Subject A12: The Daughter

I'm Thomas. Some call me Tom and others call me Tommy.

My eyes  fluttered open, revealing light flooding a room that looked like a rustic hospital ward. Very rustic. The walls were made of wood...everything was made of wood.

The room was utterly bare except from a small cabinet that sat by my side, next to the make-shift bed I was laying on. It wasn't like there was much colour to liven the room up either, with the light flooding in from the only window on my right it made the place glow a sandy brown. A few specks of dust floated through the stale, musty air that harboured here which indicated that the room was far from clean. I could smell it, taste it on my tongue; the aroma of ageing wood and dry dust.

Then the door slammed open and a scraggly boy with brown hair and eyes, a scrawny and skinny build, fell into the room, gasping for breath.

He doubled over, his hands grasping at his knees in an attempt to try and stabalise himself. After a few seconds of panting and noises of exhaustion he straightened up and looked at me, physical pain and stress stamped on his sweaty face.

"You should try...running from...one end of the Glade...to here!" He wheezed. "And then climb stairs! Damn stairs!"

I simply watched him still struggle for breath, confusion surely etched over my face as to who this guy was and what he was doing racing to get here and see me.

"...Who are you?" I croaked, through a dry throat. The dust in the room had surprisingly affected me very quickly.

"Oh...Thomas. Some call me Tom and others call me Tommy."

"Uh-huh." I sat myself up into a sitting position, propping my arms onto my lap. "And why are you here?"

He laughed as if I'd just asked the dumbest question and flung his arms into the air. "You're awake! You're all anyone's been talking about!"

"Why?"

"Cause you're the second girl! And the first greenie to arrive in months!"

"Wait, wait! Second girl? And what is a Greenie? You say it as if I'm supposed to know what it means!"

Thomas shook his head and let his arms fall to his sides. There was a mixture of dirt and sweat on his face like he'd been working in a field all day. "Just c'mon and I can - wait can you walk?"

"Can I walk?" I repeated, just a little dumbfounded by his question. "Yes I can walk! I may have just woken from a black-out but I haven't forgotten how to move one foot in front of the other!"

"Well that's good! Now I'm going to show you the Glade and introduce you to everyone."

I sighed and hauled myself off the bed, following Thomas as he headed down the hall. The corridor was bare and, again, all made of wood.

"So this is the homestead." He talked as we walked, his hands waved emphasising the building we were in. "It's where we keep the sick. Med-jacks look after them - they're the closest thing we have to docters."

As we reached the end of the corridor, Thomas turned and headed down a flight of stairs that looked like they'd stood the test of time for years.

There were still a few rooms that ran to the end of the hallway that we hadn't discussed, but I presumed they were all the same as what I had been in. Since they obviously weren't so important for Thomas to talk about.

"To your left is the council hall," Thomas stated when we'd reached the bottom, "where we meet to discuss...important factors; like greenies who are yet to be assigned a job for example. You'll be having one soon."

"Yeah, OK. What's a greenie? You never clarified that."

"Greenie, newbie. They're names we use to describe anyone new to the Glade. Distinguish them from everyone else."

I rolled my eyes. "Why does that not sound like a privelage?"

Either he didn't hear me or he chose to ignore me but we continued to head out of the building and venture outside.

The glade, I figured it was called, was quite a space; the size of multiple football pitches aligned against each other. Four walls of grey stone boxed us in with only a single slit on each that were open. Doors? I questioned. They must be.

There was a lot of activity as boys crossed the grassy space; some rolled barrels others carried supplies and a few simply were heading to another job, carrying water bottles that were half empty and looking grubby and tired.

"Hey," Thomas called quickly grabbing my attention, "come over here!"

I followed him to a dug out section of the Glade. There was poles of wood made into a grid, which stood over the soiled area, with vines growing all the way along, some sprouting flowers but mostly they were thick and green.

There were also two boys working there, one I also recognised slightly, with blonde hair. They both looked strained, hunched over and digging in the dirt.

"Greenie, this is Newt." Thomas introduced me to the boy with blonde hair. He stood up as he heard his name before heading towards us with a tired smile.

I smiled back as Newt reached us, trying my best to look alive even though I felt pretty dead inside after such a groggy sleep.

"Nice to see you're awake! Thought you'd be in that bloody coma for days, Teresa was!"

I nodded, a little absentmindedly, as I learnt the name of the other girl in the Glade. I wonder what she's like.

"I see Tommy's showing ya around. Seen much of the Glade yet, Greenie?"

I shook my head. "Can you stop calling me...Greenie? I don't like the name. It sounds like you're accusing me of something. And besides...I know my actual name already; it's Stella."

"W-wait you remember your name?"

"I don't see why you're so bloody surprised, Tommy. Remember Teresa? It didn't take her more than five seconds," Newt recalled. Then he focused back onto me, his left eyebrow cocked slightly in a questioning look. "And that's all you can remember?"

"Yes," I answered confidently.

Thomas still seemed slightly in shock as he tried to digest this new information. After a few seconds he sighed heavily and firmly placed an arm over my shoulders; ushering me away to continue the tour, evidence that this conversation was over. "Well I'd really love to stay and chat a bit more but I think you'll find there's a lot more to see!"

Newt gave a small chuckle. "I get it, I'm wasting too much of ya time. Besides, I need to get back to work anyway. Can't be slacking on the job."

I gave a small nod in response along with a meagre smile. Newt seemed friendly and welcoming; not that Thomas hadn't been but it looked as if Newt was more in control, like he'd been here longer and grown wiser to the place and the people. He seemed like the sort of person whom you could trust easily and go to if you had any problems, to pour out your heart to. Something that Thomas, at the minute, seemed desensitized from.

We started off and I slipped away from Thomas's arm giving myself some space as we headed towards new territory.