"These are the kids from the island?" The woman eyed the kids curiously. Ralph guessed that she was the person running the institution. The naval officer had said they would be spending some time here.

The officer nodded.

"Yep. You only have to take them until we track down their parents."

"If we ever do track down their parents." The woman shook her head sadly. "What are their names?"

"They... don't seem that interested in talking to adults. Must be a byproduct of being left alone for so long, I dunno." The officer shrugged, then spoke again. "This one's name I know. He's Ralph." The officer gestured to Ralph, who was standing unnecessarily close beside him. Ralph realized this must look particularly strange coupled with the way the tribe was standing a good two yards away from the officer. He shifted uncomfortably. The woman, seemingly noticing this as well, hesitated for a moment.

"Well. I'm Ms. Kling, and I own the Corlake Institute for Displaced Children. I hope you guys feel at home here. There's a map of the building over there. I'm sorry I don't have time to show you around." Ms. Kling smiled constrainedly. "I'm assuming you guys can figure out the general rules on your own. We've never had to talk about them before, so you should be fine."

Ralph felt a jolt of alarm tear through his chest. Figure out rules on their own? That was what they tried to do on the island!

Before he could protest, Ms. Kling began to walk away. Ralph followed her. If she was responsible for enforcing the rules, it was probably safest to stay near her. Especially if she just expected everyone to figure them out on their own. She turned to him.

"Why, hello, Ralph. Is there anything you need?"

Ralph froze up almost instantly. How could he explain why he needed to stay near her to avoid getting hurt? He just shrugged.

"Well, if there's nothing you need, why don't you just go play with the others for now? I'm really busy, and... well... I need to go right now. Is that alright?"

Ralph broke into tears, something he seemed to be doing a lot lately. Mrs. Kling knelt down and looked him in the eye.

"Look. I don't know what you've been through, but it's going to be alright. You're going to be OK. But I need to get back to work. I'm sure you can handle yourself." She stood up and walked away.

Ralph started to make another attempt to follow her. It came to him that a second try would go no better than the first.

His heart thumped against his chest. He'd be screwed now. He hadn't seen any other adults in the room, and he was pretty sure the naval officer had left when he wasn't looking. They were going to do him now that they had their chance. There'd be no escape.

Ralph turned around to see Jack stalking over to him slowly and deliberately, with a violent gleam in his eye. Ralph started to back away. He stumbled over his own foot. Hopefully, whatever Jack was about to do would end soon.

A voice made them both jump.

"What are you doing?"

The voice's owner was a girl, about 11. She had an odd resemblance to Jack, with curly red hair pulled into pigtails. Instead of looking scared, she looked curious and almost stern. Her arms were crossed across her chest, yet her eyes were wide in interest.

"None of your business." Jack glared at her.

"You know, I'm not going away until you tell me what's going on."

"It's none of your business. If you don't go away you will regret it."

Rather than leaving, the girl turned to Ralph.

"What's your name?"

Ralph hesitated, then spoke in a soft voice.

"You should probably go."

The girl raised her eyebrows.

"I didn't hear what you said, but I don't think it was your name."

Ralph sighed. This girl probably wasn't going to last a second around Jack's tribe.

"It's Ralph."

"Alright, Ralph, what's going on?"

Jack glowered at her.

"I am going to give you one last warning." He was speaking through a clenched jaw.

"Or what?"

"Or I'll stab you with this." Jack held his spear menacingly.

"Is that what you're doing to Ralph right now?"

Jack glanced away for a moment.

"What's it to you?"

With no warning, the girl grabbed Ralph's arm and charged into the hall.

Ralph was hit with a wave of breathlessness as he tried to comprehend what was going on. What did this girl think she was doing, anyway? Couldn't she tell it was clearly a bad idea? Now they were both going to get killed! He could hear a storm of footsteps behind them. The entire tribe must have joined the chase at this point. Ralph tried to collect his thoughts.

"Wha...what...what are you...?" Ralph asked between gasps.

"I'm saving you, stupid."

"I don't think it's working!"

"Well, it is. I think."

The girl shoved him through a door on his left, and barely managed to slam it shut and turn the lock. The savages began to bang on the door. Inside the room, muffled chanting was audible.

"They're going to knock the door down."

"Yeah... you should get in the closet; I know how things work here."

The closet only had about a square foot of room, and was pitch black. If the girl had been keeping more than a couple articles of clothing inside, it would have been an impossible hiding spot. Even so, Ralph hardly managed to get in and wrestle the door shut.

His shaky breaths felt cramped inside the closed space. There wasn't much room to shift, either. This probably wasn't going to work. If the door opened, he'd be cornered. There really weren't that many other hiding places in the room, and the closet was the most obvious. There wasn't anything to do now but wait to be found.

He heard the door to the room burst open, and then he heard the girl shout.

"Mrs. Kling!"

A patter of footsteps rang down the hall.

"What is it De- what is going on here?!"

"He bust down my door and threatened me with a spear!"

"While I have no proof about the spear part, it is apparent that Destiny is telling the truth about her door. You guys should know that all the money I spend is to take care of you. If I am forced to buy new doors all the time, I won't be able to do that as well. Destiny, you may move to the room across the hall, it's empty. Now, the rest of you boys can go play in the foyer, but please, please don't break anything else!"

The sound of footsteps receding into the hall could be heard from the closet. The girl opened the door. Ralph blinked, his eyes re-adjusting to the light.

He was alive. By some miracle, the girl's plan had worked. He exhaled quietly. The girl looked at the empty doorframe anxiously.

"Okay, I think we're good. You can come with me to the room across the hall. There is stuff we really need to talk about." She turned to walk away, but paused and turned back around. "My name is Destiny. If you couldn't tell."

Ralph nodded wordlessly.