The Lorèn Project [Discontinued]

Chapter 3

"Everyone deals with the same demons, just different levels."

~~~

Alicia walked away leaving me alone with the four children. They were all looking at me interested in who I am. I smiled at them before walking closer.

"Hi, my names Aya. What were you guys playing?" I asked curiously. Noah and Ryan answered me quickly excited in my interest to know. "We were playing cops and robbers. Wanna play with us?" The two boys looked at me hopefully and I couldn't say no. "Sure I'll play with you for a little bit," I said with a smile, kinda excited to play. I never got to play with kids in my entire life.

~~~

I played with the boys for about an hour and I became really tired. These boys have a lot of energy. "Aya are you tired already? You're such an old lady!" They laughed at me before running off. 'Those little--'

"Aya wanna play with us instead?" Tessa asked with a smile. Renee simply nodded shyly before giving me a small smile. She's cute, must be really shy. I was expecting her to be full of energy.

I followed the two girls over to the corner of the room and decided to ask. It's been plaguing my mind since I've met them.

"It's not my business or anything but where're your parents?" I asked carefully not wanting to thread on a thin line. Tessa looked at me and sighed. These kids must be around ten or eleven their quite mature.

Tessa spoke up first and Renee looked away sad. "Our parents all died from the diseases. We all grew up together in an orphanage. We found out we were immune after Alicia brought us to the clinic. They began testing people for immunity. We are the only ones they've found that's been immune." She told me with a small frown. She's very brave for taking care of these guys.

"You did a good job taking care of these guys. Good job Tessa." I said with a smile then Tessa started tearing up which surprised me. "Thanks, Aya, everyone was always telling me to take care of these guys. It's stressful sometimes but I love them. They're my only family, like my brothers and sister." She said while tearing up to full on sobbing.

Renee followed suit then the boys came over after noticing them crying. I grabbed Tessa by her small shoulders and hugged her gently. The other three followed through and I hugged them all. I was whispering calming words and I felt good for once in my life.

~~~

After our little crying session, they all went back to playing and it made me happy that they could live full lives. They were good kids and they deserved it.

I was sitting watching them all with a small smile on my face, happy that I was given the opportunity to watch them.

As I was sitting there watching them, a loud boom was heard down the hall.

"What was that?" I said to myself and looked at the kids to see them looking at me scared. Tessa looking brave as she stood in front of Renee protecting her.

I told her to hide in the corner of the room while I checked out the hallway. She nodded and quietly hid in the corner.

I tipped toed to the door and opened it slowly. I looked down the hall to see smoke covering everything. What's going on? I pulled out my phone and dialed my father's number. I waited for him to answer. He finally answered and He sounded panicked.

"Father? What's going on?" I said nervously. "Aya! You need to get out of here with the children! The rebels are here and they're out for blood! I don't know what they want but--" then the phone went silent and all I heard was the sound of choking then nothing.

"Father?" I asked again but no sounds came from the phone. "Father!" I yelled into the phone but still no sound. I tried to hold back the tears but I couldn't and they overflowed. Did something happen to my father? Did he. .die?

I couldn't shake the uneasy feeling and tried to focus on protecting the children. They were my priority and I couldn't lose them. I pulled the windows open from the room we were in and noticed that they weren't that high up.

We could climb down from here, without getting hurt too. I looked at the kids and told them my plan. Tessa nodded in agreement while Renee and the boys were kinda nervous.

I opened the window all the way and told Tessa to go first, she hopped down with no hesitation. She looked up at me and said it was clear. I helped the others down as they were nervous before getting myself down.

Once all of them were down I told them to hide in the tree line before I was down to protect them. Before I even got to step a foot out the window, someone threw open the door.

In the doorway stood a man who was at least in his thirties. He looked like some bad ass marine sent out on some mission. He had a deep scar on his forehead across his brow. His hair was short and dark brown, with dark hazel eyes. He was the epitome of intimidation, it was kinda unnerving. He must've been here for the children.

He glared at me then in a deep, bored tone he asked me, "Where are the children woman?" I stood as still as a statue before I climbed out the window and ripped off my left glove. This poison can come in handy. I slammed the window shut and melted the lock before jumping down into the unknown. What was I going to do?

Edited (8/4/2017)