Rebellion

3 - Unsafe

I still sit outside the backdoor, sobbing. I can’t believe what just happened.

When I was seven, I lived in Old England. My mother was pregnant with twins. Our whole family was happy except my father wasn’t doing well at his job. He worked as a scientist and he was a very good one. He had been researching very thoroughly and found out that if we kept doing what we did, there would be too much pollution and everyone would die.

The large companies lost so many customers because of the pollution and the government became angry. They threatened to kill him but he refused.

Then soon after my mother died giving birth to the twins, a boy and a girl. The twins survived but we weren’t allowed to keep them legally. It says so in rule 33: A single parent is forbidden to manage more than three children if the spouse is deceased. This rule only applies if the parent doesn’t remarry within three months.

My father was in no state to remarry. It was either keep one child or let them both go, so both twins went to the adoption center. My father realized that it would be too risky to keep Rufus and me in Old England, so we all moved to Romania. My father changed his name from Zolith Crimson to Jarek Umber. He let us keep our names in memory of our mother.

Now he’s gone as well. I must let Rufus know. I take out my phone and dial his number.

“Hello?” Rufus’s calm voice says on the other line.

“Hi,” I say. I hear how my voice shakes. “Listen, I need to talk to you. Meet me at the sports center, all right?”

“What’s going on?” He asks confused.

“I’ll tell you. Just meet me at the sports center,” I say and then hang up.

I stand up and start sprinting to the sports center. Rufus is already there waiting for me with Blaze and Aarin standing next to him. I walk towards them, out of breath.

“What’s going on?” Rufus says as I reach them.

I am quiet for a moment. How am I supposed to tell my little brother that our father is gone and most definitely executed?

“Dad is gone,” I say quietly.

“What?” Blaze and Aarin say at the same time. Rufus just stares at me blankly.

“They found him and they took him,” I explain. “I think he was probably…. P-probably executed.”

My eyes start to water again. Rufus looks down. He’s probably trying to keep back the tears.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper.

I lean towards him and give him a tight hug. After a while, Aarin and Blaze join in. At least I’ve got them. We break away.

“Listen, dad gave us something to do,” I start. “He told me that we must run away and take this to the official science facility in Northern Scandinavia.”

I take out the bottle my father gave me. The solution.

“He says it’s the cure to all the pollution and that we’re supposed to give it to some Dr. Reznor Paradox.”

Rufus doesn’t say anything he just nods slowly.

“Hey, it’s okay,” I say and grab hold of his hands. I see a tear trickle down his face. He always used to look up to our dad.

He takes a deep breath. “So when do we go?” He asks, his voice trembling.

“I don’t know,” I shrug. “I guess as soon as possible. We have to go home first though, to pack everything we need.”