"Natty! Hey wake up, it's time." Natalia awoke to Carter shaking her shoulder. She groaned and sat up, rubbing her eyes.
"Already?" She asked, he nodded.
"We're finally doing this." He shifted his bag back onto his shoulder, like him she had had the idea to sleep in her clothes. "Zac's just getting changed."
Natalia nodded and pulled on her boots, she couldn't believe they were finally doing it, that she would finally find out what life is like outside of the facility. She hoped it would be amazing, but the small voice at the back of her mind kept telling her that they were making the biggest mistake of their lives. She just hoped she could ignore it long enough to keep going and get out.
"Alright, Car lead the way." Isaac appeared in the doorway, his hair a ruffled mess, he obviously hadn't bothered to brush it, and she didn't blame him, like her he hated doing his hair, both only doing so because their parents had forced them to do it as a part of their meticulously laid out routine that they had to follow every day.
"Is the corridor clear?" Carter asked, to which Isaac nodded. "Alright, let's go." He led them down the corridor and to the vent cover in the wall. It was just large enough to fit them through. After opening the vent, Carter helped Natalia into the vent, it was a large rectangular corridor of metal, that could fit them in if they crawled through it. Isaac climbed up beside her and the two helped Carter up, the blond fitting the vent cover back on as he did so.
"Okay, I guess we should keep going." Natalia commented as Carter moved to the front of them and began leading them down the vents, a route he had memorised carefully so they would get to the front of the building without getting caught. It took them a long time, their rooms being in the centre of the maze of corridors that made up the facility. But at last they were at the vent cover at the front of the building.
Through the slats in the vent cover, Natalia could see light streaming in, the lights were on poles in the ground, as all streetlamps are, it was the strangest thing she had ever seen, but it made perfect sense at the same time, it lit up the street. Carter helped her down and she gingerly landed on the tarmac of the pavement. The facility was a big grey building that stood out like a sore thumb against the other colourful buildings of the street. 'The sunflower research facility' was pasted onto the sign on the side of the building.
She felt almost sad that they were leaving, it was the only home she had ever known, that they had ever known. Isaac and Carter joined her to look at the building, their home.
"We should get going." Carter said, turning away from the building, the street was quiet, at one end there were more streets and at the other the beginnings of a forest. "Let's go that way, it'll be harder for them to follow us there." He pointed towards the forest. Natalia turned from the building to the way he was pointing, it looked fairly dark in there, but the moonlight was shining through enough that they would have some sort of idea of where they were going.
"Okay, this is really it, we're really leaving." Natalia muttered, only Isaac heard her.
"We'll be alright Tals, I promise." He smiled at her, she smiled back and they followed Carter into the Forest.
The forest was fairly dense, the trees close together and they could hear the noises of animals here and there, which was very unnerving to them, as they had never experienced something like that before. But they stuck close together as they ran, as though afraid of being split up, the world was so much bigger than they had anticipated and it was scarier than they had thought. Having no prior experience of the world definitely made the trio warier and fearful of what they would come up against, and the fear of being caught made them reluctant to stop, but at last they stopped in a small clearing of old oak trees, to rest and decide on what to do next, something they had yet to discuss at all.
"I'm so tired." Isaac complained as he flopped down on the ground and stretched out his long legs.
"We need to make a plan for what we do next." Carter said practically as he pulled a box of matches out of his bag, the same long matches that they used to light Bunsen burners in their science lessons. He was building a small fire to keep them warm and warm up some food for them.
"I guess we find somewhere to go." Natalia commented as she sat down beside Isaac. "Maybe when we get out of this forest we can figure out where we are and maybe pick up a map?" she suggested, using one of the knives she had brought with her to open one of the tins of soup that Isaac had stolen from the kitchens at the facility. They were scared of running out of food, and so were sharing each tin between three of them.
"That's a good idea Tals, when we have a map, we can decide where we want to go and then maybe set ourselves up there." Isaac said, placing a few rocks around the edge of the fire Carter was building as his helpful contribution.
"We're free guys, we're actually properly free." Carter told them, finishing the fire and the ring of rocks around him that Isaac had started. "No more experiments, ever again."
"It doesn't feel real." Natalia mused, catching sight of only a few day old needle marks on Carter's arm, her blood ran cold. He had told them he hadn't been experimented on recently, but the marks and the bruises caused by them, only ever meant one thing, which terrified her. What if they got caught now, or they had watched them escape and were just humouring them by allowing them to think they were free all this time.
"Tals? Are you okay?" Isaac asked her, noticing the worried frown on her face.
"What if this is a set up? What if they're just humouring us?" She asked, voicing her fears aloud.
"Relax Nat, we're free, this is real, they won't find us here." Carter told her, trying his best to calm her down, she managed a weak smile at him.
"Yeah, you're right, I'm probably just being dramatic." She nodded.
"You're not being dramatic, we're all worried that will happen." Isaac assured her, "But Carter's right, it will take them ages to find us here, we're in the middle of a forest."
"I know; I guess I'm just letting my fears get to me a little bit." She smiled at her friends. "We'll be alright, won't we?"
"Of course we will, right Car?"
"Exactly, we have a brilliant plan, and we can hide if we need to, we've got this."