Hope for Us (NEWT) [COMPLETED]

Ch 3 - Your New Home

Sara debated whether to ask further questions, but she quickly decided against it since all she got for an answer ranged from 'I don't know,' 'not sure,' and 'don't worry about it.'

She looked outside the window of the car and was appalled to see the remains of the city. Buildings stood among the debris, dilapidated, and on the verge of collapsing. She didn't understand why the world seemed to be crashing down all of a sudden, and no explanation whatsoever. Being repetitive wasn't her thing, but when nothing made sense, that was the only fact she had, and therefore was unable to think of anything else.

To protect herself from watching any more destruction, Sara turned her head to the other side and shut her eyes as tightly as she could. Not much time had passed before her eyes finally succumbed to the weight they carried, and she fell asleep during the rest of the ride.

When she woke up, she was in a daze. The abrupt halt of the car had indicated that they had reached their destination. Her eyes were exhausted and puffy from all the crying, and she had to rub them multiple times as she beheld the place—or wherever Janson had brought her.

Right before her eyes stood the most enormous building she had ever seen in her life.

Its design was very intricate, with a futuristic touch to it. She was amazed that her uncle was able to work at such a prestigious place like that.

Janson quickly got out of the vehicle and opened the door of the back seat to help her down. A gesture she, in fact, appreciated since her knees felt so weak she might have stumbled into the ground otherwise. 

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The interior of the place was nothing compared to what Sara had expected. It had the appearance of a laboratory with doctors moving quickly from one place to another. There were guards scoping the area, with the same uniform as those people that had broken into the homes earlier. As soon as she saw them, she tensed up, pulling the sleeve of Janson's jacket.

"W—why are they here?" she stuttered.

Without looking at her, he began to lecture once again. 

"Listen, they aren't gonna harm you. As you can see, I work with WICKED. I'm the assistant director. We're an organization that has tried to preserve humanity in the midst of the Flare outbreak," he calmly reassured her, finally turning to look at her.

"So, you were behind dad getting shot? All those people getting hurt?" She slowly retracted from him.

He looked almost offended. "My dear, how can y—?"

"And what's the Flare?" she interrupted him, much to his surprise.

Janson was growing impatient. His nose flared but he kept himself at bay by taking deep breaths.

"Look," he began. "What those guys did to your father was uncalled for, so that's why I did what I did. I wanted to save you. We sent the guards to protect the children—you see—the Flare is a dangerous disease that attacks the human brain. It invades it, settling in the Kill Zone, and its victims lose self-control. They go crazy. The children were brought here so we can protect them from the Flare. I just didn't want to scare you in the car, thought you needed some more time."

"But what about our families?" the girl asked.

"Their parents were already infected, and the guards were ordered to take the adults to a different WICKED sector to treat them. I don't know why they were killed since that was certainly not part of the plan." Sara didn't know how to feel about that at all. 

"I promise you, Sara, that all of them will be punished for what they did," he muttered, visibly upset. "These guards you see in here are the good guys, along with the doctors, my administrators, and myself. Don't trust anyone else outside of these walls."