Chapter 40
Lisa watched as the metal flying machine went up into the air. She smiled to herself, happy that her friend Jill was still alive, and even more happy that she helped Jill get away. The white monster would have killed Jill and the others, so Lisa fought it to give them a chance to escape. She knew that the white monster really could not harm her, so she was not worried about dying herself, but she did not want her friend Jill to be harmed.
She looked up and saw Jill staring at her from a window on the flying machine. Lisa smiled again, and lifted her arm. She shook her hand in the air, knowing that the gesture was a way to say goodbye to someone. And then, to her delight, Jill lifted her hand and shook it as well. She was saying goodbye to Lisa.
As the machine flew away, Lisa sat down on the ground and wondered what she was supposed to do next. Her friend Jill was gone now, and Lisa knew sadly that she would never see her again. Lisa could not go back into the rooms underground either, because now most of them were destroyed and many of them were full of fire. She was happy about that as well, since the rooms underground were bad places.
Lisa had learned a lot about her life in the past few hours. She knew that she was alone in the world, because she could not be killed by all the diseases the caretakers gave her. She could not be killed by guns or knives or even the white monsters. She wondered if she could be killed at all. All of the other people in the rooms underground and at the big house were all dead, and Lisa didn’t want to spend her time with dead people.
The flying machine was out of sight now, but Lisa knew what direction it flew in. The city must be in that direction, and she truly wanted to see the city. She wanted to be with living people, and the city would be full of living people that Lisa could be friends with. But she also knew that the living people would never let her stay with them. Lisa had all the bad diseases, it was probably a bad idea to go where other living people were, because they might get them too, and become dead people. Lisa was too different from them, too dangerous. They would never accept her.
That made her sad, but not for long. Lisa had figured out much of her life, and maybe she could figure out even more. She was going to go to the city, and maybe she could remember more about how to be normal again. Maybe she could learn to be like a regular person.
Lisa knew that she might never really be normal again, but it was worth the risk of disappointment. She also knew the people of the city might not like her, but that was worth the risk as well. Lisa wanted to be a normal person again, more than anything else in the world. And so she started walking into the trees, the beginning of her journey to the city.
She just wanted to be a regular person. She wanted to be human.