Shun

Dan stared between the bars of the cell. His face showed shock from the fact that we found Runo, when everything seemed to be screaming that she was dead. He snapped out of his trance and said harshly, "Find the key and get her out of here!" Me and Brunswick searched around for the key; or anything that might get the heavy iron cage open.

From my previous stay here, I recalled the key being hung on the wall. Sure enough, I saw it dangling in the same place; against the wall next to a door. "Over there," I said and pointed to it. Dan didn't even hesitate. He flew past me and Brunswick and snatched the key from the hook. I knew he cared for and worried about this girl, but I didn't think it was to this extent.

For all I knew, I would have been doing the same thing if it was Alice on the other side of that cell. Emotions make you do crazy things without realizing it. Dan shoved the key into the lock and turned it. I heard the locking mechanism turned as the gears unlocked from each other.

Dan swung the cell door open and ran to the unconscious girl's side. Brunswick, Val, Marquis, Feliciana, and I slowly walked in behind him. We remained quiet as Dan tried to wake Runo. I saw no blood on the floor like I did back at Clay's cell, but that didn't mean that the Officials hadn't done something to her. Dan was now begging her to wake up and was shaking her shoulders.

If she didn't wake up, I didn't want to be around to know how Dan would react. Since the separation in the desert, I was sure that all of us thought Runo was gone from this world. But upon hearing that she was taken away by the Officials, we had a spark of hope for a moment.

That faded when we remembered, she was taken by Officials. The thoughts of the torments she may have been subjected to danced through our thoughts, and we knew they probably wouldn't let her live. I was truly surprised that she was here, and still breathing.

She coughed a little, then her eyes slowly opened as she woke from her slumber. "Dan?" she asked softly, but I could still hear the confusion in her voice. "What are you doing here?" Her tone made it seem like she had woken from a peaceful slumber, or just came out of a wonderful dream.

It was hard to tell by her voice that she had been locked away in a prison for God knows how long. Dan hugged her and said, "I was worried." I thought about all the times I had been worried about Alice, and how she had worried about me. I knew that's what she was doing right now.

She was up on that mountain, worrying herself sick about how things were playing out down here. Moans came from back down the hallway. I left out of the cell, leaving Dan and the others in there, and followed the sounds of pain. They were coming from Clay. He had stirred sometime while we were trying to rouse Runo.

His glazed over eyes found me through the metal bars. They looked dead and blank, and I wondered if there really was any life left in him at all. "They've gone mad," he said weakly, his voice gruff and hoarse. I looked back down the hall to see if anyone was coming down to join me at this cell.

They all were still tending to Runo, and I looked back down at the beaten Official. "You have to hurry and get out of here," he told me. None of us were leaving till we got as much of our job done as we could. He said, "Run and get out of here like you did last time." I felt my thoughts freeze.

Did he recognize me? It wouldn't be much of a surprise. When everything went crazy, I was surely described to every Official in the City. But in his beaten and disoriented state, could he even have the ability to remember who I was? It had been some time, and he had been in this prison for no telling how long.

"Don't blame the others. Blame Xavier. He's the one at fault. Not all of us wanted to do this," he said grimly. His eyes stared up blankly at the ceiling of his cell. They hardly looked at me when he spoke. I didn't know if I should believe Clay, or if I should take his word as the ramblings of a crazy, abused person.

I did blame Xavier, but I also blamed every other Official that was still walking around. If they didn't want to do what they did, then they could have turned against Xavier. None of them had to follow his orders. They could have turned around and locked him away in this same prison.

But they didn't, so I had no other choice but to blame them for what they've done. Even if they were just following orders. "They're mad with power," Clay said. "Abusing it cause they can and saying that this is right." I agreed with him on that matter. They had abused their power from the day the Officials were formed.

And now they couldn't contain this lack of control any longer, and its results were the deaths of so many people. It was mass exodus that none of them could contain. As if they had any desire to from the start. Clay's eyes moved from the ceiling to me. They grew a little wider and he said weakly, "Run."

I raised an eyebrow, then turned around to see what had disturbed him so much. It was a good thing I had, or else an Official with a mace would have killed me. I ducked down as he swung the spiked iron ball on a handle. It kept going and hit the rock wall of the prison, taking chunks of the stone with it.

The noise alerted the others from down the hall. Brunswick, Val, Dan, Marquis, and Feliciana came running out of the cell. When they saw the Official with the mace trying to crush my skull in, they immediately ran to help me. Feliciana, surrounded by loose rocks, had a surplus of ammo.

She already had a stone in place when Brunswick loaded an arrow into his bow. Both the projectiles shot past my head and hit the attacking Official behind me. He stumbled back and leaned against the wall. Then, he slowly slide down to the floor, leaving a trail of red blood behind like a paintbrush.

Val ran past me and peered out the door to check for anymore. "I think he's the only one," he said. I was able to see the person we had posted as guard. His head was crushed in from the Official's weapon. The bloody mess made my stomach do a flip, but I had seen much gorier recently, so it didn't bother me all that much.

It was still disturbing though. Marquis stared at the dead Official and said, "They must be searching buildings for us and he was the only one checking here." Brunswick took his arrow back and said, "If that's the case, then we need to get out of here before they do a double check.

Last thing we need is more of them showing up." Val took the mace from the Official's lifeless hand and looked at it. Brunswick asked him, "And what do you plan on doing with that?" Val shrugged and told him, "Never know when an extra edge will come in handy." He rigged something up and tied the medieval weapon around his waist, but left it where he could easily gain access to it if the time came.

Dan ran back and gathered up Runo. He was using himself as a prop to hold her up and said, "We need to get her out of here. It's too dangerous and if they catch her again, then they'll probably kill her this time." We all looked at one another. Marquis told him, "Alright. I will get one of the others to take her to the mountain and get her back with the rest of the group."

Dan thanked him and handed over the weak girl to him. When Marquis found somebody that was willing to leave the fight behind, he handed her over and left her in the hands of an unarmed man. He would have to slip past any Official and make it through the Wastelands and to the mountain without being caught.

If he took the underground tunnel, I was sure he would make it out safely. Before I followed the others out of the prison, I stopped and looked in Clay's cell. He had warned me in time and saved my life. I wanted to thank him.

When I was about to open my mouth and speak, I realized that his eyes held a new kind of look. A truly dead look. As I looked closer, I saw that he wasn't breathing anymore, and all the color was gone from him. My eyes went from him and to the dead Official that he had warned me of. I said to myself, "Maybe all Officials aren't so bad after all."

Alice

The gunfire had quieted down sometime ago. It had been the only sounds of battle we had heard, and it ended as quickly as it began. My mind couldn't help but think that the Officials had killed all of the people that went to the City to fight. I was fiddling with my thumbs as we sat down on the log.

Julie and Murucho were beside me, both of them looking as calm and relaxed as ever. But I was sure they were worried like I was. I had scuffed a place in the mud with my foot and it began to reveal little roots and bugs that were underneath the wet dirt. Julie stood up and said, "Hey, somebody's coming this way."

My first thought was Dan, Shun, and the rest of the people they took with them. But I also feared that it was Officials, proving my worries to be right. When I stood up to see for myself, it was one person who was carrying another. The thing that stood out for me was the bright blue hair tied in pigtails.

Murucho's eyes widened and he said loudly, "That's Runo! That's Runo!" The three of us ran to the rusted chain link fence to meet them. The person carrying them was one of the people that went to fight in the City. I felt my pace slowing down when I saw that it was only him. Please tell me he's not all that's left.

I was looking behind him, hoping to see Shun or Dan. Julie asked the question that was bugging me. "Where are the others?" The guy helped Runo over the fence, where Julie was waiting on the other side to help her down. The guy told us, "They're back in the City and just sent me to get her to safety."

Julie wasn't listening to him and became preoccupied with the return of Runo. I saw he was leaving and asked quickly, "Who all is left?" He stopped and tapped his chin as he thought. "Let's see. About seven or eight of us. There's me, Brunswick, Val, Marquis, that girl, Dan, and Shun. Or at least, that was who was left when I snuck out of the City."

I felt a wave of relief when I found out both Shun and Dan were still alive. The guy then told us, "Now, I have to get back to the City and return to the fight." I didn't stop him with anymore questions, and allowed my attention to shift back to Runo. She was telling us what happened to her after the Officials took her back to the City.

They tried to torment information out of her, but she didn't give them anything of use. So, they locked her up in the City's prison. They could have killed her, but maybe they thought that there was still some information she was withholding from them.

I hugged her and told her how thankful I was that she was back with us and safe. I began to hope that Shun or any of the others were captured because they would most certainly fall victim to a much worse fate.

i'm sorry i didnt update yesterday. we had a horrible event happen at our school. we lost one of my fellow classmates due to a car crash they had tuesday, and i attended his memorial that night and was in no mental shape to write. i'm in much better condition to write now, though. and please, for those of you who drive. be careful out there. don't show out for your friends cause you have a car or license. there is no reason for something like this to happen again. i ask that you all keep his family in your thoughts, even though you don't know them. and read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~