A Step to Nowhere by Natasha A. Salnikova Read Free Book Online Page B

could be. Probably that’s what it was. Too artificial. I couldn’t find the door. Only after a second round I discovered an outline indicating a possible exit. I knocked on the assumed door but the sound came out muffled, as if the walls had been stuffed with sound isolating material. Just as it would be in a nuthouse.
    “Hey! Somebody! Assholes! Let me out now !”
    I’d almost damaged my voice, but there was no sound back.
    “Let me out,” I whispered. I slid down to the floor beside the door, hugged my knees, and put my chin on them. I was thirsty again and my stomach called for attention in the form of food. Good thing I didn’t need to use the restroom, otherwise I’d do it on the floor. Not really honorable. I gazed at the opposite white wall, the metal bed covered with white sheets, and at the table chained to the hook in the wall. For how long were they going to keep me here? Maybe it was some sort of experiment to see how long a person could stay and not go crazy in a white room without windows, with the smell of freshly cut grass, and not go crazy. Not too long, I guarantee. I was ready to kill someone; wasn’t that a sign of madness? And why had the water tasted so weird? They must have added something to it.
    Something hissed and I jerked to the side. It really was a door and it started to open upwards. I sat on the floor and waited for it to reach the top. The door was opening upwards. Either I was crazy or they had to have done something to the water. A door couldn’t open up. It could happen only in a movie. Then a person in a gray overall entered the room. The wide pants closed at the bottom with elastic, the sleeves were buttoned at the wrists, the collar went to the chin, and a wide black belt hugged the waist. The person was holding a bottle of Evian in his hand and he stared at the empty bed. I started to stand up and he spun toward me. Another one with brown eyes. A brown-eyed men invasion. This one had his hair parted in the middle and smoothed with gel. He had acne and a skinny mustache. Not a handsome man by any means and his glare didn’t help. He lighted up for a moment and went out like a Christmas tree.
    “Who are you? Where am I? What do you want from me?” I blurted out.
    The man lifted his other hand and showed me a gray device, something like a TV remote with a mass of multicolored buttons on both sides.
    “Seventy watts. Can be unpleasant,” he said.
    I thought that he talked with some kind of accent, but I was in such a state that I couldn’t be sure of anything. Of course, when somebody promised to electrocute you instead of saying hello it could slow down the intellectual process. Can be unpleasant . He executed his thoughts pretty laconically.
    “Thank you for the information,” I said.
    “It’s water,” Brown-eyes said, and put the bottle on the table. “Just water. The one you’ve gotten used to. I see you drank the neutralizer.”
    “I drank what ?”
    The brown eyes looked at me.
    “The drink neutralizing the tranquilizer in your bloodstream. Now you need food.”
    He pressed a button on the remote. It probably had other functions besides electrocuting women who disobey. Another man entered the room. He was dressed in the same style of clothing and had a metal tray in his hands. He didn’t look at me, but walked to the table, put the tray on it, grabbed the empty glass, and left. Everything done making no eye contact with me.
    “Do you need to use a bathroom facility?” Brown-eyes asked.
    “You care about my needs. I’m touched.”
    “Do you need a bathroom?”
    “What about telling me the frigging reason I’m here? What about letting me go? Who the hell are you?”
    “Do you need a bathroom?”
    “Are you a robot?”
    “I’m asking you for the last time …”
    “Yes!”
    Another button pressed and something hissed on the opposite side from the exit. The door rose up, opening a round room the size of those on planes, with a regular toilet and a