The Wall

Part 2: Out with a Bang

The next thing I knew I was waking up to the blinding sun and the sound of screaming. I sat up abruptly, causing the Earth to spin. "Jack!!!??" I screamed. Each way I looked he was no where to be seen. Hot tears began streaming down my cheeks." The stick we had left by the 143rd pine tree was still sticking out of the ground and the indent of him sleeping next to me remained. I began to panic. What if he took him! what if he's.. I started to run. I don't now which way but I ran. I ran until I tripped and face planted in the dirt. Dirt... OH NO I had left the grass! The wall was no where in sight. Just thousands of pine trees and memories of labor. Footprints. I found footprints and I began to follow them all the way back to the wall. I dropped to the ground and began crying into my hands. How did i let this happen? Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw him. Running." Amber!!" I stood up and he met me, gasping. "WE HAVE TO—gasp—GET OUT!!" He was being chased. We ran until we met the wall and began doing everything our panicked minds could come up with. Pounding with our fists, digging at the stone, nothing seemed to work. Forgetting about counting the pine trees we ran along the wall, stopping every now and then to gasp for air, only to continue running yet again. When I saw it I stopped so fast I fell into the Earth with a painful thud. A ladder we had never seen before was draped against the vines growing up the wall. I rushed to it and Jack followed. Placing a hand on the rung he started to climb without hesitation, but I stood there a second too long, wondering what if whatever's beyond the wall isn't freedom. I had no time to think before Jack called out to me "Amber we have to!" and I pulled myself up the never ending ladder to my destiny. Jack reached the top and stood up along the brick and I joined him as fast as I could. I was too scared to look as I studied his facial expression for signs of hope, but he began to tear up and tremble. Just as I built up the courage to look, a piercing bang went off from down below and Jack placed a hand over his chest before falling to the ground we had came from. Before I could fathom my entire life falling to his death, another gun shot sounded, barely missing my shoulder, and I screamed in pain from the graze. I turned my head to the world beyond, the world Jack only got to witness for a second before he was taken yet again, only this time I knew he'd be free. Without taking another breath, without a moments hesitation, I jumped and landed hard into the grass, pulling the ladder down with me. I will not give up on my freedom this time, I will fight for it, I will stay alive, for Jack.