“We shouldn’t be here,” said Jane. Her protest fell on deaf ears again. She’d been pleading her friends to take her back home, to take her anywhere except here. They were nearing the barbwire fence, which separated the known from the unknown. Her father had told her never to cross. Beyond it was a place filled with people who still doubted the new system. Beyond it was a civilization left on its own, uncared, and never to be let inside unless they accepted the truth. They had no name, they had no real reason for their decisions, and they had nothing. But that didn’t mean they meant no harm.
“Relax,” a voice crept from behind her. Jane spun around and saw Luke holding a box of matches. He dropped onto Jane’s palm and added, “This is the only place we won’t be seen.” He winked, brushed his brown hair away from his face, and smiled. Jane had to look away and make a curtain out of her hair to stop him from seeing her blush.
“We won’t be seen if we get killed,” said Jane, wrapping her arms around her. The sound of the silent night made her ears ring. The night was chilly and the noises beyond the fence turned the night she’d normally find beautiful into a terrifying thing.
Luke sighed and pointed to the pile of wood sitting on his feet. “When was the last time someone got killed because of them?” he asked, nodding toward the darkness that waited across the fence. “Besides, it’s probably -.”
He was cut off and thrown back when Alicia, the group’s so-called leader, threw a stone at the fence. In seconds, the fence lit up and turned the stone into tiny, crumbled pieces. The quietness of the night instantly turned into an earsplitting noise.
“It is,” said Alicia. “Now stop being so whiney.” Her eyes dropped to the pile of wood. She then sighed, gave Jane a look of disappointment, and walked away.
Jane never understood why Alicia granted her permission to join their group. They were all skilled, independent, and actually prepared for anything. Jane stuck out like a sore thumb; she never learned how to do all those things. She was hiding behind the curtain her father had graciously created for her. Jane was unlike her friends who had to learn how to survive.
Maybe Alicia let her in just because her father Adam told her to.
Adam was always nice to Jane even if she was the daughter of his previous love and even if she carried the same genes of the same man he once despised. She’d seen him around but she never got to really know him. Sometimes she’d catch herself wishing her mother had chosen him instead. Adam seemed like a better father. Adam had time for his family. Unlike someone.
“Hey,” snapped Luke, but instantly softened his tone. “The fire.”
“Oh, right,” stammered Jane, fumbling to open the box. She failed miserably when the matches fell to the ground. There was no way she’d find all of them in the darkness.
Much to her surprise, Luke laughed. “Let me do it,” he insisted, striking the match against a stone. He did it so easily. The pile of wood now crackled and glowed with its bright fire licking the wind.
“Sorry,” muttered Jane.
“You don’t have to apologize for not being yourself today,” replied Luke, smiling sympathetically at her. “I can tell something’s up.”
She sighed and sat on the ground. “I just – I don’t know, Luke. I’ve been waiting for something to happen – you know, to my dad – but he’s not getting it. He says he wants to understand me, but when I open up, bam! He forgets what I said and he forgets about me.”
