Alice

Sheer panic swept over my body. I felt as if I would be unable to move, but I found myself in a dead run. I needed to get away from that fence. That was the right place. That was where the opening was. I was sure of it. And now, it was no longer there. Did the Officials know that I was back in the City?

They had to, or else they wouldn't have picked now to repair the hole in the fence. I now felt like there were eyes everywhere, all of them watching my movements. For a moment, I thought I began to hear the whispers of the people who were after me. They were hissing, "We have you now. You're not getting away this time. You're ours."

This only made me run faster. My eyes scanned and scanned for the source of the voices, but I soon realized that they had to be the result of the paranoia that had overtaken my mind. I ran deeper into the part of the City that the Officials wouldn't go near.

What was stopping them from chasing me down, since they had just taken away the hole in the fence? I didn't want to stop, but my legs felt as if they were on fire. My pace began to slow, and I knew that I couldn't go much further. I had to rest, but I wasn't about to do that in the open.

I needed a place to hide out, to figure out what my next move would be. I needed the Wastelands. But that was now out of my reach. I snuck behind and old home, and found an opening in the deck underneath. I knelt down, and wiggled my way into the small space.

Inside, there was a lot more room than the opening seemed to provide. Enough room, that I was able to sit upright. I peered out from little holes in the wood, checking for any Officials that may have tagged along. The whole area was empty.

There was hardly any life except from the rats and other vermin that thrived in this dead portion of the City. I squealed when a small rodent ran across my hand. Scared and panic-stricken, I pressed myself against the small wood wall and began to cry.

I didn't want to get caught, but I was sure the Officials knew where I was at, and that they would show up any minute and drag me away. I should have stayed back in the Wastelands. I should have stayed with Shun. Then none of this would be happening to me.

I shut my eyes, and waited for them to take me away. But they never came. Slowly, I opened my eyes and found that it was turning dark. Were they waiting for me to come out of my hiding spot so they'd have an easier time of arresting me? I doubted that I would have been much of an opponent for the Officials, who were the strongest of all of us in the City.

Cautiously, I crept out from my space under the old deck, and examined my surroundings. There was nobody around. Just me and the rats. I dusted the spider webs off of myself, but still felt dingy and in much need of a bath. I began to calm down.

Perhaps the Officials didn't come after me. But that didn't mean that the closing of the hole in the fence wasn't intended for me. The disappearance of the opening in the fence, was directed right at me. Nobody else. Just me. I flipped the hood of my cloak back over my head, just in case I still needed to conceal my face.

I took the back way through the City to decrease my chances of running into an Official. I felt so tired. Almost like I couldn't go on much longer. The feeling of being watched at every turn and corner, was so overwhelming. I dropped down on my knees, and leaned my back against the brick of a building.

Shun was probably wondering what was going on. He had insisted that I not go, and it may have been a good idea to take his advice. But no. I wanted to find the impossible. I wanted to satisfy my curiosity and put an ease to my mind. Now, I felt more mixed up than ever.

I shut my eyes, allowing as much of my stress to flow from me as I could. "Alice?" I jumped when my name was said. My eyes were looking around, and they finally fell on Dan. I let out a sigh of relief that it was only my friend, but I then began to grow with worry and suspicion.

What if the Officials had put a bounty on my head? As poor as some of us were, it didn't matter if at one point Dan and I were friends. If there was money or food involved, he would probably turn me in for it. Anyone would for that fact. Even Runo or Julie. "Alice, where have you been?"

I pushed myself back along the ground, only to find myself cornered against the brick wall. I couldn't trust anybody. Too much was on the line for me to get caught now. Dan slowly approached me, as if I were some kind of frightened animal that would dart away at any sudden movement. And I was sure that I would.

Dan leaned over and held a hand out to me. "Alice, it's me, Dan. Calm down." There was a gentleness behind his voice. If he was planning on turning me into the Officials, then he was doing a good job of hiding it. I stared at Dan's hand for a moment, not sure if I should take it or not.

I was at a crucial point that I needed to think my actions through. "Are you going to turn me in?" I asked. Dan raised an eyebrow. "What? Turn you in? What are you talking about, Alice? Why would I do that? I'm just trying to help you." Either he was being honest, or doing a good job at acting.

Unconsciously, I took his hand. A part of me felt that I needed somebody to trust now. And who better than Dan? Somebody that I had known all of my life. He helped me to my feet. They felt like water under my weight, and I wondered if I had it in me to walk.

Dan helped to steady me, and I thanked him in return. We were walking through the buildings when I asked, "Where are we going?" He directed me to round a corner, in which I complied with. "You need somewhere to stay tonight, and you're closer to my house than your's."

How far had I ran through the City? It was true that Dan didn't live that far from me, but it was still a good distance. Up ahead, I saw that we were walking towards a street. I began to panic. "No! I can't go out into the open!" I tried to turn and run, but Dan's grip on my arm wasn't going to allow that. "Alice! Chill! Why can't you go out there?"

Him asking me that verified that he knew nothing of the events that were taking place before him, or any of the things that I had done. I kept my mouth shut though. It wouldn't be smart of me to blabber to him about all of the illegal stuff I had done within the week.

His eyes were caring, and his voice soft when he asked, "Are you acting like this cause of your grandfather?" I blinked a few times. My grandfather was a variable in this, but not the overall reason. I decided to take Dan's assumption, and use it to my advantage.

"Yeah. They took him away, and I'm scared that they'll do the same to me." Dan gave me a sad smile and said reassuringly, "They're not after you, Alice. I promise." How are you so sure? You don't know about Shun. Or the map I found under my house.

Dan began to lead me back towards the street, and I followed him. I wasn't sure why though. Maybe I just wanted to believe that things were normal again. But had they ever really been normal?

Shun

I couldn't think of anything else other than what was going on in the City. Had Alice been captured or spotted and taken away like her grandfather? I probably wouldn't ever know if she was. My feet hung off the side of the roof as I sat on top of one of the houses.

When I was little, the roofs supported my weight. But now, they had aged, and I had gotten bigger. The wooded roof groaned under me, threatening to break and cause me to fall through. I had to distribute my weight evenly so that wouldn't happen, but I still probably shouldn't have been up there.

Other than the hill behind the orphanage and the mountains, it was the highest point anywhere in the Wastelands. So, I was using it as a means to look down at the City. Nobody seemed to bother me as long as I was up there. They just let me be. I wasn't complaining.

I needed some time to myself to sort through things. Out of habit, I pulled the map out and began to look over it again. I had done that a lot since Alice left it with me while she went searching for her grandfather. As many times as I had looked over it, I hadn't come up with any answers.

Only more questions. I sighed in aggravation, and folded it back up. Maybe if Alice did ever find her grandfather, she could try and get him to tell her about the map. But I knew that was just a wish. The odds of him being alive were very slim.

His chances of living were probably lower than ours out here in the Wastelands. The sun was in its place of high-noon. Thanks to the rain, the air was cool, not hot like it would normally have been. I was messing with the dust and dirt on the roof, when I looked over to my right. Not too far away from the last of our little cluster of houses, was Sarah. She wasn't out too far in the Wastelands to cause any worry.

She probably wasn't more than ten or twenty yards from the last house, and well within my sight. I smiled, remembering how nice it was to be a kid, and how it was before I knew of the harsh realities that I had been brought into against my will. I looked back at Sarah, and watched her fall onto the ashen ground.

At first, I thought she had tripped and would get up and brush herself off. But a hollow feeling started to form in my chest the longer she stayed down. "Sarah!" I called from the roof. She didn't move. I felt my eyes widen, and without realizing it, I was on the ground and running towards her.

Christina had apparently heard me yelling the little girl's name, because she had stepped out from our home and was looking around. She caught a glance of me when I ran past her. "Shun!" She was running behind me, and quickly caught up with me.

She kept asking me what was going on, and suddenly stopped talking. I assumed she saw Sarah laying on the ground. We both got to the little girl at the same time. Christina, using the best of her medical abilities she had, began to look over the little girl.

I didn't see any cuts or scratches on her skin, but she did look pale in color. "What's wrong with her?" I asked. Christina shook her head, still checking over Sarah for injuries. "I don't know. I don't know." She bent over, and scooped the little girl up in her arms, then began to run back towards the orphanage.

I chased after her. When I cleared the door, Christina had placed Sarah on the makeshift bed that I had left out when Alice stayed the night. I knew why Christina was working so hard to figure out what was wrong with the girl.

It was one thing when an adult died out in the Wastelands, but it was a whole different story when it came down to a child. Nobody wanted to watch somebody so young, and so new to the world, die. Even if that world was a harsh and cruel one. Christina ran a hand over Sarah's forehead.

"She's burning up." Images of when I fell ill came into my mind. "What about the antibiotics Alice left us?" Christina's head popped up. "I forgot about those! Quick! Get me some out!" I ran over to our box of goods, and dug out the bottle. I tossed it to Christina, who quickly dumped two pills into her hands.

Those pills had worked quickly on me, so they should do the same on Sarah. Christina made the sick girl swallow the pills, then she sat back and stared, almost like she was waiting for them to take affect. I stood back and out of the way, and looked down at Sarah. I thought about how the little girl had been when Alice stayed with us.

This little girl was much too nice and innocent to have something so horrible as illness take her life. She was even too young to have discovered the horrible world that we lived in. Two hours passed by, and there was no let-up from whatever was making her sick.

Christina had given her several more pills, but she didn't want to make her take anymore because she feared anymore would make it worse. Christina shook her head and said, "I don't understand. Why aren't they working? They should be working."

I could hear the desperation in her voice. These were like her children to her. She had known them pretty much since they were born. She loved them, and didn't want to watch them die when she knew she could do something. Sarah coughed as she started to wake from her unconsciousness. Christina leaned over and asked, "Sarah, do you remember what you did before you fainted earlier?"

Now, Christina's voice was much softer and caring. She didn't want to make this child worry. The little girl who was laying on the pile of blankets, didn't look like the one who had been running around and playing not three hours ago.

I could barely hear Sarah's voice as she spoke, but I was able to make out what she was saying. "I was playing….Near the stream….That's all I did…..I promise." The way she spoke, made it sound like she had done something wrong.

Even while probably dying, she was still a little kid. I looked at Christina and said, "I'll go and check around the stream. Maybe something bit her and we didn't see the bit." She nodded as I left out. It wouldn't be surprising if a snack was around the water, especially after the rain replenished the stream.

The closer I got to the source of water, a pungent odor grew stronger. It reeked and smelled of something that burned my nose. I covered my face with the crook of my arm so I wouldn't choke on the smell. When I got to the stream, the little water grasses that grew in the bottom, had turned brown and died.

Water bugs that once swam and lived in the water, also floated at the surface. Dead. I looked in the direction of where the water flowed from, and walked upstream. Up ahead, I saw something laying next to the bank. I looked it over. It was a medium sized canister, and a powder was on the rim of the can.

I kicked it over with my foot. The object was too new to be something that had already been in the Wastelands. By its design and material, it could only have been something made in the City. Underneath, some of the powder had fallen on the ground and mixed with the damp earth.

The little grasses that had been trying to grow in that spot, were now dead like everything else in the water. It was clear, this was the source of what was going on. Our water had been poisoned, and it wasn't on accident. Somebody in the City had gone out here, and done this as a means to try and kill us off.

I was sure of it. Sarah, and no telling how many more people, were now dying from that water. No amount of purification could clean that. It was a toxic poison that would wipe us off the face of the Earth.

A simple way for the City and its people to rid us so we would no longer be a burden to them. All while I was running back to warn the people that I lived with, my hate for the City only grew stronger.

gah. is it just me, or have people been extra annoying today? -.- they have to me. i swear. and like, super loud. well, before i ran, i will allow you all to read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~