Our Fear

Prologue

I feel my heart pound, pounding faster and faster until I feel my body jolt awake. I slowly peel open my eyes and lazily glimpse around the ash covered forest. I cough as the ash particles layer in my throat. I use my elbow to slowly push myself up off of the ashy ground and try to get a scan of the area, but I can't see ten feet in front of my face. I cough again as I shakily breathe in the polluted air that surrounded me and I try to ignore the pain that just started climbing up my left leg like needles. I pick a random direction and limp in a straight line, or as straight as I could. I focus on the sound of my feet hitting ashy leaves, to get away from the stinging pain, and then my feet hit solid ground. I focus my eyes and I am able to see dark shadows of buildings. I limp towards a building watching the ash around my feet separate apart like a tidal wave. I reach the building and touch the gray bricks, expecting it to be cold but it burns my hand causing me to flinch away. I look to my right and see a large gray stained window across the road. I slowly limp over to the stained window wanting to get a closer look at myself. I smear away the ash stains and try to peer into the window. I stand there and stare into the window...no I stare at my face, my unrecognizable face. I must at least be fourteen, my hair is a average light brown, i’m pale and my eyes are a dull gray blue. I touch my cheek, trying to remember who I am. But nothing comes to mind, not even a name or a memory. I touch the window, automatically pulling back cause of the scorching heat. I suddenly cough very heavily and fall to my knees, my vision gets blurry and i rock back and forth.

‘What is happening to me?’ I ask myself as I try to focus my vision onto my hand. I don’t notice someone standing next to me until I feel something touch the base of my neck. I freeze and slowly turn my head to see a person decked out in a full yellow radioactive suit. I watch as he pulls out a device and speaks into it.

“I found a survivor, tenth and Carlson. I am going to bring her in for testing.” He tells the device.

“Come with my quietly and it will be over soon.” He tells me slowly taking away the object away from my neck. I slowly nod my head not wanting to get into any type of trouble. I follow close behind him as he leads be through the one foot deep ash. I shake out of fear as he leads me closer and closer to a heavy armoured vehicle. He knocks on the back door of the vehicle and it opens. He helps me up and sits me down at the end of the row. I look around the back of the vehicle and see kids, ranging from seven to nineteen. Some of them had cuffs that attaches to the bottom of the vehicle, but most were like me and just quietly sat there. The man who took me to the car steps out and shuts the door. Seconds later I hear a door on the right slam and the vehicle turns on.

“Do you know where they are taking us?” A little boy asks.

“No...do you know why the ground is covered in ash?” A girl a little over my age asks.

“I'm guessing a volcano went off.” The oldest boy said as he shackled his chains, “and they are probably taking us to a little.”

“How do you know all of this?” Another boy around seventeen says.

“Because I'm not stupid like all of you.” The older boy scoffs.

The seventeen boy starts to stand but he is immediately back in his seat when the car hits a bump, which throws him back. The little boy tries to hide his giggle but inevitably fails angering the teenage boy. The teenage boy glares at the little boy, scaring him to look down at the floor.

“Stop it.” The girl says and slaps the teenage boy’s arms.

“Amateurs…” whispers the older boy. After that it got silent, so silent that I could hear my own heart beat. Luckily the girl next to me was kind enough to break it.

“My name is Emma, what's your name?” She asks me.

“I...um..” I shy away. The vehicle suddenly comes to a stop which sends me and Emma jolting to the side.

“Jeez could they stop any quicker?” The teenage boy asks.

Both doors in the front of the vehicle open and shut, sending shivers down my back.

“I got a bad feeling about this.” Emma says, mostly to herself.

The man from earlier and a new guy, most likely the driver, open up the doors. Bright light shines into my eyes causing me to squint. They lead us out and I am left standing on a dirt road surrounded green plants and a clear blue sky. By looking at all of our faces you could tell we were all thinking the same question: Where was all the ash?

“This way.” One of the men leads us towards barbed fences that were close to fifty feet tall.

We walked past the first fence, and then a second fence which was at least ten feet taller than the first fence.

I could feel a thousand pairs of eyes on me, on the group, as we walked past what looked like an bug outdoor hanging out place. I glanced at all the people looking at us. They all looked from young children to young adults, they looked nothing alike. The only thing they had In common was the look they gave us; pity. And their clothes were broken dusty brown with a X painted on the shoulder, the X was either green or purple.

My attention changes when I walk into the shadow of a large building. I turn my head and see the building, which almost looked like a modern castle. They lead us inside and once we reach the middle of the lobby they line us up shoulder to shoulder. The two men that got us here then walk a few feet in front of our line and stand against a wall. We wait for a few minutes before someone walks out into the lobby. He was an older fellow, his gray white hair waved around his head and his skin wrinkled like saggy waves. He looks at all of us for a few moments before pointing at the little boy.

“You. Come with me.” His raspy voice said. The little boy took a deep breath before following the man.

We would wait five or ten minutes before the man came out, choosing people over and over again until I was the last one.

“Follow me.” He tells me as he comes out. My knees begin to shake as I follow him. He leads me down a long hallway and about halfway through he stops and pushes me into a room. He shuts the door and a young woman spins around. Her smile was overly friendly giving me bad vibes.

“Please, sit down,” she says. I follow her instructions and sit down in the chair. She goes around the chair and straps my arms and head down.

“Let's get started.” She smiles and claps.

*Was this cringy enough for you? Let me know if it doesn't make sense or you think it's bad, I like criticism

-SpnFireIce