After Jaz stuffed the books in her suitcase, the pretty boy she'd scratched across the cheek, Alf, carried it for her. Along with Maria and Edda, the four of them exited the room and Jaz saw the rest of the building for the first time.
They led her left down a long, cream corridor passing several closed doors on either side at regular intervals. She glanced at each one. They were numbered, like a hotel, but each had their own personal stamp: flower pots, picture frames. Door 11 even had artistic graffiti of a wild, white horse running free through a shallow pool. She liked that one most of all. It was on the last door to her left before the corridor swept right and pooled out into a bulb-shaped room. Jaz felt a swell of relief in her heart when she saw pure sunlight ahead. The stone floor sloped upwards. When the floor levelled out she looked up.
Beams of light stabbed through the ceiling. It was made of glass, thick -like the windows in Driver's room- and bubbled, resembling a strange, igloo-shaped greenhouse; something out of a sci-fi film with an ancient cave mix. The glass curved downwards forming a wall on one side; the side that led to the exit.
The sliding glass doors were pulled open by a beefy, red-headed man who was standing guard from the outside.
“Good morning, Tomas,” Maria acknowledged.
“It is indeed, Ma'am,” he replied in a thick Scottish accent.
Alf stepped through after Edda, releasing a grunt when Tomas slapped him across the back in greeting. Jaz gave Alf a sideways glance when he sniggered at Tomas in response. The Scottish man's grin was only just visible through his thick red beard.
When Alf walked through the doorway he waited outside by Edda, stopping when they both saw Jaz hesitate. Maria stood next to her, placing a delicate hand on her shoulder. Jaz gazed out the building with squinting eyes. The light hurt them more than usual: a side effect of her 'condition' she'd been told.
It was a strange feeling, to want to be outside so badly and when the chance came, to be too scared to go out. It felt like a trick. At any moment they'd slam the doors shut in her face and laugh at her from the other side. But they didn't.
Tomas gave her a warm smile as she sidled out, then he shut the door behind her and disappeared inside.
She shielded her sensitive eyes from the blinding, afternoon sun and gazed at the landscape in awe.
The land of Deer Creek was vast. From the pieces of information both Skye and Maria had told her, Deer Creek land was over twenty-five acres, bordered off by a river that separated them from the Packs to the north. There were five Northern Britain Packs in all. The biggest in number was the Red Sword Pack. The Deer Creek Pack, however, had more land with deeper forests. That meant more wildlife to hunt.
The Red Sword Pack currently had ninety-eight people to the Deer Creek's sixty-three. But like every other pack in Britain, Red Sword didn't cross Deer Creek, not since the late Olaf's Pack Leadership had been passed onto his son, Njord.
It was common knowledge that Deer Creek were tough, skilled and when necessary, ruthless. They were also smart, thanks to their current Pack Leader. He was known for his great sense, leadership and politeness. Many people wanted to be part of his community.
Members did tend to come and go, sometimes to live outside with 'civilization' and sometimes leaving a Pack (a word she still couldn't say with a straight face) to join another, though this was very rare. It caused a lot of problems for all involved. Especially the Pack Leaders.
She thought about this as she scanned the terrain.
They were standing on higher rocky ground. The land sloped downwards and then flattened into well-tended fields. There were crops and vegetable patches. Six 8x10 greenhouses, all in the middle, organized by species (tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, French beans, grape vines) with apricot and peach trees circling most of them. All the vegetable patches and crops looked so organized and had been planted with meticulous precision. Jaz wasn't an expert but she knew neatness when she saw it.
There was a kidney-shaped lake about three football pitches away down to the far right, cutting off the fields from the forest. The bottom of the kidney-shaped lake connected to a wide stream with stepping stones leading across. She spotted that because of the children playing on them. There are children here...? She was stunned. After the way she'd viewed this place -her prison, her hell- it was strange to see something so innocent as children playing.