Collective Dissonance

Madeline sat in the desk as she did everyday, as she did yesterday, and as she would do tomorrow. In truth, it was the people who changed; the desks however, those remained the same. Those in the desks parallel to her she did not recognize, and they did not turn their heads to be recognized, instead looking straight at the blank dry erase board that hung silently on the wall ahead.

It was not unusual for Madeline not to know anyone, for it was a new school, with new people, but despite the usual situation, there was something about it that she could not shake. She felt deep down that something was entirely wrong, and this she nervously contemplated as the tall, thin woman in the white uniform walked into the room.

“Thank you all for waiting. You will now form one line on the left side of the room and wait for further instructions.”

Everyone around Madeline rose up, and walked to the left side of the room, seemingly without thinking. It was then that Madeline drew attention to herself, as she was left surrounded by a graveyard of abandoned desks, as the tall woman watched her, the piercing gaze penetrating deep into Madeline’s eyes. She took a minute to size up the tall woman, and after a few seconds of returning the same piercing stare into the woman’s eyes, and the dirty brown hair that fell in front of it, Madeline stood up, and took her place at the back of the line.

Madeline still tried to reassure herself quietly, reminding herself that lots of schools had different atmospheres and policies, but none of her assurances proved to be of any help in calming her erratic heartbeat. Then the man in the suit arrived.

It was a very expensive tailored black suit, accentuated by the stark white pinstripes that ran through it, yet it did not quite fit its wearer, a man with short black hair in his early 30’s, who could have just as easily have blended into a crowd unnoticed. He took a position at the head of the line formed to the left, and raised his right hand. Upon this gesture, everyone in the line stiffened up, and began to walk ahead at the drop of the suited man’s hand.

Madeline tentatively followed, looking around nervously as she traced the footsteps of the faceless one in front of her. The journey wound through typical hallways, seemingly touring the finer features of the school, until the line passed through a doorway, and everything changed.

Walls made of brick now succumbed to dark cinder block, as the hallway led into a stairwell that penetrated down into the depths of the school’s basements, and the natural ambiance of fluorescent light turned into eerie light granted only by torch. It was this change of scenery that changed Madeline’s outlook on the situation from slightly stressed to thoroughly freaked out.

She began to weigh her options as the line marched ahead, but suited men lined the corridor, waiting to dispatch any escape attempt that she might lodge. So instead, she kept in line, which had began to slow to a stop. Up ahead, the warm orange glow of torchlight was accented by a cold blue glow, and in the shadows of the blue glow she could she the tall uniformed woman, and an older man, wearing a lab coat.

Almost as if they could feel Madeline’s curious and frightened stare, the man in the lab coat quickly pulled across a curtain, hiding their actions from those in the line, yet those in the line held their position, head forward, like a soul deprived person waiting for their next command.

Like the ticking metronome of time, the line slowly ticked off, person after person, until it was just Madeline, and the faceless one in front of her. As she approached the curtain, the man in the lab coat swung it open, granting her a cold half smile before ushering the faceless one into their workspace.

The man in a lab coat, presumably a doctor, raised the sleeve of the faceless girl’s shirt, and rose a syringe to his side in his other hand. The girl turned, and looked at the doctor, and it was then that Madeline watched as a single tear rolled down the girl’s cheek, and the doctor pierced her flesh, injecting the contents of the syringe. Seconds later, the girl fell lifelessly to the floor, and was pulled away by the tall, uniformed woman.

Madeline turned to run, but the men fortifying the corridor now stood behind her, and upon her first misstep, grabbed her, and held her in place, pulling her towards the doctor as her screams echoed against the cold concrete walls.

“Stop! Why are you doing this?,” she pleaded, and as the men pulled her forward, the doctor looked at her in the eyes as he lifted her sleeve.

“We tried,” he said, and then he quickly jammed the filled syringe into Madeline’s arm, and Madeline’s screams slowly faded, just as her world, into the black.