Lazaretto (Camren)

N I N E

"All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire." –Aristotle

CAMILA

It had been two weeks since Lauren and I had our breakfast date and the trip to the market. I don't know why I called it a date. It wasn't a date. Something about Lauren made me feel vulnerable. It was like she could see right through me. I figured she knew my habits and antics pretty well, considering. She made me feel safe...something I had never felt even though I was locked away in a concrete facility where I should have felt the safest. Of course there was Austin too, who I had been spending a lot of time with over the past two weeks. He made me feel alive. I felt like a different person around him. Lauren was safe. Austin was...adventure and spontaneity.

I didn't know why I was so flirty all of a sudden. Ever since I escaped the facility I had been attempting and failing miserably at it, but I figured I was doing something right because they were both still around. Listen at me. I was pining over the attention of two people that liked me simultaneously. What? Whenever Ally mentioned that Lauren had liked me, I immediately denied it though I knew it was true. I was okay with it because I liked her, too. And I also liked Austin. I knew it would either work out some way, or it would all end very badly.

For the past week and a half, Lauren had been acting really weird around me. She wouldn't look me in the eyes when she spoke to me, and she would leave the room if we were alone. For a couple of days I thought I had done something wrong, but then I figured that maybe something happened at the facility, and I didn't dare ask. I then began to think about Blue. After seeing what he wrote me in the book I decided the least I could have done was write him a letter back, so I did. I handed the note to Lauren one morning before she left for work, asking if she could give it to the blond haired boy. She grabbed the note and stuffed it into her back pocket without saying a word, and that was when she started acting strange around me. Something inside of me was telling me that something wasn't right, but I brushed it off, telling myself that I would ask her about it as soon as I got off of work. 

My thoughts were interrupted when the heavy doors of the ship yards main office opened. Troy told me a week ago that I could come in for work which was a typical nine to five, sometimes writing down shipment orders and other times I filed papers and answered the phone. It was a nice, easy job with just enough pay.

"Well, hello."

My heart stopped, knowing the voice. It was Val. I ducked behind one of the shelves, trying to make myself smaller and invisible knowing would have been dead within minutes if she saw me.

"What are you doing here?" My boss asked, his voice low and husky.

"I just thought I would stop by for a visit. I'm going to see Lauren for lunch," the tall blonde said, her wavy hair falling past her shoulders. Her arms were folded across her chest, and she was leaning against one of the many wooden pillars in the office space.

My heart was racing. I had to get to the others, they had to get out. They were just sitting ducks waiting to be killed. I turned my head slightly to the right, my eyes catching the peripheral vision of my boss.

"Is it a visit, Val, or a search?" His arms were folded across his chest sternly.

"I've been hearing rumors that you're helping the escapees," she said as she pushed away from the pillar and walked closer to him.

"All you have to do is ask, Val. I have all of my employees on record," he returned calmly. I already knew that he paid us under false names for that reason, but Val didn't know that.