Stargazer (Write Awards 2013)

Chapter 12 (Write Awards 2013)

"Pizza!" Stephen practically bowelled over Aaron as he walked through the door carrying large square boxes. He ripped the boxes from Aaron's arms and started eating triangle shaped masses. Aaron rolled his eyes as Stephen moaned, dumping himself into a chair. Behind him entered four boys all carrying either white bags or more large boxes and placed them onto the tables. Imminently everyone swarmed around the tables, grabbing at the food.

"You might want to get something before it's gone," Aaron said as he opened his mouth to take a bite of a cheesy looking triangle. I frowned and walked over to the table where most of the boys surrounded. On the table was a rapidly shrinking thing Stephen called a pizza. I reached over and picked up one which had nothing but a yellow substance on top.

"It's cheese," the boy next to me said as he failed to not laugh at my expression. The cheese stretched and slipped off the pizza. Sighing, I picked up the fallen blob of cheese and put it back on to the pizza. The smell was nice; warm and buttery. Shrugging, I took a great big bite and had to have another one.

Never in my life had I had something so greasy and tasty! Mum mostly made broths and stews. This had nothing on the liquid. The dough was chewy and the cheese melted on my tongue. I eagerly grabbed another one.

I wandered around to the other pizzas. Some had large round brown circles, sprinkles of greens and reds and I think I even saw fish on another. I tried them all but I stayed well away from the fish. Its white eyes staring at me, almost as if it was daring me to eat it.

"Why did you poke your tongue at the fish?" Stephen took a breath from his pizza and was watching me. I shrugged and sat down, watching the fish from the corner of my eye. I swear if I looked away it was going to speak. Or move.

"It scares me," I said, taking a bite of the last pizza slice in the cheese. Stephen chuckled, dusting crumbs from his pants. I finished off the pizza slices, feeling the grease in the back of my throat.

"So, how are the clothes?" Stephen asked, shifting in his seat. I looked down to my top, fingering the edges.

"There alright," I shrugged. "Just different than the clothing at home."

"How so?"

"Only the Guards wear dark clothing. Everyone else wears either white or bright and dull colours. Dark usually represents darkness."

"Oh," Stephen looked down and fiddled with his fingers. "I can find something else if it makes you feel uncomfortable!"

"Oh no!" started I looked up at him. "You didn't know. It's fine, please don't worry."

"So are things really that bad at home?" he asked after a moment of silence.

"Yeah sort of. Its war, war and more war. To be honest that's all we think about. Think about the next weapon or the next tactic to use to get into the other side." Ever since talking about it to someone who doesn't know life I realized that life at home wasn't what I thought it was. I thought it was strict but safe. Looking back on everything I realized we were the next generation of Guards. Brought up in war and surrounded by death.

"Oh well, it's not like that here. I-I mean, there is war but we have others to do it for us." Stephen stuttered over his words. I smiled gently at him.

"No matter where you are there will always be a war. What about all those people who go and fight then? They have a family you know and when they die they will be grieving just as much." Stephen made an 'O' with his mouth, realizing the situation he was caught in. I shrugged not too worried about his answer. War was something all life forms will have, no matter what they are. It's just nature to fight.

A group of the boys had gone off in one of the corners and started talking, laughing at jokes. Stephen looked over at them and I could feel his longing to go over and join them.

"Go on," I said, shrugging. Stephen looked at me in confusion. I pointed over towards the boys. "Go on over. I'm fine," I added when he opened his mouth to ask a question. He shrugged before walking over and joining them.

I got up from the chair and wandered over to the front again, shivering slightly when the cool breeze hit my bare skin. I had left the strange black jacket inside and I still thought the dark clothing I was wearing was clothing for the Guards.

Outside the night air was slowly dipping towards freezing, but it was still a nice night in general. I rested on the rails that ran along the entire length of the house, looking down into the forest below. My breath came out in cold puffs which floated up into the air before slowly disappearing.

I closed my eyes and enjoyed the silence. Sometime later, I wasn't too sure what it was, but something made me open my eyes. The night air was still, waiting. Holding its breath as if something was lurking through its depths. I quickly scanned the area and that's when I heard it.

Footsteps. They were faint but I could hear them, faintly in the background. I stilled my breathing and strained my ears. The footsteps grew louder and the thing that made my body break out in goose bumps and to jerk away from the railing wasn't the fact that I heard loud footsteps.

It was the fact that I could hear multiple footsteps.

An orange light suddenly flashed along a trunk, illuminating the rough texture. It travelled along the trunk and down to the ground, before switching off. My heart was in my throat and my pulse was in my ears. The footsteps stopped and this time I could hear each foot at it came down onto the bark littering the floor.

I started backing up, tripping over my own feet as I turned to run to the boys. A small static shock ran through the air, making the hair on the back of my neck prickle for the first time in my life. I shoved my way back inside and had to catch myself on the edge of the door to stop myself from falling on the floor.

All eyes turned towards me, but to my surprise it was Aaron who stood up first, concern plaster over his face.

"June," he said, his tone low.

"There's people outside!" I cried but it came out as a whisper. Aaron cocked his head and jogged over.

"What does that mean?" he asked. I would have answered if it wasn't for the shock that ripped through the house. The floor creaked and the whole house shifted its weight, making it lean to the side. At once everyone was up and running towards the front door, trying to make both sides equal in weight.

I pushed my way to the front of the group and saw multiple orange lights light up the entire forest floor. Behind each light source was a person in matching uniforms with a gun. And standing up the front of the group was a familiar face.

Standing at the front, both hands on her hips and a smug glare on her face, was Brenda.