The Valuable

Chapter 11

Part 2: Anastasia

"One foot in front of the other", I think to myself as I walk out of the care centre after seeing Joel. Despite the chaos in my brain, I can't help the smile that creeps on to my face as I think of the kiss Joel and I shared.
"Take cover!", Rupert yells at me from behind, breaking me from my thoughts.
I collapse on the ground just as a gun bullet swoops over my head, aiming directly at Rupert. Luckily his quick instincts take over, and he darts behind a building before the bullet reaches him.
"A little girl like you shouldn't be roaming the streets alone with criminals like him on the loose.", I voice from behind says to me. I whip around and see a boy about my age staring back at me. His eyes are wild and his hair is sticking up in all directions. He reaches out a shaking hand and brushes a piece of hair out of my face. I notice that all but his pinky finger are missing. I back away and begin running in the direction of Joel's abandoned hospital house, grabbing Rupert's hand as I go.

"It's late. We should really get some sleep before the long days ahead of us.", Rupert mumbles sleepily to me.
I shrug and lie down as Rupert covers my torso with the blanket from Joel's backpack. I pick at loose gravel on the pavement, trying to forget all that has happened in the past few weeks. I usually sleep like a baby, but lately I can't even close my eyes without getting flashbacks of everything that's happened over the past couple of weeks. I twist and turn for hours trying to scrape the image of The Leader's sinister facial expressions out of my mind. I can't help but revisit all that has happened while Joel wasn't in town. The first morning after he left was by far the worst. Everywhere in town was engulfed in some sort of chaos. The first thing that I saw out of the townspeople was happiness. They were overjoyed that The Valuable had been found and that the killing would stop. I remember walking past a young girl, no older than thirteen, blubbering about how happy she was that she would be able to raise a child older than eighteen. She mustn't have know that this killing cycle would start all over again after The Leader dies and the new ruler takes over. Some people had the same joyous reaction as the girl, but others were fighting for Joel's right to live. There was protesting on every corner with herds of people waggling signs coated in drawings of Joel and symbols of freedom in the air. However nothing prepared me for what I saw next. When I strode up to the disposal cliff, my jaw dropped. The water in the canyon was a deeper maroon than I had every seen it and there were two dozen more bodies in it than before. Puzzled, I swivelled my head to look at the land. I saw over fifty people standing in a single file line. The person at the front of the line, a scrawny girl with black hair, took a rusty knife from a stump in front of her and lifted the jagged blade to her skin. She pressed down hard enough to drain the blood from her fingertips, and dragged the knife through her skin from the bottom of her hairline to the top of her left eyebrow. Immediately I realized what this whole set up was. The girl then dropped the knife and stepped to the edge of the cliff. Before jumping off, she yelled "If Joel dies, we die with him" in a triumphant voice. I watched in dismay as her body plummeted to the bottom of the canyon and the next person picked up the knife to do the same thing. The cut in everyone's skin was in the exact place that Joel's cut was after The Leader put a camera in his brain.

I feel a wave of nausea through my stomach as I am zapped back to reality. Reliving all of those horrible sights for the umpteenth time still leaves the same sour taste in my mouth as it had the first time I saw it all happen. I sit up, running my hands through my hair anxiously. I know that I won't be able to get any sleep tonight, my mind is too busy with terrorizing thoughts. My head flops into my hands as I rock back and forth. I can't do this anymore, but I have to. For Joel.