The Ringing

Welcome to the Wilderness

I looked at him, questioning. “And what exactly does that mean?”

            He was on the verge of laughing. “Anna-this is great. The boundaries-they mean nothing to us. We could’ve left on day one. The Empire trusts that the boundaries and barbed wire will be enough to keep us in-but we can easily pass both now. Unstoppables are so rare-they don’t plan for them. And the Empire was so unfortunate enough to have us two lovely Unstoppables, taken for a Change on the same day AND have beds next to each other.”

            “So…what now?”

            Nate seemed to explode in happiness, and I was about to follow his lead. We really were unstoppable-invincible to all of the Empire’s tactics. “We escape,” he said. “We run and we never come back. There’s an area of land right next to the Compound, that we always used to play in as kids in the Empire. We can run, run as far out as we can, and then make a life for ourselves. Live on our own, in the wild. And maybe, if we’re really lucky-“ he paused-“maybe on the other side of that wildland, there’s a town, a village, a city filled with nice people, and we can start over. It’ll all be for the best.”

            I paused. So far, everything seemed to have been “for the best-“ turning on my Ringing, being Changed for Hector, now running away. But it had all gone fine. And I knew it was worth the risk. “Okay,” I panted. “I’ll come with you. Should we pack?”

            “He nodded. “Bring what you think is essential. And I-I have a little secret.” He pulled out a little knife, the ones used to cut fabric in textiles. “I smuggled it out the other day.”

            I grinned and turned to the bottom of my bed, slowly sliding my basket out as to make as little noise as possible. I changed into a fresh pair of clothes, and I tied my pillow, a change of clothes, and my towel in my blanket. I threw the rest of my things into my basket and stashed it back under my bed. I looked over to Nate, and he did the same. He turned to me. “There’s one more thing I need to tell you before we go.” I looked at him. “If the Empire finds us, that’s it. Dead. They won’t hesitate to shoot us-Unstoppables are undesirables here. You still want to go?”

            I breathed in deep and hesitated. If I died, what would be left? Hector was dead to me, and I was dead to my parents. And Nate-he would mourn, but he would be able to go on. He would be running the race with me. “Yes,” I finally said. “I’m sure.”

            I looked down at the ground at the pink square around me. I had to trust that it wouldn’t kill me, walking outside of the little box. I gingerly lifted up a foot, and it hovered over the regular, grey concrete. I slowly lowered it, and finally put some of my weight on the concrete. I looked up and around. No alarms sounded, no guards came to take me away. I placed the other foot out. Everything stayed still. I looked towards Nate-

            I was finally free.

            We started to walk away, slowly make our way through the doorways. I looked back-I was abandoning Theodore. I was faced with a decision-should I tell him we’re leaving or go? I kept walking. Maybe it would be better if he just thought we died through the Change. No surprises there.

            As we made it to the door farthest away from us-it was closest to the Compound exit-I saw something I had never seen before. Hector’s bed. I walked over to him, parted his hair, and kissed him on the forehead. The goodbye I wished I had had with my parents, I thought. I looked at him one last time, and let him go. I thought about all the other times I had let my world go-this was the first time I was really letting go. There was no way my life would ever be the same.