Shun

I woke up shortly before dawn. Everyone around me was still sound asleep. So, to keep from waking them, I quietly got out of my bed and snuck from the house. I hadn't had much time to myself since we left, and any time that I had spent on my own, was only because I was so messed up due to being on the run from the Officials. But I had no time to just walk around and enjoy some peaceful silence.

This was an opportunity that I didn't want to pass up. The sun was just starting to peek over the Eastern horizon, painting the sky with the colors of early dawn. Nobody was out on the lake, leaving the water as still as glass. There seemed to be nobody else awake other than me. I made a quick note to try and hurry back to the others before they woke up, and Alice began to wonder where I had vanished to.

She worries too much about me. Not that it was a bad thing, I just wasn't used to it. All my life, I had been watching out for mainly myself. So, it was strange to have somebody else looking out for me. The only person who came close to doing that, was Christina.

I exhaled a long breath, reminding myself not to tread back on that sore spot in my mind. I made my way around the lake; towards the side of it that had the rice plants growing in the water. I found it amazing how they were able to cultivate this dead land, while we had hardly any luck of growing grass. Small flies buzzed around from the water. I swatted at them as they tried to fly towards my face.

That was one thing that we hadn't seemed to have left behind; bugs. I left the buzzing water, and continued on my way around the lake. It seemed never-ending. The water spread out to the horizon, and I wondered if this lake existed here before the war, or if it had been made as a result of damages from attacks.

I shuddered at the old memory of what this world went through. All of the stories that had been passed down from one generation of Outcast to the next, came back to my thoughts. I remembered stories that I hadn't heard in years. Like how the war was started.

It was some big altercation between two world powers that hadn't gotten along because of all kinds of reasons; whether it was political, religious, or whatever, we wouldn't exactly know, for it had been lost with time. But the two powers finally had enough of each other, and released their weapons of destruction, dragging the rest of the world along with it.

The other countries didn't want anything to do with the war, but attacking the two major powers was the only thing they could think of in order to make them stop. It only left the world in a crumbled heap of dirt and ash. Once great cities, much larger than the City back in the Wastelands, were flattened by the force of the explosions.

I shook my head, wondering how the people back then could have been so ignorant to not think about the repercussions of their actions. None of this would exist; the death, starvation, and suffering. Well, it was already there back then, but it was nowhere near as bad as it was now.

And if that war hadn't broken out, then maybe we wouldn't have bloodthirsty Officials chasing after us, burning and destroying everything they touched. Dark clouds started to roll in from, what I guessed, was the North. They looked like they were bringing in a rainstorm.

Soon, the rising sun was covered by the ominous clouds, and a somewhat strong wind started to pick up. It wouldn't take that long for the bottom to fall out, and for rain to pour down. Before I got caught in the storm, I hurried back around the lake to return to the house; the others were probably awake by now.

I stopped when I thought I saw somebody out in the Wastelands. On the other side of the hill we went down to come into this city, I could have sworn I saw somebody peering over the top of it, and then vanished. I shrugged it off as a trick of the mind, but something told me it wasn't.

Alice

Shun stepped through the door, and was taken off guard when he saw that we were all up, and that Brunswick was standing among us. When I noticed that Shun was gone this morning, I was going to go out and try and find him, but Brunswick's sudden arrival kind of got in the way.

I trusted Shun, but for some reason I felt like he might try and return back to his old home, despite the fact that it was probably gone. That was the reason I kept a close eye on him; I was worried about him. His eyes scanned from Brunswick, then to us and said, "Um, what's going on?"

Murucho was sitting on the edge of his bed and said, "He said he wouldn't start the conversation until all of us were here." Brunswick stroked his beard and said, "And now all of you are, so we can start. I came by here to ask when we are going to leave." I looked around the room.

It was obvious none of us had given that any thought. But there was also something else that was easily readable on our faces; none of us wanted to leave. This place felt safe to us, and we didn't want to abandon it. This was our paradise that we never thought existed.

Brunswick laughed for a moment and said, "Now don't tell me you lot didn't think of when we were leaving." He paused for a moment, looking at all of our blank faces. "You really didn't…." Brunswick didn't sound impressed by our lack of preparedness. Murucho said sheepishly, "It kinda slipped our minds."

The short blonde gave him a nervous smile, hoping that the bearded man would buy our lie. Brunswick sighed and said, "Well, we can't stay forever. The longer we're here, the sooner the Officials will arrive, and I don't want to be around for that. How about we start to make preparations to leave in the morning?"

He waited for our response, which he didn't leave us much choice other than to agree. We all nodded slowly, showing that we understood the plan that had been placed out in front of us. A boom of thunder roared outside, and I could hear the rain starting to pound against the Earth. Thanks to our little window, I could see how dark the storm had made it outside; it looked like night.

"I better get going before the storm gets any worse," he said, prepping himself to run out into the rain. There was a sound outside that didn't match the sound made by thunder or rain. It was like a hissing noise, and it was loud enough to be heard through the rain.

All of us ran outside, instantly getting soaked by the storm. We searched the sky for the source of the noise, but only saw the black storm clouds. Then, the sky was illuminated by a small ball of shooting red light. A flare, I thought as it flew under the clouds and traveled over the lake. Then, a long line of Officials appeared over the hill, guns and other weapons in hand. They found us.

Shun

So I hadn't been crazy when I thought I saw somebody over the hill. It had been an Official, spying on this place for any signs of us. A sick feeling grew in my stomach when I realized I had been the only one out. Most likely, they all knew who I was, and the moment that spy saw me, he had everything he needed to send in the Officials. It was my fault they found us.

There must have been every Official from the City in that line. The familiar rifles in their hands, brought back a phantom pain in the temple of my head where they hit me. Brunswick's loud voice only made the ghost pain worse. "We need to get out of here!" he shouted, his voice carrying across the entire lake.

People emerged from their homes, running with their families as they hurried to get out the danger zone before shots were fired. I turned around the Murucho, who I remembered had the map, and yelled at him, "Start leading these people to the next stop! Take the others with you!"

I motioned to all of our little group. The wind made the rain fall at a sharp angle, and it felt like little needles sticking into my exposed arms. Alice shouted back at me, "What about you?" I looked at her, then turned to face the advancing Officials. "I have some unfinished business to take care of," I told her, but not loud enough for her to hear over the pounding rain.

I turned on my heel and started to run towards where the action was happening. I could hear their faint voices yelling at me from behind, but they were drowned out by the sounds of rain and gunfire. Marquis and Val had joined in the fight at some point, but they weren't holding up very well against the three Officials that had cornered them.

Without being noticed, I knocked one of their attackers to the ground, giving enough of a distraction for Marquis and Val to gang up on the other two Officials. The three Officials laid on the rain-soaked ground, all of them unconscious. Marquis was holding his wrist and said, "Good thing you showed up when you did."

Val added in with, "Yeah, who would have thought that you had any fight in ya?" I would need a lot more, because all around us, were more and more fights taking place. The Officials, thanks to their guns, were winning against the people who stayed behind to defend their home.

Whatever fight I had in me, wasn't enough to go up against the carnage around us. I saw that our group, and the other people of this place, were gaining reasonable distance from the fighting. A little bit longer, and they would all be out of harm's way, given cover from the blackening storm.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I realized that we were being attacked by another group of Officials. They just keep coming. Marquis and Val were holding their own, and when I tried to help them, I was knocked to the ground. I fell against the muddy earth below, and looked up to see an Official standing over me.

He looked familiar, and I quickly remembered him as the one who had hit me in the head with the rifle. It took me a moment to recover from the hit he had dealt me this time, but the moment I regained my focus, I was looking back down the barrel of that same gun.

Fear halted any movement I tried to make, and I sat there, waiting to be shot. Flashbacks of my first encounter with this Official, overran my thoughts. All I could remember, was this same fear as I waited for my life to be ended. Then, Marquis returned the favor I had given them, and knocked this Official out as well.

I stared at the unconscious man laying in front of me, still unable to move from my recent brush with death. Marquis and Val both picked me. One of them said, "Come on, we have to get out of here." Everything was in slow motion as I looked around. The people who stayed behind, were clearly losing.

The three of us, were sneaking out of the battle so we could joined the ones who did escape without any injuries. Should I have been feeling any dishonor, or should I have been grateful that I still had my life? I didn't know, and I was too much in shock to try and figure it out.

So, I allowed Marquis and Val to help carry me along the same path as the others went, the three of us hoping to catch up with before the Officials could.

chapter title based off the song Soldiers Of The Wastelands by DragonForce. announcement, there will be no upload saturday, because i have more jazz band stuff that day (wish me luck because i have a solo). ah, well, let's see what else is new. i am now the one and only marching bari sax for our band. XP yay! -does Dobby dance-...that's about it. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~