Alice

Everything returned back to normal the next day. Nobody brought up what happened in the Courtyard yesterday, and nobody brought up Margret's name either. It was like she was dead to the world. Figuratively and maybe even physically.

If intimidation had been the goals of the Officials when they dragged Margret away, then they seemed to have succeeded in doing so. I had left out of the house early, just for the sake of getting out. That, and I wanted to try and get in Margret's old home and see if I could find any proof that the Officials had been telling the truth.

The only problem with my plan, I couldn't even remember where Margret lived. And it would be suspicious if I went around asking people if they knew. My plan wasn't really turning out how I hoped it would. There didn't seem to be anyway for me to get into her home, even if I did find it. I was sure that it was flooded with Officials right now as well. I pushed my little plan of hope to the side.

I'd have to find my proof some other way. I would probably have a better chance of getting an Official to slip up on his words and blurt out something about Margret. But they hardly ever talked unless it was to give you a lecture on what not to do. Sighing in defeat, I walked mindlessly around.

It was better than nothing, and gave me a chance to think about whatever my next move would be. I caught glances of Officials watching me walk back and forth down the little stretch of road. What did they care if I walked? People walked down this road everyday.

I shouldn't have been anyone new to them. I recognized one of them as one of the two Officials who caught me a couple of nights ago. His eyes were locked on me. I couldn't stand to have his cold eyes staring holes through me, so I left the area. He remained there.

I was going back past the Courtyard, and I noticed Dan and Murucho were sitting around and talking to each other. "Hey guys," I said while walking up to them. They turned their heads, and smiled when they saw who it was. "Hey," they said at the same time. I sat down next to them. Nothing suspicious about this.

Murucho looked at both Dan and I before saying, "Did you know that the Officials are doing a home check today?" Dan shook his head, as did I. Every now and then, the Officials would search our homes and look around for things that we weren't supposed to have; stolen items, illegal substances, and so on.

Sometimes they would take personal items when building material was low. So, if there was something you wanted to keep, you had to hide it. And hide it good. As far as I knew, my grandfather and I didn't have anything worth hiding. I did find it strange that they were searching the homes right after they took Margret away.

They were probably claiming to make sure nobody else was trying to get involved with the Outcasts. I felt like it was just another reason to take somebody else away, and I didn't want to be around for it. Ever since the first time I snuck through the fence, I had been so paranoid that I had been seen.

Now, it was like everything the Officials were doing, was a means to get to me. Call me crazy, but I had that feeling since the very start. And a home check, a place were they could plant an item and take you away, was just the chance they needed to get rid of me.

I got up and told Dan and Murucho, "I'm going on back home and telling my Grandfather about the home check." They nodded, and I jogged off down the dirt road. I hurried past my home and back down to the abandoned part of the City. And as usual, no Officials were guarding the only opening in the fence.

I stopped and stared at it. That seemed strange now that they were trying everything in their power to stop people from even seeing an Outcast or the Wastelands. You would have thought they'd place at least one or two Officials down along this fence like they had the rest of it.

But no, they kept this part completely unguarded. Just like the house checking that was about to happen, this finally didn't settle right with me. It was like they were now daring me to go through that fence. I turned and looked back down the road that I had come from.

This home check they were doing, wasn't a run-of-the-mill check. It had to be more of their corrupt minds at work. I began to weigh my options. The opening in the fence may have, or may have not, been a trap. But what was going on in the City, was.

Shun

There was a nice breeze blowing through the Wastelands that morning. It stirred up a little bit of the ashes on the ground and sent them up in the air. I had just finished going around to the homes to see if anybody needed help with something.

Everything was okay according to them, so I went on about my business. Now, I was walking around in the Wastelands so I could be by myself. Occasionally, I did need a break from the reality of life. It wasn't much better out in the dead Wastelands, but it was better than watching the harsh effects it had on people who tried to live in them.

I knelt down on the ground, and out of boredom, began to trace random pattern out in the ash. Something of color caught my eye though, and I pushed the ash away. There was a little patch of grass trying to grow underneath. The bright green life stood out against the dull and dead gray color of the Wastelands.

That was the first plant life I had seen out here. I brush away more ash, wondering if there was anymore grass under it. There was more than I expected. I stood up, and knocked the ash off of my hands and knees. I stared down at the spot of green, then saw somebody running my way.

I turned, and saw it was that orange haired girl from the City. Alice. She stopped a few feet short of me. "What are you doing back here?" I asked. A part of me was happy to see that she really had come back, but another part was telling me I had to get her to leave again.

After hearing the screams come from the City last night, I didn't want any harm to come to her because I allowed her to stay out here. She told me, "It's not safe down there today." She had turned to look back at the City. "And why is that?" Down there in the City was probably a lot safer than out here.

"It's just not," she said, still looking down at the City. If it hadn't been safe, then I doubted she would have returned back out here. I sighed and said, "Alright. Come on back with me." Alice stared at me for a moment with surprise. I asked her, "What?" She blinked a couple of times before saying, "I was sure you'd tell me to go back to the City."

I grinned and said, "I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt." She smiled and thanked me. On the walk back, she explained to me everything that had been going on inside the fence. I had to have her explain a couple of things to me, but I caught on quickly.

From what I could understand, the Officials had lost their minds. Or something close to that. And in her opinion, she felt as if she had become a target in all of that madness. I couldn't argue with her, since I didn't know if she really was or if paranoia set in on her.

We got back to our little town, and people who didn't know her, watched her intently as we walked back to the home that I shared. Christina was cleaning up when I stepped through the door. She saw Alice and blurted out, "I thought you said she couldn't come back."

Her voice was more at surprise at me. From what I could tell, she was pretty glad to have Alice back here. I said, "Things down in the City apparently aren't very good today. So, she ran out here to try and stay somewhat safe."

Christina looked at Alice, who nodded so she could verify what I had just said. Christina smiled and told her, "Well, you're more than welcome to stay here. It's the least we can offer for all the help you've given us."

Alice smiled and thanked her. I didn't know of anybody who would have been grateful to stay out here, but that may have just proven how things really were in the City right now.

Alice

I was so relieved when Shun said that I could stay out in the Wastelands until I felt that the home check had ended. It would probably end around dark, so I wouldn't have to burden them for a room to stay the night in. I was helping out Christina.

I had to insist that I wanted to help, because she was insisting that I didn't have to do anything cause I had done so much. All I did was bring some medicine. That little act would have meant hardly anything back in the City, but out here, it was the only thing that had been done for them.

I was sure that if it weren't for the Officials and all of their rules and regulations, that people from the City would try and help out these Outcasts. Calling them that didn't seem to give them any justification. They were people, not Outcasts. Shun had gone outside sometime about, and was now walking back into the house.

He saw me and said, "Hey, Christina, mind if I borrow her from you for a moment?" Christina rolled her eyes, then smile and said, "Not at all. I've been trying to tell her she didn't have to do any work." I rolled my own eyes, and noticed that Shun was motioning for me to go with him.

I raised an eyebrow, then followed after him. What did he want me for? He was walking out further into the Wastelands. "This way." I nodded and kept following the way he went. I didn't notice it before, but behind the little cluster of houses, was a slight incline. It wouldn't have been difficult to climb, if it weren't for the loose ashes.

I didn't know how Shun could scale this thing so easily. He had probably been walking up that hill for his whole life though, while this was my first time. He was waiting for me up at the top. When I finally got up there, I was panting and trying not to show that I was already exhausted.

I straightened myself up, and was surprised. In front of me, was what looked like a seemingly endless expansion of the Wastelands. And way out in the distance, I could make out the faint outline of what looked like a mountain range. I didn't even know we had any mountains still.

I thought that had been flattened out years ago when the fallout happened. "It's something, isn't it?" Shun asked. I had forgotten that he was standing right there. I was too busing gawking at the scenery. "Yeah, it is." You wouldn't have thought that something like this would be out in the Wastelands.

I always thought everything was dead out here. There was hardly any ashes around on the top of the hill that we were standing on. It was just black dirt that had dried and began to crack. Shun sat down on the ground and said, "I used to spend a lot of time up here when I was younger."

That would explain why the ground was so worn down. I sat down next to him, not caring if my clothes got a little dirt on them. "I really am grateful that you let me stay out here until things quiet down back home." Shun smiled and said, "No problem. I'm sure you'd do the same thing for one of us. If it didn't mean getting killed."

That was true. If I even thought about taking one of these people through the fence, both of us would get shot or whatever method of murder the Officials used. I let out a long breath. It wasn't a sigh, but more like a sigh of relief. It felt so nice not being watched by the hawk-like eyes of the Officials.

I kept staring at the mountains that seemed to be an eternity away. They would probably vanish in a couple of hours when the sun set for the night. I asked, "You ever wonder what's on the other side of those mountains?" Shun shrugged his shoulders. "I used to wonder about it when I was little, but I'm pretty sure it's the same as it is out here."

He was probably right. The nuclear fallout that happened way before I was born, was supposed to have been a worldwide thing. So, it wouldn't be shocking to find that on the other side of the mountains was an ashen and demolished landscape like that of the Wastelands.

I turned to face him and asked, "If you don't mind me asking, but how did you end up out here?" He gave a humorless laugh. "Both of my parents were sent out here before I was born. Then they had me." His voice tapered off at the end. I knew that if somebody was born out in the Wastelands, they were automatically considered an Outcast.

It wasn't fair in my opinion. They should at least have gotten a chance to try and have a life in the City. But they'd have to find somebody who would want to raise them, because their parents couldn't return. Maybe that was why they were forced to stay out here. Shun continued to talk.

"They both ended up dying of illness when I was about five or six. Then I got stuck in what you'd probably consider an orphanage." I felt sad for him losing his parents at such a young age. I could kind of relate. My parents had given me to my grandfather before I could even talk. I was never told why though.

"The orphanage, that's where all those kids live at with you and Christina, isn't it?" I didn't think all of those kids were Christina's. No human could possibly handle that many kids. Shun nodded. "I stayed there because I wanted to help out the kids that turned out without their parents like I did. That, and it's one of the least crowded homes that we have."

I admired him for trying to lighten the tone by joking at the end, but I knew it wasn't helping him out. "I'm sorry. What about Christina? How did she end up out here?" Shun shrugged again. "Nobody knows. She just appeared out here one day. I remember she was about fifteen. Sixteen maybe. She never told us if she was from the City or what. She just popped up."

I thought that sounded very strange. As far as I knew, the City and this little group of people in the Wastelands were the only living civilizations around for miles. Was it possible that Christina was from another one? Was there even any places with more survivors of the nuclear fallout?

It was possible if you thought about it enough. The people who created the City had survived. Surely others had too. There were probably little Cities everywhere, but they were probably so far away from us that we'd never know about them. Shun stood up and brushed the dirt off of himself.

He held out his hand to me. I took it, and he help me up. I thanked him while I brushed myself off. "We need to head back. It's getting dark," he said and started to walk off back down the hill.

I nodded, taking in one last look of the mountain range. The sun was setting right behind it, making it look like the gate to a paradise had just been opened. I then turned around, and slid down the hill to catch up with Shun.

HAPPY EARLY ST. PATRICK'S DAY! :p -puts on a little green hat and pulls out a leprechaun and dances around a pot of gold- XD i love my imagination. :D since i'm going to the St. Paddy's Day parade tomorrow and going to a car show before that, i don't know if i'll be able to upload. so, i'm doing an Irish jig before hand. -dances out of the door- read, review, and other things! XD ~Copperpelt~