[NEW] The Forgotten • Noah Centineo

two

After our dinner break, we all went back to our cells.

"Tomorrow," Noah whispered through the bars.

"Tomorrow," I whisper back to him.

We smiled at each other and then went to our beds. Probably the only good part about going to bed is that I finally get to read. I love reading. And this laboratory has its own small library, but it has tons of books.

Even though I read it a million times, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is the book I chose to read again. It's my favorite book. It's just... So fascinating. I don't think I will ever get bored of it.

I laid down on my bed and lost the track of time. At some point, my book fell out of my hand as I fell asleep.

But not long later, some very loud noise woke me up.

"EVERYBODY, DOWN!" someone screamed as the room started to fill with desperate, terrified yells.

"DILARA!" Noah ran to the gate, trying to see if I was okay.

I only had woken up. I had no idea what could possibly have happened or why was everyone yelling like that.

I slowly got up from my bed and as soon as I was standing, I realized what was going on.

"Noah...NOAH!" I said, running to the gate, hoping he was still alive.

"DILARA, GET DOWN! SOMEBODY IS SHOOTING HERE!" he screamed as we both hid behind our desks.

I held my desk in my hands so hard. I was so afraid, not just for me, but for Noah too. I knew that if he would die, I wouldn't have any reason to be alive anymore.

I closed my eyes and I saw every moment from my life, right in front of my eyes. Every god damn moment I spent in this hell of a place, next to the doctors, next to the other sick people, but especially next to Noah. I saw my parents. I saw my old friends. I saw everything. But I knew I wasn't supposed to die now. And neither was Noah. I felt that.

I started counting in my head, trying to calm myself down and praying that none of us would get shot. And it worked. 2 minutes later, the shooting was finally over. The problem was... how were we going to get out of the lab now?

I slowly walked back to the gate, making sure I wasn't making any noise.

"Noah?" I whispered as quietly as I could.

But I didn't get an answer.

"No...Noah?" I say again, this time louder.

Again, no answer.

"No, no... no..." I kept saying this in my head as I created 1000 scenarios of what could have happened to him.

"Noah, please..." I said, trying to help myself from crying.

In that moment I heard some knocks in the wall. There were 3.

Then, that person knocked again, 3 times. And I finally realized that was Noah.

Whenever a doctor would come to check on us, that 3 –time-knock was our signal. Noah was trying to tell me that the person who shot before was still here, so I went back to my desk and waited for another signal from him.

About 10 minutes later, I heard the person with the gun getting up and running to the exit of the room. I got up and went to the gate, when I saw that Noah was already there.

"Dilara, are you okay?" he asked me, trying to hold my hand.

"I'm fine, I guess... Are you?" I said, putting my hand in his.

"I'm okay, but we really need to get out of here. Now."

I couldn't see him in that moment, due to those damn bars, but I could imagine what a serious and worried look was on his face at that time. And I knew how serious this entire situation was.

Suddenly, the hallways main door opened. I ran back to the desk and Noah did too.

"EVERYBODY, LISTEN UP!" a girl's voice spoke. "I WANT YOU ALL TO STAY CALM!" she continued.

There was still silence in the entire room. Everyone was trying to act like they were dead.

"MY NAME IS KATHERINE. I'M ALSO DIAGNOSED WITH OMVEROSYDIA," she spoke very loudly so everyone could hear her. "I ALSO USED TO BE LOCKED IN A LAB, I ALSO WAS AN EXPERIMENT. BUT I SUCCESSFULLY RAN AWAY AND NOW MY MISSION IS TO SAVE MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS FROM THIS JAIL. SO, JADEN, OPEN THE GATES!" she said to one of her mates. "BE FREE!" she said before the gates opened.

They actually opened the gates. They set us free.

We were finally free.

I walked out of the cell and met Noah outside. He was just as confused and happy as me.

We looked at the girl who spoke, smiled at her and shook our heads, thanking her for what she did for us.

"All the doctors are dead. Get some money, food and water and leave this place as fast as you can," the girl explains. Take care of yourselves."

I smiled at her once again before I held Noah's hand and started running through all the dead bodies on the floor, to get some food and other things, necessary to survive.

We left the cafeteria with 2 full bags filled with food and water. We were finally going to get out of this laboratory. I couldn't believe it.

We went to the front door and I turned around before I went outside, facing him. He smiled at me and I smiled back.

"Ready?" I asked.

"I was born ready," he laughed as he opened the door.

I was outside. After so many years. I was actually outside. And it smelled so different. Definitely not that horrible smell that you can only find in the labs. And it also didn't smell like blood, like it smelled when we left that place.

I wasn't sure if I was ready to go there, though. Last time I was outside, I was only 10 years old. I didn't know how to defend myself out there. And since Noah had lost his memory, he didn't either. But I was sure we would somehow survive this.

We would get home.

As soon as we passed the laboratory gates, we stopped walking and turned around. Everybody was running out of there. Everybody was crying, laughing, smiling, and feeling all the emotions I was feeling at that time. We all got what we all wanted for so long. Freedom.

I looked at Noah and he looked me right back in my eyes as a smile grew on his lips. He shook his head in the forest's direction, asking me if I wanted to go. I smiled back at him in return, confirming that we should definitely get out of that place. And that's what we did.

He held my hand, put on his back pack, waited for me to put on mine and we started running through the forest, only using a compass and going where we thought it was right to go. North.