Shun

It was certainly a different experience to tell somebody else about my past. Everybody within our tight-nit community knew about my parents and what had happened to me, but Alice didn't. I wasn't sure if I wanted to at first, but I was kind of glad that I did.

The story about my parents had felt like something I had kept holed up inside for my entire life since I never had to tell anybody about it. So, it was like a relief to finally let it out. Alice was still up at the top of the hill. She was looking out towards the mountains that I had showed her. The moment she saw them, she was as mesmerized as I had been when I was younger.

Finally, she turned away from it and slid down the incline, almost tripping. Quickly, she regained her footing and walked towards me. Her face was slightly pink from her embarrassing mishap. I chuckled, finding it amusing. I was leading her back towards the home that I stayed in, when from another house, I heard somebody call out my name. "Shun!" Alice and I were both looking around for the person who was calling me.

It wasn't easy to spot them since the sun was setting and it was getting dark. I finally found them. It was a woman, but from the distance I was at, I couldn't place what her name was. I turned to Alice and said, "I'll be right back." She nodded as I jogged off towards the woman.

As I got closer, I saw the distinct age lines of a person who lived out in the Wastelands. I finally saw her face, and recognized who it was. "What do you need, Anna?" Her gray and brown hair was pulled up with something, revealing the rest of her features. She had to be no older than her thirties, yet she looked around her sixties.

It wouldn't be surprising if when she used to live out in the City, she had been beautiful. But the moment she was booted out here, that all vanished as stress began to age her. "We have a small hole in the floor and we were wondering if you could try and fix it sometime tomorrow."

This was the kind of stuff I had to do every once in a while, but I didn't mind it. I actually enjoyed helping out the people that I lived with. It made me feel like I was of some worth. "I'll drop by and fix it up sometime tomorrow." It would be an easy patch job as long as people weren't walking in and out of the house.

The woman smiled and thanked me, then retreated back into her home. During the short time that I had spoken with that woman, it had already turned dark, and the only light was from down at the City. Which wasn't very much since we were a good distance away from it. I did make out the shape of Alice standing at the edge of the houses and looking at the City though.

Alice

After Shun had walked off to talk with somebody, I made my way to the outer portion of the houses, and stared down at the City. According to my plans, I would have left by now, but I could spot Officials still going in and out of homes. I wondered how many people they may have taken away, if any.

I began to worry about my grandfather. Had they done anything to him? He was responsible for helping to build the City and making inventions that had helped us out, so they wouldn't take away somebody who was so important, right?

I did wish that I had brought him with me out into the Wastelands, but he probably wouldn't have even looked at the hole in the fence. I doubted that he'd do anything as extreme as turning me into the Officials. He would never do that to one of his own family.

The way he handle the Officials escorting me home, was proof enough for me. I saw Shun walking back towards me. "Sorry about that. Somebody wanted me to do some work for them tomorrow." I could hardly see him out in the dark. The only thing I could tell about him, were his amber eyes. They seemed to pop out against the black and gray world that was behind him.

"It's okay. I was just looking at the City." I turned back to face the place that was morally falling apart. Shun turned to look at himself, and said, "Missing home?" I let out a short laugh. "Maybe a little bit. But I'm more worried about the people that I care about that are still down there."

Shun nodded his head, and watched with me as the Officials went into home after home. They probably weren't even halfway done with their searches. I said, "I might have to stay here a little bit longer than I planned." Shun looked at me and said, "You know you're more than welcome to stay as long as you need to in Christina's book."

I smiled, remembered how open-armed Christina welcomed me back. "But does it bother you? Because you were expecting me to only stay until nightfall. I don't want to be a burden by staying longer than I told you." I couldn't read his facial expression, but his eyes were suggesting to me that he was smiling or grinning.

"It won't bother me if you need to stay here longer. I feel that I owe you that for saving me. Besides, you aren't a burden." I smiled, glad that he was more welcoming than the other day when he told me to leave the Wastelands. Behind us, I heard the creaking of a door open.

"It's dark now. You need to get inside now." We turned around to see Christina standing in the doorway of their home. Shun called back to her, "Alright." We started walking back towards the home when I asked, "Why does everyone have to be in by dark?"

It was probably a stupid question, but I was curious. If I was going to be spending more time out here, I at least wanted to know how things worked. "It's to make sure nobody gets lost out here. A lot of the kids are too young to find their way through the Wastelands, and many of the other people are either too old or so mentally messed up, that they would get lost as well. And getting lost out there would mean a definite death."

I hadn't given any thought about the kids wandering around out through the Wastelands. When I thought about it, I hadn't ever noticed them straying too far from the homes. Except for that little girl, Sarah. That was the only one though. The rest stayed right within the little cluster of homes.

It was nice to see how much these people looked out for each other. In the City, most people were too busy trying to take care of themselves. But these people had less than we did, and they still watched out for one another. Yeah, it was true that close friends and family would help out one another, but they were watching out for kids that weren't even theirs.

Christina was still standing in the doorway when we walked up the stairs. She saw me and asked, "Are you staying the night?" I nodded. "Yeah. The home check is taking longer than I thought it would," I replied. Christina smiled and said, "You stay however long you need to."

I thanked her, then looked at Shun, who was giving me an "I told you so" look. I walked inside of the house, and Christina shut the door behind me. The kids didn't even care if I was there anymore. I was now a part of the everyday norm for them, even thought they had only seen me a few times.

They were all sitting around and eating on little portions of food, which I recognized as the food that Shun had taken from the market. That day felt so long ago with all of the other events that had happened since then. The little girl that I gave my bread to, Sarah, ran up to me and took my wrist in her small hand.

"Come and eat," she said in that innocent kid voice. This was probably her way of repaying me for giving her food. I smiled, then turned to look at Shun, who was smiling also. I sat down next to the little girl, and she handed me a piece of bread that was about the same size as the piece I gave her.

I smiled, and thanked her as I took the bread. I surprised that it still had held some of its freshness, considering the way it had been stored. It still had the fresh bread taste. After than. Christina herded them into their rooms; the boys slept in one, while the girls were in the other.

Christina slept in a sectioned off part of the girls' room, but only because they wanted her to be there in case one of them had a bad dream. I thought it was cute. I turned to find Shun pulling out spare blankets from a box. "What are you doing?" I asked, wondering why he would need extra covers seeing how hot it already was.

"Making my bed." I raised an eyebrow and blurted out, "But you already have one." He looked up at me. His face had an expression on it that was saying, "Really?" He held the folded blankets in his arms and said, "You're going to have my bed tonight, and I'm going to make myself one in here so you can have some privacy if you need it."

I walked over to him and grabbed one of the ends of the blanket, which I saw had been handmade. "No. I'll take the floor. You keep your bed," I told him while trying to take the blankets. I wouldn't feel right if I allowed him to sleep on the floor when this was his world that I had walked into.

Shun wouldn't let me take the blankets from him though. He kept turning to the side every time I tried to snatch them. He said, "I'm not going to let you sleep on the floor. It wouldn't be right. Besides, it's not like it's the first time I've slept on the floor before."

It was clear that we were going to argue about who slept where. Right now, it was at a stalemate. He wanted to take the floor while I took his bed, and I was the other way around. Ultimately though, I knew he was going to win. And he did. I wasn't sure how he convinced me out of the argument, but he had.

Now, I found myself in his room, sitting on his bed while he was in the other room on the floor. It was nice of him to do this though. The bed was in about the same shape as mine, but maybe a tad bit smaller. But it didn't bother me. My feet weren't hanging off of the end, so that was good enough.

I did have to worry about rolling over and hitting the floor though. I looked around the room, and saw the window that I had peeked through the first time I came over here. I had looked in and found Shun laying in his bed, most likely dying of illness. I laid down on the bed.

For a moment, I felt like it was going to cave in from my weight, but I eventually saw that it wasn't going anywhere. My eyes began to grow heavy, and I soon drifted off to sleep. I instantly fell into a dream. It seemed normal at first. I was back at my home in the City. I could smell my grandfather cooking something for breakfast.

I walked up to him, and complimenting how good it smelled. He smiled at me, then went back to what he was doing. Then, several sets of hands broke through a window that was in front of him, and pulled him through. I screamed, "Grandfather!"

I ran from the house and made it just in time to see a group of Officials dragging him down the street. He was kicking and yelling at them to let him go, just like Margret had. They were also taking him to the same place they had taken her. "Let him go!" I screamed and started to run towards them.

I made it to the edge of our property, when a fence sprung up from the ground, trapping me inside. It was made of interlaced metal, which I had stuck my fingers through and began to try and pull it down. All it did was shake back and forth.

I was crying now, and still screaming for them to bring my grandfather back. I slid down to the ground, crying harder and harder. Then, I jolted awake. Tear stains were on my cheeks, and Shun had just ran into the room.

Shun

I had almost fallen asleep when I started to hear Alice crying from my room. She was also yelling at somebody to give her grandfather back. I got up from the floor and ran into my room, wondering what was going on. She had apparently been having I nightmare, and I got there just as she woke from it.

"What's wrong?" I asked frantically. Tears were still streaming from her eyes. Whatever dream she had, hadn't been pleasant. I ran over to her, and tried to calm her down before anybody else woke up. I sat her up and said softly, "It's alright. It was just a dream. Calm down."

I kept repeating that over and over in order to try to get her to relax, and it seemed to be working. "They took away my Grandfather. I couldn't help him. They took him away because of me," she said between sobs. I had no clue what she was talking about, but I tried to do the best I could to reassure her that it was nothing more than I dream.

She then tried to jump up and run from the room. I grabbed her by her shoulders and sat her back down on the bed. I made her look me right in my eyes and said, "Calm down. You were having a dream. Your grandfather is alright. I promise you."

She took in slow breaths, and seemed to be coming back to her senses. "It….It was j-just a dream?" I nodded slowly, and was then attacked by an unexpected hug from her. She buried her face into my chest and was saying how scared she had been that something had happened to her grandfather.

I didn't really know what to do other than let her calm down and relax. She would probably not even go back to sleep the rest of the night, seeing how freaked out she was. Instead of standing there like a statue, I hugged her back in an attempt to try to make her relax.

It seemed to be working, and I slowly made her sit back down on the edge of the bed. She wiped away a tear with the back of her hand. "Are you alright now?" She nodded her head slowly, almost as if she wasn't entirely sure. I ran a hand through my hair and said, "I'll be right back."

She didn't protest or say anything as I walked from the room. I found a clean cloth and filled a cup with water that Christina had purified sometime during the day. I ran back into the room, and handed the cloth and water to Alice. She took a sip from the cup, then dried her eyes with the cloth.

I asked her, "Do you want to tell me what happened?" I was trying my best to find a way to comfort her. This was why I let Christina handle the nightmares that the kids had, because I was not good at it. Alice shook her head, obviously still too freaked out from whatever had played in her sleep.

I sat down next to her on the bed. It wouldn't be right to leave her alone when she was in a state like this. I told her, "I'm going to stay here until you either fall asleep or feel like telling me what your dream was about." She looked at me with puffy eyes and nodded.

I sat there next to her for a few minutes before I started to nod off. Alice was next to me, doing the same thing. It was clear that one of us was about to doze off. I felt her lean her head on my arm, and saw that she had fallen asleep. Before I knew it, I had gone out as well.

oh. my. gosh. i am so tired. and sunburned. o.o i swear. i look like one of the Dancing Lobsters from the Amanda Show. o.o i kid you not. beh. sunday. the last day of my spring break. DX then i go back to school and have the take a state test, then the band leaves for Disney World. -.- so. much. stuff. -runs in circle screaming and pulling hair out- i'm going to stock up on tons of spray sunscreen and Chex Mix o.o i shall prepare for the end of the world! *-* read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~ (PS. wear your sunscreen so you dont get called into the courtroom!)