Separated By a Wall

My First Run is the Run For My Life

The doors slammed open, with two guards flanked on either side of me. They snap into action blocking my path. "Number and business. This is a secluded area." For once, I was thankful for not being so tall as I ducked under one of their arms and made a run for it. Adrenaline was pumping in my veins, my senses were on high alert but most of all... I was scared.

I felt chilled to the bone as the sirens faded out and were instead replaced by new ones. "Hover truck!" I shout into the earpiece. "You have to hold them off for me! Please! I don't know if I can outrun a truck!" I peer over my shoulder. I wish we still had wheels! I think that would've slowed them down. Would it? I shook away the thought. The woman in the shotgun seat stuck her head out the window and brought her CareBot close to her face.

I poured on the speed, wind howling in my ears and fear clouding my vision. I couldn't think straight. I could barely see what was ahead of me and the absence of the CareBot on my wrist was making me lightheaded. "Remain where you are and face consequences or we will have to use force." I knew they couldn't do anything to 16 year old girl. And they had no control over me as long as I didn't have the CareBot.

"I'm back! I can get them off your tail for a little while. It will give you just enough time to make it to the wall." The lights of several buildings ahead of me began to brighten. "I will never ask how you are able to do these things." I say running towards the buildings. Running was a new and strange feeling to me. I liked the feeling of my hair whipped behind me and the fresh air filling my lungs.

"Leave it to you to change the subject in a life-death situation." I would have laughed if I didn't have a hover truck after me. I followed the buildings that Caitlin lit up. "Okay, you're going to have to trust me again. I'm turning it off." Before I could protest, the city was pitch black again and I could hear the driver shouting. "You're going to have to make a hard right." Caitlin says.

"I don't know how to make a right! Is it like walking? Walking and running don't seem like the same thing!" Caitlin and I have never gone running. "I don't know. Follow you're instincts. You're going to make it to the wall." she says with such conviction, I almost believe it's true. The buzzing sound of the hover truck is fading and for a minute there, I actually think I'm going to make it. I think that I outran a truck.

But my timing was terrible. Red lights flashed on the hover truck illuminating the street once again. "Make the right, NOW!" I put my left foot forward and push off towards the right, just making it around the corner. But it's too late. The truck has already seen me and follows. "Stop right there or we will have to make your CareBot transfer you the Speriat house."

"Sorry! I don't have one!" I yell over the wind. I can't tell if they heard me or not. But no matter the outcome, I still ran not once becoming short of breath. "I suppose you don't have anymore tricks up your sleeve do you?" It takes a while for Caitlin to respond and when she does, she sounds like she had done some running herself. "Sorry, but no. I can guide you from there but I can't guarantee that you will make it to the wall without becoming known. I can try and send you the long way, they might lose you through the streets."

I suddenly hear a static coming from the other end of the earpiece. "What are you doing?" I pant. When I come back there was going to be some buzz about this. I could imagine coming into the office tomorrow with all eyes on me, and two men ready to take me to the Speriat house. "I had to get your CareBot out of there before they found it and your number." I slow down my pace into a jog and realize my mistake.

The hover truck was starting to gain on me as I blast into a full-on sprint. They were still calling after me. "What were you thinking? You could've gotten caught! And how did you get there so fast?" The sirens were starting to hurt my ears throwing me into a state of panic as I started weaving around buildings trying to do my best to lose the vehicle.