Chapter 3 - Seth
The sound of a door being kicked in jolted me awake. Then, the sound of three gunshots, "boom, boom, boom". I pinched myself to see if I was dreaming. "Oh no," I think to myself "this is real." I crept out of my room, crawling my fingers along the coarse wall. And then I saw it, two NASR soldiers on the floor, chillingly illuminated by the sharp moonlight, dead.
"Ben! Ben what's happening? Where are you?" I don't know what made me think of yelling that. I guess because Ben has always been my sense of security.
"Seth it's okay. I'm right here. Follow my voice. Someone ratted me out. They've found us. We have to leave." They've found us. Who found us? What did we do?
"What do you mean? Who found us?" I asked.
"The resistance...oh right you don't know about that. Me and some guys from the district started a resistance. That's why I got the gun. Tomorrow we were going to intercept a government convoy, I guess someone told them we were coming."
I stared at him in disbelief. How could he keep something like that from me? And now, he is just waiving it off like its no big deal.
"Look I'll be happy to explain later," Ben said sensing my confusion. "but right now, we need to get out of here."
I ran back to my room and grabbed the pocket watch, one thing I could not abandon. I returned to Ben and we headed out what used to be our door.
I didn't know where we were going, all I knew was that if Ben was this scared, it was for a good reason. Trailing Ben, we headed into the forest. As we were running I had time to collect my thoughts. It all made sense now. I had notice that recently Ben had sometimes not been at our living compartments in the evening. The first time it happened, I was worried, but it's not like there was any way to find out where he was so I just went to bed. The next day, when we were hunting, I inquired where he was. He simply dismissed it as being out with some friends. That didn't really make sense, considering my brother doesn't have friends. Having friends is dangerous, something he always told me. But I knew better than to question my brother. I wasn't surprised when it happened again, but I had a feeling something was going on.
Now it all ties together though. He was having meetings with the resistance. I must admit, I admire my brother for being so courageous. However, he's ignorant. He is quick to trust, not checking up on the possible "loose ends". He obviously left some loose ends, loose enough to turn him in.
As we were running through the forest, the snow crunching under the weight of our strides, I couldn't help to wonder what life used to be like. My brother tells stories about the "old world" all the time. He says that people used to bicker and argue about simple things. Stupid things. Even after the war, there was still a little shadow of the old world. The NASR worked its "reforming" starting from what used to be called Asia, so it was a while before they completely took control of what was the United States. Of course, they had officials put in place and armed soldiers to abuse us. Now every aspect of our lives was controlled by them. Every week, there were mandatory living compartment inspections. If you had any restricted items in your house, you were taken away. I don't know where to, but I know Ben always took special care to hide anything we had that might be considered restricted. One guy got taken away from our complex once for having an apple core inside his apartment. They said he could be fermenting the fruit and making alcohol, which is restricted.
After probably an hour of running, we came across a very alien structure. It was huge, spanning hundreds of feet each way I looked. I looked up, above what I assumed was some sort of entrance, and there was a sign with very large letters, M - A - C - Y - S. Macy is a name. Why would there be a building made after a name?
"What is it?" I sheepishly asked
"That, is Macy's, this, this is a mall. Before the war, people would go to these places and buy goods, mainly clothes."
"Why would anyone make something that big for clothes?" Judgingly I asked.
"Before the war, people didn't have to make their clothes, or catch their food. They just went to stores like this and bought it."
Wow. To be able to just walk to this "store" and buy a deer. What magnificence! I suppose it's sort of like trading. People must have brought their food they caught and traded it for clothes and whatever other goods were sold here.
"So, why are we here?"
"This is a safe place. No one will think to look for us here. I doubt anyone knows its here."
Hmph, doubt. I bet he "doubted" anyone would rat him out. Oh well, it's not like I have any other solutions. This is a big place, I have got some exploring to do.
