Running With the Wave

Chapter 10

Hunter:

She winces as I tie the bandage around the shoulder where the bullet grazed her. I stare at her beautiful face and wonder if she's ever felt love. No man has, but I fantasize about it and my family isn't offering any up. Love among boys and girls isn't allowed, and I can't face my father. Maybe it makes me weak, but I can't ignore the horrible fear that throbs in my chest when I think of my father.

Of course, I can't ignore the feelings I want to have.

I hand her some bread and she narrows her eyes at it, turning it around and around in her hands.

"Is this bread?" she asks incredeously.

"Um... Yeah it is." I answer, puzzled by her reaction.

"I've never had bread before..." she murmers, then takes a big bite.

I grin at the way her eyes light up as the flavour bursts in her mouth. I shake my head. How can this be her first time having something as simple as bread? I lie down and she rests beside me.

"How's life in the cells?" I ask suddenly.

She stares at me, something that is actually very familiar. I've said quite a few things that got quite a few stares from Era.

"Of course, if you don't want to talk about it you don't have to," I continue hurridly.

"No, it's okay," Era answers, wiping crumbs off of her mouth with the back of her hand, "It goes without saying that life in the cells isn't an easy life. You watch people around you suffer and die, knowing you can't do anything and that adds more to your suffering. I have two friends, Keara and Moa, though I guess I'm more like a mother to them ever since my mom died. Keara is twelve. She got the Scar a few days ago and is pregnant."

I struggle to keep my jaw from dropping open.

"She's twelve and she's pregnant?" I blurt out.

"Almost everyone twelve and over is pregnant." she says dismissivly, "I love Keara, but she's so weak. Her mother died in childbirth."

I know better then to ask Era how her mother died but I'm curious. Maybe one day, if I manage to save her life and she trusts me more, she'll tell me.

"I've known Moa for only a few days, but she's so sweet and she is also like a sister to me. I guess we know how her mom died now..."

She stares sadly in direction of the brown mound where I told her I had buried Moa's mother.

"Life isn't easy. The only light comes from a window, and I like to sleep on the ledge of it. Keara will probably sleep there tonight." she twirls a blade of grass in her fingers and stares up at the bright blue sky, "We have porridge for breakfast every morning and some kind of meat for dinner and lunch. I don't want to think about what the meat is. We are always scared that we were going to be the next to die, and there is no privacy and we have very little space. We get barely enough water to keep us alive. Every month everyone twelve and older who isn't already pregnant gets the Scar. It's not a pleasent procedure, it's very painful. But it is, of course, mandatory."

"You were speaking in present tense," I point out gently.

Her body loses any tension it had and slumps down so that she's lying down on the grass now. I lie down beside her.

"I guess it's because I still feel like I'm in a dream and, at any moment I might wake up." she whispers.

I feel so bad for her. My life isn't easy but it's not like that. I move closer to her and let her head rest in between my shoulder and my chin. She relaxes into the position and I just want to curl my arms around her and never let her go. I love her. But I can't. Besides, the chances that she feels the same for me are too slim to consider. I'm a man. It's men that did this to her.

"I've never seen the sun before. Felt the wind, the grass. The cell was my entire world. And I wanted to die, because it was the only way freedom was going to come to me."

She turns her vivid blue gaze to look at me.

"Now I know better." Era whispers.

I smile down at her, fighting the urge to lean forward and press my lips against hers. Oh God, what is going on? I want her so bad but not in this world where it could get us killed.

"What about you?" she gives me a wry smile, "Did you prance around eating bread the entire time?"

I laugh and we roll apart a bit, giving each other some space. The special moment gone.

"Actually, my life wasn't as easy as you think." My smile fades slightly, "My father is abusive and aggressive, and I'm always being watched because he's head Keeper. I have to be head Keeper when I'm older."

I shudder and she presses herself closer to me, laying her head back down on my shoulder as if to comfort me.

"I always hated what we do to women. Always. I've always known how horribly wrong and sick it is. But my father forced me to become a Keeper and I keep my feelings to myself in order to avoid becoming a Donator. My friend Railt doesn't see what I mean and the one time I tried explaining to him he was horrified. It's the authorities have brain washed everyone to think it's right. My little brother Sebastion wants to follow in my father's footsteps, minus the abusive part. I love him, but if he knew about my thoughts he wouldn't hesitate to betray me."

She props herself up on her good shoulder and gives me a sympathetic look.

"That's not easy at all. I never thought that life might be hard for men."

"Yeah, well. You had better things to worry about then the lives of the men who abuse you."

She doesn't smile. I didn't expect her too, both of us have gone through too much because of the stupid decisions men have made.

Era:

What am I doing? I want to shriek at myself, want to make myself stop. But I can't. I'm drawn to Hunter. I need to get close to him. Why is life so complicated? When he seemed so horrified and becoming head Keeper... I curled myself closer to him. I had too comfort him, I couldn't bear to see him that way. What is wrong with me? He's a man, for goodness sake!

"Are Keara and Moa still in the cells."

"Yeah. It's safer for them in the cells then out here." I nod.

"What about you?"

"I'm a barren woman. I'm not safe anywhere."

Hunter wraps his arms around me and I let him, butterflys fluttering around their merry lives in my stomach.

"You can come home with me."

I jerk out of his arms.

"To the head Keeper's house? Are you mad?"

What the hell is he thinking?

"No. I'm not." Hunter answers without hesitating, "You're not safe here. Keepers prowl these grounds every night, if they find you here you'll be shot immediately. No one will expect a girl to stay at the head Keepers house and you've done a pretty darn good job to make yourself look like a boy."

"I'm being hunted."

"Yes. You are."

"This could be a trap."

He sighs, staring into me with those gorgeous grey eyes.

"We've been through this. You're only choice is to trust me. That or death."

I chew at my lip. He's right of course. I get up and follow him through the forest towards the City walls, both of us darts in the forest barely dodging closely packed trees. Oh God, I'm going to regret this for the rest of my life.

The only question is how long that actually is.