Runner

Chapter 30

I heard about it in the cafeteria. I had my usual guard with me, though most "prisioners" here had at least two, they didnt see me as a threat, small 16 year old girl i was. I was munching on my cereal when i saw my guard's watch light up, and small message appear. The writing was to small for me to read from my position, and i didnt want to give away that i was trying to read it.

Soon another golden guard moves over to him and they speak in hushed voices. I lean my head just close enough to hear the words bombing, and sunday. Bombing and sunday? I lean back into my earlier position and luckily i see the guards hadn't noticed my eavesdropping. I spent the rest of breakfast mulling over the words. There was something I was missing. The two words are so obvious, clearly something was happening.

I kept thinking those words, over and over, and on Saturday on my walk around the grounds, it clicked. Bombing- someone could easily die from that. Sunday- the day President Henderson was scheduled to leave the compound. They were going to try and kill him. Officer Mitchell was going to kill him. He had always wanted the power, and he was never shy in showing it. I wish i had figured this out earlier. I bet i even knew how, as he left, in his car, that was Mr. Mitchel's style. I knew i had to tell the president at dinner. But would he believe me? I hoped so. I really did.

I spent the next few hours before our dinner the way i usually did these days, worry about Alex, eat, worry about Alex, sleep, and worry about Alex a little more. Soon I am ready for our dinner, and two guards come to get me from my room and take me to the place I am meeting the president. It is extravagant. I step into the room and take a deep breath. The curtains here are a deep blue, velvet and long, the ceiling high, the table much too long for two people. One of my guards pulls the chair out from in front of me and i sit down. The President and I exchange hellos, how are yous, and then i know i need to get down to business. How am i going to do this? There are at least 5 guards in this room alone, though they are a fair distance away. I think of the worst most simple excuse. I will be lucky if they don't figure it out in seconds. I drop my napkin onto the shiny wooden floors, deliberately look at him and then down to the ground at my napkin. We pretend to both go for the napkin at the same time. I quickly whisper, "Sunday, they will bomb you. Your car is my guess." His face becomes as white as my napkin and i have to help him sit back up. Only a mere few seconds have passed, but all eyes in the room are on us. I let out a staged laugh, one of those, "Oh silly us!" ones, and the president, who reminds me way too much of Cale, finally catches on. Just in time for it to not look suspicious. The rest of dinner is a quiet affair. He only speaks again once, to ask how Cale is. Not, where is he? why did he betray me? What did i do? I answer simply, "Very well, thank you." I didn't add anything more, because we both knew how fragile the relationship with Cale and his father sitting across the table from me had been. The President wanted his son to do what he wanted, but Cale, he wanted something else. The very thing the President hid from him all those years. It was an odd relationship, to say the least. And i too don't agree with everything the President has done to the dominion, hated most of it. He was the one who shunned Runners like myself, and a month ago i would have hated the Charlie who sits here so calmly with the man who controlled every aspect of her life. But, as much as he hurt me indirectly, he saved my brother and I's life, and i owe it to him to do the same if i can. But also for Cale, who has saved my life more than once, my best friend.

The rest of the evening was silent, apart from our goodbyes, and later i found myself laying in bed, looking at the roof, wondering how on earth i was going to get Alex out of this place.