Chapter 1
As the clouds started to gather in the sky, she picked up the pace. The sky had been a vibrant shade of blue up until this point, but it was starting to change. The first pearls of rain fell onto the leaves.
The sun reappeared, illuminating the trees with slanted shafts of light as dew droplets started to trickle from the leaves. The grass eventually started to steam up. It suddenly surged up and drifted like mist in the direction of the molten-gold sun.
Bang...
She came to a sudden halt. The red laser beam almost located her arm. She immediately sank to the ground, hiding behind some green foliage. She waited for them to go away and moved slowly without making a single noise. She was trained now. It became simple after repeatedly performing the same action for a while.
This time there were five of them. One looked lost. A new recruit! She thought to herself. Suddenly a hand grabbed her from behind and she clasped the hand twisting t until she heard a groan.
“Why are you following me?” She asked him as she turned around to face him.
“What do you mean? No sorry?” He asked.
“No!”
“I saw you leaving, I’m bored, okay! And you need to stop ignoring me.” He told her truthfully.
“Go do something else instead of following me.” She calmly replied.
“It’s not safe today, I’ll go with you.”
“How do you know?” She questioned him.
He remained quiet for a while staring in distance. Then he spoke, “I went there yesterday night. New people have been recruited but now there aren’t just people there. There are machines too!” He sighed in anger.
“I figured. Why’d you go when you’re not allowed?” She asked him.
“You may have heard of what they’re what they’re working on.”
“The uprising?”
“Yeah and I don’t know why they think it’s going to work. It didn’t work before. Twice! They’re gonna die.” His tone was serious.
“Try as many times as you can until there’s only one left and even he has to try.” She said those words and they both sighed.
“Why are our parents like that? What’s the point of even doing it when we’re not going to complete it anyways. What will the last person do? Huh? Turn into some giant beast and eat them all up! That is all bullshit and the worst part is they don’t listen!” He vented his anger out.
“They would if we had a better plan.”
“You have one?”
“No,” She simply replied.
“Cyra is very sick. I can’t watch her. No one seems to understand that we are committing a huge sin right here in our own house by not doing anything.”
“Xavier, if it was that easy for us to go out and take her to a hospital, we would have done it already. They’d kill her and all of us as soon as we show ourselves. We are convicts, fugitives whatever they call it. They don’t care who is sick.”
“Whose life is more important right now, ours or hers, Amira?” Xavier questioned incredulously.
“What part of they’d kill her do you not understand!? Instead of looking ways to get her out of here only to get her and yourself killed is to spend time with her. I swear you’ll regret it so much later.” He gave out a laugh.
“Fuck!” He shouted, throwing a rock into the distance.
“You know what, you’re just like them. You don’t understand it either!”
“I don’t understand? Who spends time with her everyday and plays with her and has to tell her lies about her brother who is too busy doing whatever the fuck he’s doing instead of showing his face even just for ten minutes to his sister who is about to die!” Amira snapped. He was taken aback by her outburst.
Just as he was about to speak, a familiar static sound accompanied by a robotic voice caught them by surprise and a series of shots followed. Both of them quickly ducked to the ground.
“I saw them, they’re here!” One man alerted the rest.
While Xavier intently observed them, Amira picked up a broken twig and hurled it in the opposite direction.
“I sense them,” The man spoke again.
As they got closer to them, Amira started to become agitated. They were in possession of the detector guns, and it was only a matter of time before it picked up on their breathing patterns and body temperatures.
After several minutes passed, another voice joined in.
“Don’t try to work your way to the top by creating fake scenarios. I have checked this place thoroughly. There’s no one here. Be serious.”
“Yes, Commander.” The man replied in a low voice.
“Verify yourselves. Head to the station, we’re leaving.” The commander spoke into his communicating device. They left.
It was then when Xavier noticed the bleeding hand of Amira.
“You’re bleeding! He exclaimed.
“So are you.” She replied looking at his left hand.
“Fuck! I didn’t even feel it.” Xavier replied.
“Same, we’re going to die.” Amira responded in a low tone, analysing the wound.
“Wait, this isn’t possible. We can’t just die like this. It’s my fault.” Xavier panicked.
“I didn’t think I was going to die so easily. It doesn’t make sense.” Amira started to speak in disbelief too.
Xavier looked around, feeling hopeless.
“I don’t want to die here. Not now Amira. I need to see Cyra first.” Xavier started to run back towards their hiding location. Amira followed him not knowing what to do but on the way she grabbed something from the ground where they were shot.
“I feel heavy and tired.” He shouted.
“Stop thinking, keep going.” Amira motivated him.
“I can’t see anymore. My vision-is - getting- blur-” His speech was only partially coherent. Amira was going through the same thing, but she had the bravery to grasp his arms and follow him until they were both exhausted. Both fell to the ground with a loud thud.
“C’mon! Move!” Xavier spoke.
“I can’t,” She gritted her teeth in pain.
“Why did this happen?” He questioned all of a sudden.
“She missed you and she saw all the pictures you have of her in your room. She even cried.” Amira told Xavier as they both struggled to breathe.
They fought against the engulfing darkness till their last breaths but it was too powerful. They let go. Soon there was silence.
