ALLEGIANCE

ALLEGIANCE: part 6

BEA

Rodan and I had fought before. We had fought like siblings. But never like this. never had we engaged in a war of silence.

we had begun the rebuilding of our cottage with help from the government. they supplied us with wood and tools and left us to do the dirty work ourselves.

it took us 2 weeks, and the entire time, we spoke with one word answers and avoided each other for the most part.

it was during the time that we were building that I grew even closer to Tate.

"Beaaaaaa," a voice called from outside the wood structure.

I stepped outside the frame of wood to see Tate standing outside with a single daisy in his hand. He handed it to me and kissed my forehead. I hugged him tight and stood on my toes to kiss his soft lips.

"Have you thought about the convention yet?" he asked me.

A jolt of adrenaline shot through my veins. I had forgotten about the convention and we had to be on the train to Shai tomorrow morning.

"Um, yes," I lied. "I'm excited to get out of here."

"Why is that?"

"Just, looking for some excitement, ya know?"

That was two lies in one conversation. I wasn't looking to get out of my home town because I wanted excitement. I wanted out of the wreckage the bombing had left behind. I wanted some way out of the world we lived in. I wanted the war to be over. I wanted peace, and equality.

"Have you thought about what you're going to do?" He asked.

I shook my head.

"Well whatever it is you decide, I'll support you."

"Thanks Tate."

But how do I choose between Rodan and Tate? I knew that Rodan wanted to join the army in hopes of finding our parents, but I didn't want to fight. I wanted to run and hide from my imminent death.

RODAN

I peered outside the structure I was building in to see Tate with his arm around Bea. I had to force myself to control my rage. She had no idea what she was doing with him. He was most likely playing her to bring her to Talon! For all I knew or cared, he was probably a spy that brought people over to the other side! We had to honor our parents in the only way we know possible. We had to fight, just like they had. We hasn't raised ourselves for no reason. we were destined to become soldiers.

And yes, I did want to find my parents. The chance that they were still alive out there in the fighting was more than enough convincing for me to stay with Dezmon and fight.

*****************

Tate showed up to our construction site the next morning with a warm loaf of bread. The smell of it aroused me. He shook Bea awake and as soon as she saw the bread, her eyes lit up. She hugged him and sat up while he cut her a slice. She had the biggest smile plastered on her beautiful face.

I wished I could do something to make her that happy. I was building her a house, wasn't I? I was trying to help her find her parents, but all she wanted to do was run off with Tate. But then I remembered the present I had gotten for her at the market before the bombing.

I stared hungrily at the two until Tate finally realized he hadn't given me any yet. He tossed me the small section that was left and continued to flirt with Bea.

BEA

The bread was scrumptious. I couldn't get the fresh taste out of my mouth, and I wasn't complaining about that. I didn't bother asking Tate where he had gotten it. That was his business.

and then I remembered. we had to be on the train to shai in an hour.

"Rodan!" I screamed. "Hurry, get dressed, we have to go!"

His face lit up with recognition of what was going on and I ushered Tate out of the woodwork so i could get dressed. I pulled on a smooth blue blouse and the only pair of nice jeans I owned. I took a comb to my gnarly hair and threw it up in a bun.

"Bea! I have something for you!" Rodan called out.

I stepped out from behind the door and he handed me a tube of lip gloss. Tears sprung to my eyes. I had never had lip gloss before. I opened the lid and slathered the gloss on my chapped lips. It felt fantastic. Bread and lip gloss, both in one day? this was too good to be true.

Tate was waiting for us outside. He held my hand as we walked to the train station, and Rodan walked awkwardly beside me. When we arrived, Rodan pulled the envelope with our train tickets out and showed them to the ancient lady at the front desk. Tate did the same and we started off to find our train.

I had never ridden a train before, so I didn't know how to find the one we were supposed to board. Signs hung from the ceiling that read labels like "24A" and "36K". Rodan told me that our train was 71B. We were in the proper section, but we were in front of the 20-30 train and we needed to get to the 70-80 train.

as we walked, we saw many strange people. there was a girl about my age sitting on a bench chewing on her hair with tears streaming down her face and a boy next to her that looked not a day over 17 shaking uncontrollably. They were both being yelled at by a parent, or so it seemed. I stopped to eavesdrop, my curiosity taking over.

"You both will jump off that train the second it approaches Shai! You don't wait until you are inside the city limits, you get off as soon as you see the end of the trees! I don't want to hear another word! now get on your train, and I'll see you on the other side!" She screamed.

The kids lept up and jumped on the 50-60 train which meant we were close.

Did the mother mean for the kids to actually get off the train before it reached Shai? I didn't know if that could be considered a crime, running away, but I doubted that the governments had any time to deal with punishing runaways. But where in the world were they running away to?

I looked up at Tate, his square jaw and perfect blue eyes. He looked so handsome when he cleaned up properly. And then I noticed that he was smirking, like he was immensely satisfied.

could he have had something to do with the two runaway kids?