[LollypopKing]

Welcome back to the fourth installment of "The Facility." This chapter took a long time to write, mainly because I wanted to include as much detail as possible while simultaneously keeping it brief. It pretty hard to proofread, spell check and edit all at the same time, but that's enough whining for me. You didn't come here for whining, you came here for the story! So, without further ado, please enjoy!

“Hey, dude are you okay?”

“He can’t hear you. He’s unconscious.”

“It doesn’t look like he’s breathing.”

“Shawn, get some water. Jake, bring that mattress and pillow over here.”

James was slowly coming to, but he felt super dizzy and unbelievably weak. He could just barely feel someone pick up and gently place him on the mattress, which seemed to be the most comfortable thing in the world. He felt water drip down his throat. He opened his eyes with difficulty and he was able to make out a face with a sturdy chin before they fell shut again.

“Good, he’s breathing. Get me a pillowcase,” the boy with the sturdy chin ordered. The others scrambled to find one. Pillowcase in both hands, the boy gently placed it over James’s genitals. I don’t think you would like it if everyone would see you like this, he thought.

After what seemed like a good night’s sleep, James woke up, slowly pulling himself up. One of the boys looking after James helped him sit against the wall, and then quickly ran off to somewhere, most likely to alert someone. James tried to make out his surroundings, ignoring the pounding in his head. He was in a huge jail cell, about the size of a school cafeteria, with three white walls and bars for the fourth one. All over the place were boys around his age, some younger, some older, but all of them completely naked. Some were sitting down and chatting, while others were all alone, either with face in hands and isolated from everyone and everything. Feeling insecure, James checked under his pillowcase if he, well, still had anything down there. Sighing with relief, James tried to get up covering himself with the pillowcase. It was a whole new challenge just trying to get up – it seemed like everything was working against him, especially the damned pillowcase, which would slip off at any given moment. He was interrupted by a raspy voice.

“You should keep it on for as long as you can,” the boy with the raspy voice pointed at the pillowcase. “Eventually you’ll be just as naked as the rest of us.” He recognized the boy as the one with the sturdy chin. Well, he wasn’t exactly a boy, even though he looked more like an athlete than a bodybuilder. His body was built to run, from his strong legs to his broad shoulders and somewhat smaller hips. Even his penis seemed to compliment his body, hanging in front proudly. However, that wasn’t what had intimidated James. Instead it was the huge scar that went all the way from his neck and down to his waist. He didn’t want to find out how he got it, and yet, for some reason, it made James respect the guy more.

Nevertheless, he still felt threatened by the presence of the person and his two friends. He was used to being ganged up by the “rich” bullies in school, and this was no exception. I’m not going down without a fight.

James stood up by himself, swaying from side to side, but eventually stood upright. He still had enough fight in him to take down at least one of the guys for sure. The raspy-voiced guy saw the worry in his face, so he smiled.

“Don’t worry, we’re not going to fight you. We wouldn’t want a dead body stinking up the place. Anyways, my name’s Thomas,” he extended his hand further, and James shook it.

“What’s your name? Unless if you want to, we could prefer to call you by your number instead,” a grin similar to Derek’s appeared on Thomas’s face.

“James,” the reply was brief.

“Good. This is Mark,” he pointed to the boy on his left, “and this is Hal. You’ll get to know everyone else later. I’m pretty sure you have a shitload of questions, so I’ll get started,” as Thomas finished talking, the other boys turned around and walked off.

“Where am I?”

“Good question, but I’m afraid I don’t know. The others don’t either, so don’t bother asking. What we do know is that we’re in this place called “the box”. The box is where all the prisoners are being held. We’re currently on the first floor. The floors are sort of a ranking system, but I’ll talk about that later. Come with me.”

Thomas and James walked over to the bars. “Take a look for yourself,” Thomas said with a grim smile.

There were multiple jail cells all in a circle. In the middle was a plain round arena, and its floor looked like it was made of rubber. The jail cells were stacked up, forming a tall cylindrical building. As much as he tried, James couldn’t crane his neck enough to see the top. The arena and the jail cells were all brightly lit, but any light sources were absent from view.

“How big is this place?” James felt that familiar “small” feeling.

“I have no idea. I’ve never been to the top. My guess is it’s about fifty stories, if not more. All I know is that each jail cell is a group. We have to work together to get to the upper levels. They promised us that we would be set free once we get to the top.”

“Are we underground then?”

“Were you awake when they carted you over here? Did you see a huge building?”

“Yeah. It had huge towers, four in total.”

“Exactly. We’re in Tower 3 – which means there’s exactly 3 other towers that are just like this. These people love these kinds of games, making everything look exactly alike.”

“But how did we get here? I mean, there isn’t even a door here.”

“Surely you’ve seen their new technology, like the improved security systems and automated doors. This is where they make it. It gets distributed around the whole world.”

“What do you mean by “working as a team?” James was now frantically looking at the other teen, searching his face with his eyes for the answer. He was more determined than ever to break out of here, but he knew he would have to do it with someone. He needed to get back to his parents as soon as possible.

“They force us to…do things with each other in order to survive.” Thomas slowly shifted from one foot to the other, a feeling of unease clearly reflecting on his shapely face. “They pit us against each other, and the team that wins, gets to go to a higher floor. In other words, if you don’t fight – you die. It doesn’t happen often, but enough to leave you scarred for life,” the strong sound of Thomas’s voice was replaced by a small whisper but just only for a moment.

“That’s why we’ll never give up! We’ll fight till we’re all dead or free!” Thomas turned toward the other boys, who were already up on their feet, pounding on their chests, yelling and shouting. “From the gates of hell and back…!”

“For freedom we fight for!” came the reply in unison. Naked as they were, James quickly came to admire the will and spirit of the boys. They weren’t giving up, and it was enough to convince James that they had the skills to really escape this place. James felt energized and ready for battle, but James kept a clear head. Amongst the commotion, James walked up to Thomas; “How do we fight each other?”

But before he could answer, a loud siren had gone off. The whole place went dark for a brief moment and then lighted again, this time with a faint, evil shade of red. All of a sudden, the bars slowly started receding into the ground, and on the opposite side of the arena, the bars of the opposing jail cell were lowering as well.

“Looks like you’re gonna find out right now.” Thomas said into his ear. His tone of voice was deadly serious, and James realized that whatever was going to happen now was going to change his life forever.

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