Survival

Skyrah

I’ve been sitting in this prison for hours, sharpening my makeshift knife, I’ll keep mine and Alaric can have this one. I’ve learnt many things. Alaric isn’t from a different world. We are both Insurgent. We are both programmed for things that are perceived as threatening. We are so similar in so many ways. Another man come down and hands us a blanket each, some of us get two slightly thicker ones, there is only one thing to sleep on in each cell. I hate being separated from Alaric, I feel safer and warmer when we sleep side by side. Caleb lays on the already set up bed and rolls towards the back wall, I don’t think I can sleep yet, I have too many things rushing through my mind. I look into Alaric’s cell, his mother is facing the wall just like Caleb, Hanna and his father are sleeping too. I lay down the thicker mattress right next to the bars and lay down on my side facing Rick’s cell. He does the same facing me.

“What are you thinking about?” he says reaching through the bars, I squeeze up against them and take his hand.

“Everything, your past, my family, this whole situation” I sigh, the cell is almost pitch black, a few small candles are placed on the walls in the hall directly outside of the cell.

“I know it’s been hard, but we are going to escape, I won’t die in here, I won’t, and I will not let that happen to you” he says, we are pressed against the bars, both trying to feel the warm embrace of the other.

“Is it weird how we haven’t known each other for long but yet we are so close” I whisper, my eyelids flickering as I feel the heavy weight of exhaustion pressing down on me.

“Yeah it is weird, but normal is overrated, who wants to be a robot, we are insurgent, we can’t be normal” he says softly, we both laugh lightly. Apart from Emory, I have never felt so comfortable around someone before.

“I miss my best friend more than anything” I say, the thought of Emory makes my throat tighten and my eyes glisten with tears.

“What was her name?” he asks.

“It’s a he actually, he is called Emory”

“Oh, I just assumed because of that Zaynah girl”

“It’s okay, he was the person I trusted the most, but that has changed now, because I trust you too, I used to think I trusted my family but now I’m not so sure”

“I trust you too, I really do”

“What did that guy mean by ‘lover boy’” I ask laughing.

“I don’t know, I begged them to save you, to let you go, I think they got the wrong idea” he says, I’m pretty sure he is blushing though, I am. We don’t talk anymore, we both just drift off into the darkness, letting sleep claim us, we stay connected, our hands clasped together, never letting go.

I am woken by the banging of the cell door.

“Come on sleeping beauty, your turn” a man says, the same one that collected Alaric yesterday. I struggle to get up from the floor, my hip aches from spending all night pressed against the concrete.

“I’ll take that as a compliment” I say and follow him out, he rolls his eyes. I am taken into this room with clinical white walls. I sit in a metal chair with restraints.

“My name is Frederic, what is your name?” he asks flashing a warm smile. I thought about what my name was going to be, and I have decided.

“My name is Elena”

“How old are you Elena?”

“Seventeen, how old are you Frederic?” I ask.

“I am twenty two”