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Chapter 7



AJ wasn’t sure how long he actually slept before the light became unbearable. “Nick turn off the damn light it can’t be time to get up yet.” He mumbled. When Nick didn’t respond or turn off the light AJ reached to grab his pillow to throw at him only to find no pillow below him. His hands fell on leaves, vines and other various items from the ground he’d been sleeping on. Their escape hadn’t been a dream; they really were outside the walls of Endwise.

He rubbed his neck as he sat up. The blue, Emma she said her name was, was laying a small distance away from him. He watched her sleeping and then realizing how creepy that would be if she woke to see him staring he turned his eyes to search for Nick. He found him sitting up against a rock just staring up at the sky. He wondered, at first, if the younger man was asleep but that was dispelled when Nick rubbed his eyes and turned towards AJ.

“Morning, Jay.” Nick smiled at his friend and stretched. His stomach growled with hunger as he moved near his friend. “Have you ever seen anything like it?” Nick’s eyes found their way back skywards.

AJ looked in the direction Nick was looking in and smiled. “Remember that brief time I thought I wanted to get married and I was courting that girl who worked in the agriculture zone? She took me there a few mornings to see the sunlight start to come through, but I never thought the sky would look so… blue.”

“I know that the history books back in our yellow and green years had pictures of the world before and then pictures of the world after.” Nick remembered pictures of a brown sky; they were told it was caused by the bombs the citizens of Old Earth had used to destroy each other. They were told it was lucky they were able to filter enough sunlight to grow their crops; they were told the sky would never be blue again. They were told a lot of things that were turning out to be wrong, what else had they been told that was completely wrong.

They sat in silence a few minutes more until Nick’s stomach broke the silence. Nick looked at Emma still sleeping. “I wonder if she brought any food and would share.”

“Some,” the girl’s voice startled them both; they both thought she had been fast asleep. Emma sat up and routed through her bag. She pulled out the familiar ration bars that Endwise would provide you if you ran out of credits. It was, at least, one nice thing about living in the city, nobody went hungry. She handed one to each of them and strapped her bag to her back. “It would be best if we keep moving. Work will notice us missing soon, and when they can’t find us or the blinking red they are supposed to be collecting they will start to hunt outside. It’s best we distance ourselves as far as we can.”

Emma started walking without looking back to make sure the other two were following. She’d been planning this mission for weeks and was able to prepare what she thought she might need but these two had no idea what would be waiting for them. She started to question why she wanted them along. She sighed when she remembered why she asked them to come; she turned and looked at Nick. “Come on,” She ordered and picked up the pace smiling to herself when her back was turned away from them.

They walked faster now that they could see where the vines and outcrop of rocks were located and they were able to side step them. Nick walked slower than the rest taking in his surroundings. He still couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He hardly got any sleep, afraid that if he closed his eyes the next moment he would open them and AJ would be in the guard’s custody set for next month’s mandatory execution.

“This is very cool.” Nick muttered to no one in particular.

“Yah,” AJ reluctantly agreed before he jogged to catch up with Emma. “You look very determined.” He had to say to her twice before she heard him the second time and turned to acknowledge him.

“I have an important task, one that could change the course of people inside Endwise.” She said before sprinting up a small hill and looking around and back down to her compass. “Let’s rest here a minute.”

Her eyes fell on the direction Endwise was in, you could barely see the dome of the arena above the trees. From information brought to the ears of the rebels she was still not safe. Many made it out but were found and brought back in. Emma hoped that by sticking to the area with wild growth it would help conceal and protect them more, the machines the Luminary used to hunt down escapees would hopefully not function as well in this area.

“What the fuck?” AJ’s voice cut through her thoughts and she glanced down scared that somehow the guard had already caught up to them. Nick joined his friend also clearly in a panic.

“What?” She asked when it wasn’t obvious what the sudden outburst was about. AJ looked up at her and held out his hands, palms flat out. There was no color. Emma gasped and looked down at her own palm and noted that her hand was absent of any color other than the color of the flesh that had surrounded her color indicator for so long.

“It’s gone,” Nick’s voice wafted up to her and she noticed he was looking at his own hand now vacant of the purple coloring.

Tears formed in Emma’s eyes. She felt free of the burden’s her color placed on her, she felt free of the impending doom that would come to her eventually when she reached blinking red as AJ had been just moments before. She looked at the two men with her and smiled as she wiped the tears away. “Let’s keep going.” She said with renewed energy, she noted her companions also started to walk again with a new determination.

~*~



“Sir,” a man in the black uniform of the guard came forward. The Luminary looked up and, out of habit; his eyes fell on the purple color bands that adorned the guard’s arms. “We have searched their residences and they are not to be found. All communicators have been left in the rooms.” The man reported.

The Luminary calmly looked around the room at the others present. His gaze stopped when he came to his second in command. “Howie, this news is most disturbing.” He stood and waved the guards to leave the room so he could talk alone with his confidant, one of the few he could trust.

“The blue, I seem to recall she held ties to the rebels.” The Luminary spoke. “But the purple has no record of disturbances, no record of any grumblings.”

“His roommate just started blinking,” Howie spoke up offering an explanation for why a purple would go missing. “I’ve questioned many of the guards on duty last night, it is reasonable to believe they have made a break for it, they have left Endwise and have taken the blinking red with them.”

The Luminary started to breathe long even breaths in an attempt to calm himself down. He thought for sure after the executions, after showing all those pictures again that no one would be stupid enough to attempt leaving. “Gather the troops, we leave at first light.” He ordered.

“They will have a day start.” Howie piped up.

“It is of little consequence. None of them are prepared for what they will find out there. If the animals don’t get them, surely the lack of food and water will.” He waited until Howie left the room before swiping the papers off his desk in one angry stroke.