The Other Side

The Other Side - Landon's POV

Run.

2 months ago on my 17th birthday I got a watch that stated I have 6307200 minutes left to live. 12 years. Around here that's normal, no one ever questioned how people knew this and who decided how long you have. No one dared to ask when someone suddenly disappeared because everyone knew that they were almost out of time.

Of course that was before me and Jack. I've known Jack since we were in preschool, we did everything together. We always knew that one of us would have more time then the other but...131400 Minutes. 3 months. It was in that moment in time that me and him decided that we were going to figure out why this happened. I was going to do everything I can to make sure that Jack doesn't die

My neighbor, Ms.Tulip had 3 hours of time left, while most people would have left her alone, me and Jack hid outside her window. 2 and a half hours passed, only 30 minutes left. The 30 minutes turned to 10, and 10 turned to 5, and finally 5 turned to one. You could tell Ms. Tulip was getting nervous, she was pacing back and forth that's when-

"LANDON WAKE UP" I opened my eyes to find Jack leaning over me. His dark brown hair slicked back, his forehead covered in blood from a cut he got from... man why can't I remember. "Landon please we have to go" A single tear rolled down his cheek. Usually, Jack is decently well dressed. He normally wears a band hoodie or just an oversized hoodie in general with blue or black jeans and vans. His hair is normally just spiked out naturally, somewhat messy but well kept. But his best feature are his green eyes. I'm similar I guess, I wear oversized hoodies too, but normally leggings or jeans with high top converse. My hair is usually thrown up or down with a hood over it, and my grey eyes give me a more dull look.

I tried to move around. We were running, but why. What happened... I try to remember but I can't help but feel like I'm forgetting something.

"LANDON PLEASE THEY'RE GETTING CLOSER" Jack cried pulling on me and shaking me. They.. The men in all black. They... they SHOT ME. Suddenly I shot up grabbing my leg, it was wet from all the blood. That's when the pain kicked in

"Come on Landon we got to keep moving" Jack said, pulling me up

"Yea" I replied, barely voiced. We were running, we had to get away from them.

Our city is surrounded by a globe, kinda like a fish bow that was put over it, but it looks like a force field. It traps us in here. Looking at it, it looks like there is lightning coming out of it, no one would ever dear touch the wall. But there's a way out. No one has ever tried to exit due to fear, but the men in all black are far more scary then some globe.

Life hasn't always been this way. A while ago, I found my grandma's old notebook. She spoke of times when there weren't any walls and there weren't any watches that told you how much longer you have left. You could live to be 68! But that all changed when the globe came.

Ever since that day, the day at Ms.Tulips, my time has slowly gone down faster and faster. Me and Jack had to get more information about them, we kept going to places where we knew that people who were out of time were. We would wait and witness what the men in black would do. But we never would understand why. One day we decided to take a gutsy move and follow them back.

I've never been so disgusted in my life. We got to their headquarters, It was the creepy old barn that little kids would make up stories about. If you got too close to it, you'd die. Inside it was dark and had a musty smell to it. And it was covered in TV'S. They choose how long we get to live by watching us. They watch us grow up, and anyone who shows any type of mental health issues or stands out too much, is given less time. Jack has always been.. depressed but that doesn't mean it's okay to give him less time. A mental illness doesn't mean anything. There's no such thing as a perfect society and killing people won't make it perfect. If you kill my best friend, that doesn't take away the depression. It just adds onto mine, then killing me would add that sadness onto my parents. It's a never ending circle.

We were hiding behind an old box when one of the men saw us. He looked like a normal man, so what gave him the right to kill people.
"HEY YOU TWO" He looked at us and pulled his hand gun out. "What are you doing here"
"RUN LANDON" Jack yelled, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me up. Before we were fully out of site the man pulled the trigger and hit me in the leg. That's when the alarm went off and I passed out.

"I'm so sorry Landon, I never should have dragged you into this" Jack said, suddenly stopping and putting his hands on his knees, breathing heavily

"Dragged me into this? DRAGGED ME INTO THIS?" I grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him "You are my best friend. I'm not letting you die before me, and we certainly aren't dying today." I grabbed his hand and started running towards the exit of the globe Just a little further. We're almost free.

I guess I never fully explained the men in all black, well.. The Men in all black- or I guess they could be women too, but that's not the point. The watches have trackers in them, so they can break into your house and... well murder you. I'm not sure how they managed to have everything set up like this but.. They definitely have a higher power behind them. Since there's nothing me and Jack can do to stop it, at least how we are now, we have no choice but to leave.

"Jack, look" I said, pointing at the globe. The wall had a dull glow and it kinda looked like it was moving. 10 steps. 10 steps then we're...probably free from them.

"Let's get out of this fucking hell hole" He said then turned to me "How are you holding up?"

I chucked then softly pushed him "Worry about me when we're on the other side" I said, trying to step forward but nearly falling before Jack grabbed me.

"YOU AREN'T GOING ANYWHERE" A deep voice shouted from behind us. Me and Jack slowly turned around to look at each other then slowly looked behind us. We were surrounded, guns pointed at us at all angles. We slowly backed trying to get closer to the wall.

"Come now, we can talk about this. If you promise not to tell anyone what you saw we will let you live.. 5 extra minutes." The man said then chuckled evilly. "Mmm what? That's very gracious of us. That'll give you enough time to run back, say goodbye to your parents. A loved one."

Jack suddenly stepped forward "We don't want any more of your pity time. Every minute we stand here you're wasting our fucking time" He said, the man stepped back, he seemed to be in shock. Never heard a 17 year old swear before? " We might die one day, but it won't be because of you psychopaths. I'll die wiping you out." He said with all his confidence, you can tell he was standing his ground. Even the hairs of my arms were standing up.

"Is that so... I guess that means we can't waste anymore time.." The man said and they all raised their guns at once. I turned to Jack

"Jack, you are the best friend I could ever ask for. I'm so glad that I got to grow up with you, you gave me the best memories, the best laughs and smiles. The best minutes of my life. You said you were going to wipe them out. So do it. Live, and end this." I could feel my voice breaking, I pulled him in for a big hug "Goodbye, Jack"...