I cannot see them clearly from behind the hedge but there are four of them and by the look of their mannerisms and what they are wearing, I think they are Australians.
“I thought they all knew about this place, and never to come here.” Said Henrik beside me. When we are alone we speak our native Russian but at the orphanage we are asked to speak English so the ‘visitors’ understand and to practise my English I write in it, just clarifying.
“They have been told, but they are all so stupid they cannot seem to get it through their thick skulls that they should not come here” I reply.
Looking back over at the four Australian’s being held by Eduard and Yulian – the only guards who don’t like killing too many people. They are getting a lot more aggressive with them and I can hear them shouting, I think they want to kill them. They do, the last six groups of tourists who came here were killed. Before I even knew what I was doing I was on my feet running at Eduard as he lift his machete over the eldest man’s head. I know Henrik is right behind me with the same idea in his head, it is a twin thing. I reach them just in time to catch Eduard’s wrist and pull it down to get the machete out of his hand.
“Do not kill them, what did they ever do to anyone here?” Yelled Henrik. I look over to see the confused scared faces on the Australians. I can now see what they look like. The eldest, the one I stopped Eduard from killing had light brown short hair with brown eyes to match. He was well built and clean shaven and was holding his, what seems to be, wife’s hand. She was very petite with shoulder length blonde hair and tanned skin, those two looked to be in their forties. The two young boys looked to be 18 and 15. The older one was tall with broad shoulders and sandy brown hair and brown eyes like the older man and the younger one had dark brown curly hair with beautiful green eyes.
“They are Australians, they have been ruining our whole city for years” Yulian replied to Henrik’s question.
“Yes but not these ones in particular” I snapped. “They got lost on their way here, I am not saying let them go, but you have let Australians in before, you let in the fatty, why can you not let these four in. Our populations running low because you men keep killing everyone, four people could really help!”
After thinking about it for a while they both agreed to let them live and that they would bring them into town.
“You two should get back to the orphanage before curfew, or I will be the one who punishes you!” Snapped Yulian before Henrik and I ran off. I could have sworn I saw him wink at me before we left but, I guess we will never know.
We ran as fast as we could because I could tell by the empty streets that it was almost curfew. I have never missed curfew but my best friend Inna has, and she said it was worse than being taken on a Sunday.
By the time Henrik and I had made it back to the orphanage it was clear it was curfew, just by the look of relief on Lady’s face – Lady is the head of the orphanage, she is the one who makes sure it is always safe. Walking through the door we got a smack to the back of the head and went straight to dinner and sat where we always did, with Viktor, Yuri and Inna. Before I sat down I looked around for Anastasiya, my little sister – who we all call Ani. I did not sit down until I saw her sitting with Dina eating her bread and carrot. It was the same meal as we had most nights, just as bland and undercooked but there was something different about the teachers, I could not tell what it was, and I wouldn’t have known until Yuri pointed it out, Magra, the meanest teacher at the orphanage was not going around yelling at people to sit up straight and not get too close, no she was silent.
“She went into the market to get a new plate after Fatty smashed his last night” explained Yuri, “and she ran into one of the guards, and, let us just say she went through what most of us have been through a thousand times!”
“We really should feel sorry for her but all the times she told us it was nothing, she deserved it.” Inna expressed rolling her eyes. “So what did you two do this afternoon to almost get stuck out after curfew?”
“You know, Australian tourists about to get killed, figured we needed more to pick on so we helped them stay alive.” Henrik said with a smirk on his face.
“Yeah, Fatty is started to lose weight” I chuckled.
“At least you don’t have to listen to him cry from starvation every night.”
We finished up our meal pretty quickly, maybe because our meal is so small, but when we finished all the guys ran upstairs to get changed while it was the girl’s night to clean up the excess food, even though there was not any and by the time we finished and started heading up the stairs we heard Eduard at the door talking to Lady about the two boys.
Stopping in our tracks to watch and listen to the conversation and have our own little conversations.
“They are quite cute, and that is something I never thought I would say about an Australian.” Admitted one girl.
“How old do you reckon they are?” Asked another.
“I think about 15 and 18” I answered.
“This one is Sam, he is 15 and this one is Steve, he is 16, they are from Australia and are now in your custody” we heard Eduard say. “Well, good night Lady.” And turning towards us we said smiled and said “You lot should be preparing to go to bed, not perving on the new boys.” We all look at each other blushing and giggling like normal girls do while I could see the new boys looking up at us and the older one, Steve, winked.
Lady gave us all a funny look and sent the boys upstairs explaining where their rooms were and told us to go to our own rooms. As Lady headed back into the kitchen and the new boys walked up past us, Eva gave Steve a smack on the bottom and said “Welcome to Beridia” and bit her lip as we all walked to our rooms.
As I was reading I could hear the boys in the next room talking to Sam, the younger boy. I could not hear what they were saying no matter how hard I tried, and when I finally gave up I got to thinking. I thought what that one girl had said before was true, Sam and Steve were quite cute. Every time I thought about them all I could picture was Sam’s beautiful green eyes. They were hypnotic. Even as Magra came around turning all our lights out the only thing I could think about was this Sam, there was something about him that made me feel weird, I had never felt like it before. I thought about him as I fell asleep, I thought about how he would last here in Beridia, if he would crack under pressure and or be able to survive the bad side of it. At least they arrived on a Saturday.
