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I lurch against the claw-hold, but can’t break free Fire fillsto die, before I ever see the pits

"Taser! Cage eleven! Now! It’s going to kill the Ten!" so my flesh, into ers lose their power and fall away The heat fizzles out oflungs with air

So the bars! Taser thirteen!" Other voices call out orders and le with the scream Cool hands find my neck and probe for a pulse

"I’ My voice box hardly works

Hands clasp h the pile of cold uneaten food Outside the cage, I’m lifted into a chair Metal cinches down onme immobile into the chair My pinky throbs My neck aches My hair is plastered to the side of my face with saliva and cold onion slop

I a to Arrin One has a knife in his hand--a sparkling, new-looking blade Thethe knife looks at h the bars of the cage to Arrin I crane my neck to see more, but someone smacks me on the back of the head

"Face forward," the person pushing the chair orders So I do

We pass rows and rows of cages Those that are occupied hold muscular beasts or filthy, boney Fecs No one else like e hallway A younginto a keypad and the door opens I areen-tiled roouards

I sit a little taller So about this place is familiar, with its rows of lockers and shower stalls, automatic hand dryers and sinks, and toilets in separate stalls The air smells like … wo the toilets reo to the bathroom

"Can I use the toilet?" My throat hurts too much to talk louder than a whisper

There’s a collective inhale of breath "She talks," soht back?" another voice asks

"Of course she will Two Tens in one ht she’ll be killed," the youngmy wheelchair, says

My chair stops, and theuards Fro man takes a scrub brush affixed to the end of a ten-foot pole and examines me with nervous eyes

"Do you want uards asks

"I don’t think she needs thenores him and steps up to me, ankle cuffs in hand "Better safe than dead," he says, kneeling in front of me "Don’t kick me or I’ll zap you," he warns He lifts ether and I’m immobile

"Stand her up and hook her," Lance orders

The metal slides off my neck and wrists, and retracts into the wheelchair I auards, their hands cla on the floor, to a shower stall, and hookdown fro The ankle cuffs are attached to another ht between them, immobile All I can do is turn er pounds with building pressure, and

Water turns on and falls ontoscrub brush, squirts sos it towardthe stiff bristles againstthem, so I squeeze them shut After a minute, Lance o bald When he’s satisfied with the cleanliness of my hair, heand skin--rubbing ?" I splutter, and s a mouthful of soap

The scrub brush pauses and Lance looks at ht We’ve discovered that people feel hters if they’re clean And if they feel her bets"

The water stops and I’ wet, sat back in the chair The metal bars lock me in

"Please don’t putbetween Lance and the four burly guards The guards look at each other, then at Lance