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( 08 一 ROAD TRIPS AND WARM SHOWERS. )
A gap in the curtain left the early morning light streaming directly into Clara's eyes. Looking over at the clock on the wall she could see it was only six. Despite this both Liam and Ruby's beds were empty.
Clara felt gross and sticky as she always did after nightmares. She stood from her place on the floor, careful to avoid Chubs, and made her way into the bathroom, taking care to lock the door behind herself.
Clara stripped her clothes from her body, standing in front of the mirror. It was the first time she'd seen herself in years, at least since hitting puberty. The only mirrors they had at Thurmond were the grimy squares that could hardly hold half her face.
She could tell she was too skinny by her first glance. Malnutrition had left her boney, she could easily count her ribs. She didn't look quite as sickly as she expected, but she definitely looked pale, though that could just be from exhaustion. Despite resting for hours Clara still felt impossibly drained.
Leaving the mirror and what it held behind Clara turned on the shower. The water was so hot it was almost blistering, but that's how Clara liked it. After years of lukewarm streams it was nice to have a little heat.
The water cascaded down her back as she scrubbed at her skin. She lathered every inch of her body in the dingy motel soap before moving on to her hair.
At Thurmond each cabin was designated one haircut per year. Unfortunately, Clara missed her last haircut due to contracting gastro which left her vomiting in the infirmary for a week. The PSF's never rescheduled so Clara's hair had made its way down to the end of her shoulder blades. Clara made sure to drown her hair in shampoo and conditioner, washing out all the dirt and grease that had accumulated. By the time she finished her hair was knot free, though still a little dull from malnutrition.
By the time she finished the room was stuffy with hot air and the mirror had fogged over with condensation. Clara didn't mind, she'd rather not see herself in the thing. She dressed in her clothes from the League, absentmindedly running her hand over the broken fabric where the trackers were held.
Realising she'd probably taken up more than her fair share of bathroom time Clara exited the room. Zu and Chubs were both still in bed but Liam and Ruby had returned. Catching sight of her Liam sent her a warm smile before attempting to wake the others.
"Up and at em' team, we've got a big day ahead of us," Liam stated while clapping his hands. Chubs grumbled and turned back over while Zu sat up bleary-eyed.
Eventually with a surprisingly small amount of complaining from Chubs, they all piled in Black Betty, Liam in the driver's seat.
As they sat in the van Liam had the radio playing, old classics drifting through the speakers. The kind Clara's aunt would play when Clara visited when she was younger. She spent a lot of time with her Aunt Lisa after her dad left. There was a period where she and her brother spent a few months living with her while her mother was off doing god knows what.
Other than the occasional news report on food shortages or the ever increasing unemployment rate it was quite peaceful. That was until Clancy Gray's voice filtered through the speakers.
"If I can be cured, you can be cured."
Clara had mixed emotions when it came to Clancy. He had left her at Leda Corp, that was true, but hadn't she done the same thing to Nico? So how was she any better than him? It was his stupid slogan that angered her. She knew that they couldn't be cured, and she was sure he knew it too.
"God I hate that freaking slogan," Chubs muttered.
"Tell me about it," Clara said. She knew Clancy's dad would pull something like this if he ever got out, he said so himself during one of his visits, but she didn't think they'd still be milking it. "I know damn well there isn't some miracle cure or we'd all be out of the camps by now. They didn't find jackshit when I was in the testing program."
A tense energy passed over the car when Clara mentioned Leda Corp. No one had brought up her nightmare last night which Clara was grateful for but she knew they were curious. It was only natural.
"They really didn't find anything?" Liam asked hesitantly. "I mean, I know it must have been awful, truly horrible, but surely it wasn't all for nothing."
Clara sighed. The truth is, when she was swaying the scientists, she saw their final conclusions. IT was hard to understand for a nine year old but she got the jist of it. No conclusions could be found as to IAAN's cause or any possible cures. That could have changed since Clara had left but still, if there was a cure they probably would have known about it by now.
But she couldn't exactly tell the others this, so she lied a little. "Before I was transferred I found a folder with all their final conclusions. They hadn't found a cause or a cure," Clara said. Liam nodded solemnly.
"How did they test you?" Chubs asked suddenly. By the look on his face Clara could tell he didn't intend to be insensitive, he was actually just curious.
"You don't have to answer that," Liam said, sending a sharp look to Chubs. Chubs, looking at least a little bit guilty, agreed. "He's right, that was invasive, you don't have to answer."
Clara shook her head at him, nonverbally telling him he was fine. She didn't know how to answer that question. What they did to her as an Orange was different to what they did to a Yellow, or a Blue.
"Well, for me, sometimes they were testing how I reacted to pain, other times how my brain waves changed when exposed to electricity. Sometimes they would perform surgeries, try and find anything abnormal. They might have been doing other things, we were never quite sure, they always told us the bar minimum," Clara explained softly. The surgeries were always the worst with the longest recovery time. At least when they shocked her the twitching would stop after a few days.
"We? How many others were there?" Chubs asked.
"My friends and I counted once when we were in the cafeteria. We thought there were roughly forty other kids of varying abilities. By the time they shut the lab there were probably around twenty five kids left."
"What do you mean 'left'? Did they let the others go, like you? Enrol them in the camp system?" Liam asked innocently. Chubs shot him a look, ever the genius he had caught on that they weren't just "let go".
"After I think about two years, the government started putting more pressure on Leda Corp for results. The experiments became more extreme, a lot of kids died after that. My cellmate, Poppy, passed during that time," Clara said, her voice dropping slightly at the mention of Poppy.
Poppy had been an Orange too. The only other female Orange in the facility.
Clara felt a warm pressure on her arm. Looking down she found Zu, her gloved hand pressed against Clara, her toothy smile shining up at her.
