Hand Sanitizer Stings

The examination had been a long process. Their pale skin had many markings they could still feel from when she had poked and prodded them. One of their shaky hands gripped at a cotton bud slapped over where a needle had pierced them.

They had been fitted in an uncomfortably tight shiny black outfit, but at least it kept the cold from biting at their skin any longer, or at least anywhere but their exposed midriff.

‘Khione’ had sent them from the nursery without so much as a goodbye. It hurt a bit. Now they were being escorted by a short Inkling who Khione had called ‘Axel’ to some sort of train. The same white-walled hallways only decorated with big steel doors were starting to blend together as the two traversed them, the minutes stretching to the point it was beginning to feel like they had been walking for hours.

Their gaze drifted idly to the yellow bracelet Khione had fastened on their wrist before she had made them leave. The only part of the strap that didn’t seem to reflect the overhead lights was the big black lettering that said ‘Subject 10158’. They weren’t exactly sure what it meant, but messing with the bracelet and making the reflected light dance was somewhat interesting, so they did that as they walked.

After a few more minutes they finally exited the corridors, entering into a very large open space. The walls were aged gray concrete and they seemed to stretch on forever, probably because of the lack of lighting. The platform was steel grating that made a funny noise when they walked on it with their metal-heeled boots, there were many staircases made from the same material leading to other platforms that slowly descended to the ground floor. On these staircases were other Octoling and Inklings going about their days.

Despite how badly they wanted to explore or interact with this new place and these new people, Axel led them away from everything to a solitary and quite narrow staircase that spiraled straight down to the ground floor.

“Take this.” He instructed, his sharp yellow gaze boring into them was enough to stop them from looking around curiously anymore. “It will lead you straight to the Deep Sea Metro. Take the next train that comes. Do NOT miss it.”

With his serious speech done he turned on his heel and left. Leaving them all alone to stare down the staircase. After a moment of hesitation they finally began to descend the steps.

Finally reaching a solid ground made of concrete rather than thin metal suspended in the air was a bit of a relief, but how dark it was down there was the opposite of that. They stood silently at the platform.

That was until a bellow broke through the silence, followed by a bright glow piercing the darkness, all emanating from the tunnel in the wall. They craned their neck to peer at the new sight and sound, but a long locomotive tearing through the station quickly sent them recoiling.

The entire underground seemed to shake with the force of the train as it charged through the station. And then all at once, it stopped as the train came to a halt. They stood rigid in its presence, prepared for the ground to shake again, but it didn’t. Instead, the doors opened with a neat swish.

Following Axel’s words, they gingerly stepped onto the train. The doors closed behind them, and the train roared out of the station.

They stared around at the new area. It was almost as dark as the outside, with only a few of the fluorescent lights even working. The only colour in the carriage was the windows being caked in graffiti. A distant glow caught their eye and they turned their head to find a strange individual with softly glowing blue hair and a similarly glowing green eye. His other eye was squinted underneath a giant green scar that stretched down his face.

A shiver went up their spine.

“Are you Subject 10,158?” He seemed to have noticed they were staring at him, adjusting his indigo hat with a clear of his throat.

They didn’t respond.

He frowned “Hello? Anybody in there? Subject 10,158?” He waved a hand in front of their face. They held out their wrist, showing off the yellow strap with numbers matching his question.

“So you are. Yet you refused to respond to me. Great. Well I was going to be nice, introduce myself as Malcolm, the conductor who will be getting you from test to test. The whole conversation, pleasantries and all. But no, you chose to ignore me, so now I’m going to ignore you, Subject 10,158.” ‘Malcolm’ bit, crossing his arms and turning his head away from them.

They shrunk away at his outburst. They simply stared at him, unsure of what to do, before ultimately deciding that their shoes were more interesting.

They hadn’t noticed that one of the graffiti-coated windows was ajar until the train left the tunnel it had been going down, exposing them to a sharp breeze that caused their skin to prickle. They rubbed their arms and let out a shaky breath as the horrible cold feeling took over once more.

Malcolm, who had been failing to pretend he wasn’t looking at them, frowned. “Cod, you’re shaking like a leaf.” He murmured. Pity was clear in his gaze and for some reason they found themself feeling even more uncomfortable.

“Anyway,” He continued on as if none of that had happened, “You were created for testing. Testing what I hear you ask?” He looked at them expectantly.

They stared back.

“...even though I don’t because you are a very rude octopus.” He mutters bitterly before resuming in full swing. “Sanitization! You see, Kamabo Corporation specializes in it. We have been testing for many years. Minus the… brief period where we delved into medicine for some reason.” He curled his lip.

“You'll be glad to know we're under much better management now. So, if you do end up failing, I'm glad to announce your sanitisation process won't have any stupid therapy nonsense in it. Like really, why would subjects need therapy after what we put them through?” He scoffed, folding his arms behind his back and rocking back and forth on his heels.

They tilted their head. Sanitization? Therapy? His explanation hadn’t made much sense, but they were happy to listen. This was the first person who didn’t coldly disregard them and said the bare minimum, this was someone who decided to chat their ear off. It was a nice change of pace.

The rumbling of the train soon stilled. The door closest to where they had sat down at some point during Malcolm's ramblings opened. Both heads turned towards the new entrance, one wore an expression of cautious curiosity, while the other was flat with familiarity towards the event.

“Well, 10,158.” Malcolm spoke up once more. His casual, if not a bit salty, tone was replaced with a more professional one and he gestured towards the door. “Please step out of the carriage and to the equipper, from there select a weapon and proceed into the test.”

They got to their feet and began approaching the door, but hesitated at the threshold. They peeked back at Malcolm, who was watching them expectantly.

“I will be watching. Goodbye Subject.” He smiled. It was clearly a forced one, probably part of the job. And yet, they smiled back.

Their first goodbye.

They sent him a small wave and stepped out of the train into the first test.