Chapter 9.6

Luke visited again the next day. he almost immediately notices the ball of paper, I make a grab for it and almost tumble out of bed. He simultaneously catches me and unravels the paper "So you can read and write. I was worried you couldn't.".

"I was taught a bit at the orphanage and there was a lady Captain who taught me." I tried to grab it back, but he moves out of the way to take a closer look.

"What does it say?"

"Ezra." He didn't seem angry that I wrote it in Garlantian, I wondered why I thought he would be?

"Oh, so you like your name?"

"It's alright. I don't know what mine is so its fine."

"I want to show you somewhere, do you feel up for a walk?" He asked. Why was he asking?

"okay." It had been about a week since my initial escape attempt, and I hadn't left the room since I arrived. I was a bit curious to see the rest of the compound since I didn't really see much on my way in. My body was a bit stiff from staying in bed to long, I couldn't remember the last time I wasn't rushing round doing chores or trying to survive. The kindness and comfort made me nervous and confused. I kept on expecting them to demand something or to take it away. Maybe that where I was going. Luke handed me some crutches, ones my height this time and with both rubber feet attached.

"No need to look so nervous, we're only going to the children's centre." Children's centre? Were we going to meet the child soldiers he mentioned before? It took some time to navigate because I wasn't used to using crutches, and the children's centre was a little way away from the medical ward. Apart from a few offices there wasn't much else in the current building. We went through a thin corridor connecting to another wing of the compound, we passed a few empty classrooms and then we stopped outside a closed door.

"Ready?" he says dramatically

I nodded, "Ready for what?" I wondered and horrible scenarios started playing through my head.

When Luke opened the door, we were hit with a wall of noise. The scene before me wasn't at all like they were soldiers. In fact, it was a scene of chaos. There were children of all ages, from little ones about three or four, up to children who were in their early teens. They sat in little groups, surrounded by different items and talking in different tones. Some of them had miniature fake items and hard fake looking food, or a brightly coloured board with tiny figures moving across it with some sort of function. "Why are they here?" I asked in confusion.

Even with my vague memories of the orphanage, it was never like this.

"These are the children of the soldiers that serve this base. They come here while their parents perform their duties."

So why were they doing these weird little rituals?

"I have things to do, will you be ok?" he asked. Why would he ask that? there didn't seem to be any danger, even if it was a little weird. I nodded and he left. I noticed there was another adult at the front of the room. She gave a quick glance up at me, then went back to reading her book. Looking around the room, several of the children regarded me curiously but continued in their little groups. I found an empty table and sat down, resting my crutches on it side.

What should I do? I couldn't move around much, and I didn't really understand what the other children were doing, nearby, there were some more of those coloured sticks that Luke gave me, so I tried to remember Reagens written language. After a couple of tries, I think I got it right. But then the women at the front noticed and started shouting at me for writing directly on the table.

I thought it was fine because there were already some colour marks on the table, but she looked pretty angry and I knew I'd done something wrong. I couldn't get away with the cast on my leg, so I braced myself. But she doesn't hit me. Instead, she gives me some cloth and cleaning spray, and I scrub off. I just finish when Luke returns for me.