Valuable

Chapter One

'Dr Angie! Hurry, you must see what is going on through here! The serum hasn't worked the way we planned. The patient is reacting to it as a rash'

'She's fine. Keep her here for a couple more hours, monitor her heart rate and breathing rate closely. After that, take her back to her room."

'Ok, but I really do think it's time to let her go...you know...out into the real world. She's been here for years now, and nothing has worked yet.'

'We will discuss this in the morning. She will be fine.'

Bonnie accidently overheard this conversation between the doctor and the assistant, she clearly wasn't as unconscious as they thought she was.

Bonnie was a girl who had never seen anything of the world outside of these grounds. She was born in a lab with doctors who claimed that they wanted to make the world a 'better place' by trying to lower the number of deaths caused by diseases and viruses.

Bonnie only knew the inside of the place she was raised and the rooms where they experimented on her. The doctors and nurses always told her 'It's too dangerous outside for a little girl like you', and 'if you ever go outside these walls, you will never get back in'. So, in Bonnie's mind, the thought of being sent out there, all alone, with nowhere to go, and nobody to help her, twisted her stomach into knots.

Lavender, a slim blond-haired girl with bright, sparkly blue eyes, was sitting in a velvet grey chair at the edge of her bed, waiting for Bonnie to get back from her serum injection.

Bonnie was also quite a slim girl with long, silky brunette hair and hazel-toned eyes. None of the children in the labs had much weight to them, they were constantly being injected with serums which, the majority of the time, made them severely ill.

Several hours later, Bonnie was escorted back to her room absolutely shattered, with barely enough energy to stand. Lavender had already fallen asleep on her little grey chair when Bonnie arrived. It took Bonnie a while to get changed into her pyjamas with the lack of energy. She found a small chocolate bar that was on her bedside table from the day before, she nibbled on it slowly and then snuggled into bed for some much-needed rest. This serum felt different from all the others, this one made her feel like she was jelly and had no feeling left inside of her.

*

A week later, Bonnie was still feeling the aftermath of the serum. She woke up every morning feeling serious pain in her abdomen, this concerned her very slightly, but she decided she didn't want to tell the doctors as they might send her out into the real world.

Bonnie woke a few days later to find that a piece of paper had been folded and slipped underneath the door, it was addressed to 'Room12'. It read:

Dear Children

You are all invited to a special breakfast in the Main Hall where you will receive a specially prepared meal to ensure you are ready for the day.

Please be dressed and ready for 10:30am, you will be escorted to the Hall by the nurses. We have a special announcement for you all!

Kind Regards

Dr Angie

Bonnie got dressed and woke Lavender immediately after reading the letter. They both brushed their teeth and made their hair look presentable, then headed down to the Main Hall for the special breakfast.

Once they had arrived in front of the 6 foot wooden doors that marked the entrance to the Main Hall, all the children from the labs were standing outside the door clearly waiting patiently for Dr Angie to welcome them in.

None of the children had ever been into the Main Hall before, so this was a new experience for all of them.

When the doors were finally opened, the children saw what looked like the inside of a castle. They were standing behind three lengthy rectangular wooden tables set up along the hall which all had benches the length of the tables for them to sit on. The whole seating area was decorated with little cards which had decorative looking names on them which told everyone where they were to sit. All of the food on the tables could be smelt before the door was even opened.

Bonnie and Lavender sat in their assigned seats and were about to start digging into their food when Dr Angie walked out and stood in front of all the tables.

'Silence!' she screamed at the top of her lungs across the hall. 'Today we are joined by a very special guest who has kindly recommended that our research is used to teach students at a local University.'

The hall lit up with excitement from everyone, it clearly made them feel important, it made them feel wanted by someone.

As soon as Dr Angie sat down, a tall, young man with dark fluffy hair got up and stood in front of the tables that the children were sat at.

'Hello children, my name is Professor Green, I will be running some tests on you all to collect some data for my lectures next week. So, eat up, you will all need plenty of energy for today.'

Bonnie dug straight into the eggs and bacon on the plate in front of her followed by some toast and sausage.

"Could you all turn over your place cards to see the time written on the back. That is when I need you to be in the labs for me to run my tests."

When Lavender and Bonnie were finished eating, they turned over their place cards to find their given times.

'Bonnie – 1pm'

'Lavender – 3pm'

At 1pm, Bonnie walked down to the labs which were situated down in the basement. When Bonnie entered the room, she was greeted by, what all of the children liked to call, the 'serum bed'. This was a bed that stood vertically, and it was sat next to Professor Green who was dressed in professional PPE (Personal Protective Equipment).

Bonnie walked over and placed herself in front of the bed and stood on the foot supports while one of the nurses strapped her wrists and ankles into place along with strapping her waist to the bed. The bed then tipped itself backwards when Professor Green pushed the button, right up until the point that it lay completely horizontal.

The nurses unstrapped her waist from the bed but kept her wrists and ankles set in place with the velcro straps. This was unusual as they unstrap you fully before doing any procedures. Dr Angie then appeared through the door of the lab and talked Bonnie through the whole procedure much faster than she could understand.

'First, Professor Green will numb your left arm with some anaesthetic, then he will extract some of your blood so that he can look closely at your blood cells under a microscope lens.'

This all sounded very confusing to Bonnie

'Do you understand what is going to happen? Are we ready to go?'

Bonnie nodded enthusiastically, not quite knowing what she was getting herself into.

Professor Green injected the anaesthetic directly into her forearm which took away any feeling that her arm had before, just like Dr Angie said it would. Bonnie started to panic as Professor Green ensured that her arm was completely numb and had no feeling left at all. He explained that Bonnie wouldn't feel a thing but would need to lie very still for the procedure to work properly, for there to be no air bubbles in the blood.

The procedure was over and done with quicker than Bonnie had thought, the panic was over and the shaking that had overtaken her body left immediately.

Bonnie saw the nurses take the sample over to a microscope, transfer a drop of the blood onto a dish and slide it under the lens. The nurses didn't unstrap Bonnie from the table which started to worry her as they were done with her, as far as she knew, they didn't need her anymore.

Professor Green slid over to the bed, that Bonnie was still strapped to, in his chair and explained to her.

'The nurses are going to wheel your bed through this door and into a room where you will be totally safe and looked after.'

Bonnie started to feel drowsy and slowly fell asleep not really remembering what Professor Green had just said to her.