Chapter 33
Lisa knew she must be very careful now. She followed her friend all through the rooms underground, making sure to stay far enough behind that her presence was not noticed. She figured out how to hold her chains so that they did not drag on the ground or make any noise.
When her friend met the big man who fought Lisa back in the big house above ground, Lisa had to be even more careful. The man hurt her before, but Lisa did not hold that against him. She was beginning to understand now why the man behaved that way. But she stayed quiet and careful, and so far her friend and the big man still did not know she was there.
Lisa kept her distance when they heard the loud noises and went to investigate them. She crept all the way to the long rooms with dirt walls to hear what was happening, just in case her new friend needed her help. She did not want her friend to know she was there, but if her friend was in danger, Lisa wanted to save her. But then she to retreat back in a hurry when her friend and the big man returned.
The entire time she followed them, she listened to them talk. Lisa wished that she could she could talk to them, but she could not talk at all. She didn’t know why, because she could think in words, but for some reason, she could not say them out loud. But as she listened, she learned new words and began to figure some things out.
Once or twice, she heard them say the word “traitor.” Lisa knew what the word meant, but she didn’t know who they were talking about. A traitor was sort of like a liar. It was someone who promised to help you and then hurt you instead.
The people who imprisoned her underground were traitors, she realized sadly. They promised to help her father, and then they broke that promise. Lisa regained her memories at a faster rate now, things that she once forgot came back into her mind constantly. Her father was an important man, she remembered. He helped the caretakers and they promised to help him in return. But something bad happened, and the caretakers betrayed her father. Lisa did not know exactly what happened, but she did not think that she forgot it. Most likely, she never knew in the first place.
After that, her family was taken to the rooms underground. Lisa was sure now that her mother and father were dead. Lisa knew that they injected her with diseases to make her sick, but she believed that the diseases usually killed people. For some reason, the diseases did not kill Lisa. That was why the caretakers locked her in that room for so long. But her parents surely died from the diseases. It made Lisa sad, but there was nothing to be done.
Lisa remembered the man with dark glasses, the man who freed her. He was a traitor too, even though Lisa was happy that he let her go free. Lisa knew that the other caretakers did not want Lisa to ever be free, and so the man with the dark glasses betrayed them. She guessed that maybe someone was only a traitor if they hurt you. There could be good traitors as well as bad ones.
Lisa also figured out something else. Somehow, the other caretakers all got infected with the diseases that Lisa was given, because she saw many of them moving around like they were alive, even though they were dead. As far as Lisa knew, the man with dark glasses was still alive. She wondered if she would ever see him again.
As Lisa followed her friend and the big man, two more people suddenly showed up. Lisa was very surprised to see more living people in the rooms underground, since she thought that they were all dead. But her friend seemed happy to see them, so Lisa guessed they must be good people. One of them was another woman, which also made Lisa happy. She liked seeing other women, since they reminded her of her mother.
Another thing Lisa learned was that her friend’s name was Jill. She almost forgot that people had names at all, since no one ever called her by her own name. And as she thought about names, she suddenly remembered that she had two names. Lisa was only her first name.
What was her second name? Lisa thought about it and then remembered. Her last name was Trevor. Her full name was Lisa Trevor. And she remembered her parents’ names too. Jennifer Trevor was her mother and George Trevor was her father.