The Resistance

Chapter four

*The red meadow*

A cool summer’s breeze drifted carelessly through the colony, refreshing the passersby. A girl, I can’t recall, and I ran franticly past pale painted stall. Joyful screams and gleeful giggles escaped our young mouths, her long auburn hair bragged in the air behind her, waving the tall grass in the breeze.

I chased after it, trying to grab the silky ends, screams of joy and howls of laughter leaving a trail of bread crumbs behind us. We ran without thinking, for ages without the thought, my empty head not knowing anything but her hairs dancing in the wind and my burning passion to stroke it. Her Sunday dress flew from side to side and her small petite feet tapped lightly on the ground, were as my blue laced dress hung heavily too big for me around my young shoulders slowing me down and my feet pinched in small white shoes. We were young free girls with no ambition in the world apart from having fun.

The ground grew harder rockier, the cracked earth played havoc with my balance causing my to wobble as I ran but it seemed to have no effect on my older companion. She glided over every bump or crack as if they were not there. She turned twisting her hair around her like a warm blanket “Come on Alice” she shouted playfully, her flushed cheeks made her completion even more beautiful.

“I, I catch you” my words not fully formed yet but just enough so she knew what I was saying

“Hahaha” she laughed almost nastily “Come on then, just you try” with that my little chubby legs stumbled quickly over the root of a tree, I would catch her. Her reaction was slow but that didn’t give me an advantage, Amelia was a good few years older than me and her long slender frame meant she was quick. Giggles began to fill the air again as we ran further and further away from the sight of the town.

Grass grew in tuffs here not like in the center of town where it was a lush field of green, here it was brown and dry like the earth almost identical in color and texture.

We continued giggling and laughing, running full force and then nothing. Amelia stopped dead at the edge of a stone ring, gazing out at the horizon. I ran up to her and went to continue but her arm snapped out across my stomach holding me back.

“Whets go, whets explore” I said childish and full of glee but she just stood there with no reply. I shrugged my shoulders and pushed against her arm. I pushed with all my might but her arm would not move.

“Whet me go! Whet me play!” I exclaimed as I franticly struggled against the power of her stick thin arm. I grew restless and annoyed with every struggling puff. “Whet me go, whet go!” I screamed but it did not seem to faze her, I wiggled and pushed harder and managed to escape the firm barrier that was her arm only to have it snap down in front of me once again.

The sheer force of it forced me to the ground. I stared in astonishment “Why you do dat?” I asked as the tears weld up in my eyes. She knelt down softly beside me and held my hands.

“Because I love you” She said in the calmest of voices. I stared out in to the horizon seeing nothing but red waste and then grey. The strained harder trying to make out the grey line, and soon enough the image of a metal fence danced in the heat. Barbed wire lined its edges and watch towers were place along the fence.

I stared back at the girl, her eyes field with fear and worry. That’s when I realized we were prisoners and the red meadow that stretched out before us was the moat to our castle.