shattered worlds

Chapter 1

That night he had everything he needed to escape. He didn't know where to go, hell he didn't know anything about the outside world but subject #0948 what determined to escape the ward. He was not selfish by any means and with his newly inquired master key, he went running down the halls.

The walls were disgusting mold growing off them and peeling off the wallpaper. It was all a blur to him, so much adrenaline running through his body, but he managed to escape the ward and was now standing in the forest with several other prisoners. He would have freed more had the ward staff not chased him. No one was very old here. The ward was a fairly new concept where they took babies they usually bought from parents of poor desperate families that they deceived promising money and a better life. The prisoners he had set free, he had seen their files.

The youngest was a ten-year-old girl and the oldest was a 19 year old. From the case files, he knew that the 19-year-old or subject #2028 was five when the ward took him. Meaning he must know a bit about the world outside the ward. He had disclosed to subject #0948 that humans from the outside world had actual names, not just a series of numbers and that led them to their current situation.

Standing in the middle of the woods the four of them knew they must decide names. The five of them standing there thinking until the ten-year-old piped up. "The ward guards let me watch a movie once, there was a girl named Lilie in it. Can my name be Lilie?" inmate #0948 was surprised they allowed her to watch movies depicting the outside world. He was surprised they even had a girl in the ward, to begin with. Though he had mistaken her for a little boy at first due to her buzz cut she was quick to correct him, and now her wearing a dress, even if old and ragged made a lot more sense. "I think Lilie works okay" he mumbled, quickly reassured by the nineteen-year-old giving him a nod. "I happen to remember my name, its Brian" 19-year old Brian reassured 17-year-old subject #0948. "What seems to be a good name?" He asked aloud. Brian was quick to answer "You look like Charlie, he informed him."Okay. Charlie, it is." Last was the quiet fifteen-year-old, "I'm all out of names" Brian said as he shrugged. Lilie piped up, "In the movie, I watched there was also a character named, Wolfie. He should be called Wolfie". Now we can rest in peace everyone is named, thought Charlie.

"We should rest for the night" Charlie suggested. Brian was quick to cut in. "If I remember correctly from when I first came to the ward there is a train that we can maybe hitch a ride on. "I like that," Wolfie said quietly, and so off they went with even more branches to duck under and rocks in their way. When they got there they found there was a train they could board immediately. Little do they know that trains don't run this late at night.