Find Me--Chapter 11 ~Marcus~

     We told Olivia and Skye to meet us outside by Scarlet’s grave. They’re probably hiding somewhere now. Dillon and I decide to tell at least one person what we’re doing, despite the fact that we haven’t known anyone very long. I don’t fully trust anyone yet, and they could rat us out at any moment. Chase though, seems to genuinely care for my sister, so we decide he’s our best bet.

     “Chase,” I say as he walks into the room.

     “Yeah?” he asks.

     “We’re running away,” I say, keeping my voice low. He doesn’t seem surprised. “Me and my sister, Dillon, and Skye. You’re the only one we’re telling, but if we’re not back tomorrow, then you can tell the others, as long as you or any of them won’t—”

     “None of us will turn you guys in,” he reassures me. “But I won’t tell them until tomorrow.”

     “Thanks,” I say, relieved.

     “Good luck,” he tells me and Dillon as we approach the door. We smile back at him, close the door behind us, and then break into a sprint. It’s not curfew yet, so there aren’t guards in every hallway. We don’t have long though.

     We run down a flight of stairs, then the few remaining yards, and burst out the door. The stars are out, and for a moment I take in the beautiful night sky, but it doesn’t take long for me to snap back to reality. Skye and Olivia suddenly appear, almost out of nowhere.

     “There you guys are,” I say. “So now what?”

     “Well, there’s a fence surrounding the entire field, we could climb it and then figure out where to go from there,” Olivia offers. We all nod in agreement and take off running as fast as we’re able.

     I’ve never been out here, only Olivia has out of us four. The field is huge. We’ve run up rows and rows of crops before we start wearing out, and the fence still isn’t in sight yet.

     “Can…we…slow…down?” Skye pants. I can see it in her face that she doesn’t want to, but has been fighting the pain in her leg for too long. None of us argue. I’m getting tired myself and Olivia and Dillon probably are too. We walk for a bit, then Skye stops suddenly.

     “Are you all right?” Dillon asks her.

     “Shh…listen,” she whispers. I don’t hear anything at first, but then I hear the distant voices and footsteps of two people. From their conversation, I assume they’re people who work here. We exchange uneasy looks and start running again, trying to be as quiet as possible. I didn’t expect them to leave the field unguarded, but I hoped somehow they would.

     The wire fence finally comes into view, and I think it gives us all a little more strength to run faster. As we get closer though, I realize how vast it is, how intimidating it is looming far above my head. Despite that, I reach out and slap my hands on the fence almost eagerly, ready to climb and escape. Suddenly I feel like dozens of knives are stabbing my fingers and palm. I grunt and pull my hands back.

     “Wait!” I warn the others. “It’s electric. Shocks you when you touch it.”

     “What do we do?” Skye asks.

     “What other choice do we have?” Dillon answers. Skye and Olivia go first, and both let out a little shriek after being shocked by the fence. They’ve barely climbed at all when we hear hurried footsteps getting closer and closer.

     “Hey!” a man shouts as us. A woman shines a flashlight at us. “What do you think you’re doing?” He asks us this, but I know he knows the answer. Four more guards appear. One snatches both of my hands and grips them tightly behind my back and the other guards do the same to Dillon, Olivia and Skye. I struggle, but he’s too strong for me to break free.

     We’re led back to the main building, to the headmistress’s office, the guard with the flashlight informs us. I glance over at Olivia, who gives me a worried look. At this point, I’m more worried about what’ll happen to her than what’ll happen to me.

     For some reason, I thought getting caught would be different. I had the impression that guards would just execute you right there and then. I am glad that that didn’t happen, but now, we’re forced to wait for our impending punishment. Our fate will be decided by one single woman; whether she decides death, or possibly something worse is a mystery.

  

♥Skittlez 

(I wrote this on a whim. I felt like writing, and felt like a failure for not having written a chapter the entire break. It's not the best, I admit, but I hope you enjoy.)

Find Me--Chapter 8 ~Marcus~

All of the eighteen year-olds came pouring into the room we were in after the first explosion. Dillon, Chase, and Violet quickly found us and ran over. Seth, Rae and Isaac came over too.

“What’s going on?” Dillon shouts.

“Someone’s attacking the building,” an official answers, trying to stay calm. “We have to get out of here!” He instructs us to follow him up the stairs and out of the east exit. Everyone starts sprinting up the stairs, but Skye stays put.

“Skye?” I ask. She has a distant look in her eyes and a stricken look on her face. She doesn’t answer me, but snaps out of whatever trance she was in and follows everyone else up the stairs.

The official thrusts open the door only to find that nothing but flame lies behind it. He curses under his breath and tells us to follow him to a different exit. He instructs Dillon to shut the door and runs off to find another while everyone follows. Before Dillon closes the door, I see a sweep of auburn hair amongst the bright orange flame. It can’t be, I think to myself, but whether it really was Olivia or not, someone was out there, probably needing help.

I dash out the door and immediately feel like I’m being roasted alive.

“Marcus!” I hear Skye shriek behind me. I look back, and see her running toward me. The door seemed miles away. “What are you thinking?” she shouts at me. I don’t answer right away, I just keep running. As I come to her body, I figure out that it was in fact Olivia, and she didn’t look good. Her skin was badly burned, the ends of her hair were singed, and I she was in some unnatural position on the ground.

“I was thinking that Olivia needed my help,” I respond, not meaning to sound sarcastic. She doesn’t make a sound as I scoop her up, and I try to reassure myself that she was still alive. “Don’t worry Olivia, you’ll be fine,” I whisper to her.

“Do you need me to help?” Skye asks between the crackle of the fire. Beads of sweat were gliding down my face and I could feel my skin starting to burn.

“Just watch my back,” I say. We begin to race back to the door; Olivia limp in my arms, and Skye trailing behind. It can’t be more than five yards away, but the flame surrounding us makes it seem a lot farther.

Skye screams behind me, I look back and see her face down on the ground. A bullet had grazed her lower leg. They were close, we had to get back inside, but then find another way out. I see Dillon rush out the door and pick up Skye and follow me. There were more gunshots as we both run through the door and Chase slams it shut. I set Olivia gently on the floor.

“Olivia, Olivia!” I call, desperate to see her green eyes open, to know that she’s still alive. She stays still for the next few minutes, but just as I’ve lost nearly all hope, her eyes flutter open.

“Marcus?” she asks. Her voice was quiet and strained. “What happened?” I can’t help but give a weak smile. She looks around at everyone. “You’re all okay,” she says. “I was afraid that—”

“I’m sorry Olivia,” I say, picking her up again. “We’ll explain everything later, but we really have to get out of here.” As if on cue, another bomb goes off, exploding the wall to our left into a pile of rubble and shooting us with bits of debris.

The nine of us hurry up another flight of stairs, no one in particular in the lead.

“Out here!” Rae shouts, motioning toward the door that leads to the fields. She holds open the door for everyone. We’re all running for our lives, breathing heavy, trying to stay positive while hearing gunshots, explosions, and crackling flame in the distance.

Not a moment too soon we reach the forest and see a massive group of people including officials, nurses, cooks, and other residents, trying to stay hidden between the trees. We all sit on the grass and catch our breath. The officials were trying to see that everyone was accounted for, while the nurses were floating around tending to those who were hurt. I let Olivia rest her head on my lap.

“Are you okay Olivia?” I ask gently. “What happened?”

“My skin’s burned and I’m kinda dizzy and my head hurts, but I don’t think anything’s broken,” she answers weakly. “I was in the fields with Caleb and Lyra and we were walking back when the first bombs went off and a fire was burning at the east end of the building. I knew you, Skye, Dillon, and everyone else were working there so I just wanted to go in and make sure you were okay…”

“Oh Olivia,” I sigh. “I just want you to be safe. You’re my sister. I wish you wouldn’t put yourself in harm’s way just to try and save me. I can’t lose you.” She supports herself on her arm and moves into a sitting position to face me.

“But you’re my brother,” she counters. “I know you’d give your life up for me. Is it so wrong that I’d do the same?” It’s useless to tell her that to me, yes, it is wrong. She doesn’t know how horrible it’d be if I lost her.

She lies back down. “What happened after that?” she asks.

“A bomb blew up one of the rooms downstairs,” I begin. “An official led us upstairs to the east exit, but it was blocked because of the fire. He led everyone else to a different exit, but I thought I saw someone outside in the fire lying on the ground. I could’ve sworn it was you. So I ran outside to get you, and Skye followed. But they started shooting, and got her in the leg. But we all made it out alive.” She’s silent. Then, Dillon walks over with Skye limping at his side.

“Are you okay Olivia?” Skye asks her. She and Dillon both sit down next to us.

“I suppose…” she replies. “You?”

“I will be,” she answers, looking down at the cloth she pressed against the wound.

“We really have to get out of here,” Dillon says. “They aren’t just harming us. By being here, we put everyone else in danger.” We all nod in agreement.

Skye and Olivia finally get the attention of a nurse and one comes over and helps them the best she can with the limited space and supplies.

“When should we leave?” I ask Dillon. He glances over at Skye and Olivia; at their poor condition.

“As soon as possible.”

Find Me--Chapter 3 ~Marcus~

When Dillon and I walk into the dining hall, I get a grasp on how many people there are here. How many people don’t have parents to look after them. But for the amount of people, it isn’t very loud. We both grab trays with identical portions of stew, a slice of bread, and a glass of water. Skye and Olivia are easily spotted in the sea of black shirts. We sit down next to them. Scarlet, two other girls, and a guy are there too.

“Hey,” Olivia says to me. Her voice was thin and her eyes were sadder than I’d ever seen them. I pull her in my arms just when the first tear slides down her face. She needs me just as much as I need her. For moments I hold her and stroke her hair; be the older brother my mother and father had always told me to be.

After a while, we pick up our spoons and dig into our stew. It needed some salt, but was a change of pace from all the game we’d been eating. Scarlet breaks the silence.

“Well this would be as good a time as any to get to know each other.”

“I’m Violet,” the short, black haired girl next to Scarlet says. “Oh and I’m Scarlet’s older sister. I’m eighteen, she’s sixteen.” Next to her is a guy with blonde hair and hazel eyes.

“I’m Chase,” he says. I saw his eyes train Olivia’s figure huddled against mine. “I’m also eighteen.” Then there was a small girl with wavy brown hair. We look at her expectantly, then Violet chimes in.

“That’s Lyra,” she says slowly. “She doesn’t really talk often.” I was instantly curious as to why.

“I’m Dillon,” Dillon introduces. “And that’s Skye, Olivia and Marcus.”

“Olivia’s my sister,” I comment.

In the short time we had introduced ourselves, I’d eaten all the food on my tray. All of us had except for Skye. She just sat on the other side of me stirring her stew with a spoon. I hungrily look at the untouched food. Everyone gets the same portions. The petite thirteen year old girls and the buff twenty year old guys ate the same amount which seemed unfair. Skye sees my stare and pushes her tray toward me.

“Here,” she says. “I’m not hungry.” All of us had been eating meager amounts of food for the past week or so. Something is bothering her. There’s no way she’d pass up a meal.

“No,” I tell her. “You should eat.”

“I can’t,” she whispers. Before I can, Dillon embraces her.

“What’s wrong,” he says, leaning in so his nose touches her cheek.

“Everything,” she says, breaking his grip and standing up. She saunters off and sits by the sunny window. Dillon has a sad look of rejection on his face.

“Skye?” I whisper as I approach her.

“Just leave me alone Marcus,” she stammers. That was that last thing I could do.

“I can’t just leave you like this,” I tell her. I don’t bother asking her why she’s upset. It’s the same things that have been making her cry for the past few weeks.

I lean down and kiss her cheek. She looks up, showing me her puffy eyes, just as a clock strikes. Dillon, Olivia, and the others approach us.

“It’s time to get back to work,” chase says bluntly.

“Follow us,” Violet instructs. Everyone in the dining hall returns their trays and files out the door.

We walk down a set of stairs. I hear the soft pitter-patter of the raindrops hitting the walls.

“Olivia, you’re sixteen right?” Scarlet asks. Olivia nods skeptically. “Okay then you’ll be outside with Lyra and me.”

“See you later,” Olivia says to me. I pull her in my arms wishing I didn’t have to let her out of my sight. She pushes open the door and follows Scarlet and Lyra out into the rain.

Violet, Chase, Dillon, Skye and I saunter down two more flights of stairs into the basement of the building. It’s set up like a factory. Immediately, Skye starts coughing as she breathes in the foul air. Dillon turns to her and strokes her hair. Once she stops, violet speaks.

“Skye, Dillon, Marcus, how old are you guys?”

“I’m eighteen, they’re both seventeen,” Dillon says.

“Okay so Dillon, you’re with us. Skye and Marcus you stay here. They assign jobs by age,” Chase informs us. Violet walks off, them quickly returns with a girl who has light brown hair.

“This is my friend, Rae. She’ll help you,” Violet says. “See you at dinner.” Dillon gives Skye a quick kiss on her forehead then follows Chase and Violet into another room.

“Follow me,” Rae says. So we follow her to a workstation with two other guys. “These are my brothers, Seth and Isaac,” she says. They have a strong resemblance to each other. “We’re triplets but also have a thirteen year-old brother, Caleb.” I could hear the rain drumming on the building faster and harder.

Rae, Seth, and Isaac taught us the art of textile making. It involved a lot of sewing which I was no happier about than Skye. I tried to focus on making a quilt. Skye had coughing fits every once and a while. I caught Rae sneaking glances at me. Seth and Isaac confide amongst themselves.

I wait out the hours until dinner. Then the days until this is over and somehow we can all return home.