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2 years. . . It has been two years since the day the world died off, along with just about everyone’s expectations of resettling in the old world; 2 years of grey walls that stood between death and a crude, unforgiving existence. In those two years, only five citizens’ lives had been lost. One was executed, the other four went into The Divisions, and never came back- no one ever did…

Skylar stepped out of their home, the dirt-laden pathway that cut through the homes was lined with guards on either sides. It was inspection day, a day that came every two months or so; the day everyone dreaded.

She was soon accompanied by Jake and her father, watching as other neighbors made their way down the street. Pretty much everyone had learned not to resist the government; those who hadn’t already would be silenced one way or another.

They joined the line. Skylar was shoulder-to-shoulder with Jake on the right and her father on the left. The path was just wide enough to allow the three of them through as the guards stood firmly in their places. They had black, armored attire and they made sure people noticed their hands wielded clubs as they nicked them on the backs of their knees and shoulders to urge them on their way.

People whispered words to each other as they walked, “It is the same thing every time. . . Just remember to stand up tall, and look strong. . . Pinch your cheeks and run strong a few times and they will send you on your way. . . It is just a prick; it will only hurt for a moment.”

“Hey, you, stop right there!” A guard yelled, cutting in front of an elderly couple a few rows ahead.

Everyone stopped in their tracks and took several steps away from the scene. The drop of a pin could be heard in the present silence that engulfed the air. 

 “N-no, please, he isn’t sick. I-it’s just a cold! I’m sure it will pass over.” The woman pleaded as guards stepped forwards and retrieved the old man from her side.

The guard shoved the old man back and watched, obviously intrigued at the woman’s fraught display. “Fine, prove it.”

Skylar bit her lip and took a risk of glancing to her father. He showed no signs of protest but his lip had curled into a tight grimace. She looked on despite her better judgment.

 The old man hesitated before he took a few steps forwards, his hand grappling at the carved oak cane that shook so tediously in his fingers with each stride he took. His grey beard, horridly under-groomed, tickled his foam-lathered lips. His eyes, a once glowing hazel were glazed over in a deep fog that spoke the truth to the wandering eyes around him. His skin was so feeble it seemed if he was to move too quickly, it would shed right off of his emaciated excuse for a properly functioning corpse.

The old man stumbled onto his knees, his breath leaving his chest in wheezing gasps. The cane slipped from his hands, now cracked with age. He sat heavily on his knees, his eyes pleading for help as they swept the crowd. �"No one stepped forward.

“Is that it?” The guard said admiring the club in his hands as if the man’s suffering was nothing but a boring display. “Does anyone else desire to claim that this is the ‘common cold’?” He asked as he circled the old man, giving him a few good hits with the club.

The woman looked around the crowd, anger sparking in her faded green eyes. “I know I am not the only one that sees that this is wrong and anyone who denies that is a coward!” She yelled between shaky breaths. “Where has the humanity gone?” her words had faded into a whisper as she looked on into the crowd.

The guard smiled as no one dared to challenge the authority. “Take care of him.” He ordered the surrounding guards, his head gesturing to the old man that had now fully collapsed on the ground.

The guards swarmed the old cripple whose feeble cries eventually faded out with the blunt thwacking of the clubs.

“What are you waiting for? Keep moving!” The sentinel ordered, knocking the legs out from under the people who still stood shell-shocked.

Skylar peeled her eyes from the mangled body of the cripple as they strode by; the old woman had stayed behind, whispering bits of silent prayers between her sobs.

Jake draped an arm around Skylar’s shoulders and urged her on, not wanting her to see anymore. A lot had changed in the last year; nothing seemed to have proper justice…

The line soon divided into three ends, people split off depending on age, gender, and which sector they lived in. 

Skylar went into the line for Sector D while Jake and her father split off into the lines to her right.

She stepped forwards, extending out an arm. She kept her eyes on her family, not wanting to lose track of them as the worker pricked her finger and withdrew blood.

“Go on.” The woman sitting at the table directed flatly, pointing Skylar to the right.

Skylar eyed Jake whom was already looking at her.

Jake’s head gestured for her to go on, “I’ll catch up!” He yelled but she had already begun to leave. He sighed, knowing he should be taking the day more serious. If something did go wrong, someone might not end up seeing tomorrow…

The houses eventually died out into Sector V, also known as the ‘Dead Zone’ since no one lived there. It was reserved for inspection, and inspection only; those were the only times of the year a person ever set foot on the grounds. The people dreaded it almost as much as a high-school student hated the option of email report cards.

Skylar joined a group of people standing in the shade of the barrier as they waited for instruction. By now she could just about do it in her sleep for it was always the same.

“Line up!” The sentinel ordered although it was unnecessary for all the people of Sector D were already aligned in their places. “You’ll be expected to run the diameter of this field and back to where you are standing now, fail to do so you will be eliminated immediately. Good luck.” The sentinel then stood aside and with a tight smirk blew the whistle.

No one hesitated at the starting line; the dense air was filled with the tromping of feet against the hard soil.

Pumping her arms and legs in sync, Skylar glanced to a small girl running by her side.

She couldn’t have been older than 8. Her black hair, long and untamed, danced behind her head like a streamer in a hurricane. Her pale complexion gave her a ghostly ambiance against her concave cheeks and diminutive figure.

Only for a second did her sea-green eyes meet with Skylar’s gaze before the girl fell hard against the ground. She tripped.

Skylar kept running, she kept running even though that little girl had fallen to an inevitable death. Skylar, regretting her ignorance, slid to a stop a few meters ahead, spraying soil into the air; too late. She turned just as a gun-shot split through the air, but it took only a moment to notice the bullet had not hit the proper target. Skylar felt her gut clench as she screamed in dreaded recognition, “Jake!”

Jake’s crouched figure slouched onto the ground.

The little girl blinked in panic as the boy who had been trying to help her up fell into her lap.

Guards- So many guards rushed to the scene, threatening to beat anyone who had faltered, anyone who looked a second too long as they ran by.

Skylar didn’t feel the clubs, she didn’t feel the cuts, the bruises, the sting of the pain with each blow as she tore her way through. “Jake!” She cried, trying to catch a glimpse through the soldiers that seemed to be the only thing standing between her ‘safety’, freedom, and at the moment her only brother.

She stumbled into the open, into the circled wall of guards, on the inside of a nightmare. She couldn’t help but notice the ground, stained dark red, as she hauled herself to her brother’s side. Skylar heard the guards’ voices from a distance, all she was focused on was Jake who laid there on the ground, still breathing but unconscious. 

The Sentinel stepped forwards, “Someone get the girl out of here, we don’t have time for this!”

Grasping at anything she could possibly use as a haven from the hands that tore at her shoulders, Skylar screamed in protest. “Let me go! Let me go, how dare you!? You sick cowards!” She yelled as she watched them take Jake and the little girl off of the field, out of Sector V.

Skylar felt a hand clamp around her face and she noted the sudden realization that she couldn’t breathe. For a moment she forgot; forgot about the war, the plague, her mom, Jake, the guards, the wall, life. It all went blank and for once nothing had to make sense as everything faded into darkness.

*  *  *  *  *  *

“Cecilia, I have been thinking a lot recently…”

Cecilia frowned, her hazel eyes looking over to her friend. “What about?”

Skylar sighed, skimming her fingers along the cool metal of the reinforced steel walls that went on for miles. “What if there is- more? Outside of the barrier… What if someone else has already come out of the same dumb shell? … What if, life could go back to normal, and all we had to do was take the risk to go out?”

Cecilia shook her head disapprovingly, “I don’t want to disappoint you Skylar, and I wish I could bring myself to such an idea. Hope is a good thing to have, but you have to limit your expectations, otherwise you could get hurt.” She stated, combing her fingers through her shoulder-length red hair.

Skylar stopped walking for a moment, “We have been here for 2 years Cecilia. How much longer do you think the government can hide what is out there, if there is anything at all? They can’t keep us here forever.”

Sighing, Cecilia turned around and looked back to her friend sympathetically. “Long enough to where we might just be crazy enough to try to get out of here. For now, we have to take what is thrown at us. It is the only way until they come up with a solution.”

“Who is they? ‘They’ isn’t anyone else but us anymore. We are the ones looking for a solution.” Skylar murmured, folding her arms across her chest, biting her lip.

There was a long pause between the two girls as the night wore on and the first visible signs of daylight streaked the sky.

“He’s dead isn’t he? Jake… It has been two weeks.” Skylar whispered, digging her nails into her arm to keep from completely losing her composure.

Cecilia walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder, “I don’t know where he is Skylar, but I don’t think he is dead.” She said, meeting her friend’s gaze. “The government is crude, not cruel. I think they are just trying to keep everyone safe.”

Skylar shook Cecilia’s hand off of her shoulder, “Keeping the people ‘safe’ and keeping me from my brother is two different scenarios. Maybe if I had stopped a few seconds earlier and helped that little girl…” Her voice faded.

“Don’t blame yourself Skylar, Jake knew the consequences of the risk and he took it.” Cecilia explained quickly, starting to walk again.

Pursuing half-heartedly, Skylar was careful to stay a few feet behind. “There shouldn’t be consequences for consideration.” She muttered, mainly to herself. 

Skylar waved goodbye to her friend halfheartedly as they reached the living quarters of their sector again. She watched Cecilia walk off towards her home before opening the door to her own.

Thinking about sleeping, Skylar walked over to the ‘kitchen’ which happened to be a room connecting to the living room. It wasn’t much, a few cupboards, a table, a sink. Light fixtures implanted in the ceiling had died out months ago, in our sector, we were lucky to get five hours of electricity a day. Skylar picked out a loaf of bread from one of the cabinets. It was a little hard but still fresh as she tore into the crisp, cooked flour. She returned the other half of the loaf to its place in the cabinet while stuffing her serving into her mouth.

Three meals a day was out of question, one was lucky enough these days. The word ‘meal’ shouldn’t even apply to what they eat unless berries, bread, some fruit, and on rare occasions, a bird that strayed too close, a meal. Meat seemed to be something of a myth, the wall blocked out just about every possible way a stray animal could just wander into the sector, other than birds of course.

Last week, the boy across the street came across a long dead rabbit. It was said he ate it raw and was found dead in his own puddle of putrid bile the next morning.

Skylar shuddered at the thought as she finished the bread. Instead, she started to think of what Cecilia had said about Jake. If Jake wasn’t dead- where was he?

Did they decide he wasn’t worth saving and secretly disposed of him? Was he too far off to save? �"No. The Lab’s medical team is too advanced to not be able to save him. Of course they can save a boy half past dead in a day but can’t conduct a cure to save the world in 2 years; ironic is it not?

“That means he has to be there still… Somehow, for some reason, they are keeping him from me.” Skylar whispered to herself in quizzical suspicion.

Skylar flinched suddenly, a loud hammering caused the water in her cup to ripple at the disturbance. She frowned, going outside around the corner of the house. Grimacing, she made her way towards her father.

Mounds of dirt flew over his shoulder as he shoveled violently into the ground.

“Dad…” Skylar began. He had been at it for weeks, trying to finish where Jake had left off repairing the fence that unnecessarily protected the crops that never seemed to grow. Ever since Jake was- whatever happened to him- their father had seemed distant. Skylar figured it was a way for him to grieve, digging these holes.

“Dad, please.” She started again, suddenly feeling anger replacing her fear. This had gone on for too long, she was upset too but she didn’t drift off into space- Food didn’t come to those who sat and waited for nothing… She waited another moment, still with little acknowledgement.

Skylar glared, “Mom would listen to me so why won’t you?! Stop being a coward and look at me!” She finally yelled, daring to try anything for a response- anything at all.

Mark’s arm froze mid-scoop and his ragged breaths of labor silenced.

 Skylar, hopeful, waited expectantly. Instead, with another moments’ hesitation, he went right back to shoveling without a glance in her direction.

“Fine, I guess its okay to tell you that I am leaving this place! I’m going to find Jake or die trying. Just because you have given up on him doesn’t mean I have.” Infuriated, and feeling completely alone, the words had slipped from her lips before she could stop them.

Had she meant it? She didn’t know, she had already bolted off in the opposite direction.

Skylar didn’t look back to check and see if he had responded. Panting and out of breath, Skylar found herself at her friend’s front-door. Before she could knock, the door opened.

Cecilia blinked in surprise as she saw her friend kneeling at the doorstep. “Skylar, why aren’t you sleeping? What’s wrong?” She asked as she knelt down to her friend.

“I-I can’t do it anymore Cecilia. I can’t stay here.” Skylar stammered.

Cecilia shook her head, “What do you mean? I don’t understand.”  She insisted quietly.

“I have to find him. I am not going to give up on him, not like my father.” Skylar breathed.

“Skylar…” Cecilia stopped her words. No matter what she would say or do to try to subdue such an idea would be worthless. That was just skylark, always hard-headed and mulish when it came to what she thought was right… But Cecilia did respect her for her bold, independent attitude.

“If you go, I’m coming with you.”

Skeptical, Skylar looked up to her friend. “What?” She asked unnecessarily.

Cecilia shrugged casually despite the curse words she was mentally throwing at herself. “I said I’m coming with you, and you won’t be able to stop me.” She repeated, wondering if she looked as surprised as Skylar.

Skylar frowned, she didn’t like people telling her what she could or couldn’t do. She only ever made a few exceptions with Cecilia who seemed a bit hesitant with her own attempt at courage. 

“No.” She said, getting to her feet, serious again.

Cecilia glared, “Skylar, what isn’t clear about ‘if you go I am going with you’?”

Skylar returned the fierce gaze. “I won’t let you.”

“That won’t happen Skylar. Ever think I can’t stand up for myself too? You don’t have to be so ‘high and mighty,’ just let me come and help you.” Cecilia pressed, telling she was winning.

“I don’t want your help, okay! I can do this on my own. It’s my brother, it’s my fault he is wherever he is now and I don’t need you getting taken away from me too!” She snapped, her eyes glazed with thte tears and fear she had been containing inside of her.

With a softer gaze, Cecilia stepped towards her friend, “Then let me come as nothing else but a friend. I won’t help you. I will go for my own reasons and at my own risk. I will simply be someone you know and nothing more. You won’t be responsible for anything that could happen to me.” She whispered.

Skylar’s shoulders slumped forwards and she suppressed a sigh. With a slight nod she walked around Cecilia, entering Cecilia’s home without another word.

Cecilia smiled slightly in triumph. She had finally cracked the diamond; she just hoped it wouldn’t split into two…

Author's Note

The chapters in this are pretty long unlike my other one. Feedback appreciated and probably needed. I'm trying to get better at my writing and I feel like I need other opinions to help me.

Reviews

[Chris Atkinson]

I realy love your writing Callie, you are very talented x