What Once Was

Lisa: The Wall

Lisa stepped carefully through the hot silent night, her bare feet making no sound against the stone floor. In the ancient days they had green grass under their communities, but here it was cold concrete. That was only one of the things that had changed. One of the many, many, things. Lisa ducked behind the clothing distributor building and pressed her back against the Wall. It was the North Wall in fact, one of the four that surrounded Lisa's community. She'd never seen the supposed "dangerous creatures" that lurked outside the Walls. She'd never seen anything out there. Today would be a first. Lisa tossed her sandy blond hair as she peaked over her shoulder. Not a soul. The night watchmen was over on the South Wall, Lisa had checked. Smiling, she unveiled her miraculous gem from behind the plastic bushes that tried to brighten the blank, concrete wall.

A hole. A hole in the the solid surface. It had been tiny when she first discovered it but after ages and ages of sneaking out to widen it, it was at last big enough for Lisa's compact thirteen year old form to slip through. The girl lowered her head to the ground and peered through the hole. She could see a bit of red dirt, and then beyond that, trees. Lisa crawled a little bit deeper into her doorway. Just a second. Just a second and then she'd come straight back. Lisa but her lip and then heaved herself through.

Her bare feet immediately took on a reddish brown costing as they mixed with the dust. Her breath seemed impossibly loud now, in the silence. Lisa raced through the dust and ducked under the trees. Real trees. Lisa felt her heart lift in excitement and horrible anxiety. This, all of this, was enemy land. But it was just so real. Lisa smiled as a cool wind scattered her hair, a blessing in the summer heat. Lisa turned to face it and something moved behind her. She froze. Her muscles grew tense as bowstrings. Every story of the monsters filled her mind in a rapid pace, her heart pounded like a drumroll. Slowly, as if not trusting herself to move, Lisa turned her head.

Something slammed into her, cutting off her scream and dragging her backwards. Lisa tried to make out what it was but everything was black and moving in flashing images. The trees loomed out, snagging Lisa's hair on the branches. Lisa glanced up to try and see the sky before it killed her. Two diamond shaped spots of white danced in the blackness. Eyes. Lisa tried to scream again but the thing over her face was too strong. Lisa opened mouth and bit it as hard as she could. Her teeth scraped the object but had no effect. Lisa slumped and screamed a noiseless yell again when the thing flung her into the dirt.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?"

Lisa looked up from the ground. That was a human voice, but this was not a human. The thing in front of her was a hybrid. His form was human, bronzed muscular arms and high cheekbones, tall and skinny, but his legs were covered in thick black animal fur, sleek as a cat's. Out of his messy black hair rose cat ears. Giant, green, slit-pupil eyes dominated his otherwise human face. His chest was a bare, and out of his threadbare brown shorts grew a black tail. Tattoos of swirls and dots wound around his arms. The thing looked shocked. His slender eyebrows were raised in surprise. Lisa sat and stared when she should've run, out of pure curiosity.

The thing ran a hand over his messy hair. "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you, I just didn't want you to scream." Lisa stood up in a furious sweep, tangling her dress around her. "G-get away." "It's okay! It's okay, really. See? Not barbaric at all." The thing's calming tone was very disarming, Lisa struggled to keep her guard up. "I can run!" "NO!" Lisa jumped backwards as he grabbed her arm. He looked down at his hand and slowly released it, stepping back cautiously. "Don't run. There are monsters out here." Lisa panted heavily. This was all just too much. "Wha- what are you?" The thing sat down cross legged. The tail wrapped around his feet. "I wanna ask you something. Just take a seat." Lisa narrowed her amber eyes. "Please." Lisa sat. The thing sort of smiled, all he really did was lift the corner of his mouth in a small gesture of friendliness. The thing was really quite attractive. Lisa became suddenly aware of his bare chest. "Well." said the thing. "For starters you can call me Pen. Everyone here has a nickname, that's mine. I was watching you widen the Wall for a while. I've never seen a Insider out here. What's it like?" Lisa wasn't afraid. She was simply and enormously surprised that she was having a normal conversation with a hybrid. "It's aaa... boring. We don't do much. I really should get back. I- um" In truth Lisa didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay and hear all the secrets of the Outside. But her surprise and confusion were overcoming her. Pen's bizarre face fell. "Well can you come back? I'm so interested... Here, sneak out Friday. You can tell me everything then. I'm sure you have questions too." Lisa nodded mutely. She stood and turned to leave. "Hey wait!" Lisa stopped. Pen turned serious. "Don't go out without me okay? Seriously. I don't want you to die out here. You'll find it's very easy."