TCRC

I woke up in the same place as always, the place which had me ready to gouge my eyes out just by looking at the walls.

Sometimes I wished I could just pause time, maybe I wouldn't leave permanently, I didn't have a greater understanding of life outside. Just the vague idea I'd given myself from observations and things I'd read.

If I could pause time, however, I'd take extra long to breathe in the air outside instead of the moist-smelling oxygen from inside. No matter how many windows were open, it always seemed to feel clammy.

If I went out, I would look at the distant hills and trees, pick a few fruits and sit on a rock while admiring the fields around me.

It often shocked me how different this all was compared to the outside. By “this all” I mean The Conocelium Readaptation Camp. TCRC for short, the name everyone used.

Readapting? To what? Why would we need to readapt?

The only answer I could have to that is to the harm they cause.

Madame Leonelle walked in, while I was thinking. Her long and poofy dress being picked up by her 2 chubby hands, to prevent her from tripping as it was quite a big dress.

I guess she had been doing some sort of activity as her nurse cap had started to bob around on her head, with her pinned up unkempt hair, some strands being loose.

She stormed towards the back of the room, where the kitchen was.

Then I saw that Rose was rushing about in there, probably cooking something, Madame pulled Rose by the arm and said something in her ear with a clearly irritated expression.

I heard the breakfast call, so I couldn't stay to try and figure out what was happening but I didn't worry too much since Rose will tell me later anyway. I couldn’t intervene anyway, if I did, we would both get horrible treatment.

I walked out and hurried to the dining room, during breakfast I kept looking over at Rose's spot and the door just to see if she would magically appear, it made me nervous that she wasn't around and not knowing what was taking her so long made me very uneasy.

Once breakfast was done and Rose wasn't anywhere to be seen, I walked up into the dormitories and looked for her with no success.

I needed to stay calm or else I would go crazy, I chose to go to the "play yard" which is really the only place where we can be outside.

I saw a few people, some guys all talking in a group on the ground next to a tree, the guards, and 2 girls on a swing-set.

I decided to avoid the crowded area and went to the back of the building next to some plants and another bigger tree.

This spot had always been my favorite as it has the perfect amount of sunlight and shade, plus, not many people would sit here.

I looked around for a rock that hid a few things of mine. I picked up the rock and the hole underneath revealed a tiny view of a brown note pad, I carefully brushed away the dirt covering my notepad and placed the rock back.

Opening the notepad, I checked the last pages where I would always count the amount of people in the yard that day. Most people wanted time outside so it helped me measure if population was decreasing or if it was stable.

I had a brief understanding of math as it’s one of the subjects they teach you when you’re a kid. You need to have a slightly normal brain development for their tests to even be relevant. So they teach you a few things growing up.

Counting and comparing people was a way for me to figure out if the next weeks would be rough or not. It became a form of observation and prediction...