The Reserve

4. Into the Ruins

"Get up! We have a long way to go." He said as he got up.

"Can't I just have a little time to catch my breath?" I groaned loudly. I didn't think that I could move. All parts of my body were aching. I just felt like lying there for all eternity,my bag being a compassionate pillow.

"I'm Aaron,by the way." He said as he offered me his hand. As I took it,he swiftly grabbed my arm and pulled me up.

"Aargh! Be easy on me....."

"We've got to be moving." He said as he let go of me. I now couldn't feel my feet. They were numb.

I must admit that that was the fastest sprint I had ever run in my whole life.

"Moments ago,you couldn't believe that Collins was my father,then after the chase,you go ahead to call me his son. Why?"

This time,we were moving slowly. Me,limping. He looked at me.

"The saucer only comes out only during major emergencies. I've only seen it a couple of times in my whole life,and by seeing it,I mean when its very far away. This only means that it was after you because you escaped the reserve. And since you were all along saying the truth about you escaping the reserve,I figured out that maybe you were also saying the truth about him being your father."

Well,maybe his argument makes just a little bit of sense.

"And how did the saucer know that we were in the building?" I asked another question,now taking this chance for him to try to explain anything peculiar that happened.

"I thought that was easy. We are in the 22nd century,boy. The ship has thermal sensors."

This guy is like has forgotten that I have been living almost all my life in the reserve. Where in this world was I to even think about that?

"OK. And why didn't the ship shoot me?" Now,let me see if he could answer that.

"I was hoping probably you would tell me."

Seriously? He was hoping I could tell him? Lets just say that probably I knew that it would not. Then why did I run? I would have just walked freely into the ruins. Am I supposed to knock some sense into his head?

" I don't know. I've been in the reserve for fifteen years. I didn't know that the saucer even existed. I don't think that it had ever flew over the reserve." I managed to reply.

"In the ruins,we don't question paranormal activities. You should be grateful that it didn't,because if it did,you wouldn't have turned into superman. You would be dead." He said while his eyes were directed to me.

"But didn't you see? One minute it was hot on our heels,shooting lasers at us then the next minute, it just hovers above me,as if it was confused. That is not a normal thing." To be real,that even made no sense.

"Now,here in the ruins, its very normal. End of story." There was a moment of silence,everyone in his deep thoughts. Did I really do the right thing to escape the reserve? Was I destined to live by the ruins? Would I even survive? If it wasn't for Aaron back there in the divide,I would be dead,that's for sure. How was I to live here?

As he looked at me,he seemed to be knowing what I was thinking. A boy who just escaped the reserve deserved a break.

"You must be having a lot of questions." He said. "Focusing on one will not bring all the answers to your palms."

"Yeah you're right." I paused. "So, you do know about my father,don't you?"

"Boy,your father is a legend. Everyone knows him. He is the only one who has ever escaped the reserve,except you of course. The most deeming thing about Collins is that he escaped to join us the rebels. Before he came,we were afraid of the muddles,and thereby our rebellion groups were very compressed. After he came,he gave us hope. We were not afraid of the muddles as we were. They are just like us,no powers. That's where he led the largest rebel group comprising of us,trying to fight off the muddles and so forth." My dad did that? I couldn't miss a smile after all of this was said. Although I knew my dad,I didn't think that he could be all of this. I had so much to learn from him.