The car slowed on gravel that crunched beneath its tires. After driving down roads thinning in length, we finally charted their collective endpoint. A sight of nothing but tall grass and sparse trees on flat land lay ahead. We must be edging on the outskirts of the city’s jurisdiction. A distance I, and most others, had not gone.

Sitting on top of the field was a single-story, red brick building no bigger than a small office space. Could be a home too if you ever found someone modest enough. So unassuming, thoughts that we’d landed in the wrong place or were misled poked at my brain. Jay only now noticed the car had halted because his head shot up with a wavering gasp.

The door to my side opened with unnecessary aggression from the same officer I had been babysat by on the way out. Or so I thought, they both looked similar in the way that they simultaneously could be related but couldn’t be. Twin-not-twin number one hauled me from the vehicle like I weighed less than he expected. My legs crisscrossed on a grassy landing when my balance was almost lost.

The wind picked up and rustled the lush greenery. I pulled my jacket close and looked toward the structure that I was expected to believe was housing a facility's worth of people. It didn’t have any signs that would advocate for it being Inertia. The only thing that referenced incarceration was the unsightly high fencing surrounding it. The steel was beginning to catch the light of the sun coming up on the horizon, creaking in the breeze. My officer shoved me onward, and I swallowed my bewilderment down with a cough.

I stared at my shoes and kicked the tiny rocks around as I walked. The cop leading us paused before the gate as someone, somewhere, gave us entry. This appeared to be their one and only line of defense; were they cocky or lacked reason to be cautious?

Up the cement steps and through wood doors was what I could only describe as some unexceptional waiting room. Vacant chairs sat in a rectangle with a receptionist off to the other side. The white walls had prints of flower paintings on them, and the desk was topped with a fake flower pot to add to the room's synthetic character. To the left and right were more shut exits, but neither were as interesting as the second double doors dead ahead of the entrance. They were steel, unfit for the quaint foyer. My boots screeched against the white tile as they transferred us over to the reception.

“Good morning, boys.” The receptionist looked over us to greet the officers with a grin. They stood behind their charge, positioning us shoulder-to-shoulder against the desk. My handcuffs clinked when I placed my hands on the marble surface.

My patience broke. “Is this Inertia?” No one answered me. Instead, the receptionist turned in her chair to retrieve two clipboards. She shoved one into my hand to the effect of being told "be seen not heard."

The document clasped against the board was a questionnaire of our basic information: Birthdate, weight, blood type, etc., with the ICF logo printed on the page’s top left. The “I” was dotted with a detailed illustration of an eyeball 一 veins and all. When I ran my thumb over the ink, I expected it to raise off the paper and blink to protect its cornea when I went for it.

“How was the drive?” The receptionist asked with a comradery that said she aligned herself among the law enforcers.

“A pain in the ass. Always hate making deliveries out here.” They made idle chatter over us like we were ignorant small children. I didn’t keep my head down; didn’t try to hide the fact I was listening. I was caught neglecting to fill in the blanks when the warm receptionist went cold with a vacant but influential stare in my direction. After I put the pen back to paper, she spared me her shrewdness to return to her more esteemed visitors. She snatched our clipboards from us when we returned them and sat them beside the computer screen to tap our responses into the keys.

“Paige…. Mercer….” She mumbled.

“It’s pronounced mer-see-yay.” I corrected with helpful emphasis on every syllable.

“.... And…Patel.”  She continued like I hadn’t spoken. The cop at my back huffed. My shoulders rose with an answered defensiveness to the icy shift my correction made.

When she hit a final keystroke with a punctuated clack, she guaranteed to me, “We’ll shape that pride of yours.” Her tone had the gentleness you’d expect from her soft face, yet it was an entirely unnatural portrayal of her exterior, like a haunting sound bite from a smiling doll after pulling the string out its back. My brows knitted. 

“You’re clear to go through.” She said.

We were towed away from the reception and over toward the awkwardly fitted heavy back doors. A part of their mechanisms clicked. The officers pushed on the dual door bars in unison and took us through. Jay about knocked into the metal beam between entrances.

The hallway on the opposite side was as discordant with the lobby as the entryway. Walls were empty of embellishments outside of the watchful cameras fastened to them. The white color scheme was exchanged for the same silver as the doorway. The overhead light was dimmer, with tighter walls that echoed our combined footsteps. There weren’t any side doors or other options to leave or enter the hall; only where we came and where we were going. Forward and back.

The stretch we walked seemed to go on for a staggering length. I was nearly having to chase my breath when we met the end. At first glance, what I thought to be another set of robust doors ー made of matte black metal ー was instead an elevator. My initial deduction made the most sense when I was confident this building hadn’t a second floor. Maybe it traveled horizontally? Even then, the structure wasn’t sized beyond what was reasonable to walk.

I tilted my neck to peek around the built bastard in front of me. The officer’s hand made for the button on the elevator’s side where a singular down arrow ignited. The hum of the conveyor grew in volume, then a ding. The cogs in my head spun before shutting down with the shock of having an object shoved between their revolving grooves. I faltered back a step, heart thumping. By the time I’d figured it all out, it was too late to kiss the sky goodbye.