The Lost Ones

3 - Lela

When you're trying to escape from a disease-infested cage for ten years, you get used to running.

The rows of trees and thorny bushes never seemed to end. I had no time to stop and bandage the bleeding scratches and cuts that decorated my limbs. Adrian had been caught, but he told me to run. Was I being disloyal? I was obeying orders.... but he's my best friend. I blinked the tears away from my eyes. As I speed away through the green of the forest, I see an old house in the distance. Is it abandoned? It looks like it. I could still use a place to rest and think up a plan, though.

I slowed down when I thought they gave up chasing me. I stood for a few minutes, catching my breath. My heart was beating too fast and the world was spinning around me. I made my way into the house, pushing the door open, trying to make as little sound as possible.

"Hello? Is anyone... here?" I called out. Light poured in through a large window; everything seemed too clean for the house to have been uninhabited after all this time. I tiptoed silently across the room, then got pushed violently to the floor.

"Who are you? Who do you work for?" A girl had pinned me on to the ground so I was unable to move. I tried to struggle, to get away. I suddenly felt cold metal on my throat.

"My...name...is...Lela....I....escaped....please....." The girl's brown eyes were piercing and seemed to look into my soul.

She let me go and my hands went up to my neck automatically. A drop of blood fell on to my finger, but nothing too dangerous. Grabbing a small bandage out of my bag, I frowned at her.

"Is that how you treat visitors nowadays?" I felt like punching her. She only looked a few years older than me, maybe fifteen or sixteen years old?

"Look, I'm sorry, but times are rough and we need to keep safe around here. We can't risk anyone from those....hospitals," She said the word with disgust. "You say you escaped from there? Were you an experiment too?"

"Experiment? And what do you mean by we?" I asked her. She looked hard at me for a second, then stood up and faced the door behind her.

"It's okay, it's safe. It's just someone new." The girl called out. One by one, kids of all ages from toddlers to teenagers came out. It was like a refugee camp, only there were no adults.

"Gemma? Who's this? Another escapee?" Two young girls and a boy around the girl's - Gemma? - age crept out from behind the crowd of gawping kids.

"She's from the hospital, like Peri. Hey, what did you say your name was again?" Gemma turns to me.

"Lela. It's....nice to meet you all."

"Polite girl, ain't she?" Someone called from the back of the crowd. There was some laughter.

"This is Josephine, my younger sister, and Peri, who also escaped from the hospital," Josephine was her sister in miniature, with the same frizzy dark hair, but her big brown eyes were kind and gentle. Peri had straight brown hair that reached her shoulders and a smile that warmed your heart. "Seph, take Lela to the hospital. She'll be immune if they kept her in the hospital, for testing, but Riaja should check her in case she's a carrier of the disease."

Josephine took my hand and led me down a dark staircase, that was only lit by a few lamps that glowed a vague orange colour. In the basement, we had to put on white suits, that had obviously been stolen from the hospital. The sick lay in hospital beds, but there were high walls between them, probably to keep infection away. An older girl, but only about nineteen years old, was leaning over one teenage girl with crazy blonde curls cut short. 

"I'm training to be a healer here. I've only got a months training to go; that's what Riaja said. She's the head healer around these parts," She pointed to the older girl. "Hey, Riaja! Can you spare a minute?"

"Barely," said Riaja, but she smiled fondly. "Who's this, Seph? Not another one with the disease? I'm not sure we have quite enough space."

"No, she says she's immune, but she's from the hospital, so we should check her." Josephine gave me a little push towards Riaja. 

"Hm. Yes. I'm a bit busy at the moment, so I'll get Dylan to do it. Oh, don't worry," she said at the expression on my face. "It's nothing too intrusive. We just take a swab of your cheek and put in some chemicals, which turns a different colour to see if you're carrying the disease."

About ten minutes later, it was confirmed that I was free of the disease. 

"Well, Seph, you'd better get Lela here and take her up to Peri. She always likes to give the, uh, tour of the house, doesn't she? And you'd better tell Gemma the results of the swab test. Don't want her worrying, do we?"