Leave The City - A Trench Story (tøp)

Not Today

We swam for almost an hour, struggling to keep our heads above water. I figured out that whenever I got too tired, I could just float on my back until I was able to regain my composure. There was no land in sight except the icy mountain range in the distance. Tyler suggested that we swim back in the direction that the submarine came from, and everyone else seemed to agree. Just as we were about to give up, a small boat appeared on the horizon. "Who could it be?" I asked, hoping they might be able to help us. Everyone else seemed relieved, but Tyler's eyes only grew tenser. "What is it?" I asked. "That's the boat that took us to the submarine in the first place." Josh explained for him. I sighed. "Why did they even bring us out here in the first place?" Tyler shook his head. "Your guess is as good as mine." He told me. "In fact, yours would be better since you could at least think straight while I was under their mind control" I looked down to my feet through the water. "Actually I couldn't. After a while of being locked up, they took me out, played some affirmations about DEMA, and I went along with whatever they told me to. They had me all dressed up, and I'm pretty sure I talked to you through that... whatever it was." Tyler's eyes widened as I told him what had happened to me. "I know Tyler, I'm sorry. I should have been stronger. But I was lost. My thoughts were getting too dark without you and Josh to talk to me. You were right... we were made to be with other people." Tyler shook his head as I tried to apologize. "Hey, no, it's not your fault. Don't apologize, they got me too, right?" I lifted my teary gaze up to meet his concerned one, and nodded. "I wasn't as strong as I would have liked to be either." Josh chimed in. I looked back to him. "Josh, everything we talked about, it got so much worse when I there, when I was alone. All these terrible thoughts, it made me question if the bishops brainwashing you was even wrong!" I told him. He gave me a small smile. "Well I thought I knew just about everything that you were worrying might be true while I was under their control." He said. "Do you remember anything from then?" I questioned. "Kind of. It's really all quite... "Blurry" Tyler finished for him. "Yeah." said Josh while he nodded in agreement. "Me too, except I was only under for a few hours, you guys were gone for days." I told them. "Has it really been that long?" Tyler asked. "Has it only been that long?" Josh contradicted. I gave them each a puzzled look. "I mean, to be honest I don't know. I went to sleep like it was night about two or three times." I said. "Everything is so fuzzy it all feels really condensed." Tyler told me. "It's fuzzy for me too, but, it feels like it was like that for a really long time, I can barely remember how we got there." Josh explained. "How you got where?" I asked, but I was interrupted by a loud horn blasting from the boat that was now only about 100 feet away. "What should we do?" I questioned as I looked to Tyler. "It may not be best rescue ship, but it's about the only one we've got right now." He said. I nodded. "We should stay apart on the ship though, that way they won't suspect anything." I suggested. "Good idea." Josh said. We slowly swam away from each other and fell into groups of other survivors. By the time that the boat reached us, everyone was clambering to get in as fast as they could, and I was shoved back off the ladder multiple times before I could finally get onto the solid deck. As I got on, I quickly met Tyler's eyes, and I could tell he was watching me to make sure that I got on safely. I looked around to make sure that Josh had too. Once I spotted him, I took a deep breath of relief as we started sailing away. However, it didn't take long for me to realize that we had been rescued out of one type of impending doom just to be quite literally shipped back to another. Everyone sat silently on the deck of the boat as we traveled across the water. The people running the ship seemed to be mostly guards and watchers. I wondered what had happened to the bishops, was it possible that they were gone? No. Besides, there were only 4 or 5 of them there. The others would still be back in DEMA. I sighed as I thought about the trouble of having to escape again. I wanted to try to talk to Tyler and Josh, since we would all be split up into our separate districts once we got back, but I didn't want to risk anyone suspecting us. No one could know that I was the one who helped Tyler out of his brainwashed state or they would never let me near him again. Tyler and Josh were the council's prized possession, and their band Twenty One Pilots.

After about an hour or so, I managed to fall asleep with my head leaning against the window that looked into the cabin, where are all the guards and watchers were. I didn't sleep well, my dreams were fitful, and consisted of reliving the last few days over and over again, with varying versions of an escape being plotted, but never coming to fruition. I felt myself gain consciousness in a strange way, instead of being jolted awake by the sudden movement of a boat, which I had expected, I felt myself sitting upright, with a solid surface beneath me. I hesitated to open my eyes, worrying about what I might see when I did. I heard voices murmuring, and I forced myself to see what was going on. As my vision adjusted I sighed. I had just about had it. It was probably time to give up now. No matter what I tried, it was never better for me. Perhaps underneath a neon gravestone really was the best place to be. I was in a dark room, along with two other bodies that also lay in chairs, from what I could see, they were probably Tyler and Josh. They began to wake up slowly, quickly looking frightened as they saw what was going on. My hands were tied down to a chair, and my mouth was covered by a piece of what felt like duct tape. I remembered the yellow tape that we had placed our faith in. The irony of being muffled by something that was meant for freedom, I had almost come to expect it at this point. I speculated that whoever had done this had picked out the tape on purpose. I supposed that the tape might be easy to remove had I moved my mouth around, but I guess whoever did this also realized that I would be too broken to try. I might as well go along with whatever they're planning. Life is cruel. Everywhere I turn just seems to be worse than before. In DEMA, I feel trapped, but out there... I feel... pointless, my thoughts have too much freedom. When I'm trying to escape, I'm anxious, when I sleep, I have nightmares. When I'm sedated by vialism, I feel nothing. I'm at peace, but it doesn't last, because there's always something in the back of my mind telling me to wake up. I just want to leave all of it. Be free. Be nothing. Before I could think of anything more depressing, a screen flicked on, only unlike the one in my previous cell, it was much bigger, encompassing the entire wall in front of me. It read "History of The Sacred Municipality Of DEMA" property of the DEMA council. Even though it was clearly meant to be more propaganda, I was intrigued. I had never heard anything more of the history of the city other than that the world was unsafe, and there was no haven for humans, so the bishops banded together to create this "shelter" for us, to protect us from the outside world. I hoped that more information than that would be given.