Escape

From that moment on, Nathan could no longer process what was going through his mind. Without understanding how or why, his legs began to move as if they had a life of their own, to escape from this place as quickly as possible.

He ran down the empty corridor with the fear in his body that he would meet something that could kill him at every turn. But no matter how hard he ran, he never met anything that threatened his life.

The hunger he felt was no longer a nuisance compared to the heaviness he felt in his whole body and the great headache he had since he saw his possible death.

But Nathan had no time to think, he just ran and ran until he got lost in the corridors of the facility.

It wasn't until a little over ten minutes later that Nathan reached a sort of garage where several garbage trucks were parked. Fortunately, as soon as the alarm had gone off, the workers seemed to have quickly evacuated, leaving the garage doors open, perfect for Nathan's escape.

If he had his wits about him, he might have realized that running away from the site might not have been the best idea.

He was about to think that, but as he walked a little further, he saw several bodies lying behind the garbage truck.

The bodies were mangled, but Nathan could tell from their uniforms that they were military men. He could even see the name on the uniform embroidery of one of the bodies.

Crouching to one side, Nathan began to vomit what little was left of his stomach at the sight. He had realized that the owner of the body was the soldier he had stopped behind to ask about the situation.

His thoughts turned to chaos, he was unable to control his bladder from fear and tears began to stream down his face, with traces of blood from the workers who had been cut in half.

Their screams of pain echoed in his ears again, causing him to shake uncontrollably. Any thoughts of staying on the facilities vanished, and seeing that he had a chance to escape, Nathan did not hesitate and stepped out of the garage door.

The few lights that lit the path through the woods were nowhere near enough to illuminate the surroundings, but that was the least of Nathan's worries. The fear of the darkness around him was overshadowed by the vivid memories of seeing a dozen people cut in half.

It was a scene a child should never have to see... or anyone else for that matter.

Nathan moved further and further away from the facility until he could no longer hear the gunshots. Disregarding the possible dangers in the woods, Nathan ran until he was no longer near the facility.

***

It was normal to see slums on the outskirts of cities, where people without resources sought shelter, a roof over their heads and enough to eat so they would not die miserably in some random hole.

Throughout human history there has always been an economic divide between different groups, with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. This did not change for many years, but over time the way these groups were formed changed.

But from time to time a rich person can become poor and a poor person can become rich. Whatever the situation, someone who has never experienced anything cannot understand the situation of someone else.

Nathan always took it for granted that as long as he had his family, even if they didn't pay attention to him, he would have food and shelter. It wasn't until he had to flee that he realized he was lost and had no place to go back to.

The first week he spent on the streets was particularly terrible. Not knowing where to go or what to eat, Nathan had to wander the streets looking for food that restaurants threw away as waste.

But at no time did he feel ashamed or sad about his current situation, his mind was filled only with the terror he had experienced, which he could not get out of his head.

By the time a month had passed since the incident, his life had changed completely. Begging for food and finding a place to sleep at night was particularly difficult in the city. As a result, he had no choice but to walk further away from the city until he reached one of the poorer areas.

In the second month, Nathan met a group of 10 other orphaned children who, like him, were struggling to survive every day.

Without the attention of adults, the children had to grow up quickly and fend for themselves. Nathan joined the group and noticed that there were children of all ages; he was one of the oldest.

None of them questioned where he came from, none of them had a past and they thought Nathan was just like them. So little by little he began to live with them, trying to forget the scene that prevented him from sleeping through the night without waking up gasping for breath and clutching his neck in pain.

It was the fifth month since he had escaped from the institution, and there was no sign of his family looking for him. Which meant they could have died or just left him for dead that fateful night.

It was hard, Nathan had shed more tears in 5 months than he had in 10 years of life, including the times when he was a baby doing nothing but crying and sleeping. Now he could hardly remember the comfort he had felt all his life.

One night Nathan was looking out of the window on the first floor of an abandoned factory where all the children lived together, when suddenly the door of the room where he was alone opened and a little girl, a little smaller than he was, came in. Her skin was dirty, and her face showed how thin she was from lack of food.

The girl was wearing a cloak that was too big for her, covering her entire body, with several patches that were badly mended. However, it was the only thing she had to protect her from the cold of the night and the approaching winter. Her tangled black hair covered part of her face and she wore a black stone necklace around her neck.

The girl looked sad, and there were tears in her eyes that threatened to flood her face at any moment.

Nathan got up from the box she was sitting on and walked over to her, holding her up as she was about to fall to the ground.

"Lira? What's wrong?"

Lira wiped the snot from her nose with her sack and looked at Nathan as she bit her lip.

"Kiru... K-kiru isn't getting better"

Lira couldn't hold back her tears and burst into tears as she hid her face in Nathan's body.

Nathan hugged the girl and looked at the door Lira had come through.

'Kiru... she needs medical attention'

One of the children had caught a cold and was lying in bed. Usually, they waited for it to get better, but apparently it was more serious than it looked, because after a week of being sick, the boy didn't seem to be getting any better.

Nathan knew they could not afford to see a doctor, medical care costs money and they had nothing.

As Lira continued to cry with no sign of stopping, Nathan bit his lips and tightened his embrace around the child.

He had only been with the children for a little over three months, but for the one who had lost everything, the orphan group was what kept him strong in the face of the memories of that night.

With no other option, Nathan waited until Lira fell asleep in his embrace, then laid her down on his bed and grabbed his own coat before leaving through the window so as not to alert the other children that he was leaving at this late hour.