"First, we've got to get some rope, I might have an idea on where to look, we'll meet up in the hallway at ten," Norman starts to walk up the stairs, "Wait, if we have tracking devices on us, doesn't that mean that there might be camera and listening devices?" Emma whispers, "Don't worry, I already had a look around, there's nothing like that here," Norman shakes his head, "Wait you did?" I took a step back, "Yeah but I wouldn't have guessed, the security measure aren't on this building, they're on us," Norman points out, he heads up the stairs, Emma and I follow him, "But Norman, do you think Mum knows we headed to the Wall?" I asked him, "I doubt it, when we tried to deliver Little Bunny it didn't seem like she knew we were there," Norman turns around, "That's good," Emma sighs, "That tells us that Mum doesn't know where we are at any given time, she can only tell our location when she checks, what she knows is that someone else other than Conny brought Little Bunny to the Gate last night. However, I don't think she's figured out who yet, otherwise she wouldn't have told us so indirectly," Norman tells us, "That makes sense," Emma nods, "Oh hey, Norman, Emma, do you have a second? The clock in our room's busted or something," Don waves them over, "Sure thing, we'll be right over!" Emma smiles, "It'l be fine, she has no reason to suspect us," Norman slaps my shoulder lightly and runs off with Emma to the room. I saw them turn the corner and I put my hand where Conny's drawn picture used to be when I felt a hand on my shoulder, it was cold and I saw Mum's face loom close to mine, "Na-" I heard Norman's voice but he stopped himself, "What's wrong Nat? You're looking a bit pale, something happened? I saw earlier you weren't your cheery self, Ray seemed awfully nice to you as well," She cups my cheek, "Oh you think so? I'm just feeling sad that I'm gonna have to leave the house soon, I am eleven after all, everyone finds a family once they turn twelve." I gave her a sad smile, "Do you like living here?" Her insane eyes turned soft again, "I love the house but what makes the house is you. I love you Mum!" I hugged her and let tears fall from my eyes, half of them for the act but half of them for real, I don't want to die, "You know what? Conny said that she wants to be a loving mother like you when she grows up," I stepped back from the hug, "Yes, I'm sure she'll grow up to be a lovely young woman and mother," Mum wipes my tears, I held my breath, that's hen we heard the ring of the bell, I slowly turned my head and saw Ray, "Dinner's done, time to wash up," Ray says, "I'll be right there," Mum smiles, "Let's go Nat," I saw Emma and Norman walk around the corner, the three of us ran down the stairs, "About last night, did you three go to the Gate?" Mum says, we stopped and flinched, "To the Gate? But that's against the rules, besides we were tired from playing tag yesterday, right?" Norman looks at us, "That's right," Emma nods, I gave a silent nod, "Why do you ask?" Norman looks at Mum, "Never mind, as long as you didn't go," Mum smiles, we smiled back an headed down the stairs, once we were out of Mum's sight, Emma and I collapsed on the floor and Norman held on the railing, all of us hyperventilating, I slowly stood up but had to hold onto the wall, "Can you get up?" Norman holds his hand out to Emma, but his hand was visibly shaking.
The next day, we hid a rope in the tree hollow, Ray came out with us, I told Emma and Norman about how I've already told him about the situation, "Alright so we're gonna escape, we need to address a few things, first is the number of kids, we should narrow it down to those who can make it," He touches his chin, "Wait! We're leaving here and taking everyone, and to make that happen, we need you." Emma stops him, "Everyone? You're kidding right? There are thirty seven kids here, and most of them aren't even six years old yet. There's Mum, demons, homing beacons, those take a bad situation and make it worse, you want the impossible." He says, "I know it'll be tough but I don't think it's impossible!" Emma scrunches her hands up, "It can't be done. Emma, you don't get it do you?" He looks at her, "Ray, hold on," Norman says, "When you talk about something so grave, you need to be upfront about it, Emma, we can't just worry about escaping, we don't know what's waiting outside beyond this wall, but there's a place we're getting shipped to, the fact that there's a farm and a buyer should give you an idea, what waits outside is a demon's world. There's no place for humans to live, it was never meant to be for our kind. So it's impossible, if we take everyone, we'll all die out there, we leave them behind, that's the best option," Ray puts a hand on her shoulder, "No way. Even if it's impossible they're all coming. We can figure it out, I don't know what's on the outside but leaving a part of our family behind isn't an option, I want Conny to be the last one they take, never again, I won't lose anyone else like that, if there isn't a place for humans to live we'll carve one out for ourselves, together we'll change the world, thank you Ray for letting me understand, we're planning an escape where we can get everyone out. I'm not bending on this, I've decided. You've got to get a grip on my plans Ray! We need your help!" Emma grabs on his hands, he flings her off, Norman and I chuckle "How can you laugh? Her plan's suicide!" Ray walks over to us, "Someone should knock some sense into her, she's unreasonable!" Ray jabs his finger at Emma who was whining, "Yeah, totally, I'm glad she's her normal cheerful self, that only leaves one more person," Norman holds onto his stomach and looks at me, "You're missing my point Norman! Stop her or we'll all die! Of course you knew all this from the very beginning didn't you?" Ray shouts, "You saw, I hope you excuse me but I eavesdropped on your conversation with Nat, just look at her, little do you know, I don't think she's told you. She's the next to get shipped out," Norman looks at me, Ray's eyes widen as he looks at Emma and I play fighting, "She's getting shipped off next but look at her, these exact words came from her mouth, 'I'd rather spend my life, one life and save the other thirty seven' she said that because she's not scared of dying, she wants to save the rest of us at the house and give her life away rather than see another one die," Norman looks at me sadly, I saw Ray's mouth hang open a little, "Hey guys, what are you looking at?" I grinned and walked over to them, "You're not dying! I'm not letting you!" Ray holds onto my shoulders and yells at me, I flinched, "Well, let's just say that I want to give my life to save everyone in our house, I don't want the rest of my family to die. That includes you bedhead boy, I'd even sacrifice myself for you," I held his arms and gently pulled them down, I smiled sadly, "You idiot, what kind of family would I be if I just let the girl right here in front of my eyes die," He wrapped his arms around me, I felt tears pool and I hugged him back. We heard the bell ring again, "Hey shouldn't we still have some more free time left?" I looked up from Ray's chest, "We should go," Norman says.
"Attention, I want to introduce you to Carol, your newest sibling. And this is Sister Krone, she's here to help me with my duties," Mum introduces us, we saw a baby in her arms and another lady in the same uniform as her smile at us, I saw Emma hold hands with Norman and I held onto Ray who's stare hardened and he shuffled closer to me, "Another adult?" I heard Emma mutter, "Another enemy," I whispered, "I'll be living here with the ret of you from now on, it's nice to meet you," Sister Krone smiled at us.
We saw Mum lead Sister Krone to her room, "This sure will be a inconvenience," Ray looks up, we were all standing on the landing of the stairs, "She's in between the prechildrens rooms, it'll be easier for her to watch us," I muttered, Sister Krone looked down at us, we all instantly put on an innocent smile. While everyone else headed out to play outside, Ray, Emma, Norman and I went to the library, "We should be happy about this, with Krone and Carol, we have two new sources of info," Ray leant up against a bookshelf, "You've got a point," I looked up, "First up, where did they come from? I suppose Carol's here to replace Conny, they must be replenishing merchandise. If this is a farm, they must have a base for all the one year olds to replenish the house," Ray walks up, "So do you think we all came from there at one point?" Emma asks, "Probably, and I'm guessing Sister Krone came from there too," Ray nodded, "It's significant that there's other adults than just Mum, it means there must be more farms like this one, are the other adults under the demon's control since they were born? Or after they're captured? Knowing can change how we survive after we escape," Norman says, "But first we need to figure out a way to escape with everyone, "Plus finding the tracking devices," Ray nods, "I've checked all over my body but there's no scar showing that something's been implanted," I patted my body down, "Nothing in our clothes either," Norman adds, "Just based on mankind's existing technology they probably use radio waves, but then they'd need batteries, something battery powered that's small, doesn't leave a scar and lasts over ten years, that kind of technology wouldn't exist in 2015. Meaning it's going to be difficult to find the location and figure out how to break it. And if it's demon technology we may as well give up," Ray says, "If we can't figure it out, think like how they'd think, what would be the most convenient place to put it in," Ray asks, we were all stumped, "Carol!" I looked up, "She might still have a scar when they put it in her," I pointed my finger up, "From where they put the device!" Emma catches on, we nod.
"Kids all adore her," I said to Ray, we were both of washing up duty tonight, "Yeah, how do we make someone out to be the bad guy when everyone adores them?" Ray says, "Exactly, I'm more worried about the demons getting notified, as soon as they know we've escaped, they're gonna come after us," I washed the disk, "There's only one way around that, the grown ups will have to be." Ray looks at me then down to his hands, he jabs the fork up and down, symbolising murder, I gasped lightly, then turned around, "You're Nat, and you're Ray am I correct?" We saw Sister Krone right behind us, Ray took a step closer to me and I shimmied closer to him, "Yeah," He says, "I heard, you get perfect test scores, you however..." She looks me up and down in disgust, I looked down at my feet, "Yeah," Ray says again, "Nice to meet you, I know we'll get along," She holds her hands out and we both shook one, she looked at Ray then at me, she had an insane look in her eyes, "I think I've got a perfect family for you once you are of age," She gives me a sickly sweet smile, my breath hitched and I heard Ray's breath stop for a moment, "Carry on, I'll leave you two be," She prances off to play with the children again, I held onto my heart, "She knows, she knows that we know what goes on in this place," I felt my heart buzzing, "She suspects us, Mum's definitely told her," My hands were trembling as I continued washing up, Emma and Norman were in charge of washing the babies tonight, that gives them a chance to check Carol's body for scars. "Here, I'll wash up, your hands are trembling so hard, you can't even hold on a fork properly, let me finish up and tonight we'll talk about it," Ray put his hand on top of mine, "Why are you being so nice to me?" I looked up at him, "Well let's just say I've been your guardian angel for a few years now, you matter too much to me to just die," He tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear, I averted my eyes and blushed, ever since the incident, he's the only one that's been able to take my mind off the image of death, the only one who's been able to calm my mind down, "Hey Ray," I say quietly, "Yeah?" He continues to wash up, "Thank you," I hugged his back, he seemed to stiffen up but soon relaxed, "What are you thanking me for? I'll always look out and protect you." I heard him say.
