Day Twenty-Four

Day 24: 25 Aug 2010

Slept on the hard concrete floor last night. If you've never done so, I really don't recommend it. At all. My back and neck were like granite knots, and my arms felt like the blood had drained out of them.

Nothing happened for a while. I just sat around stretching out my arms and legs, trying to work the kinks out of my spine; I'd given up yelling the day before. My BlackBerry's battery died sometime during the night -- it was useless in a concrete box anyway, as there was no signal. But I don't wear a watch, so I couldn't tell you what time when the door finally opened. Day, I think, but I had no way to be sure.

A young man in a black suit and white shirt walked into the room. He was short, but muscular, with close-cropped black hair. He held a tazer in one hand and dragged a wooden chair with the other. He put the chair in the center of the room and pointed to it. When I just stared at him instead of sitting it the chair, he brandished the tazer, then pointed to the chair again.

I sat down. The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a small case. As he opened it, I could see it contained a syringe and a needle. I started to stand up again, but the man glared at me and waved the tazer. I sat still.

There were no drugs. That surprised me. Instead, the muscular little man took a vial of blood from my left arm, and did it very competently.

He handed me a bandage. As I placed the bandage on my arm, he put the syringe back in the case and left the room.

A few minutes later, the door opened. A tray of food -- two greasy takeout burgers and two bottles of water -- slid in.

And that's it. That's all that happened today.