The Dimensioners - Chapter 1

SYNOPSIS: When a young man wakes up to find himself a prisoner without any memories of his prior life, he seeks to escape. Not knowing who to trust or what is real, he fights to find the identity and home that he has left behind, but ends up finding out more than he was prepared for.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I started writing this novel some time in 2020 and originally posted a few chapters on Wattpad. Since I hardly ever venture over to Wattpad anymore and I see that Vocal has become a lot more fiction-friendly, I decided to give it a shot at posting some of this work in progress here. THIS IS THE ROUGHEST OF DRAFTS and one day I will finish this novel, but for now, here is 'The Dimensioners' in its infancy. I hope you all enjoy!

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CHAPTER 1

A young man stirred awake to a bright light hanging above him. His eyes squeezed shut at first but then blinked against the light, allowing the image in front of him to shimmer into focus. He was sitting in a white room, with nothing in it but a machine that resembled a computer resting in the corner. He jumped up at the sight of the unfamiliar setting, but was restrained by metal cuffs attached to his arms and ankles, holding him in place to the chair he was sitting on.

"What the-?" he began. He tried again to pull himself up against the cuffs, just as unsuccessfully as the first time, resulting in sore wrists and ankles. Groaning in defeat, he leaned his head back against the hard plastic of the chair.

"Oh, good," a voice said behind him, "you're awake."

An older man with salt and pepper colored hair and beard stepped into his line of vision. The older man was wearing a white lab coat and smiled at the young man with teeth that seemed too big for his mouth.

"Where am I?" the young man asked.

The older man ignored the question and instead moved to the computer in the corner of the room.

"I'm just going to ask you a few questions," the older man said.

"But I just asked you..." the younger began.

"Do you know your name?" the older man interrupted.

The young man paused and thought for a long moment. His name? He racked his brain trying to think of it, but it was as if his name was just outside of the reach of his memory.

"It's okay if you don't," the older one said.

"I... don't remember," the young man said sheepishly.

A green light flashed on the computer and the older man typed something into it, his expression unfathomable.

"Do you remember how you got here?" he asked.

The young man thought hard again. How did he get there? It was as if nothing had ever happened to him before he awoke in that room. He swallowed against the lump of frustration forming in his throat.

"No," he said through his teeth.

The light on the computer flashed green again and the other man entered something else into the computer.

"Do you know where you came from?"

The young man gritted his teeth against the scream that was burning in his chest.

"No," he said, his voice shaking. "I don't remember anything, okay?"

There was the green light again and the sound of the older man typing into the computer.

"Are you gonna tell me where I am?"

The older man looked at him and smiled that too-wide grin once again. "That would require me to know."

The young man stared at the older man with his mouth slightly agape.

"Final question," the older one said, turning back to the computer, "what name would you like to be called?"

The young man searched his brain once more, trying to grasp onto something that felt even slightly familiar.

"Axton," he said finally.

"Axton?"

The young man shrugged. "It sounds cool."

The older man smiled again. "Well then, Axton it is."

He began to walk in the direction he had come from, but Axton stopped him.

"Can I know your name?" Axton asked.

The older man stopped next to Axton and looked down at him. "You can call me Marcus. I'll be back shortly to show you to your quarters."

Axton laid back against the chair and sighed. His eyelids were heavy and his head felt slightly foggy, as if he had just woken up from an extremely long nap. His wrists throbbed in pain and he tried with great difficulty to turn his head to look behind him. Out of his peripheral vision, he could see what appeared to be a door in the wall behind him, but not much else.

His eyes closed and his head was nodding forward, when he heard the door slide open behind him. He sat up immediately and Marcus walked in front of him holding some folded grey clothing in his hands. Two other men followed behind him, dressed in black uniforms, complete with vests and hats that looked like they belonged to a Soviet soldier.

"These are for you to change into," Marcus said, indicating the clothes in his hands. "After you change, you'll be taken to your quarters where you can rest up and tomorrow, you'll be assigned a job."

"A job?" Axton asked.

"Yes," Marcus nodded, "everyone here works. Now let's get you out of these cuffs."

The two men in black moved toward Axton and unlocked the cuffs from around his wrists and ankles, less than gently.

"Thanks," Axton said, rubbing his red wrists tenderly.

"Go ahead and change," Marcus said, handing him the clothes.

Axton took them and began taking off his own clothes until he noticed the three other men in the room still staring at him.

"Um... do you all have to watch me?" he asked.

Marcus smiled apologetically. "Unfortunately, yes."

Axton sighed and turned his back to the men. Reluctantly, he took off his shirt and slacks and pulled the grey cotton shirt over his head. He grabbed the pants, but then noticed there were white boxer shorts as well. Groaning internally, he removed his own underwear before quickly putting on the new ones. He then pulled on the long grey pants and rolled his old clothes into a messy ball. Looking down at his new clothes, he took note of how much they resembled a prison uniform.

"There," he said, turning to the other men.

Marcus took his clothes from him and placed it in a bag.

"Follow me," he said walking towards the door.

The two men in black grabbed Axton's upper arms before he could even move and all but carried him as they walked shoulder to shoulder with Marcus in front.

The four of them walked out of the white room into a brightly lit area that did resemble a prison. Axton saw that they were on the second floor and there were cells with large glass doors to his left. To his right was a short wall with a metal railing opening to a large cement yard down below. Axton's heart began pounding loudly in his ears, until the noises around him were just white noise. They stopped in front of the last cell on the row and Marcus pressed his hand to a keypad next to the door. Upon scanning his palm, the door slid open and the two men in black threw Axton into the room so that he fell face forward, just managing to stop the fall with his hands.

"Could you two give me a second with Axton, please?" Marcus asked.

Axton rolled onto his back and Marcus extended his hand to him. Ignoring it, Axton pushed himself off of the cold floor, dusting off his clothes as he stood upright.

Marcus's face remained neutral, but his eyes twinkled.

"Just wanted to offer you a few words of advice," he said. He quickly turned to look behind him. The two men in black were posted on either side of the cell door with their backs to him and Axton.

He turned back to face Axton and continued. "If I were you," he said in a low voice, "I wouldn't be too quick to make friends around here. You never know who you can trust."

"How do I know I can trust you?" Axton asked.

"You don't," he said matter-of-factly. He then turned to walk out of the cell, but Axton stopped him before he could touch the glass door.

"How do I get in touch with you? You know... if I need help or something."

Marcus turned to look at him, with a slight smile on his lips. "I'll be around."

With that, he tapped on the glass softly and one of the guards opened the cell back up. He and the two guards walked away, their footsteps fading into the distance. When he could no longer hear them, Axton turned to look at his new abode.

There wasn't much to it. A bed with a metal frame and a thin mattress was pushed into one corner of the room. A small desk was built into the wall with an uncomfortable looking plastic chair in front of it. In another corner, a small bathroom encased in glass walls, was sitting. There was a toilet, sink, and a shower head right above them, with no shower curtain or shower tray; just a grated hole in the ground.

Axton sighed and walked over to the bed. He sat on it lightly, feeling the springs in the mattress poke into his skin. Carefully, he laid on the bed and pulled the fleece blanket over his body, allowing his heavy eyelids to close. He tossed and turned for hours on the lumpy mattress and held his eyes closed tightly, trying to block out the light in the hall that never turned off. Finally, his body stilled and his breathing faded into a slight whistle.

It seemed that he was being shaken awake at the exact moment that his body and brain had finally shut down.

"Good morning," Marcus said, peering down at him. "It's time for us to find you a job."

READ CHAPTER 2 HERE:

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Thanks for reading!

-Chanté