No time to waste.
Searching for a means of camouflage, I pull the hood of my dark jacket over my head and crawl among the crates.
Perfect. I pull a dark green woollen fabric from the top of a bunch of boxes and crawling underneath it backpack and all, I hide myself. Just then a whistle sounds signaling that the train is about to start moving. Moving away from home forever. I grit my teeth and force down the waves of nervousness and anxiety threatening to rush up my throat.
This is it, Lyn. No turning back now.
More sounds of gravel crunching under boots from outside, this time with purpose.
Have I been discovered already?
My skin prickles as if a thousand insects are foraging over me. Someone steps onto the cart. I lie as still as I can under the protective green cloth. I hear the click of a flashlight and footsteps circle the cart, inspecting the cargo. I pray that the train inspector doesn't notice the oddly-shaped lump wedged between the crates.
A boot thuds not a metre from where I lie. I hardly breathe. I wait an eternity for the cloth to be whipped away from my body. But nothing happens.
Seemingly satisfied, the footsteps walk out of the cart. The cart door is pulled close with a screech, leaving me in the stifling darkness.
I'm trapped in a black abyss. The only sound I hear is my own heavy breathing. This twilight zone is making me feel claustrophobic. I feel blind and helpless. I swallow the urge to scream. This isn't the time to panic, it's only the dark, I reason. Scrabbling my fingers over my surroundings, I manage to pull myself up to a sitting position. I take deep, even breaths and pretend I'm in the warm sunshine, a breeze blowing against my face. I breathe easily again.
The train lurches to a start just then, throwing me out of my reverie.
Well, I guess this is goodbye, I think almost smugly.
Just thinking about Dad makes my blood boil.
"You're worthless! I don't even know why I even bother to feed you! You care so much about those scums that you've become one!", his words ring in my ears like a siren.
Well I've had enough of it. Enough that I decided to leave once and for all. After all, I'm sixteen, there's still plenty of hope and opportunity for me out there, wherever I'm going.
Where am I going?
A faint glow immerges at the corner of my eye. I wonder whether my eyes are playing tricks on me after being in pitch darkness for so long. I decide to find out.
Working my way out slowly, I crawl towards the lambent flickering light. It's almost dancing.
Just then, I bang my elbow against something hard. I spit out a curse as electric zings shoot up my arm like lightning.
"Who's there?" someone yells out. I'm taken by surprise.
Someone else is here too?
I choose to hold my tongue until I can decide whether this stranger is friend or foe. But the stranger doesn't seem satisfied. He yells louder.
"Whoever you are you better show yourself. This is my last warning". Warning? I almost snort. But whoever he is, he sounds unstable. I'm glad for trusting my instincts and not giving myself away.
Suddenly, balls of fire shoot out from all directions and surround me. I scream and shield myself with my arms as they scorch me, flying every which way like mad.
I'm stuck with a mutant. I didn't use to think they were so bad, despite how the media conveys them. I used to know one, even.
I had a friend in school named Kaila. We were really close but sometimes, I felt that she was carrying a huge secret, a burden so heavy that she couldn't lift it off her shoulders.
"You know you can tell me anything right?"
Kaila nods and smiles. It looks strained. Her eyes betray her feelings. She's about to burst, I can tell.
Finally, she yells out loud and tugs at her long hair.
"Hey, hey! Relax. It's okay, tell me only when you're ready," I reassure her. I'm getting more worried. What can possibly be so dreadful that Kaila won't tell it to me?
She takes a deep breath.
"Okay, I'm ready. But you better close your bedroom door".
"What?"
"Just do it. You wanna know, right?"
I get up, confused, and close the door.
"Lock it". I look at her like she is crazy.
"What? Do you have a twin growing out of your stomach or something?" I joke. Kaila gives me a look.
Okay, I get the message. I press the lock on the knob and sit down beside her on the bed.
"Watch". Kaila closes her eyes and appears to concentrate. Suddenly, I feel the bed tremble. An earthquake?
I dither, wondering whether to grab Kaila and flee. How stupid I was not to have realised that I shouldn't have worried about Kaila at all.
Then something miraculous happens. The bed lifts clear off the floor with the both of us on it. I gawk. And realise.
Kaila and I were really close. We were so close that she even trusted me with her secret. Kaila had an X gene.
Unfortunately, her secret didn't stay as one. One day, Kaila used her powers in public. She was walking home alone one night when someone tried to mug her. She threw the guy into a lamp post with a wave of her arm. And was caught on tape. Some blithering idiots happened to be videotaping themselves spraying graffiti on a stone wall when they found themselves recording a ton of money.
Kaila was a goner. The media was on her trail twenty-four seven. Dad found out what she was and forbade me from having anything to do with her.
But of course, who was he to dictate me that way? I didn't listen to him. I fought alongside her when everyone in school turned against her. A few accepted her but didn't show it for fear of being labelled as mutant-lovers. Everyone knew humans and mutants were at war. But I didn't care. Kaila was still Kaila.
Kaila left, of course. She moved to a place where there aren't any televisions or reporters to mar her life. And I lost a very good friend. We stopped contacting each other because both our parents prevented us from it. Her parents, for my safety. My parents, because they are anti-mutant. I don't even have her address.
I tried to set up a committee of humans that support and protect the rights of mutants after she left but there weren't many who were brave enough to come forward. This act of mine became widely known. Some called me a radical, others called me the devil. Dad just called me worthless. After I got sick of everything and everyone, I left too, just like Kaila did.
Like I said, I didn't use to think mutants were so bad. But this one may be an exception.
Maybe he's the kind of mutant that's the reason why we're having this ridiculous war in the first place.
I must have blacked out. I'm lying on the floor with my head propped up against my own backpack. I smell singed.
I sit up and cradle my head as the world spins. What happened just now?
A cool breeze blows against my skin. I realise the cart door is open. Someone is sitting beside it.
Flick. Flick. Flick. The someone flicks and closes what looks like a lighter glinting in his hand in the moonlight. The nonchalant way he does it gives me the impression that it's a habit.
I try to find my voice. My throat feels like I've swallowed sand. I clear it.
The flicking stops. He, the mutant, looks my way. I realise he probably can't see me in the dark. Or can he?
"Who are you?" I ask him. He starts flicking again.
"I asked you first".
"Well you scorched me," I say accusingly. I can't see the expression on his face but he remains silent for a long time. Flick. Flick. Flick.
"Well then," he finally speaks up, "aren't you afraid of me? Or are you like me too?"
"Well I'm human, if that's what you mean," I reply. Looking at him now, I realise that he must've been afraid too. That's why he had scorched me, wasn't it?. It was in self-defence. He'd thought I was the threat.
"I'm not afraid of you".
"Oh?" I detect a hint of surprise in his voice. Then he continues, "Then you're a silly girl".
I bristle at his gratuitous comment. Silly girl indeed. He looks no more than a teenager himself. He wears a pair of scruffy jeans and a jacket over a shirt. His hair is dark and lank and he has boyish looks although his serious expression makes him look older. I can't see if he's carrying anything else.
He reminds me of myself.
"So, what are you running away from?"