Chapter 1
"So what all did you find today?" I ask Elodie.
"Eh, small loaf of bread, a few rotten peaches and a celery stick, you?"
" A half eaten apple and three shirts."
"How bad are the shirts?"
"Not too bad, a few quarter sized holes and a stain or two, but not bad."
"Ok, good. Lets eat."
We split everything and munch on our earnings in a small wooded area right outside of town. It isn't the safest place, but nothing is. I'm almost finished scarfing down my part of the bread when Elodie speaks up.
"Thanks for saving me today, you could have just run."
"It's no problem," I tell her, "you would do the same for me, we look out for each other."
"Yeah, well I'm done, I'm going to turn in. I'll see ya in the morning."
"Okay El, goodnight, I'll be up in a bit," I say as she climbs into a nearby pine. We take turns watching during the night. Neither of us wants to be captured. I've met escapees from one of those facilities, and the horrors that lie inside are far worse than starving to death out here.
Being rented out as a sex slave, kept in a cage until your used next, being artificially inseminated if they decide you would be good enough to produce an attractive kid with little health issues. Being poked and prodded, humiliated and used for horrible sexual acts, not a life anyone wants to live in. I would sooner spend my life as a scavenger.
I wait until the moon is highest in the sky, then wake El up so she can take the next watch. She darts awake and then dreamily crawls to the branch I was sitting on and takes her perch, I move back to where she was sleeping, lean against the tree's trunk and drift away to a land of dreams.
When I wake up I don't see El anywhere, she must have already gone down to inspect a nearby dumpster. I rub my eyes awake and slide down the pine tree's trunk, squint at the rising sun, and begin my rounds.
I check the clothes shop and the laundromat, the junkyard, and the bakery, the last, and best, stop. I am munching on a soggy roll with swirled cinnamon in the middle, though it is wet from the dew of the morning, it's still delicious.
A pair of hands grab my shoulders and yanks me back, slamming the back of my head into the unforgiving wall of the dumpster. I shout and groan, the intensity of the blow has slowed me temporarily, and when I gain my bearings back, I rapidly turn to face my attacker. The same man that I had fought yesterday stands in front of me. His eyes blazing with anger. He grabs my hair, and I shriek.
"Thought you could get away from me huh? Well guess what bitch, I'm going to find every last one of ya, you skanks happen to be quite a business you know, and with that pretty face of yours, I can get a few good bucks outta you."
Terrified I struggle to free myself. I scream in fear and in a last ditch effort, look for someone who would save me. Just then a pair of green eyes disappear around the corner and I recognize them as Elodies. "ELODIE!" i scream, but she does not emerge. The large man yanks me by my hair, pulling me into the back of his truck, I get one last glimpse of El, my friend who wouldn't even risk helping me when I have risked my life countless times to save her reckless ass. I give her a look of disgust before the large man throws me in the back of the truck, shoves me into a compartment, locks the door, and gets in his drivers seat.
The engine roars to life, and i feel the truck lurch forward. I hyperventilate for several minutes before I eventually sit down and cry to myself. There are other women in the truck, each trapped in their own locked cage, but no one says a word. I sob into my hands, wiping away tears and snot, and try not to think of what my life will become.