Anomaly

PART 1

CHAPTER 1 

The sun sits heavy on the small framed girl's shoulders as she moves quickly across the hard gravel. She moves in tight jagged steps that zig zag her forward. From a desert hawks view her rugged movements appear infinitely small against the vast landscape. Sweat seeps through the back of her grey shirt she wears, the scars of letters that once spelled Sem Academy sit under a layer of dirt and blood. Her legs burn, the lactic acid pools in her calves and thighs. They scream in painful jolts and an incessant aching of her joints. She ignores these pulsing screams. The gravel she walked appears flat but her bare feet dig into the loose material with each step, countering her efforts to move faster. Her small feet once well cared for are now black with dirt and dried blood. The small pebbles cut and bit with each step. The ground is scorching, but by now her feet have grown accustom to the small fiery rocks. Blood pumps fiercely through her heart, she can feel the loud thudding in her sunburnt cheeks. Her eyelids struggled to keep the continuous flow of salty sweat out. She squints so tight that she isn't entirely sure what direction she was going. Her body was at its limits, past its limits, but she is running on pure grit and adrenaline. The sun was beginning to burn her caramel skin making it feel too tight for her body. A persistent thought tickled the back of her mind, popping into view only for moments at a time. A thought of laying down and allowing the persistent pain to end. It would be easy; she would accept whatever fate that the succulent submission would bring. The thought leaves just as fast as it comes, she didn't have such luxuries, not now. Something else drove her, not self-preservation, but some sick stubbornness. She had to survive, not for her, no, but for her family, specifically her brother. She had seen him, just before they took her. It was only a glimpse but it was him, there was no doubt in her mind about it. So she had to live. This thought drove her feet and arms. They sway back and forth mechanically like the arm on a train engine. The slow grind that was walking was rusty but the weak momentum she built kept her moving forward. She did not know pain until now, she thought weakly.

She was not sure at this time how far the men were behind her or if anyone still was. Up until a few hours ago she did not even know what the immediate environment outside the facility was. She figured that she had been moving for more than 10 miles but there was no way to be sure. The orange sun was beginning to chase the mountains that stretched the span of the distant horizon. That is where she will have to go, it was the only sense of direction she had. She knew if living depended on the flat desolate land she now treaded she would not survive. Whatever lies within those mountains, for better or worse, is her only shot.

The mountain line is deceivingly close, gauging their distance proves impossible. With every step closer, the belief that she could soon stop bleeds through her resolve. The mountains almost appear to be moving in sync with her, stepping away with each step she moves forward. Her limping grows worse, and the sweat pouring out of her skin seems to slow down drying instantly in the heat. Her lips are beginning to crack. She can taste the small hints of blood in her dry mouth. The thought comes again, stronger, as if whispering a sweet lullaby.

"lay down, right here is fine" the voice spoke like honey. Soothing her every ache. She could already feel its healing roll down her burnt shoulders, down her beaten body, to her throbbing legs and numb feet. The acceptance of it would not only be easy, but justified. She did more than anyone she has heard of, she escaped their grasp, only for a moment, yes, but maybe a moment was all that was possible. Maybe this was more than she could ever expect, a few hours of unwatched time.

"NO" she replied out loud, her throat is hoarse and weak.

"You can't go much longer, he wouldn't be mad at you for stopping, you know he wouldn't" the voice speaks again, dismissive of the ridiculousness of saying no and her meaningless gesture of defiance. The voice appeals to all accounts of logic she held. 

"NO!" she says louder and stronger than the first time, her voice cracking slightly. She knows he wouldn't, she knows if her brother had talked to her before she escaped, he would tell her not to. He would tell her not to risk her life. He would tell her "remember what happened to dad". This was a conversation, or argument that happened often, Dad. Her dad talked about things that people only dared to think in the safety of solitude. He dared to teach her and her brother things of the past, erased histories, and stories from rouge elders that dared to speak in hushed tones and dark rooms. "If they can take him, they can take us too, remember that" Her brother would protest, his dark eyes pleading. His fears of everyone he loved being taken from him at a moment's notice were palpable. His desperate attempts to calm down her late night ramblings against the Cities Assembly and the damage they have done to countless families. His only wish was to stay safe, desperately holding on tightly to what was left. He had lost so much when they took their dad, and now she was gone too.

One of the new curious sensations began to surge through her weak body. The new burning in her body that brought her to this point. They took him she thought, THEY did this, ALL of this. They took my dad, they took my dad away from us, and now my brother needs me. Her thoughts exploded like an engine roaring to life driving her feet forward faster.

"NO!" she yelled now "NO! NO! NO!" she was yelling at something, something deep inside herself. She screams at the condescending voice that spoke so smoothly to her.  She needed to silence it. No, she thinks, I need to destroy it and make sure it never temps me again.

"NO" She yelled again warm tears streaming down her cheeks. Her fire grew hotter inside her fizzling body. Her limbs will do what she says, she would be in control of what happened now. "I am going to make it to these damn mountains!" 

The sun smolders a dark orange and the landscape is beginning to change. Small pebbles become assorted with increasingly larger rocks. Boulders the size of family units came into clear view. A sharp cool breeze comes with the setting sun lashing cool whirls through the girls charred body. Her steps begin to move side to side as much as they do forward. She begins to stumble over the changed landscape drunkenly, but she made it, she made it to the foot of a mountain. Her eyes droop and the threat of passing out was now imminent. She no longer feels the pain in her legs nor the throbbing of her skin she only feels the overwhelming need to stop.

An illusion of a male figure dances from behind one of the large grey boulders. Man or wolf? She thinks to herself with a choked laugh, delirious from dehydration. The man/wolf moves closer to her but it is not dancing it is walking in a straight line to her. His movements are mudded in her fading vision; her eyelids are falling dangerously low. She feels the numbed sensation of her knees hitting the ground. She attempts to find her balance reaching her arms up pitifully falling heavily on her side. Before her eyes close she can see that it is a man or maybe a boy in a jacket with a fur collar. He runs quickly towards her. Enemy? She questions to herself but she has no energy to contemplate the answer. As the figure closes the distance her eyelids lose the battle and she slips into unconsciousness.