The man who changed everything: Part Four

I collapsed face first onto the wet concrete abrasing the skin off my right cheek, the now familiar throbbing pain returned alongside the new pain of my skin being rubbed off.

I didn't even react, so drained of energy I just lay on the wet concrete staring at the walls of the one-toed district. Their imposing overwhelming concrete forms cut the city in two, the haves and the have-nots permanently separated.

I remembered distinctly inside of those walls, I never wished to return there again. I was ten years old the last time I was in those walls, but what I remembered most was being locked in a much smaller set of walls inside. The orphanage, I remembered it well.

When I arrived inside those big walls of the one-toed district, I didn't know what to expect even back then I knew how dangerous it was. No one had ever told me anything about the inside, but I could instinctively sense the danger inside.

There were towering shacks placed haphazardly on top of each other with no regard for safety or aesthetics. Those houses if I could've even called them were made of plywood seemingly taped and glued together they towered almost as tall as the walls. They were visibly moving in the wind, and every once and a while you could hear something fall and hit the ground. Whether it be a tool, person, or even a whole home collapsing.

While I was being driven past these places seemingly dragged from my nightmares, I saw an out-of-place white pristine building made of marble. Surrounding this building was a set of walls also white of its own and then outside of those walls was a fence surrounding it.

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Was that where I was going?

Soon after reality set in, I was dragged into a white room with nothing but a chair and a bright white light drowning out everything else. Inside was a tall man wearing a white coat and had a clipboard. His face was incredibly stern showing nothing but a cold detached look on his face, as if he had done whatever he was about to do countless times.

"Name" was all he said, no inflection just a monotone tone of voice that gave off the impression of a robot speaking rather than a human.

"Timmy" was all I could reply, with that he wrote something down and then stared deep into my soul.

"Remove a toe" he ordered coldly.

"Why? What's going on?"

"That wasn't a request." He replied curtly.

Hesitantly I reached for my foot, the blue glowing outline around my toe appeared and I gently pulled. The toe pulled away without much effort tiny pink flesh-colored appendages sprouted out from the foot and the toe, violently grasping at each other but providing no real obstacle in removing the toe.

"Good, you can put it back. That's all I needed" He said, I looked at his face and was shocked at the sudden warmth now in his gaze. His eyes looked relieved and he audibly sighed.

He gently patted my back and led me through another white hallway past what looked like cells for prisoners. Inside were kids some as looking as young as five violently banging on the windows. They screamed I could not understand what they were saying but it was obvious they wanted out.

I thought this was an orphanage, what is this place? Am I going to be locked in a cell?

Seeing the distress that must've been written all over my face, he patted my head and told me "You do not need to worry, you will not be put in there with Them"

"Who are they?" I asked hesitantly.

"It's better to not worry about them, they aren't like us." I looked down at the man's feet for the first time and saw ten full toes, he was rich. Exceptionally so, feeling safe to walk around with ten whole toes.

"Not like us? How?"

"They aren't people, you probably won't understand now but in the future, you will." He said sounding conflicted.

"Okay" I dropped the topic, I didn't even want to know more. I just wanted to get away from this hallway.