Free Brain Storm (US Edition) by Nicola Lawson Page A

anticipation.
    Stopping her pounding, leaving bloody marks where she had hit so hard she had broken her skin, she retreated back and curled up underneath the meager shelter of her shelf/bed. She was on her side clutching her knees up under her chin when the tears finally came. She did nothing to stop them. Just let them roll down her cheeks to drip onto the floor. Her whole body was crying together shaking with the rhythm of her sobs.
    That was when her captors chose to finally give her some sign that she hadn't simply been locked up here and abandoned. Forgotten about. The door to her cell opened and true light entered the cell. Carla tried to look but her water filled eyes turned everything into a blur. There was a dark shadow which eclipsed the light. The shadow shifted blocking out more of the light from the bottom of the door but letting more in above it. Then the shadow retreated and the door was closed again.
    Carla remained where she was, huddled under her bed, for a few moments and then she scrambled out to see what had been left for her. On the floor where the shadow had stooped she had been left a tray of food and a small plastic cup of water. Carla immediately tucked into the bowl of cold beans and the chunk of bread. They hadn't provided any utensils but she was happy enough to be able to scoop the beans up greedily with her fingers. A tiny voice in the back of her mind was busy telling her to take her time, not to rush the meal in case it came back up the way of her last meal. But a louder voice shouting out at her from her stomach was telling her to get it down her neck as fast as possible.
    Carla used the bread to mop up the last of the juice left by the beans and washed it down with the lukewarm water. She left the tray on the floor where it had been placed and where in her hurry to eat she had sat with it. She went back to the bed/shelf but with some of her determination rekindled she forgot about cowering away underneath it and sat on top instead waiting for someone to come and remove the tray. Nothing had really changed, Carla's situation was no less desperate than before and she was no closer to having an answer to any of her many questions, but she felt different in herself. There was nothing she could do right then to change anything. She just had to sit and wait for her captors to make their next move, until there was something she could do.
    She didn't have long to wait. The door opened very shortly after she sat herself on the bed. This time her eyes were clear and they quickly adjusted to the difference in lighting. A pair of men entered her cell. They were of almost identical heights and builds, average on both counts. They both had their hair cut close about their head but one had hair that was such a dark blonde as to be easily mistaken for black if it weren't highlighted by the bright light from behind shining through it. The other man's hair was ginger, not as rich a red as Carla's own almost scarlet mane, more of an orange. The ginger mans complexion was also paler than his companion's as would be expected of someone with that color hair.
                  The darker man retrieved the tray from the floor and held it in one hand. In his other he held a short staff with a pronged end. The ginger man also held a pronged staff. He thumbed a control and electricity jumped between the prongs.
    "This way." The ginger man gestured with the tazer device and Carla slipped off the bed and stepped towards the door. She didn't know where they were taking her but at least it was something. She prepared herself for her first glimpse of wherever she was other than the interior of her cell.
    The ginger man lifted his left arm and showed Carla the blindfold he carried. She didn't put up a fight while he fixed it tightly over her eyes plunging her into darkness. She was guided by the touch of the prongs between her shoulder blades. They dug the prongs in deeply but at least they hadn't given her an