The Run Aways

Chapter Two

Naomi's POV

Early the next morning, my alarm went off. I heard the groans of the other girls as the alarm woke them up too. We'd been through this routine so many times, us waking up, spreading out to the different bathrooms in the house and leaving at 7:45 once all of us are ready to go. The four of us climbed into Jessica's car. We wouldn't be going to school today as we have a project for one of our classes at the hospital. As Jess drove us to Tuscan Hospital, we all discussed what we would do our project on. When Mrs. Kelley gave everyone the assignment, there were three options, but since we don't like doing the bare minimum, we decided to do all three of the options.

"So are we going to write about everything the hospital does or just a certain part?" Hazel asked. I wondered the same thing, but personally believing we'd have a better base on our assignment is we focused on one part. After speaking these thoughts to the girls, they agreed. After another hour in the car, we finally reached the hospital. Each of us had a notebook, a pen, and a paper of questions we had written down. As we walked into the hospital, we were greeted by the receptionist.

"Hello, ladies. My name is Cassidy March, I'll be taking you on a tour today! Don't worry, I've already sent your school an email saying you were here and working on your assignment." After we all thanked her and introduced ourselves, the tour began. I asked the first question, "What are all the programs you have? Like ICU, NICU, etcetera?" I started writing as she told us about all the available care units the hospital allowed, one that stuck out was their STU, Sick Teen Unit. The four of us decided we wanted to focus on that for our project, thinking it would most relate. 

Miss March took us to a part of the hospital, explaining all the different sections, also known as wings, and about their different hospitals spread out to the neighboring cities. They had their 'Main Campus' which is where we currently were, 'Corporate' which is where the head people were, and their branching 'Daughter Companies' which were the hospitals in other cities. All four of us were constantly taking notes, which of comforting because we knew we could get every bit of information and if one person didn't get it, we know someone else did.

The tour continued with us constantly asking questions about the unit and its program and Miss March answering every question we threw at her with perfection. Then finally came the time when she gave us permission to look around and ask some of the patients questions. She left the room, leaving us to ask the teens questions. I went up to a girl with no hair, bright green eyes, and a book in her hands. 

"Excuse me, miss, I was wondering if I could speak with you for just a moment." I used all my manners and gave the young girl a smile, she had to be at most fifteen years old. The girl nodded, scooching over in her bed and inviting me to sit. "How long have you been here? And do you know when you'll be healthy enough to leave?" I asked, starting with the hard question to get it out of the way. "I've been here since I was twelve, and I'll never be able to leave. Doctors say I have stage three lung cancer and an underdeveloped heart. They say that unless I have a miracle, then I'm due to die this time next year. I don't believe them though." Her last statement shocked me. What did she mean 'I don't believe them.' When I decided to ask, she shook her head. "It's not safe for you here, you need to leave. Run. They know you four exist now. They'll do everything in their power to keep you here." She stated. The young girl didn't speak anymore, just went back to her book. I believe she's been reading too much and is mixing reality with fantasy. The other children were asleep, so we decided to head up a set of stairs that were in the corner.

As we approached the stairs, all the kids yelled 'no' at the same time. Then the girl from before spoke up. "If you go up there, you'll never come back." The four of us looked at each other with raised brows. Why were these kids so determined to scare us? Was there really anything up there to be scared of? I shrug my shoulders. "Alright, how about this. Hazel, you and Serenity stay down here, Jess and I will go explore upstairs?" Jess looked at me like I grew a second head. "Why do I have to go with you?!" She exclaimed in fear. I looked at her with a look that said 'seriously?' "You act like the worst monster ever is going to be up there, now come on, let's go," I drug the girl up the stairs with me.

The first thing I notice is how dark it is up here. There's little to no light, so I use my iPhone flashlight to view what was up here. The first thing I noticed were bars, like jail cells almost. Looking inside of one, I see a young boy, around the age of fourteen. "Hey, kiddo," I spoke up with a quiet tone, as not to scare the poor child. The boy looked at me with fear evident in his eyes. "Please get me out of here..." His voice came out in a hushed whisper as if he was scared to speak. "Are you okay?" I questioned, holding the bars softly. The child shook his head vigorously. "You have to get us out of here," he continued to whisper. "Us?" I asked him, were there more children up here? "We've been stuck up here for years, please, you have to help us." He begged me, his brown eyes wide and filled with tears. "How many of you are there?" I continued with my questions. "I don't know, there's too many to keep count..." His voice got quieter and quieter with every word he spoke. "The very last cell, around the corner and at the end of the corridor, the first teen to get trapped in here, she may know." It began to grow difficult to hear him as his words continued to soften, but I managed to catch the last bit and nod. "Thank you."

I followed the young boy's instructions, finding a girl around my age. "Hi there. What's your name?" I asked the teen. She looked at me with pure hatred in her eyes. "As if you even care," she spat, going back to the book she was reading. "I do care. I would like to help all of you if I can." I stated, Jess joined me, nodding her head. "If you can help us, we'll try our hardest to help you," she tried to coax the girl, but she wasn't having it.

Her brown hair swept the floor as she walked over to the bars. "I've been here, for eight years. They know everyone in this room, and how all of us look. If you try to get us out, not only will they catch us, they'll lock you up too. You best leave if you know what is good for you, and I'm not saying that as a suggestion, I am telling you. Take yourself and any other little friends that you have, and run. Run away, and never look back. These people are evil. Unless you plan on dying in this prison, then you should go. Don't go to the police, don't go to an adult, don't go to any kind of authority. All of them are trying to destroy our generation and keep theirs alive. This hospital and I'm sure many others have been too, is doing research on how to use us, to keep themselves young. It sounds crazy, but that's what the last generation is. They are all insane. The hospital knows of your existence now, so unless you want to become their next guinea pig, you better run away from here as fast as you can. Now go." After her long statement, I just watched her. I was curious about what they were trying to do. "I. Said. Go." Her tone was a warning, telling me that she wasn't joking.

I grabbed Jessica's arm and ran back to the staircase we came up here from. When we reached the main room again, we grabbed Serenity and Hazel before running out of the hospital, telling the receptionist that we had all the information we needed for the project before getting to the car as quickly as possible without looking suspicious. "We need to get back to Serenity's house before anything can be said, and you guys, there's a lot that we need to do," Jessica said, leaving the hospital quickly before getting on the main highway to go back to the house they came from.

I'm terrible at updating, but here's a chapter for you all! You can thank my friend for demanding a new chapter. I'm trying to make myself an update schedule, but as I've said many many times, I'm horrible at those, so bare with me! Hope you enjoyed, let me know what you think is gonna happen next!

S_O