Against The Sun

How The Misery Begins

The hot sun was sinking below the horizon as the temperature was dropping to a more comfortable level. A slight breeze danced across the desert kicking up dust as his boots scuffed at the baked solid sand before he leapt up onto the outcrop of rock, scaling it quickly and silently. He knew that his target lay just on the other side. Raising his weapon he jumped from the top taking careful aim.

"Bang!" he yelled as he landed, before continuing in a song song voice, "You're dead! I win!"

His victim looked up at him from under a messy blonde fringe that was way too long to be practical, but she refused to let anyone cut it.

"No fair Frankie!" she cried, lowering her wooden blaster sadly and scowling at him as he danced around her in victory. "You were supposed to be hiding so I could find you!"

"You were taking too long, Jenny," Frank put his hands on his hips to accentuate his point. "You always take too long."

"I was trying to be sneaky!" Jenny yelled grumpily and stamped her small foot in anger.

"Well it didn't work, cause I got bored and now your dead," Frank stuck his tongue out childishly his eyes shinning mischievously.

Jenny narrowed her eyes at him and folded her arms across her chest huffily. "I'm telling your mom," she said determinedly and then spun on her heel and stalked off towards the campsite.

"What? No!" Frank cried out as he felt his heart plummet and the confident smile disappeared from his face. Going to parents was the highest of betrayals as far as Frank was concerned. It went against everything in the kid code handbook! Okay, maybe Frank could try not to 'cheat' at every game they played, but he preferred to think of it more like... being creative with the rules. Jenny was half way to the fire before he caught up with her. "Please don't tell my mom."

Jenny turned looked at him appraisingly. One of Frank's greatest weaknesses was being a bit of a soft touch when threatened with his parents finding out about his latest misdemeanour. "What do I get if I don't?"

"Anything," Frank answered too quickly, consequences be damned, before immediately regretting it as he watched a overly satisfied smirk spread across his playmates face.

"Next time we go to market you're buying me chocolate," Jenny said gleefully. "Real chocolate."

Frank made a choked whining sound of displeasure. Even a small chocolate bar would wipe out his entire pocket money stash. It would take him months of doing extra chores around camp to save up that amount again. "You know I can't afford that!"

Jenny continued to stare him down with scepticism oozing from every pore. "Yes you can, you've been saving up for books."

If Jenny hadn't been his best friend since they were both babies Frank would of started to really not like her by this point. This was blackmail pure and simple. But Jenny was his best friend, and when she wasn't extorting him she was a pretty great friend if Frank was being honest with himself. "...Fine... I'll get you the damn chocolate."

Jenny jumped up and down in excitement. Chocolate was a rare treat in the Zones and Jenny had quite a taste for it.

"Kids!" Jenny's dad called in the tone that both Jenny and Frank knew meant that something was up. Their parents were standing in a group all looking towards the horizon where a plume of dust could be seen steadily getting closer. "Find somewhere to hide. Do not come out until one of us comes to find you!"

Frank wasn't particularly worried as he grabbed Jenny's hand and ran towards the outcrop of rocks they had been playing around earlier. This had been happening a lot lately. From what they had been able to gather eavesdropping while pretending to be asleep the kids had discovered that more patrols had been happening over the last few months and that their parents were worried about that. There had been rumours of disappearances. Frank and Jenny had been spending increasing amounts of time hiding in small, cramped and dusty spaces while patrols of BL/ind employees poked around where ever they happened to be staying that night. It was always okay, and one of their parents always came looking for them in less than an hour. Mainly the whole experience had been incredibly boring.