The Fox and The Forest (EDITING)

Pine (1.4)

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"What. Flynn. Where?"

Tom pointed to a tall boy who strolled, confidently, several rows ahead of them.

"He's here!" Kate lurched forward, attempting to grab Flynn- the thought of revenge had momentarily vanished from her mind.

Luckily Tom had restrained her, before she managed to knock district dwellers carelessly out of her way.

Tom held onto Kate for a moment longer, just to be safe.

Oblivious to their discovery, the flow of people carried on- barely speaking to each other except the occasional whisper or nod.

After Tom had released her, Kate searched for Flynn again. But she couldn't see him - for the crowd was moving faster now and their bodies pushing against each other like heated atoms in a molecule.

"Stupid. What we need now is to blend in," Tom told Kate.

She nodded and reluctantly admitted that Tom was right. The Forest guards nearby flaunted their tasers, swinging them from side to side whilst they studied the new recruits; as if in conformation of their required insignificance.

Tom and Kate did their best to look elsewhere and avoid eye contact, in case they were recognised. The government had to be after them by now.

Kate and Tom began to knock into each other. They had to run to keep up with the rest of the trainees.

Kate wondered why the people ahead had suddenly started moving so rapidly. But Tom, being blessed with height, saw exactly the reason why.

"What's going on?" Kate asked, cursing her inability to grow higher than Tom- or anyone, for that matter.

In the distance Tom could see the oxygen kiosk, quickly getting bigger as he and Kate ran with the group - it was hexagonal in shape, adorning a rusty hat of corrugated iron.

"Oxygen- like the coordinator said."

As they approached the stall at the back of the scrabbling crowd, Kate could finally see the oxygen masks that hung like Christmas decorations once did, in the era before.

It was smaller than they had remembered. Even though its job was the most significant in the District of Lakes- to sustain life. To provide oxygen that was carefully crafted, and contained even more carefully, in a metal alloyed tank that was sourced elsewhere. 

In comparison, the decaying cottage houses were giants. The buildings were more common since Kate and Tom had become closer to the oxygen kiosk. The houses shape was so warped from the acidic rain and poisonous gases that the houses leaned in towards the purifier trainees- as though they were waiting for something.

Kate caught a glimpse of Flynn once again- his ash blond hair gracefully framing the side of his face as he smiled at the person walking next to him.

*

"There's too many of us." Tom surveyed the increasingly restless crowd. "There's no way that we're going to get a plausible amount of oxygen to last us the whole day. Neither will half of these people. Hell is going to break lose." he explained, even though he wasn't quite sure what hell was.

The children had been taught that hell was on earth, along with the greed and destruction.  "Plus I still need a tank," he said in his gruff, slightly disapproving tone. He eyed Kate's long hair, enviously- for it was thick enough to create the illusion of an oxygen tank on her back.

There's only one way we're gunna get past this queue, Kate thought to herself, smirking slightly as another plot formed in her mind.

She eyed Tom's wound on his forehead, which was in the early processes of closing. Tom furrowed his brows once he'd seen the calculating look on Kate's face.Her knuckles were rising, then falling, as she clenched an unclenched them.