Leave The City - A Trench Story (tøp)

Hometown

I've always been here, and I've always been alone. There was nothing before it, and there's probably nothing after it, if there even is an after. Anyone who decided to try to have a story that included an "after DEMA" is now lying under a gravestone out in the necropolis. I'm sure we all used to ask questions as kids, but we quickly learned not to. Most kids kept silent and eventually stopped wondering either. Not me though, especially not after I met Tyler.

I was nine years old. We were sitting in the sanctuary. Every year, there was a special ceremony for those turning nine. It was like a rite of passage. It was the first time you were brought into a big ceremony with everyone from across all the districts. Before that we were kept separated. The children under the age of nine were brought into the sanctuary in their district groups, away from all the adults and older people. At the ceremony of nine, we all stood in front of the rest of the people. The bishops performed their ritual with the light, and then each one painted black paint onto the necks of the children of their respective district. That was the first time I saw Tyler. He was at the end of the line for Nico's district, I was at the beginning of the line for Nills'. We caught each other's eyes, both looking nervous, but of course we couldn't talk.

We had all grown up hearing terrible stories of people who were disrespectful to the bishops, and how they were never heard from again. It was the end of almost every story we were told. It was almost as if the ending catchphrase was "their body now lies under a neon gravestone", the way regular ones would end with "and they all lived happily ever after".

At the end of the ceremony that day, we all walked out to our respective exits that led us back to our districts, but he caught my eye once more before slipping out the door next to mine.

The next day, I was walking along the fence that separated our districts, playing by the bushes during our restricted outside time, when I saw him again. "Hi." he had whispered in his small voice. We both walked along the fence in opposite directions, so as to make sure the security didn't think that we were talking. "Hello." I had whispered back. "I'm Tyler." he said. I told him my name as I cupped my child's hand over my mouth. I was excited to be talking to someone, let alone someone outside of my district, but just before we could say anything else, a dark figure approached from his side of the fence, and he quickly stepped away and looked at a nearby tree, and I followed his example, not wanting to get him into trouble, especially since I knew that he lived under Nico. Stories of dead rebels abounded in every district, but Nico's more than anyone else's. Often, citizens were given warnings and less severe punishments before being terminated, but not in Nico's district. One toe out of line and it was down to the grave.

Over the next few weeks, we had managed to meet almost every day, often slipping each other notes and letters to read after we had to leave. We continued this on for years, becoming each other's best and only friends.

One day, when we were about 12. Tyler showed me something that changed our lives, and was one of the biggest influencing factors in our desire to escape. He had recovered a strange device from Nico's quarters after he had returned from a punishment because he had been late to bed one night. I don't know how he managed to get away with it, but he did, and I am thankful every day that he did. It turned out to be some kind of radio, which we could tune and find mysterious sounds. We later discovered these sounds to be called "songs", and soon discovered our favourite ones. We would listen into the radio device every time we were together for months, until we started to wonder where they were coming from. There were different "stations" playing different types of songs, and they would often have short breaks in between that included people talking. Who were these people? and where were they? Surely they weren't in DEMA, but, where else would they be? There's nothing outside of DEMA. Or was there?

When we were about 14 we started entertaining the possibility of a world outside of DEMA, and formulating theories based off of the stories we had been told about those who had tried to escape. We eventually decided that one day, when we were strong enough, we would escape DEMA also.

Nearing the time that would be celebrated as our 16th birthdays, we decided that the time was now.