“Is showing me the bathroom necessary?” He said.

“Well, it beats working,” she said.

“I thought you were busy.”

“I am, but mindlessly telling you about things you can easily figure out on your own is better,” she said. She pointed to a showerhead. “I bet you’ve seen this before. That’s right. You take showers here. And that over there is a sink!”

A new guard entered the bathroom, encircled the bathroom’s perimeter, and left.

“Is that normal?” Jericho said.

She said, “Oh, the bathroom is just one of their many routes, but you don’t need to mind the guards. They come and go and they tend to keep to themselves. All you have to do is follow the rules, don’t get into unnecessary trouble and you should be fine. Do keep in mind that they have the authority to kill and their decision is under their discretion, so I wouldn’t be doing anything dumb. You hear me?”

Jericho squeezed his eyes then reopened them. This lady literally described a lance to Jericho and he wanted to scream. In the momentary black abyss he created by shutting his eyelids tight, he came up with a question. “I hear you, loud and clear, but what if I wanna, ya know, do my thing? Do I get any privacy here?”

“What?” she said. She repeated herself when she figured out what Jericho meant. “Oh. I don’t know. Figure it out. I’m sure you had enough practice keeping that away from your parents. It shouldn’t be any different here.”

“Pretty hard when there are people around,” he said. “Hey, you mentioned I can have any woman I want? How does that work? Is it mutual or are they paid? Is it like a conjugal visit?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I guess it’ll be easy getting my business done by myself, but what happens when I meet that girl that you promised me? I don’t really want to do that in front of my two enthusiastic roommates.”

“What are these weird questions? First, we need to see results, then you can worry about those types of things.”

“I still need my alone time,” he said.

“If you’re worried about cameras or mics, then rest assured, we don’t have those since we have the guards. The only surveillance we have are at the entrances or exits but don’t get the idea you can create an escape route. These guards have the power to keep you in here and let me clarify and remind you that these guards will kill you mercilessly. It’s not worth getting killed when we’re taking care of you.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Jericho stored the information away and they continued the tour.

Jericho was shown a recreation room. They passed by since they were running low on time, which was Jericho’s fault according to Moreno, but she described the room as they viewed it through a transparent glass. It had the essentials such as a television, a ping-pong and pool table, a mini-library, even a kitchen with electric stoves for cooking one’s own meals. The room had a couple of occupants. One was reading, while another was on one of the few PCs. Jericho asked about the internet, and she told him that it was heavily moderated and restricted. At least the promised video game systems were there.

Jericho was then shown a dining hall. The fancy meal that he was promised was not a pipe dream, after all, and he was allowed to pick one. Although, he did assume he would be given a special meal every meal, but she said they did not have the budget for one every meal. When she corrected herself earlier telling him that he could have any meal every day, it only meant having a fancy meal earlier in the day for lunch or breakfast. She explained that the head cook changed their hours and needed to leave before dinner and that she had forgotten. “I don’t like to lie about what we provide,” she said.

“This place is just a glorified hostel,” Jericho said.

“Do hostels have this?”

Moreno brought Jericho to a field house. Four basketball hoops were raised to the ceiling. A track encircled the main floor that could be easily substituted for any sport. He could smell the scent of chlorine in the distance.

“Are you turning us into perfect athletes?” Jericho said.

“The field house can be used for recreational purposes,” she said. “But, you do most of your training here. There are separate rooms where they perform physical and mental exams. I’m not sure when the doctor will be back, some of your pretests will have to be done another time.”

There were more people here than any other part of the facility. A few of the other prisoners eyed down Jericho as if he were prey. From the distance they looked to be around his age, perhaps younger. Despite that, he looked away before he made eye contact.

“That’s your competition,” she said.

“Huh?”

She looked at her watch. “Looks like I’ve run out of time to waste. Feel free to take a walk around. The guards will tell you if you’re going off-limits, so you don’t need to worry about going to the wrong place. Go talk to someone here if you have any other questions, although you’ll probably have a better time asking your roommates.”

Jericho decided to circle back to his roommates. His avoidance of eye contact with the other prisoner already outed him as a weak competitor.

He entered the room hoping to make eye contact with either of his roommates, but both were fixated on their devices. He cleared his throat, yet still no response. He mumbled at first, which turned to rambling when he realized he could not be heard, “So, it’s all mostly a lie. The things I was promised. They were all false promises, weren’t they? She wasn’t telling the truth?”

“Yes and no,” they said in unison. Isaac looked up as Zeta continued to fiddle with her game.

“Are you stupid? Do you know how to talk?” Isaac said.

“He’s only joking,” Zeta said. “Isaac, stop being rude and explain it.”

He explained, “The better you perform, the better your reward is, and the better they treat you. They can get impatient, so I suggest you incrementally grow, even if you know you can do more than expected. If you burst with a surge of energy, then it turns out you can’t output the same amount of power more than half of the time, then they’ll only get mad. It’s the consistency that matters here.”

Zeta said, “But, don’t be stupid. They’ll notice if you’re not giving your best.

“She wasn’t lying about the cameras and mics was she?”

“No, but you’re aware we have guards and they’re not the stupid kind you see on T.V.,” she said. “Don’t be an idiot! Don’t! They took away the previous kid because he protested. That’s why we acted like that in front of that Moreno bitch. She took him away one day, and we haven’t seen him since.”

“How long has that been?”

“Forty-one days?” She said. Isaac nodded in confirmation.

“What happened to him?”

Isaac shrugged. “No one knows. Nobody knows what happens to anyone that leaves, whether they be the star pupils or the rebels. It’s all a mystery. Although, there’s a rumor that one of the instructors used to be one of us. Zeta, tell him about our training schedule.”

“You tell him. The fuck? Who do you think you’re ordering?”

Isaac said, “We train five days a week for ten hours a day with breaks in between. We have two rest days. This is our first rest day and tomorrow is our second. Cherish it because five days of continuous training will get to you. Although, they might bring you in tomorrow for some minor testing and fitness evaluation to set some sort of basis. Try not to score too high or too low. Think about what they expect. They want to see improvement. Remember! Consistency!”

Jericho nodded, he might as well find a full-time job at this point if he was going to put this much effort.

Jericho said, “Moreno mentioned that the other prisoners were my competition.”

“Did you just call us prisoners? Call us something else,” she said. “Students. We go by students.”

“We’re prisoners, though.”

“I understand that, but it’s depressing,” she said. “Isaac?”

“Zeta?” Isaac waited for Zeta to explain, and he sighed when he realized she never would. “We fight the other groups. There’s no prize for winning, but they think it makes them look better so they can leave faster. I think it’s manipulative bullshit. They take us away when they want, not by how hard we pummel someone. The ones that do well in the fights are usually the ones that are naturally talented with their abilities or ones that kiss the most ass. If you get into a fight, fight someone that kisses ass. A natural talent will rip you open a new one if you know what I mean. And, I’m not even exaggerating. Imagine someone taking their fist and creating a hole. One of them can literally use their power, dig in, and—“

Jericho interrupted, “I get it, but I’m going to ignore what you just said.”

“Are you sure? You might get it fully if you have an example to remember by,” he said.

“I think you can just tell me when I meet everyone else.”

“Suit yourself.” Isaac shrugged. “Anyway, me and Zeta do the bare minimum, so we’re good. The both of us are in month three and it hasn’t been that bad. We’re just waiting and getting by. The last guy didn’t want to wait and look where that got him. He did a good job of doing the bare minimum, which I can commend, but he still needed to do a bit more.”

Protesting with a hint of rebellion? Jericho was unsure what to think of Isaac and Zeta, but their presence comforted him, and he assumed that was a good thing. He climbed a ladder to get atop Zeta’s bunk.

“No, no,” Zeta said. “Go to Isaac’s.”

“Oh, fuck off, Zeta. Don’t listen to her. Go use her top bunk. She told me how cute she thought you were.”

“I will kick your ass,” she said.

“Fine,” he said. “Come on, Jericho. We’ll be bunkmates. We’ll have fun.”

“I’m not sure about that fun, but I’ll take the bunk.”

“Stupid bitch,” Isaac said.

“Yeah, yeah, shut up,” Zeta said. She finally removed her eyes from her screen to look at Jericho. “Oh, Jericho. Moreno probably forgot to tell you this, since she forgot to tell me and Isaac here, but they have a strict policy on using abilities only in the training and practice rooms, that field house you probably saw. They see you doing that anywhere else, and they have a right to kill you. Save yourself the hassle of learning it the hard way from a guard.”

“Don’t let the others goad you either,” Isaac said. “It might look like we hate each other, but we’re only toughening each other up.”

“Nah, you’re just a moron,” she said.

“See? You try it, Jericho.”

“Wake me up when you two decide to do anything that isn’t sitting around.” Jericho waited a few seconds. “Bitch!”

“Hell yeah! I like you. You’re cool. Isn’t he cool, Zeta?”

“Bro, I’m serious. Shut up,” she said.

Jericho smiled. His situation was not the best, but at least he had people along the ride to hell with him.