The room was lit by the morning sun that dimly shone through the window. David closed his eyes shut trying to block it out; he doesn't want to wake up yet. Outside are the gated walls of the community, Brooks Valley. David dragged himself out of his bed and walked along the cold wooden floor barefoot. He makes it to the hallway, where he meets his neighbor Tyler, and an eight year old boy. Down the hall are other doors which lead to other homes of the many people living in this caravansary, or, what they like to call, camp.
Over three hundred families live in this huge facility. Everybody knows each other, some have personally met everybody, and some only know what they've been told. Everyone eats together in the dining room where there is enough food to feel a small country, everyone has the same sized department where they stay, all shop in the same bazaar in the alley just outside, where they share the same water fountain, and the same coffee shop, the same woods, the same gates... They are all a family living in the same, large, house.
David greets Tyler and his father, Daniel, "Good morning Mr. Cavalry," He says, Daniel nods to him as he rushes off to work. He works at Revive, the books and coffee shop. David and Tyler are left to walk alone in the hallway to class outside. They walk down the wide hallway, passing the paintings done by classmates, and the cushion chairs that are placed out symmetrically.
Tyler and David make it to the elevator and David presses the 1 button, and the elevator brings them down to the dining hall. David puts on his black suede jacket over his white V-neck and he tightens his white and blue striped tie that accents his eyes. He's bending the dress code only a little. His friends are wearing white dress shirts, with black coats, along with spotless white ties. David skips breakfast and walks quickly out the lift bridge door to class, at the fountain him and Tyler part, David goes to the stairs that leads to the Upper Commons, which is a seated garden where his junior botany class is. David points to Under Rows Field and Crossway, which is just a grass field with a path where the eight year olds walk walk and study wildlife, and Tyler starts nods and walks towards his class. Up the stairs David sees only one girl from his class Angelica. He say's hello to her, but they aren't exactly friends. They do have one thing in common though; they are both early for class. Outside the sky is dark and filled with clouds, but the bright cluster of lamps lights the area. A fog from the evening is still over the field. David hears his name,
"David?" Tyler says as he walks up the steps.
David sighs, "What is it Tyler?" He says with a smile.
"I can't see through the fog-" Tyler was stopped short, by a loud bang.
The three kids in the upper commons look over to see a huge plane pulling through the fog. Another loud bang was heard and the ground shakes. The plane was landed right in the center of Under Rows Field. Dozens of men dressed in grey suits pile out of the plane and start attacking and grabbing the civilians. David watches the kids who were walking out to class start to sprint back to the caravansary. He sees a man about fourth five get taken by these men and they don’t just stop with him. Another bang shakes the ground and Angelica points up to another plane right above them, dropping little red containers that must be the source of the bangs. One drops right in front of Tyler. David grabs him, throws him over his shoulder, and starts to run, Angelica following. They run down the stairs of the Upper Commons, across the path and over to the lift bridge door. They escape the explosion, just barely. All the kids are crowding into the dining area; the three are about a half mile away running along the edge of the building.
David notices that the attackers are a while back and he's relieved because he thinks they can make it. But then, the bridge starts to lift. That bridge is the only way into the caravansary.
David and Angelica break into a sprint, David still carrying Tyler over his shoulder. People are diving in as the bridge lifts in desperation. It's just closing as David, Angelica and Tyler make it there.
They all stop and look around and try to take in what's happening. They notice there is another person who was locked out and is running to the Bazaar. She's a thirteen year old girl named Erin. Without thinking David takes off after her, Tyler is running on his own now, and Angelica took off before David even could. Far behind them are the men in white, not chasing them, just guarding the camp. The four make it to the Revive and they slam open the wooden door to find Mr. Daniel Cavalry. Inside the sound proof library coffee shop are only four more people a twenty three year old woman, Katherine, a nineteen year old boy Sebastian, and a thirty 29 year old man Randolph. They were all silently enjoying themselves before the kids rushed into the door and created a commotion. Everyone was confused, yet calm, the orange fire was warming up the fall air that escaped into the room. Daniel Cavalry came over to ask what was going on, and was frustrated when David didn't answer. But really, David couldn’t answer, he didn't know himself.
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The fog in the air says its morning. I lie on a scrappy, old blanket after a night of helplessly tossing and turning. I look out at the sky through a crack in the cabin walls. My stomach makes some weird noise which means it’s time for breakfast. I struggle to drag myself up, and stretch my long legs which have seem to have gotten much stronger from my journey, I’ve also gotten a lot skinnier from eating only the animals I can catch with a sharp knife I made out of a big rock, and some herbs I find. I stand up and my head nearly hits the ceiling. I creep out of the cabin, trying not to wake up my new friend, Stephan Parrish.
I decide I should just get started with the day and I gather some sticks and start a small fire, it’s pretty chilly on the mountain top, but nothing I’m not used to. The weather is most definitely worth this beautiful morning. I slide some sticks across each other quickly until a light sparks and I have made a fire. I sit back with the warmth of the fire on my skin and watch the fog slowly move past the swamp across the field, and listen for the birds to come out and sing so that I can maybe hum along, as if I knows the melody.
Stephan steps out of the hut. I tell him to take a seat by the fire, but he seems to be off in some other world. Stephan walks over onto the open field, picks up leaves and crumples it in the wind, finding the winds direction is north-west. I decide it’s best to leave him be, although I’m curious to what’s going on. I take a walk to be by myself, and continue to try to hum along with the melody the birds sing.
It’s been so peaceful since I had escaped. I, Ayton Meeker lived in a country called Concurasen, we weren’t a poor society, but we weren’t a rich one. We had food, and water, and schools but our paths were chosen for us, we would all have to take a test before we could get into the ninth grade which would tell us what we were “meant” to do with our lives. We didn’t have much freedom, but we were paid, and could afford to eat and have homes. I was about to go into the 10th grade when I eves dropped on the president of the Vitality speaking, President Adrian Storms.
It’s not easy to listen in on the Vitality, though I did it frequently, because I didn’t trust them. I had to crawl through a gap between the ground and a brown picket fence, in their weak spot where there were no cameras pointed, then I had to make my way over to the wall of their capitol building and press my ear up to a hole I made with my pocket knife. I overheard them say that they needed to move their base, but they couldn’t bring the people of Concurasen along.
The mayor suggested that they take a trip to the forbidden tunnel. I had been to the forbidden tunnel once, I didn’t go into because I would have been blown up or something, but It didn’t look like a candy shop down there. I knew something bad was going to happen to all of us. When I heard them name the trip, “Project Termination” I knew I had no choice but to started planning my escape. See, it’s not as easy as just running away. I was surrounded by security walls, and a moat around the city. I also didn’t know where to go, I didn't know where any other of the countries was, or even if there were any. I just knew needed to run away and wing it. There is no chance of surviving in Concurasen, and no one was going to fight against the leaders, The Vitality, because the residents had no idea what was going on. The Vitality was the group of mayors who ruled, as far as the residents of Concurasen knew, the whole world. Ayton had no clue where to find a safe place, but he felt he had no other choice.
To escape, Ayton had to dig a deep, deep hole during the night, underneath the brick wall around the Vitality. He had to climb under the wall; it was the only way out. Ayton left everything behind but the cans of food he managed to keep hidden deep in his cellar. It was not easy to do. He had to get by the brick wall that decided to crumble down on his man-made tunnel, and make it past 3 mile long, fifty-foot-deep moat with a new species of animals held in it that no one could name, in a boat that he had to make from materials that they scavenged from the wilderness. But there were also hundreds of acres of empty fields with nothing but long grass that I had to find his direction in, and had to hide from the sun in, while getting eaten up by bugs within the tall grass. It was quite a journey.
It wasn’t all hard though, and I didn’t go through all of it alone. My older brother Sae came with me, but he didn’t make it through the trip. I remember the day I sprinted home from the capitol building, and told him that we had to run. I remember I didn’t give him any details, but he trusted me. He always trusted me, and I trusted him. My brother was 19 when he was taken away I was 16, I still am 16. I try not to think about him, or about my mother and father. I will find them all someday though, that's the only thing I know for sure, but for right now I'll find something worth doing on this beautiful mountain top. |
