Trials of Trust

A Chapter by LizzieTheLizard

“Lucas... and Echo?” Clarity questions. Now, she starts to walk up to them.

Echo grins, “The one and only!”

Lucas has brown hair with some slight curls. His eyes a deep green-brown, reminding Clarity of a garden snake she saw once when she was young. He has muscles that could intimidate anyone and is taller than Clarity by a couple inches or so. He has scars of previous cuts on his face. One trailing from his bottom lip to his chin. Another scarcely close to his right eye, along with one that goes over the bridge of his nose. He is wearing tattered blue jeans, similar to Clarity’s own pants, and a grey shirt with some faded black print. He has tan work boots that look mangled. He looks sophisticated, sneaky, and determined. He gives off a smell of the ocean and the woods. He looks like he was put through a lot.

Echo has long, sandy hair with pink highlights that could have been red before. Her bangs are mostly on her left side. Her eyes are brown, which is usually abnormal for blondes. She is wearing shorts that stop past the start of the thigh, which could be why she has numerous scars on her legs. She also wears a dirtied tee-shirt. The shirt says ‘Cutie’ and half of it is pink, while the other half is white. Different colour tennis shoes are her style of footwear, with mismatching socks to match to display her colourful personality. She is as energetic as a two-year-old that ate sugar based on the way she constantly fidgets around. The way she acts makes it seem like the war has not yet affected her.

Clarity walks up to Lucas, grabbing the scissors out of his back pocket as if she was going to give him a one armed hug. She slips the scissors into her own jean pocket, backing away. She pulls her blue shirt to cover the scissors. Lucas just stares at Clarity, perhaps observing her beauty similar to her late mother's. Brian knows in the way that Lucas stares at her, that he was already caught in her trap. Her trap of beauty in a world so cruel. Brian looked at Persephone that same way. He is feeling protective over his daughter. She is only 16, too young to date in his mind. The war makes him torn, the world has already gone to s**t. She could do whatever she wanted because their walls have all collapsed a long time ago. Lucas looks the same age as Clarity, if not a bit older, and he is tall. He has muscle, so Brian thinks he was in military training.

A selected lot of baby boys were tested to be perfect back before the war. They were sent to military nurses in the Central, where militaries and the food supplies for every department were at. Those babies who were chosen went through endless military training as soon as they could walk and talk. Brian was lucky because of his bad knees and did not have to go to the military. Persephone and Brian feared they would have a baby boy that would be taken away from them. When Clarity was born, Persephone had fainted at the sight of a beautiful baby girl. Clarity was born special to them too, with one blue eye on the left and one green eye on the right. She is perfection in Brian’s eyes, just like her mother.

“Lurk, how old are you? Exactly?” Brian asks.

He scoffs, “First of all, it’s Lucas. Not... Lurk. Secondly, I’m pretty sure I’m still 17. It’s.. been awhile since I even had a birthday party or calendar, so I guess I don’t know.”

“I’m going to call you Luke,” Clarity smirks, “I like making my own nicknames for people.”

“Well, now I know you’ll be annoying and childish.”

“What did you say about my daughter, Lurk?”

“It’s Lucas!”

Echo stepped in, “A-Ahem. I think I’ve gotten your attention?! Well, we originally came to this building looking for people to help us. We want to know if one- or both- of you could help use with scavenging a building nearby. It’s too big for two people.”

“How can we trust-”

“I’ll go.” Clarity’s eyes light up as she realises this is her only chance to leave the house. Any longer and she feels like she will go insane.

“Clare, I don’t know. It could be dangerous.” Brian runs a hand through his greying hair.

Clarity turns and looks her father in the eyes, “I trust them. I really do.”

Minutes passed with just silence, the two just staring into each other’s eyes. Brian finally nods, handing Clarity his loaded pistol. She smiles widely and puts the gun inside her second back pocket. She turns to the other two. Lucas just glares at Echo and walks out. Echo links one of her arms with Clarity’s, dragging her out after Lucas. Lucas had gotten all the way down the stairs in a matter of minutes, only waiting for Clarity and Echo when he got to the bottom. The girls race down the stairs, without thinking of the dangers. They, fortunately, get to the bottom without injury. Lucas has been standing impatiently at the end of the stairs. Clarity and Echo only laugh.

“Clare, you need to get more serious starting now!” Lucas mocked after what her father had called her to the apartment.

Clarity’s eye twitched, “Only my mother and father are allowed to call me that.”

“You’re mother was probably sleeping up there without concern! She doesn’t even care to check if you’re okay! Are you really going to be picky about a stupid nickname?”

“Yeah. She’s sleeping alright. She’s been sleeping for nine years. In the damn ground.”

“Oh. Clarity,” Lucas’ eyes soften, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know, I thought that-”

“You thought wrong. Let's just get going. It’s going to be late soon and I want to be done with this as fast as possible.”

“Clar-”

“No, just stop. We just need to get this done. Okay?”

Lucas averts his eyes from Clarity’s, guilt consuming his heart. He is known to befriend easily and feel guilt instantly. He thinks she is kind and attractive and knows how to take care of herself with a gun. Echo twirls a piece of her pink and blonde hair. Her eyes show a bit of pain, but she keeps quiet and smiles. She leads the two out of the apartment, taking cover against a half wall that separates the overgrown road and the cracked sidewalks. The two copy her moves.

Clarity’s moves more sharp, anger driven. Lucas is moping, his movements delayed. Clarity’s mood changed instantly as she gazes upon the open world before her. Overgrowth took over almost all the buildings, besides the ones that were bombed to bits. Clarity smiles, looking out onto the world. she is amazed by a flowering plant that has grown in between the cracks of the road. Lucas could not help but smile with her.

“First time seeing more than that old apartment, huh?”

She laughed, “It’s all so... so oddly beautiful. The way the plants just take over. It just makes me wonder what it was like before all the walls.”

“Yeah...”

“Luke, are you listening?”

“Hmm? O-Oh yeah. Plants and before the walls..” Lucas nervously laughs.

Echo playfully elbows Lucas without Clarity noticing. He glares at Echo, before going back to a neutral state. They continue to shuffle down the pavement, an abrupt rumble knocking Echo off her feet. Lucas tackles Clarity down to the ground. His breath against her neck as her own breath quickens in terror. The rumble grows as a large army tank turns onto the street on the other side of the half wall. The tank is from the Thaxton department. They, along with the Whitevale department, were already set to attack Harigold. Clarity holds her breath as the tank slowly passes. The eerie rumbles echo through the empty section called Harigold E since each department was further split into organised parts labelled alphabetically. These labelled parts were neighbourhoods so that each neighbourhood gave up two male infants for military purposes. The military that is passing by now were born in one of the Harigold neighbourhoods from the way they can navigate through it with no sweat.

Lucas lifts himself up, scanning for the tank. He nods his head at Echo and stands up fully. He offers a hand for Clarity, Clarity takes it with a trembling hand. Echo jumps up, brushing some dust off herself, her eyes determined. Echo looked around, she is still smiling no matter the circumstances. She shaped her hands to look like binoculars and pretends to scout the area. Clarity’s knees felt weak from the roaring pain that is shooting on the left side of her head. She tumbles, Lucas easily sidesteps and holds her up. Clarity’s appearance is sickly pale, but at the start of her jawline, there is a bloody red liquid. It has a deep cut going towards the back of her head and gazing back down at the pavement are cut up pieces of barbed wire. It looks like someone had planted it there as a trap to trip someone as well as cut them. Lucas’ own face pales, not in blood loss but in fear, he hikes her up onto his back. Clarity’s breathing gets slow as blood drips heavily from the cut.

“Clarity, listen to me. It’s going to be okay. Stay. Calm.” Lucas’ own voice is panicky, compared to what he is saying.

Echo starts to run towards a large hospital building, “Here, here! There should be bandages and meds here, Lucas!”

“It’s... just a scratch.., Luke,” Clarity's vision gets fuzzy, she is fading in and out of consciousness. Lucas attempts to keep her awake by talking loudly, but she stops responding.

“Clarity? Clarity!”

“Oh no, oh no! Lucas, what do we do!?”
“We will... we will... Put her on that table! I know how to give stitches. She isn’t dying, I won’t let her.”

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