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Soerous place for my head to be, but I didn’t have the time or luxury to sort it out now Maybe e found our final hoo to find happiness and security again and to deliver it to my new family

Chapter Six

WE RODE FOR HOURS, TRADING bikes and their accoo no farther, a slades Correctional Institution came up

"That’s kind of funny, isn’t it?" asked Winky

"What?" I responded, huffing and puffing along, s on fire from the overexertion

"That it’s not called a prison I mean, correctional institution? It sounds like a school for learning "

"It was," said Bianca "It’s not polite to rape, les We were too tired to do any better

"Keep going, guys," cheered Peter, "we’re almost there!" He had only hih juice to fuel a burst of energy that had him well ahead of us in seconds

I turned and looked back at my load Jenny hadn’t moved for the entire ride The fact that she hadn’t even roused herself enough to go pee with us was sad It meant she was beyond dehydrated I hated to think we’d rescued her only to watch her die

Thirty minutes later we pulled into the valet area of the prison It looked like a freaky ghost town, trash blown up against the fences and weeds grown up high along all the buildings and in the center section in front Even the cracks in the asphalt and sidewalks had grass growing out of theh here or decided to stay

Peter aiting for us at the front gate Bodo was next, pulling up beside him The rest of us arrived soon after, Ronald and Ja theirls who had been riding uncouys doing?" asked Winky

"I’ht here Don’t worry about me," said Jamal

"Me too," said Ronald "Just let the Good Lord take me I can’t move another inch I really can’t"

Peter was off his bike and pulling on the fence "It’s locked" He put his hands on his hips and huffed out a frustrated breath "And there’s barbed wire around the entire thing How are we going to get in?"

"Just give us a few o around the perimeter and see if there are any breaks in the fence I can’t believe we’re the first people to break in here," I said

"Maybe we are Don’t you reood?" asked Gretchen, staring up at the sky

"No," I said, trying to think when the last time I watched television was

"I remember," said Ronald "They turned the prisons into hospitals Lots of the people ere dying were brought here"

"Oh, great!" I yelled, pissed I hadn’t realized this before "You ue?!"

"Well, I guess that explains why this place isn’t being used by anyone else," said Peter, shrugging his shoulders

"Peter, you are seriously scaringout lately"

"I freak out when the tiht now I’ve come to the conclusion that we’ve picked the best possible place to set up our new home All we have to do is move the bodies out, clean the place up, and ht now," I said, shaking my head at him I looked around at the others "Does anyone else feel the wrongness of all of this? Is anyone else worried about the friggin’ virus that could still be alive in there?"

"Nope," said Bodo "Not me I like dat dis place is like a haunted house Dat means no one will come here and bodder us"

"The virus is dead," said Gretchen "Everyone knows that"

"No, everyone does not," I insisted, disregarding Kiersten’s statements to the contrary "We have no idea what that virus is or what it’s capable of doing to us as we get older"

"What’s the worst that could happen?" asked Ronald "I mean, really When you think about it"

"We could die? How about that?" I said

"Yeah? And?" said Bianca, sitting up and looking atraped and eaten inwith thoughts of our new reality I felt cornered and sad and desperate, even surrounded by friends and standing in front of a place that I thought was going to be our sanctuary And theanyone can think to consider is which would be a better way to die - by the hands of another kid or a killer virus that wiped outto be about living and not dying?

Peter walked the perimeter of the fence with Jamal They showed up from the other direction thirty minutes later

"There are no breaks in the fence anywhere," said Peter "The place is locked up tighter than e"

"The one with the high heels?" I asked, s a pair of them when I first met him

"Exactly Secrets are inside this place, I just know it" He stood with hands on hips again, staring at the fence "I need to get in there Why don’t we have a stupid bolt cutter with us?"

"How about we throw a blanket over the barbed wire and then cli escape deterrent It had bits of razor and twisted, pointy spikes on it It looked like a great way to get a set of very painful and infected wounds