Natalia was the last to arrive at Carter's room, Isaac was sat on the end of Carter's bed, rubbing his caramel coloured eyes. He was tired, they both were. They had both had little sleep the previous night, only Carter seemed to be wide awake, he had not been plagued with dreams like Natalia had been.
"You took your time." Carter commented from where he was examining something on his desk as she sat down beside Isaac.
"You didn't specify a time." She replied with a shrug, she was right of course, but she would have been on time had she not attempted and failed to have a nap. "So what's the plan?"
"We'll have to do it at night, that's the only time they're not watching us constantly." Carter began telling them the plan he had been concocting throughout the day, it was fairly elaborate and left them wondering how long he had actually been thinking about escaping.
"Okay, but we can't just walk out the front door." Isaac pointed out. Carter nodded.
"I know." He pulled a blueprint of the building off his desk. "We'll go through the vents. There is one at the end of the corridor, here." He pointed it out to the other two on the blueprints. "It leads right outside; we'll have to be quick though, in case they hear us."
"Will we be able to make it?" Natalia asked, she was frowning at the blueprints, as though it didn't quite make sense to her the way it did to the other two.
"We should do, as long as we don't come up against any obstacles." Carter confirmed, consoling her fears. He looked at the blueprints again. "It's the best option we have to get out of here."
"I mean it sounds good to me, but what do we need to bring with us? It's not like we can get our hands on any proper weapons." Isaac was always asking the most practical of questions.
"We don't need any, if we keep running they won't be able to catch us." Carter replied, neither Natalia nor Isaac looked convinced at that statement.
"We'll need to be able to hide as well." Natalia added, crossing her legs and shifting her position on the end of Carter's bed. "They'll have vehicles they can chase us with, we can't out run those."
"We'll have to get as far away as possible before we can even think about stopping." Carter confirmed what they were all thinking. "It'll be really hard, but worth it, we'll be free."
"So I guess, now what we need to decide on is what we need to take with us, and when we go." Natalia mused, scratching an itch on her freckled cheeks. She let out a tired sigh. "This is a lot more planning then I thought we would need."
"I know, but we have to make sure that we get this perfect, we only have one chance at this." Carter said, it seemed dramatic, but there was no hint of exaggeration in their voice. "If we mess this up, that's it, we'll never get another chance."
"so what do we need?" Natalia asked, ready to make a mental note of everything they needed to collect from the facility before making their escape.
They talked for a few more hours to finalise their plan before finally returning to their individual rooms to get what little sleep they could grasp. The excitement and anticipation of their escape attempt was playing on their minds, distracting them from anything else that might try to take their attention.
^^^
The day of their escape was coming ever closer and Natalia was struggling with her task to collect tools that may be useful. She had managed to find a pen knife, not that she thought it was useful, but she had swiped it from her parent's quarters, and it was a satisfying revenge, despite not really impacting her parents lives at all. She had also gotten her hands on some apples and a few sharp knives, they were kitchen knives, but could be used against any dangers they came across, they didn't know what the world was like outside the facility, so she wanted them to be prepared for any eventuality. She wasn't particularly sure what else would be useful, apart from a map, but the only one she could find was in her geography textbook. The problem was, she couldn't be sure it was an actual map of the area or not. They had no information, they didn't even know the official name of the facility they lived in.
Natalia was packing everything she had found in the backpack she usually kept her school supplies in, when Isaac entered the room.
"Have you seen Car?" He asked, she looked up from where she had finished zipping up her bag and shook her head.
"No, why?" She frowned, it was always worrying whenever one of them went missing.
"I saw his parents over this side of the building." Isaac explained, sitting down in the chair of her desk.
"Oh no, they can't have started the experiments again, have they?" she asked worriedly.
"I don't know; they could just be doing the monthly interview." Isaac pointed out, every month the scientists asked the three the same set of thirty questions to get a base understanding of where they are at in experiment recovery, or just in their general life. That would be the best scenario, if the experiments had started again, that meant the scientists would be keeping a close eye on them, and they wouldn't be in any position to run away successfully.
"I hope so." She nodded, "Zac I'm really worried about everything going completely wrong." She confessed to him, he was her best friend and she felt that she could confide in him.
"It will be fine Tals, we'll make it out and we'll be free. I know we will." He replied positively. "Maybe something will go right for us for once."
"I hope so." She nodded and then she sighed, it was a defeated sort of sigh. "Do you ever feel like you've forgotten something or someone?"
"I mean, sometimes I feel like I want to talk to or say something to someone who doesn't exist, why?" He replied, knowing exactly what she was talking about, she sat down beside him.
"I had a dream about this boy, I think he was our friend once, but I can't remember him." She replied. He frowned, as though he knew exactly what she was talking about.
"So have I." He confessed to her. Before they could discuss their dream of the same boy, they heard Carter's bedroom door open.
"Come on, let's go and see if he's okay." Natalia got up, Isaac following her, she knocked on his door, Carter soon opened it. He was pale, but otherwise seemed okay.
"Hey guys, what's up?" He asked, letting them in the room.
"are you alright?" Natalia asked, Carter nodded.
"Yeah, they just wanted to ask some questions, don't worry guys." He assured them. "How are you getting on with collecting supplies?"
"Not too bad, I've got a few tins of food and some fruit and veg and I got my hands on some biscuits." Isaac told them.
"Nice! How did you manage that?" Carter exclaimed.
"When the lunch staff were on their lunch break." Isaac said, "I almost got caught."
"Good going Zac!" Natalia congratulated him. "I've got a few knives that could be useful weapons."
"Nice guys! I've got some blankets so far." Carter grinned at them, "We're going to do this so well."
"I hope so." Natalia nodded.
"As long as we don't get caught." Isaac agreed.