Dystopia (Dystopia Trilogy Book 1)

Chapter 3

Note: This is the 3rsd chapter out of 20. Each Friday a new chapter will be posted. However, if you wish to read it now, it can be purchased on Amazon, B&N, iBookstore, Kobo, and Smashwords. You can also follow me on Twitter (JMRUL) and facebook.

When the street lights had gone out, Dana threw off the covers and slipped on her shoes. She opened the door to her room a crack, making certain that her parents were asleep. Her father’s snore told her they were. Quickly, Dana opened her window and removed the screen. She crawled outside, hiding behind the bush that was there.

Glancing down the street, Dana dashed to the other side and down an alleyway. She kept to the shadows to avoid detection. Officers patrolled the streets at night. Anyone caught out past curfew was subject to prosecution. Mostly, they just disappeared and were never heard from again.

Dana did not care about the consequences. She wanted a place to think and knew just where to go.

She found the wall that marked the city limits. The area beyond was out of bounds, and none were supposed to venture there. Dana ran her hand against the concrete wall, looking for the place where a part of it had crumbled away. Found it. Carefully, she removed the loose bricks, revealing a hole just big enough to crawl through.

Once through, Dana waited for the guard tower spotlight to turn away. She ran off into the night, far away from her city and to the great beyond. Once she knew she was safely away, Dana slowed to a walk until she found the trail that her grandfather had once shown her. Following it, Dana knew where it would take her.

At last, she reached a small clearing that overlooked a valley and the city she lived in. Her home seemed so peaceful from where she stood. Dana sat on the soft grass and picked at the flowers.

“I don’t want to go,” she said to the night sky.

“Then don’t,” her grandfather’s voice said in her mind.

Oftentimes, Dana imagined that he still answered her, even though he was dead. Years ago, when she was a small child, they came to the same clearing. He would take her and Lina in the middle of the night, and together, they snuck outside the city. Dana fiddled with her hair as she remembered how he would put it into two braids, calling her his “Indian Princess”. Then, he would give her some strawberries that he had somehow managed to procure. She had loved those moments when they just sat together alone without the fear of being caught.

Sadness overtook her as she remembered the day her grandfather had left. He had fallen and broken his hip. The Board of Health had decided that it wasn’t worth the cost of fixing it. He had become too old, a waste of resources. Soon afterward, he received a notice informing him to report to Wing 16 of the hospital. Everyone dreaded such a letter. All who went to Wing 16 never returned.

The day her family took her grandfather there was seared into her mind. Her mother wept quietly, trying to hide her tears. Though somber, her father managed to hold back his emotions as he held onto Lina. Dana did not understand at the time. She only knew that she would never see her beloved grandfather again.

“Don’t cry for me,” her grandfather had told her as he hugged her. “You must be brave, my little Indian Princess.”

“I don’t know how,” Dana had cried.

“You have a greatness about you. You will change things.” He kissed her and disappeared behind the steel doors of Wing 16.

Dana wiped a tear from her eye as she thought back to that time. Briefly, she considered running away. But where will I go? She shook her head. Dana knew she could not flee; her parents would suffer if she did.