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Get Out of Dublith!


Because of the conflict in the south, shipping transports had stopped. Grocery stores were empty or had very little stocked, so prices went up. People went to the bank to take out money, but were turned away. The bank could only give out so much. Whole life savings vanished into thin air. This was only the first week.

Students began leaving Dublith University. They headed North with their families toward Central, New Optain, North City, and West City. Even Izumi and her husband left for North City. I wanted to stay and complete my first year of college. But the campus was growing empty. Professors were disappearing, and the classrooms were becoming ghost towns.

It was as if time itself had shifted, whole lives had shifted…as people fled north for a foreign city, abandoning their homes. The streets were cluttered with heaps of trash and other abandoned possessions: a doll trampled into the side walk, clothes…

Sometimes you could find wagonfuls of stuff just left by the street. There were abandoned cars too. Some cars doors were wide open, others locked. The streets looked like flowing rivers of people, all heading north on-foot. Looters and drugees plagued the streets, and there were too few police forces out, since many people had fled.

That morning, I woke up to blaring sirens going off throughout the city. I looked out my window to see a guy across the street smashing a chair through a store front window. Then, there was pounding at the door. I got out of bed and raced for the door, pulling the sheets around me for cover.

"Who is it?" I yelled.

"It's me, Ed. Tim's with me too." I opened the door and they walked in quickly, shutting the door behind them, frantic nervous expressions on their faces.

"Ed? I thought you were at work. What's going on? There's people in the street yelling, and crowds of people…"

"People are getting out of Dublith before the Cretians come. And trust me, they're coming. We've got to get out of here. Get dressed. We're going to the train station." Ed said.

I nodded, taking in the serious expression on his face. I ran to the bedroom to get dressed. I brushed my teeth and washed my face. It felt like any other ordinary day, but I knew it was different somehow. I felt it in the tension in the air, in this new dark cloud lingering over Dublith.

"Any news from mom and dad?" I asked. I grabbed a khaki trench coat from my closet, stuffed some gold jewelry mom had given me into my pocket, and slipped my wallet into the trench coat pocket.

Suddenly, the phone in my bedroom rang. I grabbed it. "Hello?"

I heard a relieved sigh followed by murmurs in the background. Mom's voice rang out, "I'm so glad you're okay. We were getting worried. You need to get out of the city! You and Ed! Before the Cretians get there!" Mom yelled through the phone.

"I know. Don't worry mom, we're getting ready to go to the train station now." I tried to make my voice sound as calm as possible, but my fingers were trembling. I didn't know what was happening. Would I ever return to Dublith?

"Good. Go quickly!" I heard some jumbling in the background, and Dad's voice rang through the phone.

"We already pre-ordered tickets for you and Ed. You can't wait. People are saying that the army is about two days away from Dublith."

Outside, were the sounds of more windows smashing and people yelling. The yelling was getting closer to my apartment building. A car alarm went off and wouldn't stop: Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Come on, Liz! We have to leave now!" Ed yelled, banging on the bedroom door.

"Dad, I have to go. Don't worry, we'll be okay. We're leaving now…alright, I love you too. Bye." I hanged up the phone and sped out.

Tim was standing at the open doorway, keeping watch. I was on the 12th floor, the highest floor. There were only stairs.

We were about the rush out, when some yelling and shouting on the lower floors stopped us. "Give it to me! Now!" Tim, Ed, and I, peered through the maze of stairs all the way below.

"Please, that's all we have. We don't have any more. Please, Spare us." A woman pleaded.

I recognized her voice. She was my neighbor. I had seen her every day, and I used to go shopping with her sister. They were the nicest people in the building. One of the thugs took out a gun and shot her sister in the stomach two times. Her sister fell and writhed on the floor in a pool of blood, moaning in pain.

"Where are the drugs?" A gang of four thugs surrounded them.

I took out a piece of chalk to write a transmutation on the floor, but Ed tugged on my jacket, "The train is leaving in 15 minutes, we have to go." He pointed to the fire escape in the apartment.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tim grab a brick and throw it down below. We could hear the crack as it hit one of the men in the head and he went down. The others looked up, startled and shocked.

"You crackheads want some drugs? Come get some!" Tim yelled. Ed looked at him like he was crazy.

"You're going to pay for that! Let's get them!"

"Okay everyone, fire escape!" Ed said, rushing back inside the apartment.

The neighbor woman nodded in thanks as we ran. We locked the front door and went to the patio, revealing the rusty fire escape below.

As I started climbing down, two of the rusty bars gave out. Ed cringed at the sight, "Are you sure this is safe?"

"Just come on." I said.

"Yeah come on man. On second thought, I'll go before you. That way I can catch you if you fall."

"Really, you'd do that?"

Tim shrugged, "Yeah, I'll try my best."

"What the hell does that mean? It's either you catch me or I die!"

"Relax. Of course I'll catch you." Tim looked down to me through the bars and mouthed, "He's not going to make it."

Ed began to descend. Just then I heard loud pounding on the apartment door above. Ed quickened his pace down the ladder, and we followed suit. By the time, our assailants made it inside, we were on the street below and running for the train station.

I'd never felt such an exhilarating feeling in my life. I was so scared, yet felt safe beside the people I knew. I wondered how others were dealing with the crisis, or if they had even made it out alive.

The streets were practically deserted. But as we neared the train station, crowds of people emerged, huddled in groups outside the station. Fires burned in large metal tins, the black smoke rising into the sky.

"I'm sorry Ma'am, but the train is severely delayed. There will probably be a train tomorrow." The man at the ticket booth sighed, and quickly shooed us away.

The train station was so packed that there was nowhere to sit. A man near us murmured, "That's what he said yesterday. No train will save us. The Cretian Army is coming."

A baby's cry rang out. Everyone else who heard the man looked helpless and exhausted. In a corner, a woman lit candles and began prayer. Tim and I went to look for some seating, while Ed searched for alternative options...


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