Eternal Flame

Chapter 5

Maggie

I'm running out in the open, out in the field where the only thing hiding me from getting discovered are the thick growing trees on the outskirts. But even there, I can see cameras moving in my direction as I sprint down and away from the Dome, and I know there are already guards or soldiers following me, running after me, trying to shoot me. I block all the noise out as best as possible, forcing my brain to only concentrate on the road ahead and not the guards behind.

I know in the back of my mind that this was not planned out well, that I had no plan at all this time. I might get caught, I might be shot, I might be tortured; there are a million possibilities of what they could do to me if I was caught, so I keep those thoughts in the back.

I am close to the outskirts, close to my house. But yet, the guards have not given up, their boots thumping almost silently through the grass. Of course they wouldn't. They are trained for things like this. For runaways. For thieves.

I make a sharp turn, catching the soldiers off guard for a split second. In that time, I manage to punch the closest one to me in the jaw, and another in the stomach. They both tumble onto the ground, and I am on the run again, hoping the two I hurt also slowed the rest of them.

My breath is shallow and short, and I try to control it by blocking everything out.

I imagine myself sitting in the middle of a grassy backyard, watching over my little brothers play Tag. They laugh as one tags the other, and someone else complains. I smile as one runs up to me and sits down, breathing heavily from running so much. He lies his head on my knees and extends his little hands for me to hold. I take one, and use my other hand to stroke his copper red hair. He grins, lifts his head up a little and asks, "Where is mommy?"

And suddenly that image is broken, and I'm on the ground, rolling down a hill. Broken branches cut through the thin material that hangs loosely on my frame, suddenly my mouth is filled with dirt and grass, and somehow my body hasn't collided into a tree yet. My heart is surprisingly steady, even as I hear boots crunching above me.

I am stopped by an oak tree near the bottom of the hill, and I try to stand, only to topple and fall again.

A male voice calls out, but my eyes are fighting to stay awake now. My body is aching from the fall, and I can see stained blood on my arms. Something feels broken in my body, and at the same time everything feels numb.

"Don't move," someone says, maybe the guard who found me first. "You move, I shoot."

I grunt, straining my eyes to see the figure speaking to me. A gun presses against my skull as soon as I lift my head, and my body collapses to the ground again.

He's saying something to his companion who probably just arrived, but my ears seem to become deaf. The world is muffled, with a buzzing of electricity in the back of my mind. I try to create images again to calm myself down, but my mind is blank.

I think I might have a concussion, or maybe it's just me going crazy, but the last thing I remember before the black out is the boy with the emerald green eyes, curious and scared and dangerous all at the same time.

End of chapter 5