In Search Of The Neon City

11 - Lo

The screen flickered before my eyes and the bright contrast of the light to the darkness of the night made my eyes ache.

It was pleasantly deserted and quiet out here. Sound meant people and people meant danger, as long as it was quiet I was safe.
It struck me that I had never been alone before. Never ever, but still I wasn't afraid.

At the beginning of my life we had been a real family, a mother, a father and three siblings.
Now there were only two of us.

I was happy without my father, I thought, forcing away memories of fistfights and screams.
Everything had gotten worse when my mother and Eilie died, so bad that Hannes had taken my little eight-year-old hand in his and escaped one night.

Since then, it had been the two of us against the world. I did not believe in gods or goddesses, but I did believe it was a miracle that we made it. Two kids all alone in a land full of monsters.

When I was a few years older, Carl had found us, he used to gather all the kids by the campfire and tried to scare us with old stories about monsters and gasts. I remembered the evenings with warmth in my chest, but I had never been frightened by his stories because ghosts, vampires or zombies where things from fairy tales.
And I had met the real ones, out here in the desert, that's where the real monsters lived, and I wasn't thinking of the poisonous insects.

I stared at the screen and waited. Still no signal. It was both a good and bad sign, no one could find me, but I couldn't find Twelve either.

It had been three days since I ran away and I was really impressed with myself, and that everything had gone as planned.
No one had suspected anything, but why would they? I always took care of things, did exactly what everyone asked me to do, often with a smile. Contrary to Hannes who always questioned everything.

Damn, it felt like I let them down.
After all they did for me, I should at least have told them about my plan?

I pulled the blanket tighter around me, even though the days were scorching hot, the nights were always icy cold. Life was never in the middle out here, nothing was ever pleasant.

The feelings of guilt gnawed deeper into me, should I have told them about my plan? My brother at least? Would they have trusted my assessment of Twelve?

I knew the answer to my own questions, they would not understand, and with they I meant Jonna and Carl.
They were never mean to us, just very careful.
So they would never agree to give me that responsibility. Sure, I was good at a lot of things, but I was still counted as one of the little ones. They would call me naive.

But now I could prove to them that I could do more than just press keys all day.
That's why I asked Hannes for the greatest favour ever. I had asked him to lie, to give me a head start. Damn, I hope he saw the note.
He must!
I felt a knot in my stomach, if not they would soon catch up with me and everything would be in vain.

I turned to my side in the small makeshift tent and closed my eyes. If I walked at the same pace without obstacles, I would probably be there in two weeks, maybe a few days more.
The only problem was that I was unsure which way to go.
There were smaller villages and communities along the way but I was unsure how friendly they would be if I got too close?

Once upon a time we had markets to go to and we could travel around among the various small clans. But lack of food and water had taken its toll. It was kill or be killed that mattered out here.
I sighed heavily, I had enough food and collected some moisture at night. So hopefully I would not have to meet anyone.

"Lo, are you there?"

I jerked by the familiar voice that penetrated the eardrum in my right ear, which led me to sit up so quickly that I hit my head on the tent pole and almost pulled down everything on top of me.

"Twelve?"

"Did something happen? You haven't responded in several days and your files are encrypted."

I nodded but soon realized what an idiot I was as he could not see me. "I ran away, and got rid of all the evidence."

"Evidence?" he asked hesitantly.

"The proof that you exist."

He was silent for a long time and I crossed my fingers and toes that the connection would last.

"Why did you do it?" he finally asked.

"Because my leader won't accept a compromise, so I gave up the plan to convince him to..."

"So you took matters into your own hands?" he interrupted me with a soft tone in his voice "why do you think I'll agree to a compromise?"

I sighed "it was a chance I had to take, if you say no it's all right. But I'm not going to let him force you to do something you don't wish to do."

He laughed on the other side of the earpiece "you're pretty cute thinking you need to protect me Lo, but I can take care of myself."

I bit my lip and thought about what I should answer, maybe the best thing was to trust him and tell him my plan? "I already knew that," I mumbled a little embarrassed, "or, I assumed."

"So what are you after?"

"Knowledge, so that I can help my family to a better life."

I heard him sigh before opening his mouth and answering "and you think I have such knowledge?"

"Yes, how else have you managed to survive on your own for so long?"

"You didn't have to leave to ask about that Lo" he replied amused, but he was wrong. I could not have stayed, because knowledge had not been enough for Carl.

"Well ..." I whispered and frowned "actually I had to leave."

"Wait, they're nice to you, aren't they?" he suddenly asked "treat you good and all that?"

"Yeah," I mumbled "a little too strict sometimes, but I have nothing to complain about. We're family."

"Good."

"We just have different opinions on some things."

"Like most families." He snickered.

I smiled to myself and was about to answer when I suddenly heard a sound behind me.

Footsteps.

"Fuck!" I whispered and was about to break the call, but everything happened so fast.
The tarpaulin was pulled away so that the starry sky glistened over my head. But I barely had time to enjoy the beautiful sight before two shadows towered over me.

"Lo?" I heard Twelve's worried voice in my ear but did not have time to answer before a stinking hand was pressed over my mouth, and when an arm wrapped around my waist and lifted me up without difficulty, I realized I was doomed, there was no point in fighting against these people.

My plan sucked, I should never have left the camp, I thought as I bobbed against the shoulder of a raw-barked slave hunter.