The End Of Nothing And The Beginning Of It All

Chapter Twenty: Hope

As much as I didn't want to, I woke up and decided to treat the day as if everything was normal. I took kid to school and dropped him off despite his reluctancy again. As much as I didn't want to be separated from him, I decided it was probably as safer place as any at the moment. I decided to have a walk around camp, trying to find the old man from yesterday. I asked everywhere after him but no one had seen where he was. It was as if he had just disappeared. Now I was starting to think I was imagining things. Maybe Henry was right? But I knew I had seen him. After asking around, I found out he was last seen with Randy last night. I remembered that Randy was the nice man who showed us to our room on the first day. Now I know I definitely didn't imagine him. So I started asking around after Randy. I came across a man named Peter who explained that it was unlike Randy to not show up for his work shift but that he couldn't be found anywhere. This was getting stranger. How were people just disappearing? How can you lose someone in a cordened off camp with no escape unless they physically left the perimeter? I spent the rest of the day searching every inch of camp. Even the places I probably wasn't allowed in. But there was nothing. No signs of either Randy or the old man. I had to tell Henry about this. Once I had found Henry, I explained everything I had discovered. His face had a confused expression on it again. It was clear he didn't understand any of this either. He explained that he found nothing on the old man and that after asking most of the guards, there was no evidence of such severe punishments ever being used. However Henry had asked Tanya, as I suggested, who told him the truth and explained everything she had seen.
"Hope, I am sorry if it seemed like I doubted you. I agree there's something not quite right here. Before you arrived I knew of nothing like this. This place had been my saviour and the only family I really remembered. But maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough at what was going on in front of my own eyes." he explained with regret in his voice.
"Please don't be sorry. I never meant to be so harsh on you but I needed you to see the truth as you are always so willing to see the good. I didn't want you to be part of something you weren't 100% sure about as I care about you" I explained to him.
"OK, well we need to keep this under wraps for a bit longer until we find out what's really happened. We need to continue as normal. Remember that we will always have each other to confide in and will decide on the next step together. I'm always here for you Hope. I promise". His words touched my heart. I'd never had anyone be there for me before. Shortly after, we parted ways I picked up kid from school and we went back to our room to end another unusual day.