Trick or Treat - The Annual Teen Massacre

Chapter Fifteen - Unleashed.

Chapter Fifteen

David and Vanessa made their way through the streets of a town that had been far less than welcome. In a way it was their own fault. They had chosen to come this way. They wanted a better life , and in an unforgivable world as they lived that was unthinkable. But hope is what had kept David and Vanessa alive ever since they knew they could die when they turned thirteen and attend the night where so many children lost their lives. This town was different, however. They did not have a night like that, but the town seemed a lot more in decline than their own. 
The people in it were different as well. Even though there were not haunted by scars and flesh wounds and less limbs to live with in comparison to the people in David and Vanessa's town, it also seemed these people were not happy to be alive. There were no smiles, no people talking openly outside and even the children he spotted sometimes were not looking like they had fun at all. It felt as if they had nothing to do. No purpose in life other than existing. How could that be? Why wouldn't they be happy to be alive? He and Vanessa were. 

"David," Vanessa whispered. "I don't feel safe here anymore. Let's just go. I feel glares piercing through the back of my skull and I just feel hostility from all directions." 
David felt a shiver as if coming from Vanessa reaching his spine and it gave him goosebumps. Maybe that was better for both of them. Just going away from both cities. Was that even possible? But on the other hand.. Would anyone even care if they disappeared? For what people were they alive aside from themselves? No one! 
"Ok," David said. "What will we tell Peter Gibbiwibbs though? I mean, he went through so much trouble to save us from the town where they tried to kill us and he saved our lives once more outside the hospital."
"Screw Peter Gibbiwibbs," Vanessa sneered. "Honestly why did he even bother if we would end up like trash in this town? Don't forget he organized the Halloween night by himself which cost thousands of children lives every year! And he probably had his own selfish reasons aside from the ones he told us. Screw him!"

There were only about three blocks left before they would see the edge of the town again. The same edge where they could see their own home town, just more north than the hospital they originally fled from. But just like one of the tactics that was taught to him back home for the Halloween night it is sometimes a good move to go back to a place they had been before, rather than a place their enemies expected them to move to. Right now, even though people were looking out for David and Vanessa, the last place they would probably look is right on the street, as they would expect them to go in hiding in an abandoned building or something. 
"There they are!  Kill them!", a man behind David and Vanessa cried out, and not before long more people appeared. They had weapons with them. Some were like the sticks he had seen a person in a blue uniform wear, but he also spotted also some swords, axes and even a pitchfork. 
"What now?", David asked Vanessa because he felt her slowing down instead of increasing speed. 
"David I'm tired.", Vanessa said. 
"Tired?", David said. "There is no time to be tired we have to r-"
"-No", Vanessa interrupted. "I'm tired of running. We cannot go anywhere. And frankly I'm so tired of saving ourselves by chickening out. There is one other way we haven't tried yet. And that is going away. Away from both cities and just start a new life. David.."
"Yes?", David asked nervously. Even though the men came at them from quite a distance, it was enough to make him nervous. But Vanessa held both his hands and her empty eye sockets were completely focused on him, if that was at all possible. 
"Would you like to spend the rest of our lives together? Would you mind if i fought for you and you fought for me?", she asked. She wasn't blushing and he couldn't hear anything from her voice but still David felt that something more was going on here. 
"I am less afraid of the world when I know that I'm not alone", David said. "So I hope you want to stay with me as well."
"Of course I do! Now let's fight for each other and see what's out there!", Vanessa said. She released David's hands and stood still probably to listen to their enemy's movements.

There were over ten men on their way. Six men were not further than ten feet away and they were slowing down. Were they honestly trying to surround them rather than just attacking them? Their loss, David thought. It was either those ten men or them who would live. And as if David flipped a switch in his brain he chose Vanessa and him over anyone else. He would literally die for them staying alive and together. 
He charged at one of the four men that were about to flank them and bull-rushed him into a wall. They seemed to have far less experience in battle than he had. But that was never a certainty for victory. This attack seemed so unpredictable that the man dropped his pitchfork. David apprehended the weapon and skewered another man before slicing open a part of the face of the unarmed man. 

Then he watched how Vanessa almost effortlessly dodged all of the attacks that the other three men attempted. He saw how one man behind her was about to hit her with an axe. She seemed prepared for it but this was his chance to counterattack. He held the pitchfork tightly and aimed for the axe wielding man's head. He was glad Vanessa could not see how the pitchfork kept dangling in the lifeless head from a body that was about to collapse in surprise. But she did seem to notice the axe falling on the floor because she caught it and flung it towards one of the two remaining women who was about to engage David with two swords. One of her arms got hit by the trown axe and the blood gushed over her whole arm. She did not seem able to hold the sword in her arm any longer and David abused the moment of surprise to grab the sword and slice one of her legs enough so she could not follow them. Not before long the woman fainted and there were only four more to be concerned about. 
"Thanks", David said. 
"Don't mention it. Now let's run. We have weapons now and we probably won't be able to pull off another surprise attack like that. Are they all dead?"
"No two are still alive. They don't seem able to follow us though." 
"I guess we don't have to create more dead bodies than we have to. But this felt good didn't it?", Vanessa said. David noticed the cheerfulness in her voice. As if a huge burden just fell off her.
"No, but I see it did you good", David said. It made sense though. She told him that in her family they had already considered her dead before she even attended the Halloween night. So to survive another day through people that did not want to see her alive would probably make her more free than ever. David did not feel like that at all. He did not want to see anyone dead if he could not help it. But after he saw so many friends die and losing his parents in one of the worst ways imaginable this fight did feel satisfying somewhere deep inside his mind and heart. 
They ran around a corner. Four men were still chasing them. There were more people on the streets, but none felt obliged to stop two blood-soaked children. Instead many decided to run away in fear. There was a small market stall outside a store a little further down the street. David decided to pull Vanessa towards it. 
"We can take some food from that stall further along the way. And maybe we can find a source of water somewhere. Then we could survive a few days outside of the city."
"Ok,  but you have to pick everything because.. you know", Vanessa said.
David smiled. Like he could forget Vanessa's blindness for even a second. 

They reached the stall and the young woman behind it did not even attempt to stop them. She was paralyzed and David ignored her. He grabbed a grocery bag and picked up all the food he could carry. He looked around for chocolate but there wasn't any. He thanked the woman and ran away with Vanessa towards the city border. He could almost see their own town again. They were on the right track. 
The four men had closed in quite a bit after their short stop, and they had no more than thirty meters between them. It was only a matter of time before they caught up to them. Fortunately the city border wasn't too far away. And behind it started the barren wasteland that was between their home town and this one. 
"Do we even know the name of this town?", Vanessa asked. "I know now that we called our own town Earth. But wasn't that because no one thought there was more than our town existed?"
"I have no clue. Maybe we should ask Peter about it, if he still lives and cares to meet us."
They passed the border of the city with only ten meters between them and their pursuers. It was marked with a big red line. Why was it there in the first place? He knew they weren't allowed into Earth, but did that border stretch this far? He had no time to think about it anymore because a second later he felt something painful at his shoulder. 
"They're flinging knives at us!", David said. "Let's hide between one of those boulders!" 
Vanessa nodded and followed him.
"God Damnit someone has moved the border lines further away!", one of the surviving men said.
"We can't even get the bodies from here. Damn that GPS. Damn those kids! Damn this world! Come on guys let's go. Let those kids die by someone else's hands. The death of Chuck and Dave probably won't be avenged by us. Damn those kids weren't even worth the money anyway."
"They have a GPS they said. Peter Gibbiwibbs lied!", David said to Vanessa. "What's worse. They are aware they cannot leave the town. They're practically prisoners!"
"Yeah I figured as much", Vanessa said. "No wonder they don't have any hope at all. Come to think of it. Our own town is practically the same right? But they just don't know any better than that there is nothing else. Is that truly all the difference between our and their town?"

An awful feeling went through David's stomach. Their town was actually happier and peaceful in bliss. And Peter Gibbiwibbs had done all of that by converting one nasty nights with 364 happy days. David had a hard time imagining knowing that you will be trapped your whole life. Before Halloween it could have felt trapped if not for knowing that if you managed to survive your life would be happy and fulfilled and you could choose whatever job suited you most. Everyone in town would be happy that you were around. You would have the scars just like them and you would be fully accepted by each and every one of many ten thousands of people. 

And now? 
No place to go. 
No place to hide. 
They would be alone forever.
Roaming through the desolate place between two towns. 
Forever..
This was the last David thought when he saw the ground.
Getting closer and closer to his face.