Leave The City - A Trench Story (tøp)

Friend, Please

Over the next few days, Tyler and I talked and passed letters about further clarifying our plan to escape. We now knew that we needed to escape. It doesn't sound like much, but it took us years to get to where we are now.

DEMA is our home. It may suck, but it's all we've ever known. For years, we didn't even think that there was anything outside of it. But now we knew. The legends were passed on from older kids. Not that we ever really talked with anyone. But as children who didn't know any better, we used to hear about rebellious teenagers who decided that they could "survive without the bishops' support and protection". They would always run east, chasing the rising sun. Understandable, since sunlight carried some kind of strange feeling. It was almost as if the warmth would draw you in. The rebels believed that the sun could lead them to freedom, a life without rules, protection and routine, as the bishops would scold. No one ever survives a day outside of the city. Still, there must be a reason that they were willing to die for just one day of freedom. We used to hear about secret tunnels that led out of the city, but we all assumed that they were just myths. Besides, anyone found in the tunnels would have been punished, terminated even, since the tunnels were supposed to be in Nico, and everyone knew that he was the harshest of all the bishops.

I now had the radio hidden with my letters. I was bringing it back to Tyler today, since they had searched through the district yesterday.

I walked again back to the fence as the horn signalled the beginning of our allotted "outside time". Tyler was already waiting there. I fit the device through the fence and he quickly hid it in his sleeve. "I'm going to search through the streets and buildings tomorrow during outside time." He told me. I nodded. "You really think there could be old tunnels?" I asked. Tyler looked at me, and I could tell he had an idea. "What if the tunnels aren't even that old?" he speculated. "What do you mean?" I questioned. "What if there still are rebels, people escaping DEMA through the tunnels?" He explained. I shook my head. "No, we would have hard about it. Even just through a surprise lecture about the importance of structure and life within city." I told him. He scoffed. "We hear about that every single ceremony!" I laughed a little. "You know what I mean." I said. "Yeah. I guess. It would just be cool if there were other people who wanted to escape too." He admitted. I nodded. "When we were younger, I used to think we would find other people like us and then band together to escape." I told him. He smiled at me. "That would be cool, wouldn't it." I nodded. "Maybe it's better though." I paused. "Less...chance of us getting caught, and you know... having to leave someone behind." I explained. "Well, I'm definitely not leaving you behind." He assured me. "Thanks." I said. "I could never go on without you either." I told him. "I think I'd rather be buried in the necropolis than out there alone." He looked concerned after I said that. "Don't say that. I'm sure it's much better out there than in here. Wherever it is that "out there" is." I sighed. "But what would be the point?" I asked. "You know, being out there, alone. How's it really any different? If only one of us made it out, I mean. Just sitting in silence day after day. Forever." I said not taking my eyes off the ground. I looked up at him after a moment, realizing that I had made him start thinking too deeply again. "But it doesn't matter." I said, interrupting his thoughts, causing him to blink, look up at me, and shake his head. "Because we're going to get out." I told him. "Together." He looked at me with sad eyes and smiled. "I hope so." He sighed.

The next day, I took my walk alone. It was weird, not talking to Tyler, or at least getting a letter from him, but I had to make sure that everyone thought I just enjoyed going near the fence because of the trees. It was weird not seeing Tyler, or, more accurately, hearing his voice. Listening to him speak.

I had spent almost every day for the past 7 years speaking with him, reading his letters, thinking about him, and our discoveries together. It was nice. To have a friend. It was probably much more than anyone else in DEMA could say that they have. He gave me hope. Because we would talk of escaping, yes. But not just that. Even if I was to live in this dreadful place forever, just knowing that he was there. It made me feel better. I don't think I would have survived these past few years without him. There were times when it all felt so hopeless, and there was nothing to relieve me, because I didn't know what hope was. I used to think about getting myself in trouble on purpose. Maybe then the bishops would do whatever it was they did to those who were gone to me. I would vanish. But when I would share these ideas with Tyler he would grow very anxious and worried about me. "You can't think like that. Please, if not for yourself, do it for me. Stay Alive. Stay here. I need you." On those days, I would go back to my living quarters, sit at my desk and ponder over his words for a long time. Blankly staring out at the window which looked into his room. Sometimes I would catch a shape moving in the window. Almost as if he was trying to catch a glimpse of me, like he was checking to make sure I was still there. Everything he said was a perfect reflection of how I felt about him. I couldn't live without him. Sometimes, after thinking over my words, I would agonize over how I would feel if he had said the same to me. And so for those reasons, I kept faith. Faith in Tyler, mostly. And then we found the radio, and things started to get better. We started to theorize about the possibility of an outside world, and how we could get there.

As the horn sounded, I caught a flash of Tyler's grey clothing sneaking back to his building, jogging with an excited pep in his step. I smiled. Tomorrow he would tell me of our newfound hope.