Chapter one
It’s still dark out when I rise from the night of sleep. I know that no one else will be awake and I grab on the first pair of pants that I can find. I throw a shirt over my head and run to the bathroom I wash my face; not knowing the next time I will feel water on my face. I don’t have a lot of time to get ready. It will be time for rec check- as I have started to think of it- in 2 hours I need to leave if I am going to make it anywhere. I grab my bag from the floor that it sits on and walk into the kitchen I grab snacks, something quick to eat without stopping and a couple bottles of water. I throw them into the bag and I look into the mirror one last time. My red hair; almost too red to seem real. My bright green eyes and my non-freckled porcelain skin. I see the bags under my eyes from the nightmares that I have been having the past couple of nights. I’m sorry mom I whisper to myself feeling like I am betraying her. But it’s not her I am running from… it’s the Autonomy. I cannot be here any longer in their grasps. I walk into my mother’s room that hasn’t been occupied in days and pull open her jewelry box. I rummage through it but cannot find anything that I want to keep. I yank open her sock drawer and find a white box. I remember seeing it a few times. I lift the lid and look inside to see a beaded necklace. It’s beautiful and looks fragile and old. I know that she has had it since she was a child. There’s a loop for your neck and where it connects the necklace keeps going but only with one strand then at the end there’s a cross with a man on it. I do not know what this is, but I know that she never wanted to lose it. She kept it hidden so that they wouldn’t find it. I push it into my pocket as I grab one of the oversized black hoodies and walk out the front door. I watch over my shoulder at the empty street, but I keep my head down as I pass the cameras that hang over top of the city. I walk to where I had seen the whole in the chain linked fence and where there are not any guards. I pick up a rock throwing it up to the light pole that stands over the camera… If there isn’t any light to show me escape they will just be looking for me to arrest for destruction, but it’s too early for them to be paying this much attention to a camera, where no one goes to this early in the morning. I throw one more rock knocking out the light on the opposite side of the street I wait for a moment in the darkness and listen to see if any guards are coming after me. This city is so quiet at this time of the morning and I run as fast as I can to the hole in the fence. I force myself to go through it and then I am out. I’m out of the city for good. Until I am finally free. I run for a few feet and then I turn back around. I hear the shouting coming out of the speakers in the city which means that it is time for everyone to wake up… Everyone to wake up, but still two hours before everyone has to check in… I begin to run.
I can hear my footsteps pounding on the ground. I feel my heart pounding in my chest, and all I can see around me is the trees. The shouting behind me stopped hours ago, but I know that if I stop my feet from moving that they will catch up. The trees fly past me as I continue to will my legs to go forward. I know that I have been running for hours I can feel my muscles in my legs pleading with me to stop, but I push forward I have to get as far away from the city as possible. They will know before too long that I left. They will figure that out. I begin to slow down and look around. I am in the jungle. The trees have grown up so much around the city that you can’t see to the next town. I remember as a small child looking from the top of one of the buildings that my mother would take me up to and we could see for miles, now you can only see forest. My heart aches as I think of her and I slow to a walk. I take deep breaths but cannot seem to catch my breath. It has been dark for hours, I started at dawn. I slow my pace and come to a stop I have to be far enough away from them to be able to walk.I catch my breath and look around me. I’m not sure where I am or if I’m even still in Georgia. I kneel over so that I can catch my breath and sit down on the ground. I slip into a shallow sleep for a little bit and when I open my eyes again I see that dawn is breaking once again. I have now been free from control for an entire day. I get up and start walking again.
“Stop” I hear the shout come from behind me and then I hear the slight click of the hammer on the gun being pulled back. I go ridged I know that they have found me “What’s your name? Where are you from? What are you doing out here all alone?”
“My name is Cole, I’m from Atlanta, look I don’t have anything on me to hurt you with.” I say knowing that he has a gun pointed at my head; I don’t blame him for this. The grass is surrounding me almost up to my waist I know why it was easy for them to hide from me. I can conjure up a memory when everything was still relatively flat.
“Atlanta?” he asks
“That’s where one of the regiments are.” A new voice says to him.
“I know” he shouts back to the other man “You’re apart of them?” He directs into my direction.
“No” I shriek
“Then why were you in Atlanta?” I now feel the barrel press against to the back of my head.
“Well..” I mutter pulling up the courage to tell them “I was a part of them” I admit and I’m not sure if it is a good idea or not “But I left.”
“Why, are you a spy for them? Out here to see what we are up to.” The second voice says.
“No” I gasp as I turn around seeing his face; his deep blue eyes seer into me. “I left because I realized that they are not right. That they had me brainwashed.” I left because they killed my mother; I left because I dreamt of you… I want to say, but he won’t understand, they would think that I was crazy. I think to the dreams… about seeing these blue eyes up close to my face… closer than anyone had ever been to me in my life. He has been in my dreams since I was a child.
“I’m sorry” I hear the first voice say “but we don’t have any other choice. We have to do this”
“Don’t apologies.” I say “If you don’t do it. I’m sure they are going to be out looking for me and kill me by tomorrow morning.” I see his eyes search mine, and in that moment I wonder if he has had the same dreams. I sigh as he pushes the gun barrel closer to my head and I suck in all the air that my lungs can fill knowing that any second I will hear the shot go off before it enters my skull, if I have to die I’m glad that his face and those eyes are the last image I will ever see. Although, I have just met him, with the dreams that I have had I feel like I have known him my whole life. I take a deep breath and I hear him exhale as well. I have seen this enough times to know that this is what people do right before they pull the trigger. I close my eyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment