New Earth Order

Chapter 4

I awoke to the sound of gruffs coming from the front of the store. I quickly but quietly jumped to my feet. I kept my head down and made my way to the front to see what was going on.

To my suprise it was a girl. She had long blonde hair and was wearing a blue top with jeans. She looked different to the other Roamers, she looked like me. She held her hands up as she backed up against a wall. The gruffs closing in on her.

"Please stop." She wined. "Stay."
She squeezed her eyes shut as she hoped for the best.

I decided to step in, I doubt she would try anything knowing the gruffs are around and what they're like.

"Hey" I shouted. As I stood up straight and walked in front of my cover towards the gruffs and the girl. She began to smile and I could see more of her ocean blue eyes.

The gruffs backed up and stood by me.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Are you Demetrius?" She asked ignoring my question. She took a step forward, but the gruffs growled forcing her to take a step back.

"Yes, why?"

She smiled again, this time it was a bigger smile, like she had accomplished something.

"I was sent by your parents, I've finally found you." She pulled out a little device from her pocket and showed me the screen.

It was a black plastic box with a screen on the front. It looked like a map, but had a red dot flashing on the screen.

"Wow, what's that? Looks cool." I exclaimed in amazement not having seen one in my life before.

"It's a tracker. It shows you where people are, haven't you ever seen one?" She asked suprised.

"No I haven't." I stated.

"Well your parents gave it to me, to track you down. They said it was your necklace."

"My necklace?" I took it off and looked down at it.

"Yes." She said. "There's a tracker inside and this device finds it and keeps track of your whereabouts."

"Cool." I said as I put my necklace back on.

"But." Her face became more serious and her behaviour changed as she became more desperate. "They need your help, we need your help."

"We, who's we?"

"There's a whole village of people like us, but they're using us as slaves. They kill women and children everyday. They don't even care." She looked down and wiped a tear that rolled down her cheek.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think there's anything I can do. I barely survive on my own, I don't know how I'm supposed to help. I'm sorry." I looked down avoiding eye contact, I felt ashamed.

"You're not even going to try? Your parents are down there too. I would have died for mine." She bellowed taking a step forward ignore the gruffs warning.

She took a deep breath and she couldn't stop the stream of tears flowing down her face. She dropped to the floor and began to sob. I didn't know what to do, should I comfort her or give her some space.

"I'm sorry." I apologised. "But what am I going to do, they have an army, I'm just one kid."

"I was working one day, at the field. I forgot to close the latch and the wild birds took most of the mutants food. It was me, my fault but my mother took the blame. I kept telling them it was me but she kept insisting it was her. They killed her right in front of me, in front of everyone. I couldn't do anything but just watch helplessly as the life drained from her body. They used her as an example to everyone. You screw up, and you die."

She stood up and wiped the tears as she relived the memory.
"And you're too scared to help. We have to live there everyday, watching one of us get killed for the smallest reasons. Your parents could be next." She simply stated through the tears and the left the store. I ran out after her.

"Wait." I shouted.

She turned around as her red blood shot eyes met mine.

"What can I do?"

She never answered the question but ran over to me and hugged me so tight. I heard a soft whisper.

"Thank you."

I smiled and we gently pulled away from each other.

"Give me a minute." I said making my way back to the store.

"Okay."

I pushed open the doors and went straight to the back. I grabbed the clothes out my bag and changed. I grabbed my bag and headed out.
I whistled and gathered all the gruffs.

"Lets go."

We all walked out and met the girl once again.

"It's this way." She stated, she had calmed down about earlier.

"I didn't get your name."

"It's Wiley." She smiled.

"Wiley, nice to meet you." I smiled.

"Nice to meet you too." She replied.

It was silent for a while, there wasn't much to say, or more I didn't know what to say, i'd never met anyone before, my parents were the only people in my life. I decided to break the silence with a question that's been on my mind for weeks.

"I've noticed a lot of Roamers down here, do you know why they're traveling so far down?"

She shook her head "I heard a few of them talking, maybe they're running out of supplies and thought they'd have some luck down here."

"So how do you plan on doing this?"

"Doing what?" She questioned with a her head tilted to the side.

"Getting my parents..." I paused about to finish my sentence when I remembered we had to help the others. "...and the others."

"I'm not sure, if I'm honest. It's best we find your parents first, they'll know what to do."

"Okay." I sighed.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

I looked at her and saw her worried expression, she must have thought I was going to back out.

"It's just, I haven't seen them in so long, what if they don't even recognise me."

"Of course they will, they're your parents, they'll never forget you." She smiled.  

I nodded but stopped in my tracks.

"What is it?" She asked anxiously.

"There's a ship heading towards us, do you think it's easier to get caught and get a fast ride straight there?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so, they'll just kill us." She had a point.

"But there's no where to hid, we're in open space. There's no cover. Looks like there is only one option."