Breaking Barriers

Hands Shaking, Heart Thundering

Squirt Octus:

The shouts were deafening, but nothing could match the boom of the rifles they held. I clung to Shellington's shoulders as he sprinted through the woods. Branches scratched my face and grind my glasses, but I hardly noticed them. How could I when my death was almost guaranteed?

A Purenkorps truck had been roaming the area, looking for another group of refugees who'd been given away, and we just happened to be in the area as well. I couldn't see anyone else I knew, and there was only one place they could have gone; into the back of the navy blue van that had parked just far enough from our camp for them to sneak up on us. Now they, along with us, were running for their lives. Another boom shook the entire world, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a grey, furred figure fall to the ground like a rag doll thrown off to the side by an impatient child.

Suddenly, the blurs of green slowly began to come back into focus, and I could feel Shellington's back heaving.

"Shellington!" I exclaimed desperately, that poor man's death still freshly burned in my eyes. We couldn't end up like him; we just couldn't "Come on, run! The Purenkorps! Can't you hear them?"

Shellington didn't respond. He just grimly smiled at me before sliding me gingerly off his back. I had been too petrified to protest it, so I'd let him slide me off. That was when I spotted the bush. And heard the thundering of dozens of black-booted feet. Before I could react, he took off again and the black-booted thunder soon followed. I dove blindly into the bramble and gasped as the branches and twigs clawed at my skin, but this pain was better than what they'd subject me to.

I listened helplessly as the Purenkorps ran by shouting with hatred. So much hatred. The screaming and pleading of those the soldiers caught pierced the eerie calm of the woods. Hate and fear blended into one terrible symphony, and I could hardly stand to listen to it.

After an agonizing while, all sounds ceased, and I peeked out of the bush. It was eerily still. All life in the forest seemed to have ceased. The navy blue truck everyone had been forced into stood out grotesquely among all the lush green vegetation. A soldier stepped out of the back, and barked an order. Like magic, the truck immediately roared to life.

I held my breath as it bounced down the road and out of sight, carrying everyone I held dear with it. I didn't even get to say goodbye.