Enhanced (first draft)

Chapter 4

I wake to the sound of footsteps. They seem to be right next to me, so I don't know if I have been discovered yet.

I jump up, in fear that I will have to quickly run away. I look around to see where they footsteps were coming from a second ago.

"Holy shit!" somebody exclaims.

There are two figures standing in front of me. They hadn't noticed me in the dark until I jumped up. I blew my cover. They probably would have just passed by me, but I made the wrong assumption.

I turn away and start to run, knowing that I won't be able to get away from them. My breathing is laborious from the beginning as I struggle to take quick breaths in the cold night air. I am not anywhere close to being in shape. The pound of feet on the ground gets closer and closer to me.

A rough hand grabs one of my arms, forcing me to come to an abrupt stop. My free hand is also roughly grabbed, and I can feel a rope being tied around them. They want to kidnap me. Wonderful. It better not be Soren having found me already.

The one that tied my hands forces me to sit down on a rough patch of grass. I wriggle uncomfortably as the other kidnapper struggled to make a fire using a few sticks.

After a few minutes, and a lot of cursing, a dim fire was made. I could see my two kidnappers. They were both males, seeming to be around my age. Neither if them seemed to be Enhanced. I was shocked at how they looked, having never seen an Outcast male before. Their features seemed too rough, and they were not well groomed liked the Enhanced men.

Once they saw me, they seemed equally shocked. I was not Enhanced like others I knew whose features were absolutely unlike the Outcasts, but I still was Enhanced a decent amount. There was still a drastic difference between me and an Outcast woman.

"What are you doing?" The one that had tied my hands asks. His small brown eyes seem to examine every part of me, seeing if I would pose a threat.

"I am from away. I do not want my daughter to be genetically enhanced."

"Where is your daughter?" The second man asks roughly. He seems to think that I am lying. I glare at him, his red hair illuminated by the fire light.

I point to my stomach. I hope that is enough to convince them. I really have no evidence of my daughter being in there since I have only been pregnant for a month.

"I haven't had her yet," I say. "I will in about eight months."

They don't look like they believe me. They look at each other, the brunette that had tied my hands shrugs at the redhead.

"Why did you tie me up?" I ask, desperate to get out of this uncomfortable position. The rope is rough against my skin. I can feel the itch coming already.

"We aren't sure who you are. We tend to have many enemies, and you can never be too careful. You will have to remain tied up until Cyrus checks your belongings to make sure there are no weapons." The redhead, Cyrus, gets up and heads for my bag.

"You don't believe my story?" I don't want Cyrus to look through my stuff. There is really nothing private or dangerous in it, but it still is my personal stuff.

The brunette smiles slightly. It is a sad smile, his eyes looking down at the ground. "I want to believe you, but I have seen more innocent-looking people than you that wanted to kill us."

Cyrus grabs my bag and looks through every pocket of it. All he finds are some clothes and food. "She's good, Trace." Cyrus tosses my bag back to me.

"Why do people want to kill you guys?"

"You don't know much about the Outside, do you?" Trace asks, getting closer to me so he doesn't have to talk very loud.

I shake my head. The only thing that I know about the Outside was that people we call Outcasts live there. Nobody ever goes there. It is a place where the undesirables live.

"I'm not surprised," Trace continues. "I've assumed that they want to keep you oblivious of the world around you. Okay, well outside your little perfect world there is anarchy. Before we had split up into the Inside and the Outside, before people became Enhanced, there was order. We had a stable government, kid of like what you still had. There wasn't really a caste system like there is now. Nobody was considered blatantly more important than another by society's standards.

"All of this ended when some scientist determined that it would be better to genetically enhance people. Those who were considered more "elite" than others would be able to make themselves beautiful. Soon a schism appeared between the people. The Enhanced did not want to associate with the others, the ones they called the Outcasts. The Enhanced decided to build their own society of Elites, to lock out the Outcasts so they wouldn't have to deal with those inferior to them. The Outcasts were left with no government. All of the politicians were Enhanced. All of the highly educated people were Enhanced.

"That was decades ago. The Outcasts had tried to form some kind of government, but it never quite ended up working. Finally we resorted to a type of anarchy. Those who could gain the most power over the people would "rule". The rulers never really had any power over the people, though, because everybody wants to rule. Everybody is looking to overthrow the ruler and become the next one.

"Technically it's not my fault that people want to kill us. It's my brother's doing. He is power-hungry like most if the people on the Outside. He actually killed one of our most recent leaders. That usually isn't much of a problem, except for the fact that most of the people actually liked this leader. He was what we have been needing this whole time. After the assassination, my brother fled. Nobody knows quite where he went, and since they couldn't punish him, they decided to punish the next best thing: his brother.

"First they only questioned me. They tried to see if I knew of Xander's intentions. I told ten the truth, that I didn't. Of course they didn't believe me. Who would give away that they knew of a crime before it happened? Anyways, they started to question me again and again, threatening that they would torture me if I didn't answer them. I still wouldn't lie. I knew that they would kill me if I lied. There were very few people believed that I was telling the truth.

"Luckily I finally managed to make a deal with my inquisitors. I would go to look for my brother and once I found him, I would bring him back. They would have him tell them if I knew of his plan. They told me that I would be free if he said I knew nothing. They made no guarantees about Xander, though.

"So that's where I am now, searching for my brother with the help of Cyrus, who they assigned to keep an eye on me in case I gave up on my task. Despite the deal that I made, there are still people who are convinced that I helped Xander to plan for the assassination. They are after me, but luckily we haven't encountered anybody hostile lately."

Trace stops talking. His face had gotten red as he told his story. Now that he is done, the redness starts to fade away as he cools down.

Meanwhile, Cyrus starts to cut the rope that is tied around my wrists. Once the rope falls to the grass, Trace grabs onto my wrist and looks straight into my eyes. He is just staring me down for a while. I am scared of what he will do. His gaze is intense, almost bearing into my soul.

"You're not going to run away and give away our position are you?" Trace asks finally.

I quickly shake my head. I have lost my ability to speak in fear.

"You really ran away?"

I nod once again.

"Okay. You can stay with us if you would like or go on your own. But if I find out you are lying about anything, anything at all, you will have to pay. What is your name?"

"Nyx." I quietly reply.

"Okay Nyx, what are you going to do?"

I don't really want to have to fend off foes by myself if I come across hostile people so I say, "I will stay with you."

Trace lets go of my hand and pats me on the back. "Okay, let's go then!"

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Sorry this chapter took a while to update. I was stuck for a little while and probably will be for the next chapter too. :(

Please let me know if you find any mistakes, especially if I switch to past tense because I tend to do that a lot!

Thank you for reading and being patient!