Retribution

Chapter Eight

Sorry for any grammer errors, enjoy :)

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A sense of safety washed over me as I ran towards the North end of the village where all the over 18’s were staying. It was the larger end of the village, almost double the size of the South end so I knew straight away finding my parents would be a difficult task to do. I passed a few people on my search, receiving some concerned and strange looks from onlookers as I ran down the streets. I didn’t bother talking to anyone to see if they knew where my parents are. It would only waist valuable time. Jaxon wouldn’t be in the shower forever.

I had only been gone for about two minutes tops, my running speeding up the process heaps. My eyes frantically darted everywhere as I looked for the familiar faces of my parents but I came up blank. I didn’t know what tasks they had been assigned and I didn’t know what hut they were staying in. This is like looking for a needle in a haystack; useless.

I slowed my jog down into a walk then eventually came to a stop. I rotated on the spot trying to find a way I would be able to find them in this maze of huts. At a time like this I would be happy to see anyone I recognized, let alone anyone who could help and offer me any clues to where they would be.

I had forgotten how large the North end truly was. Usually if I was running down the streets, I would be playing hide and seek with Ben, his mates and older siblings but that was all fun and games. We would run into people we knew, elderly folks would laugh at us kids running around and they would beam at us living life in a fun manner. Neighbors would tell us not to run through their washing lines and ruin their hours work of cleaning the few sets of clothes everyone owned and dads watching from afar would cheer us on if there was a sprint to tag the person in front of us. But now it’s about trying to escape from a life nobody wanted and the one time it was an urgent matter, I couldn’t even find one face I faintly recognised.

‘Come on mom and dad, where the hell are you?’ I cursed under my breath as I reached another dead end that led into the forest. I knew I wouldn’t leave without my family and as tempting as it was to just run away now and escape it all, I turned on my heel and continued my search.

‘Excuse me darling,’ an old croaky voice called to me and I froze in my tracks, eyes darting to find the source evetually landing on a frail old lady.
‘Are you okay?’ She took a small step towards me, grey hair sitting in a curly bob just above her shoulders, skin sagging from her old age and sorrow crept through me. Someone like this lady should not be trapped and help captive, it’s just plain wrong.

‘I’m just looking for my parents, that’s all.’ I gave her a tight smile eager to keep searching.

‘You’re not supposed to be here are you?’ Her voice was quiet but a knowing tone laced her voice. My silence answered her question. ‘Who are you parents, maybe I can tell you if I know who they are.’

I wanted to cry in relief as she had no urge to tell anybody I was here.

‘Yes, yes.’ I nodded my head eagerly. ‘My mom is Rachel Bell and my dad is David Bell.’ I told her hopefully.

‘David bell,’ she tested the name and her eye brows furred together as she was trying to remember something.
‘Oh yes, David!’ She exclaimed a smile on her face. ‘Such a sweet man, helping me fix my clothes line the other day when he was on his break. My back was too weak to lower the strings, bless his soul.’ She smiled. I gave her a tight smile, tapping my foot impatiently as her voice was slow.

‘Anyways, David Bell. He mentioned being on the east side of camp. His working to help fix the cattle barn the young girl burnt down before she was killed. May she rest in peace, the young thing.’ She informed me and  a grin broke out on my face, I was getting closer.