Chapter 2: Home sweet home.
"Where are we going Annabel?" I ask after hours of tripping, stumbling, slipping and sliding.
"My home." She replies gesturing to a rundown clearing where a leaning Pylon had ripped up a mangled patch of ground, the wind was howling through the rungs like screams and the bent metal was scorched and twisted.
"This is your home?" I ask aghast.
"No not here." She says laughing "Here…" And she climbed into the ripped up ground under the pylon.
"Oh…" I gasp when we look inside.
Inside the little burrow was a cosy, tiny room with walls made of packed earth, a sheet of dirty, dark green tarpaulin covered the floor and five sleeping mats were rolled up and stuffed against the wall. Four figures were squashed together like sardines in a tin and trying to coax a feeble fire into life.
"Hey Everybody, We have a new friend" Annabel States whilst gesturing to me,
"Oh, yay!" cries a little boy of about nine or ten. He has twinkling, shining chocolate brown eyes, a head of messy straw coloured hair that seemed to stick up all over the place and a happy, joyful big grin. He made me feel better by just looking at him.
"Oh great," a voice came from the corner and a girl glared at me with her piercing, striking green eyes. "Yet another mouth to feed" she sneered at me. Her skin was deathly pale and her hands were long and thin and elegant but I got the feeling she could strangle me if she wanted to. What really caught my attention though was her hair. It was bright red and she seemed to have tried to force it into a plait over her shoulder but it was huge, bushy and messy giving it the look of a flame trying to escape. I almost asked why they were bothering with the fire at all.
"Kat," Says the boy poking the fire, "Let the kid have some sought of welcome." He laughed.
"I'm not a kid," I say desperately, "I'm 13!"
"Alright then keep your hair on." Replies and laughs again. He looked about 15-16 His hair was thick, brown and overgrown, a bit like a mop, His eyes to were brown but-unlike the sandy haired boy-they were lighter like wood and full of a mixture of sadness and laughter. I could tell he had had a lifetime of hard ship but judging from what I could tell of the girl with the fire like hair, not as hard as some. That's about the only gift I have. I can read people really well.
"Why should I give her any type of Welcome? She'll be nothing but trouble and that's the end of it." The girl, I think her name was Kat shouted.
She and the boy broke into a fierce argument until suddenly the fourth member of the company stood up. I could tell instantly that he held the authority because both instantly shut up.
"She shall stay with us." He spoke with ease under the howling wind. "If she is new to the Fringe then she will have little chance to survive."
"What's the fringe?" I whisper to Annabel
"This is," she replies "It's the strip of land between the cities where outsiders, exiles and GDs live."
"GDs?"
"Genetically Damaged. It means there's a fault in our genetic code."
"Oh."
"It appears we have a new member of our group." The leader says smiling at me. "Tell me, what is your name?"
"Natalie," I breathe hoarsely,
"Well Natalie, I am Ali, This is Kat," He gestures to the girl half hidden in shadow, "Ben" the boy poking the fire winks, "and Jo-jo." He points to the bouncy, sandy haired boy. "Please join us."
Five hours later and Kat and Ben were arguing again.
"For heaven's sake Ben," Kat screeched, "We can't cover the hole 'cos then there'd be no way for the smoke to escape!"
They were arguing about how the wind kept billowing down the burrow and blowing out the fire.
"What do you suggest we do then?" He shouted back.
"You could create a shield…" I murmur.
"What?" Kat demands.
I jump, not expecting to be heard.
"Oh, um, err…" I gulp.
"Go on, spit it out."
"You could find a large piece of slate and set it up using string and metal so that it's facing the wind and it glancing of its surface."
"That's not actually such a bad idea." Ben agrees. Kat scoffs.
"Indeed." Ali announces, "We shall do it." And we all climbed out of the burrow.