Sickening Thoughts

Chapter 7

Aurora nudged James with her knee. He stirred and looked at her.

"What?"

"C'mon we're gonna go look around, remember? The cure?"

"We don't know for sure if there's a cure yet"

"Oh come on, our chances are high. Let's go".

Aurora got up and stuck a hand out to help him up. She picked the lock while James made sure nobody walked by, and then they sneaked out of the cell. They both cringed at how surprisingly loud the door was, but luckily nobody woke up. 

"Okay" Aurora whispered "You go down the left hall and I'll go down the right. I'm pretty sure it loops around so we can meet up on the other side".

"See you on the other side soldier" he said in a fake deep voice, and lazily saluted her. She laughed, though it hurt because the sickness seemed to be getting worse.

"Stop it hurts to laugh" Aurora said, but smiled at him. She lazily saluted at him as they both went separate ways. As Aurora went down the dark hallway, she saw a small closet and lightly knocked on it before going in. She felt a string and pulled on it; a light flickered on afterwards.       

This must be the Janitor's closet, she thought, though quickly rejected the idea. She saw a row of boxes labeled "Important". Aurora took one down and looked inside to see... syringes? But why would they even have these. When you're sick, you're meant to live the rest of your short life here, a place where you can die without infecting anyone else. But if that was so then how did people keep on getting infected? And why would they have these syringes? Were they for the medicine? She put the box back up and put my hand on the doorknob when she heard a familiar noise.

It was the clomping of the guards boots. Aurora quickly turned the light off and held her breath. She heard the guard knock on the door. 

"Hello? Who's in there?". She stayed silent, in hope that he would forget about it and walk away. "Answer me!" he demanded, jiggling the knob. Aurora had locked the door, but she wasn't sure how long that would last her.  He started slamming against the door and she backed into the left corner, scrunched up so that he hopefully wouldn't notice her, and if he did it would be harder to get her because I could hold onto the shelf. The lock broke and he and Aurora locked eyes.

"On your feet!" He yelled. Aurora stood up and said "Shh, people are sleeping ya know. Kind of rude to be yelling at this hour don't you think?". He glared at her, though she was proud of her remark. As they were walking down the hallway,  Aurora heard someone's footsteps behind them. James! She turned around to face the guard so James wouldn't be seen. "What are you doing?" the guard questioned. "Stay by my side."

"But isn't it more fun this way? she asked anxiously, still standing in front of him. Aurora subtly motioned for James to move back into the cell from the other side, but as soon as the guard turned around, they both knew they were screwed.

"What the bloody hell are you doing out now? Get in, the lot of ya!". They both scurried in as he shut the door. "Give me whatever you used to pick the lock" he said, looking at them.

"I don't have anything, you must've left it open" Aurora lied. He looked at her with a stern expression, "Don't make me call the other guards over here young lady". She scrunched up her face at him calling her young lady, then she sourly handed over the bobby pin she had found. "Now, go off to sleep, before I make ya". They both turned over; Aurora made James sleep on the mattress while she slept on the floor. After I got him into this trouble, and knew that I'd cause him more trouble on the way from plans I'd already stirred up, he deserved to rest comfortably, she thought

"Goodnight, young lady" James said, mocking the guard while laughing.

"Oh shut up" Aurora said, lightly kicking his foot. 



After a while of silence, I whispered, "James... are you still awake?". I was sitting on the floor, looking over at him.

"Yes" he mumbled.

"Well, I found something before the guard caught me". He sat up, intrigued by my statement. 

"Oh? What was it?"

"It was this little closet, and inside the first thing I noticed was a shelf with a bunch of boxes... filled with syringes."

"...What? Was there anything in them?"

"No, they were empty. But it's suspicious right? We have to check it out again"

"Auri you've gotten in enough trouble"

"No such thing" I said

"I'm serious, I d-" he hesitated. "I just don't want you to get hurt, okay?" his tone was without a trace of humor or sarcasm.

"Alright.. I'll talk to you in the morning. Goodnight". I turned over on my side and went to sleep.



In the morning, I was already awake and sitting in a corner of the cell when James woke up. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. 

"Did you even get any sleep?" he asked

"...More or less"

"How much"

"Thirty minutes"

"That's not enough! You need to rest".

"I'm fine". I looked at Elizabeth and had a realization. I gasped "James! Elizabeth has a bobby pin in her hair"

"No, you're just going to get in more trouble".

"I could also find a possible cure to our deaths"

"...Fine. But I'm coming with you"

"Thank you. Tonight?"

"Sure. But how are we going to get the bobby pin from her? Use the force?"

"We could just tell her the truth"

"She'll never believe us, are you mad?"

"A little bit" I said, smirking. A guard came by and handed us breakfast. I pushed mine away and scooted to the left wall of our cell.

"Hey Elizabeth"

"Auri" he grabbed my arm, but I ignored him.

"Yes?"

"Can I have the bobby pin in your hair?"

"...Why?"

"What if I told you that there may be a cure to this disease, one that I'm willing to bet is hiding right under our noses".