Adrianne yawned and slowly raised her arms in a stretch. The morning sun dripped into lambent pools that lay across her face. She soon stood, but upon arriving in that position, she noticed movements other than her own and dropped into a crouch.

She spied around the edge of a tall bush, and she found the offending creature to be human- a young man. He had the required haircut for Virtual Immersion Schools, and by the forest green uniform, she judged him to be from the Arthur Cheshire School for Boys. She touched her own hair, as if to remind herself of its presence and to judge its length to his. Hers was much longer, which comforted her.

Adrianne shook her head. She would not let herself become distracted by these petty details. All too often people escaped these schools only to be dragged back. It wasn't unheard of for an officer to disguise himself.

He moved.

Oh God, she thought, don't tell me there is more of him. His arm jerked again. A signal for others to join him. One came to the clearing, then another, and another- Five total.

She told herself to breathe, and quietly. Even if they were policemen, they might not find her if she didn't attract attention.

Please, leave this place, she thought. Instead the boys sat and talked in hushed tones, all watched by the feral girl.

One of them spoke shortly, and moved, which broke the lull. He walked past the edge of the clearing in her direction: right past the first bushes, towards hers, and past it.

He didn't see me. No, he was urinating by a large tree. It was as he turned to rejoin his friends that he caught sight of Adrianne. She bolted upright and sprinted away from him, but he ran after her, calling as he went. The others caught sight of him, but Adrianne didn't notice. She'd learned early enough that looking back only allows you to be caught. In mere seconds, that didn't matter. Her foot caught under an exposed root, and she crashed to the ground, bashing her head.

The young man, Nathan, loomed over Adrianne with a guilty expression. Kneeling, he untwisted her leg and set the bone, ripping his sleeves to use as bandages. She looked so fragile, and yet the markings on her skin implied a different story- one of violence, hatred, and self-mutilation. He wondered absentmindedly how she got them, but the glowing, golden lines simply pulsed along their little pathways and back under the silvery blue of her dress.

After the other boys had arrived at the scene, it took an half an hour to decide what to do with her. They all had equal stakes for survival, one said, better not to risk lowering them for someone no one knew or trusted. Two others theorized on who she was. The fourth commented that she needed to be protected. He'd lived in the cities before being sent off to school; nobody had this color of markings. Nathan simply didn't want to leave her lying there. They finally agreed to take her.

The pain from her broken leg kept her unconscious as Nathan carried her on the path to the safe house. It was a small hut with three rooms built in between the trees in a thicker part of the forest. Four of them had it built for them when they were small, and now that no one but them knew where it sat, they figured it was safer than anywhere else.

There they waited for her to wake. She lay on a pile of blankets on the floor. There was no furniture other than a couple of tables and a cupboard, so it was the most comfortable place they could devise. Days drifted by lazily, and between checking her for signs of life and searching the nearby woods for signs of danger, they planned their next movements.

"The main entrance to the city is here. We need to avoid it at all costs. There's no way that they aren't looking for us right now, and we'd probably be spotted as soon as we go past the gate. But my uncle works in the sewer system. We can get in that way during the day, and no one will be the wiser. "

"That's neglecting the point, Bill. We need to find the path most likely to get us to the records we need and least likely to get us caught. We know to stay away from the main gate."

"Not this again. Here. Look at this map of the subway tunnels. Here's an abandoned set we might be able to reach from the sewer tunnels, and they take us about 5 blocks from the Hall of Records."

"But what-" Nathan had attempted to enter the conversation, but stopped short. Adrianne's eyes had flickered open, and were currently attempting to focus. " Jenna's up, guys."

Adrianne finally made out Nathan's face and screamed, trying to lift herself up, but flopping back onto the floor from the extra weight of her makeshift cast. "What have you done to me?" The golden markings flashed wildly.

Nathan put his hands up in surrender, saying, "We just set your leg, that's all." He knelt down so as to be less intimidating, but he was still taller than her. "Jenna, Jenna, it's all right. We aren't going to hurt you."

"Who's Jenna?" She nearly shrieked.

"We didn't know you're name, and we needed to call you something other than 'the girl'."

Al stood from the table and moved closer. " I don't think we're ever going to learn your real name, even if you have one. You're just Jenna from now on."

"I liked my name." She grumbled. The other three moved towards them, though the twins were more open to the idea of her being friendly; Bill stayed aloof.

Leo, the less tactful twin, picked up her arm and brought it closer to his face. " I assume the markings track your pulse."

" I wouldn't know." Adrianne pulled her arm away, and pursed her lips, but Leo wanted a satisfying answer.

" You had to have designed the tattoo."

" I was born like this." She huffed with impatience, and tried to push herself up again.

"Oh." He looked away, as if he should be ashamed, and Jack smacked him over the head. But the twins looked at each other suddenly, as if reaching the same startling conclusion. But not even when they were asked later, with furtive glances, would they tell what it was.