I had never seen anything like it, had never even imagined that something like this could exist. I mean, I knew that it did (my before self knew), but seeing the actual thing in front of my eyes was completely different than my brain just telling me. 

         We were kneeling on the edge of a cliff, looking down into the largest town I had ever seen. Which, I guess, wasn't saying much since I had never, or at least, didn't remember, ever seeing one before. In fact, to my eyes, the town was so large that when I first saw it, I had thought it was a city, before being (quite rudely, I must say) told that it wasn't by Riff. In any case, city or not, the place was huge. There were miles and miles of buildings, some even several stories high. Riff told me that there were even taller buildings in cities, stretching far into the air, which was hard for me to imagine. From our vantage point, the town was stretched before us like a map, the people moving between places scurrying like tiny ants that I could squash with a thumb. There were so many people. More people then I could imagine living in one place. On the paved streets between buildings were tiny moving objects (cars, my mind whispers to me), making unbelievably loud noises. In fact, the entire place was loud, voices drifting up to us as well as dogs barking, engines of various devices, horns from those cars, just general living ruckus. For someone so used to the torture of silence, this sound was almost unbearable. 

         With a knot starting to form behind my temples, I scooted back from the edge, pushing the long grass out of my way. Ignoring the flare up of pain, I glanced up at Riff and asked, "So....What's the plan again?"

         I didn't really need his answer. I already knew the plan, had drilled it through my brain so many times it felt like a chant. But I was feeling nervous, as much as I hated that. This world was still so new to me, and I was struggling to take it all in. Not to mention, I couldn't help but feel like we weren't nearly far enough away from the labs. 

         Riff hadn't even wanted to stop at all. When we wondered across the first signs of civilization, Riff had been determined to scoot around them, avoiding the town altogether. The only thing that had given him pause was the sudden loud growl that had arisen from his stomach. I was even feeling a little hungry myself, though probably not as badly as he was since I was used to eating small portions. The thing that truly concerned me though was how dry my mouth was. We hadn't come across any streams, and it had almost been an entire day since we escaped the lab. The human body could only go as little as four to five days without water, but dehydration can set in in as little as 24 hours, often less in cases such as ours, where we are constantly on the move. I already felt really weak, my head starting to spin from the exercise. It didn't help that I honestly couldn't remember the last time I had drunk anything. Was it before I was brought back to my cell after being put through endless cycles of exercise? Either way, we had needed to stop. 

         And so here we were.

        The plan was simple; we were just going to do a quick in and out. Riff was going to go first while I waiting here, to get us some money (not specified how, but I didn't really want to know. All I knew was, he was very likely going to put his nickname to work). Than, we were both going to go to a cheap discount store that had a lot of items (Walmart) and buy a few supplies. And than, we were going to buy the first train tickets we could find that took us as far away as possible. Seemed simple, right? Of course, the execution was turning out to be a little harder then that.

         The first problem? Me. I didn't have shoes, my hair was long and tangled, and my entire body was smudged with dirt. In a big city, I wouldn't even have been looked at twice. But, as Riff says, small town people are a little more particular about that kind of stuff.

         The second thing was that neither of us knew where we were going. The town was large enough to get lost in, so Riff didn't want to wander in and risk that. He wanted a general layout before he headed in, which was how we ended up here, on the cliff overlooking the entire place. And where we have been for the last 30 minutes.

         He glared down at me from his perch in the tree above my head, and than went back to glazing at the town, completely ignoring my question. Rude. But its not like I expected him to answer anyway. I really just wanted to get this over with already. I was tired of waiting around. All it was doing was making me even more nervous.

         With a sigh, Riff dropped down beside me. "I'm going to be gone for a little bit. Do not go anywhere." He talked to me like I was a child, with a permanent mocking ring to his voice.

         Glaring, I dropped into a mocking bow. "Yes, master."

         He didn't even react. "I'm serious."

         "So am I," I spat back, before sighing and saying more mildly, "I promise I won't move from this spot. I'm not stupid. I know that in order for me to make it very far in this world, I need someone with experience dealing with it. Even if that someone's as stupid as you. So until I find someone better, you can trust me to keep my butt right where it should be."

         "How reassuring," he said flatly.

         "Indeed. Now shoo."

         With a final (unnecessary, if you ask me) glare, he stalked off into the woods. Leaving me all by myself. I sucked a huge breath in through my nose, letting it out slowly through my mouth. Now to figure out what I was going to do while he was gone.

         Several minutes passed in silence, with me just staring at the world below, and eventually I drifted off, my mind wandering because my body couldn't. My thoughts drifted to random places at first, thinking about how many colors a single bird could be, or about how it would be like to be in one of those cars and how they can stand the restriction of a tiny moving death trap. Which got me thinking about death, and my thoughts turned sour. About how close we had been to being eaten by that beast in the sewers, or at least snapped in half by its powerful jaws. About how I could have drowned if my instincts hadn't taken over once we jumped. About many other countless possibilities, all worse than the last. Death by mauling, death by drowning, death by bullets, death by experimentation. These are all just aspects of death I have encountered thus far, in the brief time since I have escaped.

         That made my thoughts turn to those I left behind. Such as Dr. Hailey. I hope she's okay, and I didn't just condemn her to death by doing what I did. And Jordan... I didn't even know where to begin. She's my sister, the only family I truly know I have, the only person who had been completely honest with me, the only person I felt I could love. Love, an impossible and childish notation before she came into my life. I had considered love to be a myth, a fairytale, before I was introduced to her tangled curls.

         And now... now I had left her to rot in a dark cell. If she wasn't killed by scientists first. 

         No... Don't think.

         With a lurch, I pushed myself up and away from the ground. Sitting still just made me think about things that I needed to avoid, at least for now. I was going to save Jordan, that was a fact. I had determined that the moment I had to run before being able to open her door. But how was the big question. I didn't yet have the means to do that, but I would. No matter the cost, I would get back in there and save her. 

         But for now, I needed to stop thinking before I did something stupid that I would regret. 

         I know Riff told me to say here and not move, but I needed to walk to clear my head. I couldn't see the harm in walking a little bit into the woods. I wasn't going to go far, and besides, Riff wasn't my boss, and him constantly acting like it was starting to really piss me off. With a determined stride, I stalked into the woods.

         It didn't take long before the woods had completely engulfed me. The trees in this particular area were thick and large, with canopies stretching far above my head and trunks as big around as the cars I saw down in the town. Between these giant trees were smaller ones, covered with tougher needles instead of leaves that wrapped their entire trunks until they reached the forest floor. In total, it made the forest very dense and thick. 

         As I walked, shoving aside branches that scraped at my face and yet again ignoring the pain that flared up from my feet as I walked, my head gradually cleared. Even the headache that had been blasting my brain for the last 30 plus minutes faded as the noise of the town got distant. I concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, of moving this branch out of the way so it wouldn't scratch me, of making sure to step over this particular root. In fact, I was concentrating so hard that I had almost managed to completely block out the outside world. 

         Which was probably why I didn't see the campers until I had almost stepped on them. Cursing silently, I quickly backtracked my steps, ducked back behind a tree just before a head emerged from the tent I had almost knocked down. The head was that of a man, middle aged and vaguely handsome, with cropped blond hair and smile crinkled eyes. He looked around, head swiveling this way and that before shaking slightly. I hardly dared to breath, let alone move, as his gaze swept past the shadowy place I had ducked into. Next, the man crawled completely out of the tent, followed closely by a female voice. "Creg, what are you doing?" 

         The man shook his head silently, before seeming the realize that the women couldn't see him. "Nothing," he muttered, his voice low and deep. "Just thought I heard something." 

         "What did you hear, daddy?" A young, high pitched tone asked, before a child suddenly jumped out of the tent and looked around. It was a small girl, with long black hair and bright blue eyes. Her face was bold, and she looked like she was preparing to take on the world for her dad. A second after the child came out of the tent, the first female, who must be the mother, emerged. I take that back; this women was definitely the mother. She had the same long black hair and strong chin. 

         "It was probably just an animal, tiger. Nothing to worry about." With a sudden beaming smile, the man spun around and swept the child off of the ground, spinning her in his arms while she giggled hysterically. A second later, the mother joined in, all three of them spinning in a pile while laughing. 

         I choose that moment to make a silent, unnoticed getaway. My peaceful, mind numb mood from earlier had evaporated, and the happy families giggles seemed to haunt me all the way back to the cliff face. I was even more disturbed now then I had been when I had originally started out. Not only that, but now I was angry. I had never been treated like that in my life, at least not that I remembered. I had never been called 'tiger' by my father and spun around in his arms. My mother had never smiled at us before joining in. I never had a happy family that would go on vacations to beaches or take trips camping in the woods. No. Instead, all I got was poked and prodded and pinched and beaten and scarred, both physically and mentally, by people who used me as an object to a goal. 

         I plopped down under the tree Riff had climbed and wrapped my arms around my legs, mood sour and mind bitter. And that was the exact spot that Riff found me in an hour later when he returned, carrying two plastic bags in one hand and a box under the other arm. At that point I was aching for a fight, for someone to vent all my pint up anger on. He didn't bother asking me if I was okay, just walked right up beside me and unceremoniously dumped the contents of on of the plastic bags at my feet. I glared down at them, mind not even properly grasping what they were until he knelt beside me and started to rearrange them. He had bought a pair of small scissors, some wet wipes, a pack of hair ties, and a weird contraption that looked like a medieval torture device with a handle and tiny spikes facing one direction. I continued to glare at the items as he set the second bag down beside the contents of the first. "What's all this for?" I snapped.

         He didn't answer me right away, instead opening the second bag and pulling out two bottles of water and a couple bags of mixed nuts. "It's for you," he finally replied as he handed me a water bottle and one of the nut packets. 

         Still angry, I snatched them out of his hands and snapped open the cap of the water bottle, gulping down half of the contents before Riff casually says, "I wouldn't drink so much if I were you. These are the only two water bottles I got, so we have to make it last for a little while." 

         I stopped drinking halfway through a swallow and almost choked, coughing as I spat, "You couldn't tell me that before I drank half of it?" 

         He shrugged and turned away, but not before I saw the ghost of a smile play on his lips. Great, he deliberately wants to kill me. Somehow, this man has the ability to make me even more angry than I already was. 

         Capping the bottle with controlled, jerky movements to keep from slugging him, I jester at the things on the ground, eyeing the torture instrument. "And how do these help me?" 

         He eyes me as he finishes sipping from his water bottle, eyes mostly on my hair and feet. "We need to make you look more presentable. Don't take this the wrong way, but right now you look like a hobo." 

         Even though I knew he was right, I still was carrying that anger from before, which blinded me to the logic in his words and just allowed me to see the insult. "You try living in a dark cell for most of your remembered life and see how you look when you come out," I gritted out between my teeth. 

         For a small moment, his eyes seemed to flash with an emotion, but I couldn't see what it was before it was gone, replaced by his usually arrogant look. "I'd still probably look a whole lot better than you."

         "Well, that's a feat, isn't it? Considering how ugly you already are."

         I knew it was petty, our arguing, and useless, and honestly just wasting time, but I couldn't help it. Gahhh! This man just made me so mad. I wanted to slap him half of the time, and push him off a cliff the other half. Instead of doing either, I picked up the weird looking torture device from the ground and held it by the bristles. "What is this?"

         He gave me a strange look, but answered the question. "It's a hairbrush." At my dubious look, he added, "You know, to brush your hair." 

         I gave the hairbrush an even closer inspection, but it still looked like a torture device to me. "You mean to say that people actually put this thing near their hair?" I certainly didn't want to. 

         He pursed his lips, the edges of his mouth turning up slightly. He was amused by me! Irritated, I threw the hairbrush/torture device at his head, which he easily caught, chuckling. I glared at him, arms crossed over my chest. "This is just so hilarious to you isn't it?"

         Smirking, he replied. "Yes, actually." But then he got serious, the smile fading from his mouth. "We have to tame your hair if you want to pass as normal."

         And so, that's how, an hour later, I ended up with the hairbrush stuck in my curls. I really was convinced it was a torture instrument. We started out with him brushing my hair, but I had complained so much about him just yanking it through my hair, pulling chunks out and leaving my scalp sore, that he had finally just given it over to me. After an hour of careful work, I was down to my last section of hair when the brush got stuck halfway down the length of it. I pulled on it, trying to yank it out, and that was when the handle broke. Riff, who had been halfheartedly watching my progress while eating a packet of nuts, burst out laughing. I glared at him and chunked the broken handle at him, which he swiftly dodged. 

         He continued to laugh hysterically as I tried to carefully work out the head of the brush from my hair. It was no use; the brush was firmly planted in my tangles. When I glared at him again, he finally settled down enough to gasp, "It's a good thing I bought a backup plan." 

         Suspicious, I watched him out of the corner of my eye as he picked up the small scissors and approached me, half expecting him to impale me with them. Instead, he circled around to where the hairbrush had gotten caught, right between my shoulder blades where I laid on it the most, and grabbed my hair. Before I could react, he snipped the hair off, right where the hair brush got tangled. Shocked, I watched as my hair, as well as the cheap hairbrush, fell to the dirty ground. In the spot where he cut, I could feel the lessened weight of the chopped hair sliding against my upper back. But I didn't complain. I didn't even make a sound as he cropped the rest of my hair off to the same length, or roughly so. My head felt almost free now that it didn't have all that extra weight dragging it down. Before, my hair had been almost down to my knees, heavy and burdensome. Now, it was so short that if I turned my head fast enough, the entire length of it would slide over my shoulder. I stood up, long strands of red falling to the ground around me, amazed and astonished at the sight. For years now, my hair had been long, and for just as long, I had wanted to cut it off, to stop it from tangling around my legs as I moved and during my sleep. But that had never been a rational wish in my cell. Small luxuries such as haircuts never came, and they honestly didn't matter, not in the face of everything else. 

         But I must say, I was so relieved at the freedom of it. 

         Riff didn't give me time to marvel, though. Instead, he tossed me the wipes, which I used to wipe off as much dirt and grime from my face and body as I could. Next, he retrieved the small box that had gone unnoticed until now by the second bag of food. He handed the box to me, and I opened it to reveal a pair of worn sneakers. Shoes! I actually had a pair of shoes, for the first time in what seemed like eternity. "Thanks," I said gruffly, unused to being polite and still slightly ticked off about his laughing fit. He merely nodded. I tried on the shoes, which were a little big and awkward since I wasn't used to wearing anything on my feet, but worn and comfortable enough that I shouldn't have too big of a problem getting used to them. Unluckily, Riff hadn't thought to buy socks, so that definitely wouldn't help with the adjustment. 

         And then I was done. We had done everything that we could to make me look more normal, and for the most part, it worked. My hair was shorter and, though still wild, more tamed then it had been. I had shoes on my feet and my clothes were as close to normal as they were going to get on me. 

         With a final glance at me, he gave a nod, and we both headed down the cliff to the town below.