Shun

As far as I knew, I had stopped anyone else from drinking the tainted water. Everyone I told was just as shocked as I was when I told them about the City poisoning our only source of water. Well, they may have been more surprised than me. This was something that wasn't below them. I stopped in front of the steps of the orphanage. It was Christina's turn to hear the news.

She was probably still trying to care for Sarah, when there was nothing else we could do. This was something completely out of our abilities. We could not play God. But the City acts like they can, I thought bitterly. I walked up the steps and through the door. My assumption was correct. She was in the same place, tending to Sarah's fever. It looked like the little girl may have thrown up during my absence.

It was the only thing her body could do to try and rid it of its toxins. Christina looked up at me, then leaned over Sarah and whispered to her, "I'll be right back after I finish talking with Shun." The little girl didn't acknowledge her. She only laid there, still and ghost-like.

I bit my lower lip, feeling a sickening weight form in my stomach. Sarah didn't do anything to suffer like this. If anything, I was more deserving of such pain. I had been the one who stole food from the City. That should have been enough for my death right then and there.

But no. An innocent child had to be the one to take my place. Christina and I stepped outside so none of the other children or Sarah would hear us talk. I let out a long sigh. When had I started to feel so old and tired? I swallowed the lump in my throat and said, "The City poisoned the water. That's what's making her sick."

Christina's eyes widened. "They poisoned it?" Her voice told me that she knew it was true, but she didn't want to believe it. I nodded slowly, trying to find an easier way to explain everything. "How do you know?" she asked. It wasn't like she was accusing me of lying, but she sure didn't want to admit that I was telling the truth.

"There's a canister of some kind of powder further up the stream. It's got all the signs of being made in the City. It's the only explanation." She sighed, running a hand through her dark hair. She would have to come to terms with this sooner or later. Sooner would probably be for the best.

"So there's nothing I can do for her….." I saw her face drain of color. I didn't want to give up so easily, but what else could I do? We had nothing to clean out the poison from Sarah's blood. The City might, but we had nothing. The City. I turned and looked out into the distance at the fenced enclosure.

Surely if they made something like this, they had also made something to counteract it. But even if there was a way for me to sneak into the City and find such a thing, I doubted that Sarah had much time left. I didn't notice that Christina was talking to me until she tapped me on my shoulder.

I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at her with a confused expression. She asked, "What are you thinking about?" I shook my head. "Nothing. I was just wondering if the City had anything to work against the poison, but it's not worth the risk of going there."

Christina stared at me before saying, "If it meant helping Sarah or anyone else that got ill, then I'd say go. But you're right. It's not worth the risk." We had to take our losses. I had gotten lucky once, and my chances of making it out of the City a second time, we very slim. "I'm sure Alice would know what to do," I blurted out without realizing it.

Christina gave me a sad smile before retreating back into the house behind us. I doubt she would tell Sarah what was happening to her other than the water was bad. It wouldn't be right to blatantly tell a young child that they were dying, when they hardly understood life as it was.

I found myself looking back out at the City. My feet began to move, and I walked to the edge of the houses that made up our home. A light wind blew, causing ash to fly past me. I shook my head, regretting what I was about to do, then started to walk across the Wastelands towards the City.

Alice

Dan's home was a little bit larger than mine, but not by much; it had one extra room. He let me take that room, which I thanked him for. Dan didn't have to do this for me, but he was my friend and he wanted to. So who was I to argue with his hospitality?

I had none of my clothes or belongings. Just the clothes on my back. At least I left the map with Shun. Last thing I needed was it falling out of my pocket and Dan finding it. That would spell disaster for me and my grandfather. Considering he was still alive.

A sudden feeling of sadness overcame me when I thought about him. I couldn't help but feel that it was my fault that he was taken away, even if he was the one who had been planning an escape. If I had been there during the home check, then maybe I could have snuck him out through the fence and into the Wastelands. But it was too late to do any of that now.

Dan knocked on the door to my guest room. "Come in," I said while quickly wiping away the tears that had formed in my eyes. He stepped through the door, his eyes finding me sitting on the bed. "Hey, you doing better from earlier?" I felt embarrassed about how irrational and insane I must have been when Dan found me.

I nodded. "Yeah. A lot better." He leaned against the wall of the room and said calmly, "That's good to hear. I'm going to the Courtyard in a little bit to hang out with Runo and the others. You should go. I'm sure they'd all be happy to see that you're alright."

I hadn't really given any thought to how the others had been since I had started going through the fence. The last I had talked to them, it had been with Runo while I was hunting for my grandfather. That was when I learned of what happened during my absence, and I wished I hadn't.

"So, you wanna come along?" I thought for a moment and looked up at Dan. He had promised that none of the Officials were hunting for me, but then again, what did Dan know? "I guess I'll go. What can it hurt?" I put on a smile to try and convince him that I was okay with going into the open.

He bought it because he smiled back. "Awesome. We're leaving in about ten minutes." He left the room and shut the door behind him. It would be good to let the others know that I was okay, for the most part at least. They deserved some peace of mind, even if I was the one who really needed it.

Ten minutes went by quickly, and Dan and I were walking down the dirt road towards the Courtyard. Dan kept reassuring me that the Officials weren't after me, but I couldn't shake the feeling that their emotionless eyes were staring holes through me.

I walked on the right side of Dan so he would be between me and the Officials. If they were to come after me, they'd have to get around Dan first, which would give me somewhat of a chance. I saw the flickering flame of a fire up at the Courtyard.

As we got closer, I could hear the chattering and laughing of people. They were just people, trying to make the best out of life and all of the troubles that we were facing. Dan jogged up to the people and waved. "Hey, guys! Look who I found!"

I walked up behind him just in time for all eyes to fall of me. Julie, Runo, and Murucho's eyes widened and their mouths opened slightly. "Alice!" they squealed at the same time. Please don't shout my name. They ran from their seats and embraced me in a hug. I hugged them back. I didn't think that they would have missed me so much. Then again, my grandfather had been taken away the same day that I had 'disappeared' from the City.

They probably had thought that I was taken away as well. I smiled at them and said, "I missed you guys." They rambled on and on about how they missed me and how worried they had been. Then came the questions of where I had been. I bit the inside of my cheek as I tried to think of something to tell them.

Dan stepped in a saved me by saying, "Give her some space. If she wants to tell us, then she'll tell us." I looked at Dan and said to him silently, "Thank you." He seemed to know that I was grateful for him stepping in because he nodded and gave me a small smile that nobody else noticed. We were now sitting around the fire that had been made.

It wasn't dark, but the sun was almost behind the horizon. It would be pitch black in a couple of hours, the only light being that from the flame in front of us. While we were talking away, somebody brought up the topic of the Outcasts. I felt myself tense up.

What were they going to say, and if they brought me into the conversation, then how much should I say? A girl sitting across from me, Cassidy, began to ramble. She was the daughter of a high-ranking government Official. Compared to the rest of us, she had it made.

Why she hung around us, was unknown to me. "Did you hear what the Officials decided to do?" We all exchanged looks. Of course we don't know. Why would the Officials tell us what they're doing? We shook our heads in response to her question.

"Well, they came to an agreement on a way to get rid of a little….'Problem' if you want to call it that. They poisoned the water that those Outcasts use." She cringed when she said Outcasts. I felt my jaw go slack. I didn't know how to react. How many of the Outcasts had ingested the water and died so far?

Was Shun in those numbers? I couldn't stand up and say anything, or else I could blow my already thin cover. So, I sat back and tried to stay as quiet as I could. Dan raised an eyebrow and said, "Really? I guess that's an easier way to get rid of them than waiting for them to die on their own."

I stared at Dan with shock. How could he say something like that? Then, I reminded myself that he hadn't been out in the Wastelands and learning about the Outcasts like I had. I would have probably had the same outlook on them as he did. He was looking at me with a raised eyebrow. "What?" I shook myself from my shocked state and let out a light, humorless laugh.

"Yeah. Good way to get rid of the filth." I hated myself for saying that. I wanted nothing more than to find a dark hole and hide in it. I didn't think of the Outcasts like that, especially Shun. But I had to act like I had never gone through that fence. If they discovered that I had any sympathy for the Outcasts, they would surely know something was up.

They laughed along with me, and added in a chorus of agreements. I doubted that I could stand to be friends with them for much longer. But it wasn't their fault that they didn't know the truth of what we beyond that fence. The laughter died down, and was replaced with an all too familiar voice that was shouting. I froze when I finally placed it. Shun.

Shun

It's not an easy task to hide yourself in an open, barren landscape. I was wide open to be spotted by an Official who may look through the fence. I ran up to the wood board and barbed wire wrapped fence. All I could do was hope that I wouldn't be seen.

There had to be a gate around the fence somewhere. They had gotten out to poison our water somehow, which meant there was a door in the fence. It started to get darker and darker, and I knew that it would be difficult to find the gate once night fully cloaked the sky.

I walked around the fence, and saw orange and red dancing around. It was a fire. I crept my way towards it, wondering who was there. Sitting around the fire, was a group of about six or seven people around my age. But what caught my eye, was a certain girl with orange hair. Alice!

Relief flooded me to know that she was okay, that no Official had gotten to her and harmed her. But that relief slowly drained away when I started to listen in on their conversation. They were talking about Outcasts and laughing. I couldn't believe that Alice would be in the same group as them. She had to have some reason for sitting there and talking about us.

One of the girls mentioned something about the Officials poisoning our water. My eyes narrowed. I knew it. I quickly looked back to see Alice's expression. She knew nothing of this, so I was curious to know how she would react. When I looked over, her face went from kind of surprised to neutral.

When a brown haired boy asked her why she was staring at him, she laughed shortly and said, "Yeah. Good way to get rid of the filth." I felt my eyes widen, and I turned to face my back to the fence. Filth? Had she seen us like that the whole time she had been out in the Wastelands with us?

The whole time she had been around me? My hands tightened into fists at my sides. Filth….That's all we are to them. My jaw tightened, and I turned around to look back through the fence. I wanted to yell at them, to get their attention and let them know that I was there.

That I wasn't going to hide in the shadows while they talked about the Outcasts like that. I couldn't believe that Alice was letting them do that though. That's what really irked me. I was about to open my mouth, when a hand latched onto my right shoulder.

It was a tight grip that caused my knees to buckle from the pain. I cried out, and looked up to see an Official looking down at me. Behind him, were several more. The one who had a hold of my shoulder, was smirking down at me. Fear filled my mind and body, then they started to drag me into the City.

hello! sorry for not uploading for a couple of days. been busy trying to get everything back in order since i've been back from my band trip. announcements concerning the month of April. No uploads 12-14, a possible one on the 17, none on the 21, and a possible one on the 27. lots and lots of band events coming up. :/ well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~