-Chapter 1-

It had been nearly a year. Finally, being a good girl paid off and granted me outside time. I was led out of my faculty into neat halls with gray walls and together with the guards, I walked for a while. The halls echoed with my skips and giggles of excitement and soon enough, I got to see the outside for the first time in my life.

"The skies are really blue! Emma was right!" I ran out under the sun and spread my hands, and I was immediately hit with warm rays that stung a bit. "What is this feeling?"

"That's the sun, honey." The female guard replied smiling.

"The son?"

"Yes."

"Where is he?" I asked her looking all over for the boy that gave me this feeling. Maybe this was the 'love' that Emma usually told me about.

"Look up there." David, the male guard pointed up into the skies.

My eyes were hit with a blinding ray so bright, I had to squint to look at it. "Woah, he's shiny."

"Don't look at it directly, it'll damage your eyes." Dreya, the female guard said.

"Okay!" I blinked back down and there was this colorful spot on the things I looked at. "Dreya, what's that!" I pointed at it.

"That's… a chair? Don't you have one in your dorm?"

"No not that, THAT!!" I pointed off in the direction again. David signaled Dreya by pointing at his eyes.

"Oh, Mia. Those are floaters." She sighed heavily for some reason.

"Flo…fleeters?"

"Floaters."

I stood in awkward silence trying to understand what Dreya said. Soon something with a faded color caught my eyes. "Oh, what's this?" I dragged the green stuff out of the ground and sniffed it while Dreya and David looked at me, shocked. "It looks like the vegetables we eat!"

"No don't eat that! It's dirty!" David shouted.

I stuck out my tongue and shoved some in my pockets, "I'll wash it then!"

Dreya smiled again, "Come, let's go meet the others now."

"Yay!" I grabbed her hard leather gloves as she and David led me to a fenced area with many kids playing.

"Have fun! Playtime is only thirty minutes so stretch out as much as possible," Dreya waved off to me and I waved back.

"Thanks Dreya!" I waved until she was out of sight. As soon as she left, I began to look at the 'outside'. Despite Dreya's warning I still really wanted to see the son. She won't see me… I though mischievously. As I looked up, I noticed a kid, a tall one… taller than Emma. Just like Dreya, he had golden skin, but his hair was a gun metal grey… like he was old. But I couldn't reach him, he was on the other side of the fence. 'The other side?' I looked at the fences. They had sharp, curly objects everywhere on it except for where he sat. Where did that side lead to?

I looked around to see if the other kids were watching. They weren't. I climbed over the fence as quickly as possible; it was hard because of my skirt kept propping up. When I got to the other side of the fence, I bumped into the 𝓶⃥̸𝓮⃥̸𝓪⃥̸𝓷⃥̸ kid with golden-brown skin. "What are you doing here?!" He whisper-screamed like as if he was hiding a secret.

"Well, I-, uh...m...," I stuttered. He was really tall that it started to scare me.

"Don't let them see you kid!" He pulled me to the side of the fences, where there was barely any grass. I couldn't help but frown as he pulled me tightly. Soon he let me go and he frowned too… angrily. It made me feel like I had to explain myself.

"I was told by Dreya to play and setch out!" I screamed awkwardly and mixed up my words.

"Good excuse." He sighed, "I know you're trying to escape, we all are. You seem pretty smart for your age. You discovered this dumb childcare facility is actually an illegal test lab run by the government. Don't escape like that, you'll get caught." He looked around cautiously.

"What?"

"There's a tunnel I was digging to escape from towards the east wing." 

"Wait--"

"Take that tunnel, 2 lefts, 4 rights and 3 centers in respective order."

"WAIT!", I screamed out of anger, "What do you mean escape? I'm not going to escape!"

"Why not? Are you scared?"

I frowned more. "Why would I be scared when I've got David and Dreya to guard me?!"

"Those two are dangerous, they'll take you away to a place where people will run tests on you and experiment with your body until you are practically dead." He said angrily, "Their names give you a hint! All the guards' names start with a D! D for danger, D for deception, D for death!"

"That's…"

"Take this chance and run." He grabbed my hands.

"Stop! You're not making any sense!" I said almost in shock. He was so scary I wanted to run and hide.

Suddenly a bell rang. I knew that it was time for me to go back in. Hurriedly I dashed away from him and propelled myself over the fence, landing directly on my belly. It hurt more than anything I had ever felt. I clasped my belly tightly because it hurt a lot. Getting up was the last thing I thought of as streams of tears clouded my vision.

"Mia!" I heard a voice. It was Dreya's. "Mia what's wrong." She carried me and sat me down on the dirty grass and raised up my shirt. "How did you get these?" A growing look of concern appeared on her face.

"I fell down." I said… half-truthfully. All the stuff the tall boy had said… I didn't want to tell Dreya because somewhere along the line, I'd have to reveal that I climbed the fence, which would get me into trouble and I may never see the 'outside' again. I sniffled more as Dreya carried me off the floor and into the dark halls of the facility once again.

Soon I found myself in the infirmary. I hated that place. It always had an odor that was almost the same as pee and drugs. I tried desperately to hold my breath or breathe the scent of something else but to no avail. "Ok, let me see your wounds." The nurse placed a disinfectant on a silver tray near me. I sighed and hissed as she rubbed them into my wounds, holding back hot tears.

"Here's some candy," She handed me four strawberry flavored taffies, "You're a big girl for not crying today." She waved before disappearing into a shadow near the neighboring curtains. I popped a taffy into my mouth and laid on the infirmary bed, enjoying the melting flavor. All of a sudden…

"Ouch!"

 {A/N: Thanks for reading! ^^}