After our introductory intimidation, we were led out of the atrium, through a lobby with several connecting hallways. The lobby looked like a small resort. The walls were paneled with wood. Outer walls were made of concrete and stone. Large windows showed dense tropical vegetation. There were sofas and chairs for waiting and a help desk.
Most of the hallways curved away from the main lobby obscuring what might be down them. One wide hallway was short and strait. It had doors off either side and looked like it opens outside at the end.
We were taken down a branching hallway. After several branches, the hallway changed from wood and stone, to painted concrete blocks with more branches.
Inside a doorway near the end of a hallway we were taken into a sort of dorm. There was a largish room with a mirror along one wall, lockers on the opposite wall and benches for sitting in the middle. A room beyond contained bunk beds. and beyond that a rest room with sinks, toilets, and showers.
We were introduced to our supervisor and assigned a bunk to sleep. In the sleeping rooms, sixteen beds were stacked on either side. The central corridor through the room is lined with low tables that could be used for sitting or setting things. On this table at the end of each bunk were piles of folded clothes. Each bed had sheets stacked on it.
We were allowed to shower and dress using the clothes on the table by our assigned bunk. our old clothes were removed in trash bags.
The wall In the bathroom is reflective like a mirror but something about it did not seem like a mirror. It did not have the glass depth which a mirror usually has. The reflection was on the surface. It seemed odd, I never figured out why.
After showering, We were shown the break room where we would attend meetings and eat meals. We were then split into groups and taken to our work assignments. I was tasked with cleaning bathrooms in mornings and working in the kitchen in afternoons. Evenings held another round of cleaning and sleep. I would wake up to another round the next day. There are no weekends off. The only breaks we have are walking between shifts with a short ten minute stop at our dorm for freshening up, and meal times, which lasts for twenty minutes.
I settled into my daily routine. What else could I do? I don’t know who these people are, where I am, or how I could possibly get off this island. I thought, I have a degree in sociology, and I’m being forced to clean toilets.
