Outside the Compound

Chapter 1

I had never been out of the compound before, that was until now. As I glanced back at the wire fence that stood guard between everything I knew and where I currently was, fear swept through my body like tumbling waves in a storm. No-one like me had ever made it out this far ; we had only seen crazed people attempt to escape and even then I had never seen anyone make it over the fence alive. The thing was : I wasn't mad, I wasn't a crazed escapee, driven to their death by endless testing ... I was just Em. Well technically I was EM67QR9T but to my family, I was just EM. I couldn't help but look back at where I had come from, sliding my body cautiously from behind the large tree I lay against, I took my final glance at the ugly concrete building that held hundreds of thousands of people, all kidnapped from their lives, for so many years. To the right of the grey building was an expensive yet unbearable torturous structure. Great scientific igloos made out of carbon and cloth domed into the sky -each one a different size and linking into one another. I had only ever been in a few of these scientific bubbles for my daily testings and injections. Like everyone else hidden away here, I was a test dummy for the rich and an organ replacement selected for those more worthy.
And that's why I ran away : tomorrow my heart was scheduled to be taken to replace the current defence general and had I stayed, I would have been ripped of my vital organ, awake and in agony. I wasn't meant to find this out, no, the scientists and surgeons weren't stupid ; if every person due to be sacrificed was told in advance they would attempt to escape or kill themselves and the their organs would be deemed 'unsuitable' yet somehow, someone had managed to let slip that it was me who had been selected for tomorrow's operation. Either on purpose or accidentally, I have no idea however someone, somehow forgot to log out of their system whilst they left me in the room getting blood drawn and taking my chance, I searched my file. It was then that I realised I had five days. It was then that I started planning.
I needed to start moving quickly ; 20 miles away was a settlement- not a massive one - but one big enough to hide me once I was there , but I had to get a move on. Soon the cover of darkness would lift and my parents would find my bunk in the room that we shared with 2 other families, empty. Unknowingly, they would report me missing to the guards and then the chase would be on. I aimed to cover 15 miles or so running and jogging at night and then make up the rest under the cover of trees and bushes but this area was much riskier.
I felt bad, I had come out on my own easy enough, why hadn't I bought my siblings - they were twins, 7, of each gender - Evie and James- now they would be subjected to their testings without my support and sympathy and I hadn't bought them with me. I was just about to set off when I heard a sudden whisper.
"Em, you have to trust me, you have to come with me"
I stared into the trees where the figure of a boy stood. Slowly, he came forward into the little light that beamed down from the moon and through the trees. His hair was a dirty, auburn and his eyes were deep chocolate brown and his face, his face... bore the cuts and scrapes one would imagine from a vicious fight.
"How do you know my name?" I asked, suspiciously, clutching my hand around the nearest stick just in case.
"Well it's not really your name is it ..." he replied slyly whilst he adjusted his bag straps.
"How do you know my name?" I repeated, unsure whether or not I liked this boy who was wasting my precious escape time.
"Fine," he resided ," I asked the nurse woman, your always in the bay next to me and I never hear you screaming like the others, so I just asked."
"And they told you, they never tell people anything ..." I thought out loud, this situation was unknown to me.
"She told me your code"
"So how did you know my name?" I asked, unsure as to whether to trust this boy
"Lucky guess" he stated simply as he started to walk in the opposite direction I was going but I didn't move. Who was this boy to tell me where to go, to expect me to follow him and in the wrong direction to the town I was heading to. After a few moments of walking away on his own, he stopped and turned around.
"Aren't you going to come, you know we haven't got much time and I'm not going to let you stop me escaping," he said a little impatiently, obviously I was slowing down his master plan but I really couldn't care less.
"What makes you think I want to go with you? I was planing on walking that way..." I hissed pointing my arm 180' from the direction he was going in," and I don't know your name or who you are or why you want me to go with you". I let this all out at once, my mind thinking faster than I could speak and instantly cringed at how aggressive that sounded, I really wasn't an aggressive person.
The boy walked back towards me so that he was only a few feet away.
"If you go the way you want to go, they'll have you back in the compound by the morning," he said matter of factly ," as soon you leave these woods it's flat grassland with no where to hide and when you get to the settlement, they have undercover guards to find you any way."
I didn't quite know how to respond to this - the many fantasy situations I would dream up each night about my escape definitely didn't cover this - it looked like my only safe option was to go with the boy to where ever he was going - and frankly I wasn't to keen on that idea either. After a long few moments of deliberating, the two sides of my head squabbling over pride or safety , I gave in.
"I'm coming," was all I said as I swung my other bag strap over my shoulder and followed him, deeper into the forest and deeper into the night.

AN - I doubt that many people will read this , way less people will than my Hinny fanfic for sure, but the whole story is written inside my head so I might as well put it down on paper (well I guess this counts a e-paper) lots of love xx