Lull

Running.

I try to imagine that it's for fun to keep from passing out and getting us both captured, but I know this is not in any way considered fun. Fear lingers in the air that we take in and out of our lungs. I can smell the month old stench coming off of our clothes. He quickly looks over with dilating eyes and collapsing lungs with his feet moving at the same pace as mine.

"We can't outrun them and I have no idea how much longer I can do this, Lain." He manages to croak out. Shallow breaths fill the cold, brisk air. The sound of cans clank in our backpacks pound on our ear drums. The constant squeak of rubber against wet grass. The sound of shoes against mud. Behind us I hear their equipment. I figure they would've shot us by now if they had guns.

I don't look back.

"Just try. We...can't...stop." It seems like between every word I desperately gasp for air. It's funny how just last week I was running on my own down the streets of Pittsburgh, going down more than a hundred blocks, all for a better body. Seeing girls walk by with shirts that showed off their midriffs happened to inspire me, so I started running. My body, doing the same exact physical thing then, is now overwhelmed with a different feeling. I got a vision of myself back then, in that moment. My long, brown, curly hair moving from side to side.

At least I know better now, to put my hair up. My hair hasn't been taken down in weeks. Only taken down for baths in lake water. I get a look into my carefree, dark, brown eyes. I also get a look into what I was thinking about as I would stare at the lampposts' calming light. I'd listen to my pop playlists and match the beat with my feet. But I have a panicked soul as of now.     If only I had the calm mindset I had then, maybe, just maybe, I could run for much longer. Maybe I could survive. Just me and Don.

Foreign shouting goes on behind us. Much more intense than the last time I heard it. Can't look back. Getting closer to us...an end? "Uhhh...." I whimper loud enough for Don to relate to.

"Uh...we have to jump." Don hesitates.

He looks just as scared as I am. The drop off gets closer and closer. It's a lake...a big one. And to get to the lake, we're going to have to jump.

"No, no, no, no, no...." I ramble on. "I can't..."

"Lain, We're going to!"

He makes it to the edge before me and waits. He looks back and extends a trembling limb out for me to grab on to. My feet are placed before our huge casket and it feels like my heart made an escape from the jail cell in my chest . I look down. It looks much worse than I previously thought.

"No!" I scream and look back to see them getting closer. Their red suits look so neat and not war-like. Guns hung over their shoulders keep staring us down. Every blink was like an hour on the clock. Time got so slow. I felt every second of the jump as my feet lifted off into the air with my hand attached to his. Our backpacks try to float back to the cliff but fail to make it off our backs. I take one look at Don and it feels like my last moment alive. I take it all in and shut my eyes. My legs automatically float up on their own. My other arm has nowhere to go. My scream releases all my anxiety and is suddenly silenced by the water.

We hit the water.

Hard.

Its hard to think when you have to remember how to breathe.

I look behind me in all this chaos and see my backpack has managed to get off of my back. I look back to the cliff to see if any foreign soldiers are watching us, but there aren't any.

I look for Don. I see one backpack. Its mine. Where is his? Where is he?

I panic again, but this time it was for something entirely different. I scan the whole lake for Don.

Have I lost my best friend? Have I lost the only person I have in my life right now?

I can't breathe, I forget how to swim. I don't know how to doggie paddle anymore. I used to be the best in my first grade swimming class but now I can't measure up to those elementary standards.

My entire body bobs in and out of the water like a buoy. I stop mid-drown and realize my backpack is floating. My lungs fill with water, I can feel the stream enter me. I can't breathe. I panic. My bag is so far away. I can't stay above water. I fade in and out of the light. My eyes, opening and closing. I grab for anything I can touch but there's nothing to grasp.

My eyes open widely.

I can't die this way.

I reach around in my last effort for life. I reach around and I feel a rough fabric.

I get swept up out of the suffocating water.

Everything, once dizzying , now turning back to normal as I see who scooped me up from death.

He holds me so that my upper body is above water.

"Don! I thought you were dead!"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you were about to kill yourself...in 5 foot water. Really? The shallow end? That's kind of sad." He chuckles.

For some reason his eyes don't look like they belong to the other half of his face. His eyes filled with sadness.

"Wow, I didn't know it was that shallow...I was kind of drowni-"

Don cut me off. "Yeah. I noticed. You should've just stood up. You're kind of stupid sometimes, ya know that?" He laughed even harder in between his sentences.

"Where were you?" I ask. "I thought you were dead."

"I was trying to find my backpack. It sank. I couldn't find it. I mean if I didn't have to save you, I probably would've found it by now." He scoffs and rolls his eyes, "So, excuse me...Back to work." He turns around and puts his head in and out of the water.

"Do you really have to find it, I mean we don't know where they are, they could be going around the lake..." I say looking to the side.

He turns back to me with a stern expression on his face.

"Are you dumb? That's exactly what they're doing, Lainey. But we have to get my backpack or else we'll have no food. You don't have the good food in yours." He changes facial expressions. "You should go get your bag and then help me."

"How about you just run?" I roll my eyes.

I hate when people tell me what to do.

"Look, if we don't run, they're going to find us. And we're going to end up just like your mom. Pretty sure you don't want that. Oh, I found it! It's by those rocks, it didn't sink!"

He knew that hurt, but he of course said it anyway. It's like he took my silence as me saying something. His expression said it all.

He walked over to the shore and retrieved his backpack, while I retrieved mine. We both meet up by the same shore.

I look at him with a smile and take off running. His deep forest green eyes lock onto my rich soil brown eyes as he keeps my pace.

When I start running , the steps come naturally to me but everything involved took extra effort to do. I don't know how long we have been running for but it seems like we have been running for hours. I feel nothing but physical exhaustion and mental precautions.

No matter how much air I breathe in , it feels like I can't get enough. I feel like my strides aren't long enough. I feel like there's no end to this.

I moan because it's hard to push myself any further. My lungs are getting constricted with every breath I take in.

I feel wet grass tickle my ankles and it's such an uncomfortable feeling.

 I see images of my family in the trees. They rush by trying to follow, but struggle to keep up. One by one they get left behind. My mom being one of the last members to fall. I must be going crazy because I don't remember her as looking the way she does in those trees. Her head is shaved and she's bleeding. She's scaring me. Every second that I look at her, time fades and seems to destroy her body. She looks worse every time I look back at her. She doesn't even look human, she looks like a walking skeleton. They tortured her, I know it. And the sad thing is, I didn't even see my little brother following closely behind her. I couldn't recognize him. I couldn't recognize my own little brother.

He looks like he's in the same rotten condition as my mother. I fail to hold in my emotions as they both fall down together. Their faces start blending in with the dark green leaves. The colors becoming soft as I taste a salty solution drip into my mouth. I can't tell if that was sweat or if one of my tears had actually made it down to my mouth. Wiping my tears was something my mind seemed to do on its own without me acknowledging.

Don looks at me in disgust.

"Uh? Are you okay? You're really pale. Should we stop and take another break?" He says worryingly, catching his breath.

"Yeah...we've ran so many miles, please. We're far enough. We should just walk from here." I say as I struggle to get words past my dry, salty lips.

The trees were closing in on us one by one like they wanted hugs.

But suddenly everything was fuzzy and started to blend in. My feet became confused with every step I was taking and my legs lost direction. All the soft colors blended and went solid black. Everything was suddenly nothing at once.

Author's Note

this is just a look into the future, a teaser if you will