Away

Chapter 2

Clover watched from a distance this time, perched atop the roof of the bakery, a two story building painted a dull yellow with a rusty 'fire escape' ladder leaned against the back. The word bakery was nailed to the front in cast iron letters, but obviously not well enough. The B and K swung loose from their hold and stood in awkward positions. When anyone tried to read it it would look more like Aery. Clover never knew this though, and she never knew if she ever would.

She vaguely remembered a time when she imagined a world outside of the thick stone walls and wrote beautiful notes about it on paper, but it was nothing but a mere memory to her, and she had to learn to accept that.

Jack and Charlie strummed some out of tune guitars in the town square, entertaining the young children. It was their 'purpose' as the Civils called it. Everyone got one, sooner or later, some baked, others cleaned. Clover didn't have a purpose yet, maybe the Civils just thought she was useless.

The kids were so happy, so unique, sitting in bunches with their colourful clothing and cheerful smiles. They knew nothing. They only knew happy, but the feeling would diminish once they turned ten and got the thing they loved ripped away without mercy.

Clover barely knew happy. It was like a distant friend to her. She never came in contact with it, and when she did it was brief and awkward. Clover wished she were closer friends with happy, but in this place, it was almost impossible.

The square was quiet at this time of day, the sun was rising and the Civils were still sleeping, not even worried about the up keeping of the society they ran. Then again, the Civils never cared. They were merciless lying freaks, and it was no secret.

-

By the end of the morning, Clover, Jack, and Charlie met up to split a loaf of bread, the only thing they were allowed to eat without permission from the Civils. They smiled at each other dully, but it never reached their eyes.

It seemed that the Civils were feeling nice that day, as they didn't decide to terrorize the population just yet, but Clover never dared to talk about them, not at least when they were in public. The Civils had eyes everywhere.

"Haven't you ever wanted to escape this place?" Charlie mumbled while taking a bite of his bread.

Clover looked around carefully, she had to be careful when talking in public. "I mean, haven't we all? They do horrible things to us, just to keep us here. It's amazing how we can stay so sane."

"Well, we have each other, maybe that's why we're all okay," Charlie said optimistically, " but then again, there's Cooky Curtis."

Cooky Curtis was the man who did actually go crazy. He lived in the Physical unit, and had lost his sight. Sight was one of the most common misfortunes. According to him, he got his sight back one day and created a havoc in the town square. The Civils locked him up in a dark cell, until he quite literally went insane.

He was released years after the incident and was never the same. He ended up residing in the Physical Unit once more, in a lone cell. Nobody remembered the last time he actually went out in public, and the Civils used Curtis as a perfect example of not to defy them, and so nobody did.

Jack nodded slowly and shrugged his shoulders. He had no way of communicating with anyone. The Civils never let him learn sign language, like the deaf people, they said it would be too easy.

Clover could still understand Jack, his dark blue eyes held all the emotion in the world. Clover believed that everybody's eyes did so, even her gloomy brown ones.

They sat there the rest of the afternoon, and quickly ran back home when the Civils came out. None of them wanted a repeat of yesterday.

-

Clover sat on her mattress, picking at the million loose strings hanging from its side. Sometimes she wondered how she even managed to fall asleep at night. The state of the old thing was horrible.

Charlie came in after a while, and sat beside Clover, he didn't seem like his usual self. He was too nervous, almost trembling. "About our lunch conversation," he said shakily, "what if we were to make that dream a reality?"

Clover was shocked that Charlie would even think twice about running away, but she knew that he was dead serious about it this time. "If we could, we would," She replied, unsure of Charlie's motive.

"But what if we can?" Charlie inquired, "I know a guy..."

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Hello guys! How are you all feeling!

I'm really pumped about the response I'm getting to the book and really happy that it's just not me reading! So THANK YOU guys for taking the time out of your day to enjoy this little work of writing I put together! Your response, however small it is makes my day! It's amazing that I can already get some readers after the first week!

If you think other people should read this book go ahead and make the story as active as possible, the more active you make it the more people will be able to see it, and the more the merrier, am I right!

Till next week,

Jay xx