Finding The Courage

Part 60

We had stopped to grab a bag from a mop closet. Nita led us through the dark with her flashlight. She led us deep underground, past the hall that she had shown us before. She stopped to crouch once we reached a certain spot and she slid her hand along the floor until she found a latch. She handed FOur the flashlight and pulled the latch revealing a tunnel.

"An escape tunnel, they dug it when they first came so there would be a way out in case of emergencies." Nita said as she popped the top off of a black tube that shot sparks and then burned red. She then dropped it into the tunnel and we watched as it fell several feet. Nita sat on the edge and dropped through the hole. I quickly dropped down behind her and Four followed after. Nita and I walked side by side and Four followed behind us.

"I forgot Tobias was afraid of heights. I always wanted to ask about that. Your third fear is shooting a woman, who is she?" Nita asked in a low voice as we moved forward.

"The fear wasn't shooting her, it was shooting her that I fear."

"You're afraid of shooting people?" Nita let out a light laugh.

"No, I was afraid of my capacity to kill." Everything went silent after that for a few moments.

"I was always curious what would be in my fear landscape. I feel like there is so much to fear but sometimes I feel like there is nothing left to fear either." We kept moving in silence until I could smell the fresh air. Four turned off the flashlight and the moon lit up the end of the tunnel. When we stepped out of the tunnel I noticed that it had let us out in the wasteland that we had driven through to get to the compound. Nita led us over to a parked truck with a threadbare canvas back covering. The keys were already in the ignition.

"I asked my friends, the people we are going to meet, to leave it for us." Nita explained.

We drove through the wasteland and I watched as animals scattered around us when the headlights hit them. Nits slowed down to avoid hitting one that she told Four was called a deer. Nita hit the horn and the deer startled out of our way. She sped up when we hit a wide open stretch of road. I could see the train tracks we had walked down to reach the compound and in the distance behind us were its lights. I stared out at the dark world around us and decided to settle on watching the sky the way I had tried to earlier tonight. I could see all the stars I loved for a long time before lights started to interrupt my view again.

"We stop here." Nita instructed as she pulled the truck into an alleyway. "Check the glove box. I asked for weapons." Four pulled it open and found three knives.

"How are you with a knife?" Nita asked us.

"I would like to think we're both alright, never thought that skill would come in handy though." Four laughed as Nita grabbed the bigger knife and left the smaller two for Four and myself. I was thankful I had kept my other knife on me this entire time. As we walked, Four and I kept taking in the buildings around us.

"People live here."

"This is the edge of the fringe. It's a two hour drive from Milwaukee, a city north of here. So yea people live here. These days people don't stray too far from the cities even if they want to live without the government's control."

"Why do they want to live outside the government's control?"

"Because they're genetically damaged. The damaged are technically equal to the pure people but only on paper. In reality they are poor, convicted of crimes at a higher rate, less likely to be hired for a job. It's a problem and has been since the Purity War. for people in the fringe it seemed more appealing than to try and correct the problem from within. Like I intend to do." Nita answered as we kept moving.