章 14: Fourteen: The Compound
We entered crumbling stone gates that were in the process of being fixed and soldiers at the gate waved the van on. On the right hand side, an overgrown grassy field with a slight hill was being mowed despite the rain. On the left, old trees lined the road. The trees gave way to small wooden units or apartments and then brick apartment buildings. The road split at a roundabout into four other paths. The straight road appeared to lead to a central courtyard where there seemed to be benches and empty shops.
The road on the left disappeared between a mix of older styled and relatively modern apartment buildings. There were two roads leading to the right. The northeast road led to a brick road but the far right one was the one the van took. Behind us, I saw the big bus take the brick road. The far right road wound between smaller buildings and came to what looked like a security office. The van stopped in front of the security office beside a completely separate long squat single storey building into which multiple doors were set. It honestly looked like a toilet or bathroom block that might hold changing rooms for a football team.
Further down the road, there was a covered gravel car park. Beyond that was green grass. It looked like it was part of the field which lay behind the toilet block building. The sight of this toilet block gave me a sinking feeling. This type of building was what I associated with those dirty, smelly and poorly maintained toilets located by seldom used parks and beaches.
"Come out," the soldier gestured to the three of us. "Wait there by the side."
I stood nervously beside the dour woman and the sour man fidgeting with the bottom edge of my shirt. A pair of security guards with large builds ambled out to meet us and quietly talked to the soldiers. They all looked at us and pointed. The security guards checked the details the soldiers had with their list.
"You," the male security guard pointed to the sour man and then a door second from the end of the far side of the toilet block, "in there. You," he pointed to the dour woman, "have this room," he pointed to a door right beside us.
"And you," a heavy hand fell on the back of my neck, making me jump. The female security guard gave me a nasty smile, pushing me forward to a door two doors away. It looked like she didn't have a very good opinion of me at all. "You stay in here," she opened the heavy reinforced door and thrust me into the darkness, slamming the door shut behind me.
I fell onto a soft surface. The lock clicked and clunked behind me.
"Hey, no need to be rough," the soldier with a dimple said from outside the door.
"Why should we be nice to traitors and spies?" the female security guard snorted.
"We don't know that they're traitors or spies yet," the soldier with a dimple replied. "For all we know, they're innocent."
"Unlikely," the male security guard said. "If they're here, it means that there is reasonable suspicion."
"They could be here for their protection as well," the soldier tried to argue.
"If they were, their files would say something," the female security guard said. "Traitors and spies should just be shot. Why are we wasting resources on scum like these?"
"They have to be properly investigated and we need evidence against them to shoot them," the soldier said in an impatient voice. "Forget it. Let's get these formalities over and done with."
With the door shut, only tiny yellow lines of light made it around the door frame to light up the dark room. The only other light came from a tiny slit of a window in which a grimy old piece of glass was set in. Once my eyes had gotten used to the dim light, I discovered that my room was lined with smooth tiles, like those found in a bathroom. Against the far wall was the shape of a toilet. Just by its side was a shower head. The floor inclined toward a drain in the corner.
I had fallen upon a foam mattress covered by a thin sheet. In one corner was a blanket. There was no pillow. Sitting there, I hugged the blanket and my bag to my chest wondering what was going to happen next. The voices faded away and all was silent.
A click overhead and light flooded the room, blinding my eyes for a moment. I looked around at the off white tiles that were stained with scum below the shower head. The toilet looked newer than the shower. A small basin by the side of the toilet completed the room. Looking up, I saw a rusting rod and rings for a shower curtain, but there was no curtain there.
So this was where I was going to live for the near future. I had to admit, my future wasn't looking very bright. Not bright at all.
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