Runner

Chapter 1

My hand travelled along the lines of my gun, steady, waiting. My eyes ran the perimeter of the storehouse, darting along the shadows on the wall, searching for a threat. I released my breath and stood up from my crouch. I took the left of the storehouse, grabbed the canned food in boxes and throwing them into my bag. Sweat ran down my face as I worked my way along the rows, my bag filling up faster than I would like.  As we raided the house I thought again of the family I had left behind. My mother, my father, both too fragile to handle life on the run. I felt the guilt rise in my stomach again and worked to stifle it, this was my weakness. I shake my head and concerntrate on te task at hand. I look over to Alex, and my thoughts run wild yet again. Alex had no trouble with the fact our parents, friends, neighbours, were all mourning our "death" It was the safest way, better than the truth.

"It's better this way" he would say, stroking my hair like a child "If we had stayed, we would really be dead". I miss those days, the days when things weren't so crazy. When I could whisper my thoughts to him, without the fear of being constantly watched. Alex was no longer this way, time being a Runner had hardened my brothers features, his caring nature, made him more like one of the golden. Now he would not talk to me like that. Always watching, anticipating the next attack, Alex was a different person, but so was I.

After the raid we took shelter in the basement of an abandoned power company and shuffled through the contents of todays raid, 2 knives, some water, and canned food. It would only last so long, just like our stay. Alex walked the tiled floors quietly, a hunters footing, and sat down next to me.

"I would say we have untill.." he checked his watch, "Six a.m. then we move on" Alex says. I lay down on the cold tile, and a chill runs up my spine.

"Alex," I whisper

"Yes Charlie?"

"Do you ever wonder what will happen if they find us?" I ask  tentatively, "The golden, I mean"

"I don't want to think about, we only have time to think about now, I've told you this." He wipes his mouth with his grubby sleeve and hand's me some water. "Here, drink" he orders.

"I know but, what if they take us to the lake?" I ask, the lake is where the runners like my brother and I go, the dominion make a show out of us, exile us to a place of punishment. Stories constantly circle about the horrors of the lake, that once you go you never come back. It is worse than a prison they say. I believe this is another one of the stories the dominion brainwash us with.The people that go to the lake are not criminals, but runners, people part of the rebellion. All runners want is freedom, it is what they die for, why they live their lives on the run, it is the only thing they will never have. The dominion decide everything, what we eat, where we live, who we are. They say freedom ruined the world before us, that freedom created war, ruined the earth,  that we must live in a controlled society in order to find peace. They tell us this: the people before us were evil creatures, caring only for themselves. The freedom they had made them hungry for power, and that now we must share, we must be equal. I don't believe this. Equal? Is that why the Rulers, the highest up in our government, decide everything for us? If we were truly equal, would we not be a democracy? Questions like these are the ones that title me as a runner, the questions that will send me to the lake if I am not careful.

"I don't know Charlie, I suppose we will find other's like us." He says with a glint in is eye. I know the thought of others like us intrigues him, as it does me. But we cannot think like that if we want to survive.

"If we're not dead first." He adds, and I turn on my side, holding my gun closer to my body, and I know the conversation is finished.