The Fringe

Chapter 10

I wasn't quite sure how much time had actually passed but it seemed like an eternity. I reached into my bag and pulled out my journal as well as the one that Ben was reading. I threw the journal at him and it hit him in the chest hard enough to make him jump and he shot me a look. I ignored it, and opened my journal and began to red.

Finley,

                The war has carried on for so long, and there are no signs of it letting up anytime soon. They are everywhere, and they are destroying everything in their path leaving little to the terrain and very few places for us to find refuge in. We're running low on water, and even lower on hope. I think we're reaching our last resort, and as much as I don't want to. I know it will be for the best.

What's best for you.

 

                "What's that?" Alex asked just as I flipped to the next page.

                I inhaled deeply. Reading that last passage really got to me. It was when she knew she would have to give me up. Send me to live in the city. I shake my head and turn to Alex. "My biological mother wrote journals. Starting about the time the war out here did. She wrote until the day she died, and each entry gives away something else about the war and what happened."

                "So what started it? What happened all those years ago that they kept out of the history books?" Alex asked.

                I stared at her. I wish I had an answer for her, but I had nothing. My mother was so vague about what happened in the war that there was so many holes that could be filled with any theory that we thought of. I shrugged and shook my head. What could I tell her? I didn't even know what started the war. At this point in time, I don't think my mother did either. And if she did, I don't think she really knew how to describe it or even explain it. It was just one of those things that no matter what was said, the best way to say anything about it what just like she put, "they."

                "I don't know, Alex. She doesn't talk about it much, just that there was chaos and destruction and the longer it raged on, the less resources there were to help them survive." I told her. I looked back down at the journal and sighed.

                They was such a vague term that my mother used. Who were they? The history books in school didn't really talk much about other countries and what roll they played in the war. The possibilities right now seemed endless. Did we do this to ourselves? Was it the aftermath of a terrorist attack? Was it because war were declared and we were invaded before we could invade? Just when everything was beginning to make sense, when everything was starting to come together, it all falls apart again. Like a house of cards. It all falls down.

                I sigh and then look up and see Ben staring at me. After reading the journals with me, it was evident when he knew something was up with the contents of the journal I was reading. I just shrugged and shook my head slightly. He would read the same thing once I was finished and he would gain the same thoughts as I have on the subject. There was only so much we could try to understand at the moment, it was best to just go with what we're given and hope the answers arise sooner rather than later.

                The terrain had changed so fast that we didn't realize it until I had noticed behind Ben were some houses. What residents were outside stared at us, while others rushed out of their homes to watch the truck drive by them without stopping.