Buds of Despair

1. Escape

Chapter 1

Escape

It was pitch black as she ran through the woods, her bare feet were scraped open but healed as she ran over stones and branches barely able to see ahead of her. She wasn't sure how long she had before they noticed she was gone, hopefully at least until morning. She came up to a cliff, shoot a dead end? It was too far to jump without being able to activate her crysts fully, she could probably climb down but it would take too much time. No time for that she just had to keep moving away from the lab she needed as much of a head start as she could get, she ran along the edge of a cliff.

She had never set foot outside of the lab, the darkness of the woods was terrifying but she would rather be lost in the woods than strapped back down to a table. She wasn't going to get captured, this chance would never come again if she were taken back. Her body had finally built an immunity to the suppression drugs she was constantly dosed with which gave her an opportunity to take out the guards and slip out. She could feel her body gradually regaining proper movement, if she could hold out until the suppression drug fully purified out of her system they wouldn't be capable of taking her back.

She came to a halt as a boy stood between her and the path she had been following. Was he trying to escape too? Would he take her back? Who was he? Why was he here? Her mind was racing with these thoughts. He didn't seem to notice her yet, she tried to slip away without him seeing her. He turned his head to look at her over his shoulder, she couldn't run if she wanted to for some reason her legs just wouldn't move.

"I want to leave." The voice was quiet but clear as he turned to face her "You won't tell anyone you saw me right?" She wondered if he was one of those fallen angels, she had read about them in a thick book from centuries ago before the virus. She couldn't make much out in the darkness but his shadowy figure.

She shook her head, he couldn't be much older than her but something about him seemed desperate. "No..." She took a few hesitant steps towards him, he wasn't after her. He was running away too, she wouldn't ask from what. She reached out a small trembling hand. "Do you want to leave together?"

His eyes stared at the hand that had reached out to him. What was he supposed to do? He looked down at the small girl in front of him, she couldn't be older than ten or eleven. Her body was covered in bandages as well as half of her face. Her eyes stared at him with something he had never seen before. She smiled, maybe he was scared of her, she had been told numerous times that she was a monster, a sense of calm came over both of them as she lightly took his hand. "Lets go". They took off through the darkness together.

The cliff had narrowed down to a river which they continued to follow. Not much was spoken between the two as they ran hand in hand through the woods. Neither knew how long they had ran for before exhaustion finally took hold. "I can't move anymore!" Isabella cried as they both collapsed to the ground. "How much land does this place take up!? We have been running forever."

"How do you have the energy to complain if you can't move?" Kuro spoke with his face in the ground. With no energy left he couldn't even use his arms to push himself up to a sitting position. He closed his eyes thinking this wasn't so bad and let the blackness take over.

Isabella stared over at the boy next to her that was still clinging to her hand even though he was passed out. He was the first person she had spoken to aside from anyone in the lab. She sat up and rolled the boy over onto his back, pretty sure he didn't want to sleep with his face in the dirt. She stretched out her body, it was sore from the tests earlier in the day. Holding this boy's hand was the first time she felt a sense of something other than fear, anger or despair if anything his own eyes had been filled with desperation. She leaned back against a tree and lifted his head onto her lap, she blushed as he turned into her clinging on as if he would be swept away if he let go.