Leave The City - A Trench Story (tøp)

Stressed Out

I opened my eyes to the same, familiar grey room that I had always lived in, but these days were different. Tyler and I had just begun to start talking about the possibility of an escape. I quickly got dressed into the grey long sleeved shirt and plain pants that I had picked out the night before. It was nearing the end of winter, so it was much colder than usual. Then again, it was never warm. At least, not here.

When we were kids, we used to live for the days that the sun would be out, we would bask in the sun and try to climb up trees to get closer to it. Of course, once I met Tyler we would see each other. Sometimes we would try to find a tree that was taller than the fences, that might let us climb over to see each other. However, we could never seem to find one.

I finished getting dressed, put my dark shoes on, and then walked over to look through my small window. I gazed over and across the fence to the window that I knew was Tyler's. I sighed and read over our letter from yesterday.

"I've uncovered some more information. Yesterday, at the weekly ceremony. Nico was talking about something. He said that the fce300 was gone. I have no idea what that means, but he seemed concerned about it. He said they were going to be ordering a search throughout the district, and all throughout the entire city too if necessary. Now at first I thought that maybe there was someone else who tried to steal something from him, but then I realized. What if it was me? What if the "fce300" is some kind of name for the radio that I stole back then, and he's only realizing now? Sorry I didn't tell you all of this when we talked earlier, but I wanted to talk to you about our plan. Just make sure that you shred the letter like you do with the other escape-related ones, instead of hiding it like our others. Anyways I wanted to know what you thought about the "fce300". If you agree that it could be the song radio, then tomorrow you should take it back with you, in case they conduct a search. Once they do, you can give it back to me, to make sure they don't catch you with it if they search your area. Talk to you more tomorrow -O

I sighed and folded the letter over. O was Tyler's code name that he signed off letters as just in case someone ever found them. Mine was S. They corresponded with the last letter of the names of our districts (nicO/nillS). I quickly ripped up the letter and hid it with the rest of them. Then I finished preparing for the day. Today I had to work clearing up the concrete edges by the fence bordering Nico. Tyler was going to meet me there and talk while I worked. As the first horn of the day sounded, signalling us to get to our work stations for the day, I opened my door as soon as the red light that meant our door was locked turned green. The door was locked, of course, from the outside, and remained that way until the security came to our buildings and unlocked it for us.

Once I made my way out of the room, and walked down the cold stairway to the exit of the building. I was met by a tall man dressed all in dark clothing, topped with armor and a defense stick. I didn't even look him in the eyes as he nodded and escorted me to my station for the work day. As we walked, I worried that Tyler would already be there, and get caught waiting for me, but as we came to the fence, he was nowhere to be seen.

It was quite ridiculous actually. My building was right next to the fence, but the bishops still didn't even trust us to walk 25 steps on our own. Afraid we would try to stay in our rooms I guess. Or escape. They were always suspecting someone of that.

The guard handed me a smaller, metal stick and pointed down towards the grooves in the cement pavement. They had filled up with dirt and leaves over the winter, and my job was to scrape it all out. I knelt down and began to stab away at it with the tool he had given me. Once he was satisfied that I would actually work, he walked away to another work station.

After a few minutes, I saw the bush that Tyler would often hide behind start to rustle. "Hey." said a familiar voice. "Hi." I answered, knowing it was Tyler. "How'd you get out of working today, by the way?" I asked him. "I didn't" He responded. I paused and looked towards the bush, seeing through the leaves and spotting his face. "What?" I questioned. "I went out the back door before they could check, came straight here." He explained. "Tyler you have to go back!" I told him. "I know, but I had to hear what you thought." He said. I shook my head. "I don't know any better than you do." I said. "If they haven't figured out that we have the radio yet, I doubt that that's what it is." I continued. "But what else could it be?" He asked. I shrugged. "I don't know, but "Fce300" sounds pretty complex. It's probably some kind of torture weapon they have in there." I told him. "You mean "disciplinary device"" He said with implied air quotes. "Yeah. Those." I said. Just then, Tyler whispered that the guard was coming back my way, and quickly ran away from the bush and out of sight.