𝑇𝑅𝐴𝑃𝑃𝐸𝐷 𝐼𝑁 𝐹𝑅𝐸𝐸𝐷𝑂𝑀

𝐹𝐼𝑉𝐸~ 𝑖𝑛-𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛

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I kicked a loose stone along the dirt, listening uninterestedly to the gentle thud of my foot colliding with it. I watched as it skittered along, occasionally ricocheting off of roots or other rocks along the path. I giggled slightly as I noticed Nola copying me, kicking a rock of her own. She smiled up at me but quickly turned her amused eyes back to her rock. I fell back into my steady rhythm; kick, watch, kick, watch. I frowned in annoyance as my rock snagged on a bump in the dirt road, coming to a complete halt. I realized that the bump was a part of the tire tracks made by the truck, which had been guiding us down the path. I shuffled the stone off to the side of the road, my state of focus fading.

With no more distractions, many things weighed down on my overwhelmed mind. The fresh memories of our day loomed over me, taking over my thoughts. I replayed unthinkable events over and over, finding it difficult to grasp our new reality.

My thoughts eventually shifted towards something else that pressed my mind: My parents discovering that we were gone.

Although it had only been a few hours, it felt like an eternity since I had been in my home. I knew that my parents must have discovered that something was wrong at this point, when we hadn't come home after school. They wouldn't worry at first, assuming we were at The Dales as usual. But after hours of waiting at home for our return, my ignorant parents would discover that their children were not coming home tonight; they would never come home again. In fact, their true home was much further away than they could possibly fathom.

I couldn't help but swim in my own guilt. They had no idea where we were now, what we had already confronted in mere hours. I could only hope that they would be alright and that our decision would be worth the heartbreak. And although it hurt to recognize, we had never been good enough for them; Callum's poor academic record and my rebellious nature were not a good pairing for The Prime's two most loyal devotees.

Coming back to our strange new reality, I became aware of the weight of my bag, covered in dried-up mud and making my back ache, along with many other parts of my body. The sun had begun to dip below the trees, casting shadows over us as we walked.

Now that the storm had passed, our surroundings had changed significantly. The once dark and cloudy sky had changed to bright blue before transforming into a bronzy-orange colour as the sun began to dip below the trees. The trees grew more full and leafy in this area of the forest, and the fall colours were stunning. The powerful winds that had accompanied the acid rain had died down completely now, leaving only a slight breeze in the air. Although the forest showed its beauty, I knew it had only just begun to reveal its dark side.

I sighed louder than I had intended, causing my friends to look in my direction. "Should we try to set up some sort of camp?" Sariah suggested after we exchanged tired glances.

"How exactly do we make a camp?" Callum asked. I rolled my eyes.

"I guess we'll have to figure that out," Sariah shrugged as we turned off of our path and into the nearest clearing. I swung my bag off of my sore shoulders and let it fall with a thud onto the ground. I bent down to open it, revealing the supplies I had brought. I pulled out a sleeve of crackers and passed them around to my friends.

We sat on the pine-covered forest floor, eating and talking, drinking from our dwindling water supply. This worried me. Our school-issued metal water bottles only held so much liquid, we would definitely need to find more.

"We should have stayed on that stupid truck," Arlo stated, clearly scolding our past selves for being so unintelligent.

"How come the trucks are able to bypass all of this?" Sariah wondered, "They must have designed it that way." I nodded in agreement. I studied all of my friends, their skin red and blistered from the acid rain. You could tell that we were all uncomfortable, being so filthy and banged up. Suddenly, I remembered the clothes I had packed.

"Did everyone pack extra clothes?" I asked. My friends all said that they had, so I suggested we change into them.

After changing out of our muddy outfits, everyone looked a lot better. I felt better too. It was a relief to be rid of all the mud. I noticed that all of our clothes were varying shades of brown, and made of the material we all knew too well, stiff cotton fabric made by the Mada Garment Workers. Each clothing item had been inscribed with a bold "M", not so much for decoration, but more so to label us. Label us as owned, as property of Mada.

Arlo worked on building us a fire while Callum gathered mounds of dry firewood. Sariah, Nola and I got to work clearing the pine needles and other debris from the ground around where we would be sleeping.

Soon, an excited holler echoed through the forest. Callum and Arlo smacked each other proudly on the back, stumbling backwards to reveal a thriving campfire. Congratulating the boys on their success, the others and I took seats around the fire, soaking up its warmth. Conversation broke out quickly, and we dived deep into the day's events. Eventually, we decided to take an inventory of all our supplies, in an attempt to plan for the uncertainty ahead. We took turns showing each other what we had brought in our bags. We soon learned that all together we had a fair amount of supplies, however, few would be useful in helping us survive.

Callum and I had the only food selection which consisted of mostly crackers and a variety of breads. Nola brought her only toy from Mada, a small homemade doll I had sewn for her out of some old fabric. Sariah, Arlo, Callum and I had all packed our personal savings, which added up to be a decent amount of money. Other than this, we only carried our dirty school clothes, water bottles, and a small selection of mementos from home.

After reflecting on the day with my friends, I grasped the fact that we were a very strong team. I felt confident that it was only the beginning for us. Of course, confidence would not be enough to survive what was to come. We laid around the fire to sleep, feeling tired but not yet exhausted, and slowly began drifting off. I couldn't have possibly imagined the horrors that lay ahead.