Hi, I haven't really written in ages so this is a bit strange to me. I'm Zara, Zara Janson actually, but we don't use my last name. Partly because we don't use last names here and partly because of something you'll figure out while reading this book. I'm currently 16 years old and I've been through a lot in the past year. Things that children or teens normally shouldn't experience. But we did. And it wrecked us. Some of us more than others. What and how, you will figure out yourself. But I've learned and realized some things from it all. The first and most simple thing is that if you want something you never had, you gotta do something you never did. Take risks, like I did. I took the biggest risk in my life and it turned out to be the best thing I've ever done. The second lesson is more difficult, but once you understand it, it will change your entire look on the world. The more you want to find happiness, the more likely you will fail. Happiness is not a treasure to be found, but can be built within ourselves. Now read that again and let it sink in. All the time we couldn't find happiness and started to think such a thing didn't exist, until we built it together. We built happiness, and you can do too.
Greetings from me from the Safe Haven, and welcome to my story.
-------------------------------------------------------
Zara let out a sigh as she remained her focus on the television in front of her bed. A movie was playing. What movie it was? Yeah, next question. It was something about a jungle and three people with a love-hate relationship. Zara stared bored at the television and sighed again. After a few more seconds, she turned it off and sat up on her bed. The sun shone through the window on her right side. Pretty nice you'd think. Well, not really. Every time Zara looked outside, the only thing she saw was sand. Sand, blue sky and a bright sun. And a part of a really big building, but that was it. And it hadn't changed since the girl could remember. This was her room, on the side of a big building that was owned by her father. What was in the building, Zara didn't know. Her father didn't speak much about his job. Sometimes it seemed to be something like a hospital, but the next day there would land a black helicopter on the roof which doesn't really belong in a hospital.
She didn't even have a home.
Well, practically she did. But that home was also inside the building. Either the whole left or the whole right side of the first floor was her and her father's home. Including two bedrooms, a way to big and modern living room, a huge ass kitchen, a suspiciously long corridor, two bathrooms and a balcony to the little garden inside the building. The little garden was at Zara's request. It had some trees, plants, a pond and speakers of animal sounds. It wasn't much but it reminded her enough of the outside world which she wasn't allowed to enter.
Her father always told her that when Zara was younger, she and him used to play in the sand of the Scorch together, in front of this building. But Zara didn't believe him and still doesn't. No matter how hard she'd try, she couldn't remember anything from her youth. She didn't remember a mom, while being pretty sure she had or has one. She didn't remember being young at all. The amount of memories most people get when they recognize something, Zara never got. The weird thing is, she did recognize things, but not from what. She remembered having a mom, but not who and what happened to her. She remembered how to do certain simple things like talking, walking or handling a laptop or phone, but not who taught her. Though it was most likely to be her father of course. Nothing was ever for sure, and it wasn't easy.
And if you're wondering, no, she didn't have friends. She knew what friends were and she remembered having them, but not their faces or what it was like. She knew what a school was but couldn't remember going to one. She got home-schooled from an online teacher seven days a week, four hours a day. Mostly from 7:00 am until 11:00 am.
And it was currently 3:34 pm.
Zara stood up and walked over to her desk and plopped down on the chair. A notification popped up on her phone. She looked at it. A reminder to hand in an assignment before tomorrow. That was fun, she hadn't even started yet neither knew what it was about.
She opened her laptop, only to stare at a black screen with a low battery sign.
''You son of a-''
She consciously didn't finish her sentence and just went searching for the charger. But the place where that thing was supposed to lay was empty. She threw her head back in annoyance.
''Are you kidding me.'' She complained.
In a gentle like aggressive way, she closed her laptop and got up from the chair. She left her room to go find her father and ask him where the charger was since he had no problem using hers instead of his own. Her footsteps on the concrete floor echoed through the hallway. After checking the kitchen, she found her father in the living room, sitting at the table.
''Good morning Zara.''
Zara rested her face. ''It's almost four in the afternoon but okay.'' She noted while walking over to the table to grab an apple from the fruit bowl.
Janson ignored her attitude. ''How was school?''
''Awesome.''
''Did you do your workout?''
''Yes.''
''Man, you're just full of information.''
Zara smiled sarcastically. ''Got it from you.''
Janson looked up and sent her a sarcastic laugh in response. Then he regained focus to his laptop and continued typing.
Zara took a bite of her apple and scanned the table for her charger. ''Where's
my charger?'' She asked after not seeing it.
''In my office.'' Her father answered.
Zara cocked an eyebrow. ''And where's your office?''
''On the third floor.''
Zara stared at him in unbelief. Then threw up her hands in frustration. ''And now I have to get it ain't it?''
Janson shrugged. ''It's your charger.''
''In your office!'' Zara added.
-------------------------------------------------------
Reluctantly, Zara got out of the elevator on the third floor. She walked down a corridor in a random direction, continuing to complain to herself.
''Stupid man left my charger in his office and now I'm the one that has to go get it.''
She paused.
''I didn't even know he had a damn office.''
After a few more steps the girl realized she had no idea what the intention was of randomly following a corridor. This floor was a complete maze. How was she supposed to find his office between all these rooms and corridors?
Other footsteps sounded from around a corner. Zara decided to herself to ask that person where her father's office was, and she made her way to the corner. But when the person appeared, Zara swallowed her words. A man completely covered in some weird blue suit. He wore a mask and a transparent face shield. But before Zara could think something about it, the person was followed by a stretcher and another person behind it, pushing it.
Hoses were attached from blood bags to something under a blanket on the stretcher. And when Zara scanned it, she took in the sight of human forms under the blue cloth. It sent cold shivers down her spine. When they'd passed her, a nauseating smell followed. Zara's face automatically screwed up in disgust, though she kept watching the two people with the stretcher until they disappeared into a room. Then, the girl was able to move from her frozen position.
She turned around and started walking absently. Too many things were going through her head. People with masks and face shields wearing a blue lab coat, they had to be doctors. So, this had to be a hospital. But the black helicopters? And why a hospital in the Scorch? And that stretcher... Zara was pretty sure she'd just seen a corpse.
The half-eaten apple in her hand suddenly didn't look so appealing anymore. Her hunger was completely gone and only the thought of eating something made her want to throw up.
Though she wasn't quite aware of where she was walking neither paying attention to her surroundings, she found her father's office on her left. Indicated by a name tag on the door. Zara opened the door and walked in. Surprised, she looked around. It was somehow big with a black desk, a leather sofa, a white-board and a big office chair behind the desk. Zara spotted her charger on the desk and grabbed it. When she was about to leave the room, something accidentally caught her eye.
There was a piece of paper pinned with on the white board with a magnet. She walked towards it to read what it said.
A1 ''The Betrayer'' : Teresa
A2 ''To be killed by group B'' : Thomas
A3 : Frypan
A4 : Chuck
A5 ''The Glue'' : Newt
A7 ''The Leader'' : Minho
B1 ''The Partner'' : Aris
B2 : Rachel
B3 : Harriet
B5 : Sonya
Zara stared at in in confusion. Letters with numbers, some sort of nicknames and other names. But some had nicknames, and some hadn't. She couldn't place it and left the room anyway to head for the elevator.
She passed the room where the people she'd seen on her way there had gone into. Zara didn't immediately find anything suspicious about the door. It was the same as the others. Except for one thing that seemed to apply for all doors in the building, or at least this floor. There was no space under it. You'd expect doors to have a very little space at the bottom for oxygen or something. Fresh air. But none of those doors seemed to have that. It was just a big metal plate in a wall which at first glance you wouldn't even say it could open, apart from the doorknob.
To make it even worse, the smell in that corridor was awful. With a sensitive stomach you would've threw up here ten times already. And that in combination with the cool air wasn't very enjoyable. Zara couldn't remember going there before, but if she ever had, she understood why she never came back.
She got into the elevator and had it take her back to the first floor. The only floor she knew. Sort of. She headed for the living room and dumped her apple in the trash, then held up the charger to her father.
''Found it.''
The man looked up. ''I don't like saying 'I told you so' but-''
''The hell you don't. It's your favorite phrase.''
And with those words, Zara left the living room and headed for her own room again. She had to put together an assignment in less than fifteen minutes and her laptop had to recharge before she could start.
-------------------------------------------------------
''What is it?'' Janson asked the cook while scanning the meal in front of him.
Zara looked at her plate with a purple looking gruel on it. Besides that Zara wasn't hungry in the first place, it didn't look like it should be eaten. She lifted her head to look at their cook.
''Red cabbage stew.'' He answered.
Zara returned her gaze to the disaster on her plate.
''Yummy.'' She said sarcastically.
Her father sent her a look. ''You're going to eat it, Zara.''
The girl looked up. ''I never said I wasn't going to. I just said it doesn't look appealing to me.''
''With a sarcastic 'yummy' ?''
Zara shrugged. ''That's the nicest way you get. Take it or leave it.''
The kitchen grew silent. The cook left the room so that it was now only Zara and her father, eating in silent. Zara was repeating the things she saw that afternoon in her head. With the result of more questions coming up to her. Question that could probably one be answered by one person.
''Dad?''
''Yes.'' He said without looking up.
''With the thought on that I haven't really asked you questions in ages.'' She paused. ''Can I ask you one question?''
Her father lifted his head and nodded. ''As long as it's not about boyfriends, yes. Because no you cannot have a boyfr-''
''You know that I know exactly zero people of my age? Just reminding you.''
Janson gave her an annoyed look. ''Just ask your question.''
Zara's face softened. ''What is this place?''
She watched as her father stared at his plate and swallowed his food. He looked up. ''It's a laboratory. A place where we do research to a certain thing.''
Zara nodded. ''But what are you researching then?''
''You said it was only one question.''
''I'm sixteen now dad, old enough to know what kind of place I'm living in ain't it? And you know damn well that when you say A you must say B.''
Janson sighed in. He knew his daughter was right. ''You act like me and that's annoying.''
''Well surprise, I'm your daughter.''
Her father swallowed his last bite and put down his cutlery. ''Look, you have heard of the Flare before, didn't you?''
Zara nodded. ''Don't know more than that it's a virus.''
Janson continued. ''It's a disease that affects the brain and turns you into a zombie. A Crank, as we call them. The Scorch and the rest of the world is full of them. More Cranks than normal people. And the Flare is incredibly contagious. If you get a simple bite from a Crank, you'll become one. Except for the immunes. Some people, mostly teens, are immune to the virus. They can't get infected. And that's exactly what we're researching here. We're trying to figure out why the immunes are immune by putting them through trials to test their brain activity. But we use some non-immunes too, so we can find differences and find a cure.''
A line appeared between Zara's eyebrows. ''But what's with the corpse?''
Janson turned his head to her and gave her a piercing look. It made Zara realize what she'd said. Janson locked eyes with her.
''You saw a corpse?''
''Yes. On a stretcher. Two people took it into a room.''
Her father sighed and leaned back in his chair. ''That's the last phase, Zara. We need the blood of the teens to figure out the cure. My apologies, you weren't supposed to see that.''
Zara's thoughts stuck on a word he'd said.
teens
''Teens?''
word count: 2481