Runaway

Chapter 1

I was once just a simple farmers daughter, went to a normal school for our quarter, a farming and mining one. I had lots of people I loved and lots of people I hated. Why is it now that I only have on person I love left, and he might not even be here.

Silence. It creeps up on you when you least expect it, or of course, when you fully expect it. It controls sleepless nights staring at the ceiling, wondering when I will get out of this place. Wondering when this torture will end.

I push my limp body up from the mattress that I have slept on for the past two months and slip my hospital gown on over my normal clothes and wander through the door of my room.
"Laura?" A small voice whispers from the bed next to me. Jeb.
"What?" I say Stiffly.
"Where are you going?"
"I don't know" I sigh and walk out.

Something I need to tell you about myself. I am very good at lying. Like then, for example, I know exactly where I'm going. I twist through identical bleached white corridors, my hand brushing the walls. It feels like forever until I finally reach where I intended to go since I came to this place two months ago. I push open the door of Theo's room.

He's sat at the end of his hospital bed, head deep in a book about mechanics.
"Did you know," He asks without looking up. "That cars take
approximately 30 hours to assemble"
"No, I didn't know that" I admit.
His head perks up immediately at the sound of my voice and he stares at me like he's some sort of scanning device and he's trying to work out what's in front of him.
"Laura" He whispers, almost to himself.
"Theo" I say, holding back the tears.
"Its been a while" He replys " Seven years in fact"
Trust him to know all the facts and figures.
"Um...Yeah"
"Are you going to tell me why your here or do I have to wait until something registers in your brain"
"Its a long story..."
"Well then, you better start telling it"
I lurch into a long explanation of how I heard he was in the hospital about a week ago and decided to find him. He nods along with everything I say and when I finish with why I'm here the shock registers on his face.
"So, your saying we runaway?" he says, which about sums it up in five words. He continues. "to find our parents that might not even be alive, are you saying we risk our lives for something we might not even get?"
"Um.."
I didn't think of it this way. My parents might not even be alive, and neither could his.

About 7 years ago me and Theo were best friends. We did everything together including holidays. This year we decided to go on holiday together to the beach. It was our first time on a beach and we were very excited. Well, Theo was, I was worried, and rightly so. The car we had hired to take us there was old, anybody could see that. So old in fact that it broke down just at the wrong moment. We crashed. Ambulance sirens were wailing and our parents and Theo were taken away. To a location that I don't know. Now I do.

"When?" Theo pesters
"Tomorrow night."
"Laura, you have lead me to believe that you should be put in the mental hospital with me"
I laugh at the irony.
"I am"
"My theory's are always correct" he laughs.
And just like that, I have my Theo back.

Of course we aren't mental. If you are beginning to think that. They just put us in here just be safe. Thats how everything is now in the city. Just to be safe. About a year after the crash. I was getting used to taking care of myself and to how life was going to be until that phone call. You know, the one that changed everybody's life forever. No big deal. The woman on the other end of the line sounded very formal and sure of herself, two things I will never be. She explain that there have been an increasing number of accidents through out the past ten years and the government of our city think its time for a change. The believe that not everyone is contributing to our city's effort to form a more stable and reliable community. I believe otherwise. Its the governments fault they make us labor over simple tasks such as making dinner or farming goods, just to make our city perfect. Nobody is perfect. I fight the urge to hang up on the uptight woman and instead I spoke clearly and harshly.
" And your point is..."
The woman continues,
" We have decided To reinforce new laws for each set of people: the farmers for food and water, the miners for coal and heating, the soldiers for fighting wars and last but most certainly not least the governors, for managing the sectors of the city and its political state.

I stared wide eyed at the phone. They're taking over the city and making us all perfect slaves for the greater good. I didn't care anymore and I hung up the phone. Nobody is taking control of me.

I creep back to my room unnoticed by the staff around me and are greeted be a tired face. Jeb. He smiles a wry smile and I sit next to him while he falls asleep. I never noticed how big his round blue eyes were before. I'm going to leave those big eyes tomorow。

I wake up sweating through my skin and in scared of the people around me, even though its just Jeb. His eyes meet mine in the dark. He cant sleep.

"Laura" Jeb whispers "Get up, someone's here for you"
I glance at the arched doorway to see Theo's smiling face. I got up and got dressed in my plain black t-shirt and black trousers and a black jacket and shuffled groggily out of the room. The hallways were silent and eerie, our footsteps echoed as we turned right toward the door. Then we heard voices and people walking toward us. I knew this escape was to good to be true.
"Hey! Stop!" someone shouted, probably a doctor.
So we Ran.