Outlaw

16. Calypso

"What, how are you alive, I thought you died."

I looked at my mother with a confused expression clear as day plastered across my face. The soldiers outside had refered to her as boss, but that would mean she was working with the government, the people who killed father. I thought she had been sat at the kitchen table for the past three years. Seeming to be aware of the revaluations that just flashed behind my eyes, my mother looked at me and laughed.

"Yes, I've been working for the government for three years now, ever since your father died and you spent all your time in those stupid woods, my clone just sat at the table all day while I was off working on my greatest idea ever: the purge."

"What exactly is the purge might I be so prudent as to inquire"

I asked, the sarcasm just dripping from my voice.

"Oh Calypso, the purge will change the world as we know it, we will fire the Apollo-X into the sky, burning like fiery death as it arcs through the sky. I had hoped to share this all with you one day, but alas, you chose the wrong path Calypso. The missile will land in a targeted deposit of raw nitroglycerin under the city of London, UK. The impact with the substance will create a large enough chemical explosion that it will wipe out the entire human population, except the select few we choose to live in our new and improved world, where the indigenous population will be machines that we can bend to our will and control so there is a completely peaceful society, everybody who ever threatened the peace will be gone, incinerated by the shock wave from the Apollo-X. Those we wished survive shall shelter here, in this very compound, which is bulletproof, blast proof, and fire protected. When it is safe to exit, we will build a new society, a better society, one where there will be no fighting and everyone follows a set schedule and are allowed to be themselves. Those who stay will be allowed to be with those they wish and if anyone steps out of line we won't hesitate to kill them and erase them from the memories of those who knew them."

"What about dad?"

"Excuse me?"

I repeated my question, serious.

"What about dad, you said you wanted to show me all of this, but what about him, did you even care about are family?"

My mother sighed.

"Stupid girl, you really thought that I cared about that man? He had too big of a heart and too small of a brain to get anywhere in life, he was just a pawn in a game of chess, expendable and useless. Family life was all a facade, to hide my real plans. Nobody would ever expect the normal, household, wife and mother to be plotting some evil skin to destroy the world now would they? The population and those in power have been corrupted and that is why they need to be erased so we can start a new and improved world. With machines, nothing can go wrong if you know how to control them."

She never cared, not when my father died, not when I left, never. I had been looking after a clone all these three years, thinking I was taking care of my grief stricken mother. I let the guilt of her quote on quote death consume me for all of my waking ours and thoughts of what used to be haunt even my dreams. I had given up so much for the woman I thought cared about me, the woman I thought was my mother. Turns out I was wrong, she never cared ,ever. So now, neither do I. They can torture me all they want, they can even kill me if they so wished, nothing would hurt like my so called mother's had, nothing imaginable could be worse than that. In that moment I regretted everything I had done, especially getting my dad killed, if I hadn't have done that then we might still have been a happy family, living in our home back in the middle of the village, I might still be going to school and playing with the other village kids. I might have even had a best friend.

Wait. I do have a best friend, and her name is Livia. She cared for me when no one else did, when I needed her the most, there she was, a light in the dark tunnel. I wouldn't believe she had betrayed me like everyone else I had ever known. My mother looked at me with a disgusted look on her face, her tone was one of finality.

"This little conversation has been fun, but the road ends here Calypso, time to die."

Colonel Sanders passed her a hunting knife from his belt and my mother began to walk towards me.

One step
I thought back to the day that this all began, the fateful day that I crossed over to the other side of the pool and my life changed forever. How I had read the book on the purge, I still had know idea who wrote it.

Two steps
I remenised about packing and getting everything ready for a journey that was going to be shorter than I had ever imagined. The guilt I had felt about leaving my mother at the kitchen table had torn me apart, I certainly wouldn't feel the same way now.

Three steps
A shiver went down my spine as I recalled my encounter with the creepy tree drug lady and the children no one but her could see. I have never met a weirded person, ever.

Four steps
It was almost over now, one more step and she would be here. How long did I last. I think it was seven days but I couldn't be sure, it felt like years to me. The pain of running and the feeling of the wind in my hair brought a small smile to my lips.

Five steps
I could see the other side, it was a woods of all different hues, the woods my father and I had always gone to in our minds on the rainy days.

She draws the knife back
It had ended the same way it began: with the purge. Seven days wasn't long compared to how long a person lives, but my father would have been proud of my efforts, he was always proud of me, even when I failed.

I felt the cold knife plunge into my chest, straight into my heart. I let out a small gasp. Death wasn't as painful as I imagined, more like a relief from the pains of reality. As I closed my eyes, I could see him, standing and waving from the other side, my dad was on the other side. He smiled at me and gestured me over.

"Come and play, my little outlaw."

𝒯𝒽ℯ ℰ𝓃𝒹
ℰ𝓅𝒾𝓁ℴ𝓊ℊℯ 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽ℯ 𝓃ℯ𝓍𝓉 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉ℯ𝓇