My breakfast came from a man with a tray. He put it on my bed where I was quietly sitting. When the door closed with a click, I turned to face it and grimaced. Like always, the metal tray carried a cup of water, along with the mystery drink and a small ceramic bowl.

Steam hovered above the brim, its contents resembling warm pig slop. With the plastic fork pushing the so called food around my plate, I felt nauseous. Although the substance took on the classic oatmeal breakfast texture, it smelled awful: almost like if rotten eggs could vomit. There was a liquid, with a brown tint, covering the bottom of the bowl. The brown hue seeped into the watery substance from the mush above.

It was basically jail food. Well, to be honest, jail food might have been better than this. I remember complaining about it when I was a bit younger. However, they said to get over the smell and try it. when I did it was actually not that bad. The brown slop was bland, just bland. Not bad at all.

My life was similar to the food. I noticed the looks that the guards gave me, they were always a sneer. People thought my life was amazing, so they treated me horribly, jealous of it. The guards told me that I should stop messing around and actually learn something from Mr. Gray’s, but I hated him. He really pushed my buttons, constantly making my life as boring as it could get: eating, sleeping, and studying.

My door creaked open. It revealed Mr. Grays. Who else would it be? I had no other visitors. I started laughing at his name, Grays, when I first met him because it fit his persona. He had gray hair and a gray mustache. After a few years, it was no longer funny, but a reminder how lonely I was. He came up behind me. A cold slender object was pressed into the base of my neck, body flinching at the sudden pressure.

Without a doubt it was a needle, knowing that it’s contents was definitely not in my favor. Yesterday, during my daily walk once around the building, I had seen Mr. Gray's talking with the doctor about a new serum.

Turning the third corner, I passed yet another area that was off limits to me. Always wondering why it was off limits to me was one of my daily questions that I asked Mr. Gray’s about. Everyday the answer was the same. “It’s rude to ask. It’s not your concern, it’s mine. Now, stay out of other people’s business.”

Shaking my head thinking about the same ridiculous answer I was going to get today, I decided to put matters into my own hands. Instead of turning to avoid the restricted area, I walked right to it. All of the questions in my head dying, killed by my peaking anxiousness of what I would find. Each step lead me closer to the mysterious hallway. Each step lead me closer to reveal it’s secret.

The secretive hallway was completely quiet with only the echo of my weary footsteps propelling me forward and the hammering of my heart thumping in my body. White doors lined both sides of me, windows dark. Picking a door at random, I timidly walked up to it, my face almost pressed against the glass. Using my hand as a shield from the light reflecting off of the window, I couldn't make out anything that was behind the door.

Suddenly, a click sounded followed by hushed voices breaking the silence surrounding me. Grabbing the handle on the door in front of me, trying to hide, I pushed it down and pulled towards me. Nothing happened, the door still remained closed. This time my hands shook the handle violently, willing it to unlock, but still nothing happened. I cursed under my breath as the voices warbled out of the doorway. Two people emerged from a room not to far down the hallway.

As stupid as it sounds, I thrusted my foot out, the door’s white sheen seemed to taunt me. Pain shot through my body making me involuntarily bend down to grasp my injured foot. My eyes wandered straight ahead, and there right underneath the door handle was a keypad. Without putting my hands on it, felt it pulsing. The internal wires that flowed electricity to the keypad were like veins pumping blood, it was giving it life. The only way to get through the door was to kill it.

I gave a quick silent prayer that my plan would work. Driving one of my hands forward, I slammed the buttons. The keypad sparked, my force was enough to short circuit it, and all of a sudden the door clicked open.

There were two male voices. One came from Mr. Gray’s and the other, I had no clue. From inside the dark room, I was staring out into the hallway hearing their footsteps growing louder.
   
Mr. Gray’s familiar voice rang out. “So, I have finally finished my new serum, Jerry.”
   
“Congratulations!” The man clapped his hands together like a small child.
“The boy will be very useful to us now.”

“Yes, he will, and after I develop the final technology, we will be unstoppable.”
   
"William, today is your first day of training." He interrupted my thoughts.
   
"Training for what exactly?" He ignored my question.
   
"Curiosity killed the cat you know, don't suffer the same fate."

I rolled my eyes. Again with the annoying answer. He grabbed my elbow lightly, and I yanked it out of his grip, but he pressed harder.
Dragging me out of my room and veering me down a tangle of hallways, I was pretty sure Mr. Gray’s thought I was a rag doll.

Knowing that whatever the shot was it would probably involve me getting into ‘drama’, I thought it was a good idea to have an escape route planned. Because of this, it was probably a better idea to remember how to get to wherever it was Mr. Grays was taking me. Right, straight past the fork, left, down the hallway, and up a small flight of stairs. Then we made a sharp turn left.

A white door was blocking our way. It contained a key card lock that had a bright red light, blinking on and off to show that it was locked. Mr. Grays took his key card from out of his pocket to swipe. The light turned green, and a loud click sounded. He took us inside a dark room.
   
The lights flicked on which gave me a better view of this place. I saw a desk and a huge window. Mr. Grays let my arm go of his vise-like grip allowing me to walk hesitantly over to the gigantic window. It was overlooking the familiar courtyard that was next to my room. The courtyard looked odd without its usual bright lights illuminating the domed room.
 
"This is where you will train. And this training will get you ready for something coming up in the near future." My head whipped to the direction of the voice. Mr. Grays was standing beside me.
   
"What exactly is coming up that I need to be ready for? Oh, wait, I mean it's not like you will answer my questions." Exasperation was all I felt, and it surged into my veins. "Why can't you just leave me alone? I already have a routine, so what is it exactly that you want from me?"
   
"I see that the shot is making you nervous." He turned back towards the glass windows and gazed out taking a deep breath. "There will be a test to evaluate how much of the serum actually prepared you for my..." He trailed off.

Remembering my thoughts about that man and Mr. Gray’s talking, I was unsure if I should tell him what I had heard a few days ago. My feet paced the observatory room, side to side, torn. After a few minutes, stopping behind him, I opened my mouth to ask another question.

“Not another word," He looked at me in dismay. "I have high hopes for you. Don't let me regret it."
   
I rolled my eyes. "Sorry for the disappointment you must be feeling."
   
"How surprising of you to make a snarky comment? I know..." Mr. Gray’s voice went shrilly like he was trying to mock me. "You never listen to me, so why should I?" He winked at me when my eyebrows raised. "Was that what you were thinking?"
   
"No. I-I was...uh..." He took the words out of my mouth. I hated him and always have, so no way he was getting the satisfaction of knowing me so well.

Having enough courage, I blurted out the thing that I had told myself not to say. “I heard what you said about the serum that you gave me. You said it will make you unstoppable.” That got Mr. Gray’s full attention. “Where do I play a role in this little ‘scheme’ you are playing?”

He stalked over to me, grabbed my arms, and pushed me to the glass windows. The cool glass pressed against my back, and a prick was felt on my wrist. Livid, his face turned a bright shade of redish purple and steam pored out from his ears.

“Where do you play your role? Excuse me? I provided everything to you and you think you can make up some silly story? Well, your wrong. I am your elder and you should do as I say with no questions asked.”

Giving Mr. Gray’s a death stare, he started to get pale. He stumbled to his chair, and sat in it his back towards me. I turned to face the windows again, unfazed by the scene that unfolded in front of me. His face returned to its normal color after a few minutes and then he opened the door with the keypad to get some fresh air. As soon as I saw the white walls on the other side of the door, I ducked under his arm, that had opened the door, and ran, needing to get out of here.

The walls were closing in, they were choking me. I sprinted up the stairs and out the door, thinking where to go next. Straight. I flew down the never ending hallway until turning right. The floor turned into quicksand and my legs into jelly. There was nowhere I could go. How could I think I could escape? Everything went sideways and then black.
======▪======
I woke up in a lot of pain, and I mean a lot of it. My head killed, but my eyelids were pressed shut with the fear of being caught by Mr. Grays. The last thing I remember was falling down in the hallway. I wanted out of this place because never have I ever left this building before. Never have I ever seen my parents or get to spend enough time with my sister before she...I have never breathed in clean air, only the cold air in this place.

A door closed, causing me to slowly peeled my eyes open to see a blurry view of Mr. Grays.
   
"Will, you have a severe concussion, but it will be fixed up in a jiffy."
   
"How?" I asked my mind muddled.
   
"Nothing you need to worry about, just some clinical trials that my partner had conjured up. It will be in you system in about" He looked at his watch. "Actually now." He got off my bed and smiled. "Have. A good night's rest you will need it." My eyes closed as blackness consumed my vision.