Fire and Futures

Chapter 1

The banging on our apartment door wakes me from my slumber. I stay silent and listen, the person bangs their fist against the door once more, "Alisha? I know you're in there, you need to leave right now." A small, feminine voice whispers loudly through the door. I climb out of bed, careful not to disturb my sleeping sister, and cross silently to the door. I peak out the door, and then open it. Bea stands in the corridor, rocking worriedly on her feet.

"It's 4am, what do you mean we need to leave?" She pushes past me without answering and I close the door. "Bea? What's happened?" She sets large empty bags on the dining room table.

"You know I have sources all over, your mom is dead so now the Council is coming for Neviah, right now."

"That wasn't the deal!" I scoff. Our mom sacrificed herself for nothing. I begin filling a pack with whatever food we have and the other with our belongings.

"Yeah well you know how the council is with their deals, you need to go, now, take Neviah and go to the countryside."

"What?! We'll never survive out there, the guards won't even go out there."

"Exactly why it's your best bet, Jonah won't let another safehouse be put at risk, so this is your only option." I shake my head in disbelief, it's nothing but a wasteland out there.

I lightly shake Neviah awake. She immediately sits upright, knowing exactly what is about to happen. She doesn't say a word as she grabs her clothes and goes to change in the bathroom. This will probably be the last time we sleep in an actual building, for a while anyways.

"I packed a tent and blankets in one of the bags, I'll get you as close to the East Border as possible, but you're on your own from there."

I slip the food backpack onto Neviah's small shoulders and double check our belongings. I quickly add the packet of crayons and paper to my bag before flinging it over my shoulders. It's not too heavy despite everything in it.

The glass from our apartment window crashes to the ground. The room begins to fill with white smoke and I feel Bea grab Neviah and I, now we're in an alleyway. We shiver with the sudden change of temperature.

"Here, these will get you out the border if they don't look too closely at them." Bea presses papers into the palm of my hand, authorization for us to leave from the Council.

"Thank you Bea." I let a smile tug at the edges of my mouth.

"Goodluck." Was the last thing she said to me before we separated.

We stayed in the shadows until we reached the border checkpoint. The hunters would realize very quickly that we had taken off and come searching so we needed out right now. I handed the guard our papers and explained that we had no plans on coming back.

"It's complicated, okay? Now are you going to sit there and stare at me like an idiot, or let me and my sister through?" I say, gripping Neviah's wrist a little too tight. The skyscrapers above cast a warm glow on us as we try to get past border security. As more time passes, my anxiety rises, we could get surrounded by Hunters at any moment.

"You're sure? Once you're out there, you can't get back in." He doesn't understand, I'd rather we take our chances in the countryside than find out what The Council wants with us. The officer finally nods to the nearby booth and the gate noisily slides open. I hear people behind us shout for us to stop but we don't. I only pick up my pace slightly as the Hunters can't leave city limits without special permission.

The warmth and brightness of the city is replaced with an icy breeze that warrants me to zip my coat up. I no longer hear the rumbling of trucks and instead the empty silence takes over as we venture further into the plains.