Alice

"Cleansing?" I asked the woman. Something about the grim way she said it, gave me a sick feeling in my stomach, and a chill up my back. "That's what I said. A cleansing." Her words only seemed to grow grimmer and darker every time she spoke. "Could you explain what that is?" I asked, slightly annoyed that she hadn't done so already. Howe, her husband, walked into the kitchen without making a sound.

His voice was what signaled his arrival. "I'll save you the trouble of explaining it, Ellie." His wife thanked him and leaned back in her chair. Howe sat down next to her at the table. I never thought I see the old couple's expressions so serious and without emotion. It was like looking at two different people. He took in a breath and started to speak.

"Back when the City was first undergoing construction, your grandfather and I worked together closely on many of the projects. There wasn't much that we didn't overhear from other workers." I leaned forward, closing adhering to every word the old man spoke. For one, it involved my grandfather. And two, it involved us. Howe cleared his throat so he could continue to speak.

"When the Officials started to keep order, Michael and I were working outside of their conference room. While we were there, we overheard the conversation that the Officials were having." Laughter came from the other room, revealing how badly nobody had a clue about the danger that was to come. Howe continued, while his wife still sat by in silence.

"They were talking about how they predicted that our a large majority of the people in the City would grow weak, and wouldn't be of any worth in giving back to society. In other words, dead weight." Questions hung on the edge of my tongue, but I didn't dare speak.

They were surely be answered soon. "They spoke about what to do with the useless generation to come. That was when one of the Officials, long gone now, put up the idea of 'ridding the City and its people of the dead weight.'" I could already see the gears going into motion as I pieced together what he was probably going to say next.

I didn't want to think that our Officials, the ones who were our government and law, would do something so rash. But everything Howe was telling me, pointing towards it. All I required, were the words to add proof. "Michael and I stayed around and listened to what else they had to say.

Those early Officials came up with their plan. Until it was time for the 'cleansing', they said how they would stand by and watch the people so they could determine when the time was right, and to also pick out the people who were too weak to stay around in the City at that time."

I now knew why the Officials just stood there, watching us. It wasn't for them to look uniform or anything, it was so they could watch us for all of these years. Seeing when the time was right for them to get rid of their weak links. I thought about what Howe said and asked, "What did they do with the people that they got rid of on the spot?"

He had mentioned something about disposing of the people they saw that weren't fit enough to stay in the City. Howe's face had hardly any color in it when he said, "They became the first Outcasts." I had to hold back the small gasp that threatened to come out.

"But….I thought the first Outcasts were-" I stammered that much out when the old man's voice cut me off. "Criminals. Some of them were, but most of them were people who were seen as too weak and were seen as people who couldn't give back to the City. Many of them were just people still suffering from the effects of the nuclear war that had ended. They couldn't help that carnage had ailed them."

I couldn't help but wonder, how much of what we had been told, was a lie? I thought about Shun. His parents were Outcasts. Did that mean that the Officials saw them as worthless people as well? Ellie stood from the seat next to her husband, and walked over to the blocked off window.

She stared at it, as if she were able to see through the curtains. "And it seems like it's started already. All it took was your little Outcast friend to sneak through the fence so the Officials could have a reason to start with their plans." I stood up from the table, my chair skidding back across the floor.

"Shun didn't do anything to start all of this madness!" I shouted, feeling more than just the elderly couple's eyes on me. I turned around, and saw my four friends peering in the kitchen. The old woman walked around the table and placed her boney hands on my shoulder.

"I'm not blaming the boy. All I'm saying is that the Officials took advantage of his actions. That way they could start the cleansing, and not have any worry of suspicion." I understood what she meant. The Officials could work in broad daylight and have no worries. They could do things like the home checks and take away people they no longer wanted to live, and play it off as they were involved with the Outcasts.

Margret returned to my mind. They accused her of having contact with the Outcasts. Now, I couldn't help but think that they only saw her as a worthless human being. True, she had locked herself away after her husband was sent out into the Wastelands, never to be seen or heard from again.

I also began to wonder if the Officials really did know about the map my grandfather had, or if they were doing the same thing at first. Because, if those Officials knew what he was planning, they would have torn the house apart to look for it.

And when Runo had the information beaten out of her, they went after Shun because he had it. They knew that a map like that would ruin their plans, so they weren't going to hesitate to take it away before anyone else could lay eyes on it.

I bit the inside of my cheek and said, "I think you should tell Dan and the others about what's going on." The two elderly people looked at each other, as if they really had to think about this. I knew we couldn't save everyone, but some was better than none.

It was also a chance for Dan to see who the real enemy was. Howe nodded and said, "You're right. Ellie, I'll go and tell them. You can come along too, if you want." He motioned to the door where the others had been standing. I shook my head, not feeling up to hearing the explanation again.

Howe shrugged his shoulders and disappeared into the next room. I turned to his wife and said, "I'm going to go and check on Shun real quick." She nodded, and I turned to go out of the kitchen. I retraced my way back to Shun's room, and found him still laying in his bed awake.

He turned when I walked through the door, and gave me a smile. "That was some long talk you had with that woman. What was it about?" I sat in one of the chairs, and let out the longest sigh I had ever heard. "You wouldn't believe it," I said, and started to repeat the horrifying truth that was walking around outside.

Shun

All new reasons for me to hate the Officials. No longer could I really have any hate towards the City; I could only hate the way they viewed the Outcasts. The true monsters were those Officials. The people who the citizens looked to for safety and security. When in actuality, they were the people that should have always been feared.

Feared much more than the fact that they had power. They should be afraid because now, those guardians of the City, were out to kill them. And they were clueless about the act of atrocity they were about to commit on the other side of the curtain. Alice leaned back in the chair, looking exhausted from telling me the story.

She said breathlessly, "I knew the Officials did some horrible things, but I didn't think they were capable of doing something of this magnitude. Or that they would even think about it." Bags were already forming underneath her eyes. I told her, "You should really get some rest."

She shook her head, and I watched as her orange curls swished back and forth, hitting her face when they did. "I hardly slept much last night cause I was so worked up about you, and I really doubt I'm going to sleep after learning about what's going on."

I felt bad for her, wished I could do something to ease her worries. But I was just as much at a loss as she was. I forced myself to sit up, gritting through the pain that followed. She looked at me and said flatly, "You shouldn't be moving around like that while you're still hurt."

I chuckled and told her, "I'm going to be hurt for a while if you don't relax." She gave me a look, then laughed herself. "Guess I should take it easy. I won't be of much use if I'm too tired to run for my life." This time we both shared the laugh. It soon died away, leaving the room in a silence.

All I could hear was the sound of the nighttime bugs coming out for the night, and the voices of her friends in the other room. Alice then brought her knees up to her chest, propping her feet up on the seat beneath her. She looked up at the ceiling and said, "Never in a million years did I picture something like this happening to me."

I raised an eyebrow and asked, "And what do you mean by that?" Alice held her hands out to signal that she literally meant everything. "I mean, I never pictured sitting here right now, hiding for my life and all of that." Yeah, neither did I. I, like most of the Outcasts, always pictured ourselves as remaining out in the Wastelands until we died.

What I was doing and where I was at, was a major leap from the norm. My expression must have turned grim, because Alice asked me, "Is something wrong?" I glanced up at her and said, "I was just thinking about how things were going back in the Wastelands. Last thing I remembered from when I left, was that the water was poisoned and Sarah was dying from it."

Alice's eyes lit up with shock, and I remembered that she didn't know about Sarah. All she knew was that the water was poisoned. "Sarah's dying?" she asked, her words wavering. I hated myself for bringing the topic up, but she would know sooner of later.

"Yeah. She's probably dead now." It wasn't the nicest thought to have, but it was an inevitable one. Alice covered her mouth with her hand. The two of them had some kind of connection with each other. It was like the two of them just clicked when they first met through the fence.

Alice now seemed lost in her thoughts, and I didn't bother her. She needed time to herself to sort through things going on. Just like we all did. Alice needed to focus on what was going on within the walls of the fence, and I needed to worry about what was going down on the other side. Because both of our worlds were crumbling.

ah. no school tomorrow. woo! -dances- so, most likely there will be an early upload. well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~