Perseverance ( completed! )

Fear

"Liam, why do you think our implants aren't working?" I asked nervously, but was greeted with silence. I tilted my head, squinting in a wasted attempt to be able to see him.

"Liam?"

"Gabe, come here," He sounded serious. Liam was never serious. I suddenly felt very, very scared. I followed his voice, stumbling but catching myself, before safely making it to his side. I looked toward where he was pointing, out the window. A small amount of light from the moon shown in. But nothing else. Not one glint of light. It was like looking out into a black abyss.

"Wh....." The question hung in the air. No one able to answer it, so no one daring to ask it.

"Let's go," Liam muttered, taking my small hand in his larger one, fast walking out of the room. I squeaked, stumbling behind him.
I clutched to his hand like a lifeline, jogging down the stairs. The closer we got to the bottom, we began to hear yelling. But not good yelling, panicked yelling. Angry, and scared, yelling.

"Why aren't our cars working?!" "Seriously, someone turn on these lights!!" "Oh my gosh, Amy, shut up!"

I frowned, staying angled behind Liam. Okay, you might call me a coward or something, but I am actually extremely shy. Total stereotypically shy freshmen, right?

I heard Liam exhale a sigh, rubbing his temples. Well, I assumed he rubbed his temples. That's what he usually does when stressed or troubled.

"Liam?" I spoke softly from behind him, a question lingering in my tone.

"Let's go Gabe," my friend spoke out calmly, but there was curiosity behind his tone.

Did I hear the beginning of panic? Nah, no way. Liam doesn't panic.

We pushed past the crowd of teenagers blocking the exit, finally shoving our way to the door. Liam lead the way out, and we finally got a bit of relief, there was no one out here, and the light from the moon illuminated the giant parking lot in front of Heathers house. Oh yeah, Heather's family is rich. And I mean very rich.

"Let's try the car, alright?" I nodded.

We both made our way over to his car. He clicked the button to unlock the doors on his implant. Surprise surprise, the doors wouldn't even unlock. They didn't even make the clicking noise. But neither of us really expected it to work, because our implants weren't working either.

"What now..?" I asked Liam softly, trying to keep the confusion out of my voice.

Back inside, we could hear people laughing and messing around. Weren't they just as worried as we were like, two seconds ago? Well, alcohol dims judgment, and those teenagers were packed full of it.

"Let's just try and get you home for now. Alright?" Liam spoke in his normal voice, managing a gentle smile. But I wasn't that easy to fool. I knew my friend was a bit concerned about what was going on.

"So, we'll leave the car here, and try it on foot, yeah?" He suggested with a raised brow.

I shrugged in response, giving a light nod as we made our way over toward the gate. At first, I thought it was going to be tricky, because if anyone who wasn't given permission to enter/exit, their implants would be zapped. And it was unclear if we had been given permission or not. But then I remembered our implants weren't working. So it was extremely unlikely that the fence was going to be.

Luckily I was right.

Liam locked his fingers together and knelt down, so he could help me up. Being short sucks.

I struggled slightly, but was finally able to heave myself over. I looked down at the other side and whined in annoyance. Puffing out my cheeks, I lowered myself as much I could, dropping the last three feet. I flinched, the impact was hard on my shins and ankle, but luckily I didn't twist anything.

Liam was much more athletic than me, so he dropped down silently by my side a moment later. An amused expression present on his features.

"You okay?" He asked, and I could feel his eyes checking my body for injuries.

"Just peachy," I huffed out in response.

I heard his light chuckle as he began walking back the way we came. I followed after him quickly, wrapping my arms around myself. I wondered what time it was. Hopefully it wasn't after 12...

"Gabe, look, up ahead," Liam suddenly whispered to me, tugging me closer to him as he moved us both toward the shadow of the large fence.

My eyes flicked forward and toward where he angled his eyes. My own eyes narrowed, trying to see in the minimal lighting we had.

"Is that, a government issued road block?"

And that's how I got here, standing on the side of the road with Liam, trying to understand why in the world the government would set up a road block when they should have bigger things to worry about, like how to fix everybody's implants.

I wonder if our trackers are working.

You see, government issued road blocks aren't just road blocks. It basically means it would be in everybody's best interest to stay inside. But this road block was different than most. It was made up of actual pieces of wood, rather than a hologram. Is the governments technology-...

No no no. No way.

"Should we try and get around them?" I whispered toward Liam, who was standing in front of me.

There was silence for a moment, and I was tempted to ask again, but he glanced back at me with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"I'm not sure," he whispered back "this whole situation is just super weird."

I nodded my head eagerly in agreement. I bet anybody could definitely agree with that.

"Do you know of any back roads that could lead us back toward your house...?" Liam asked me in a quiet whisper.

I racked my brain, biting down on my bottom lip in thought. That was a very good question.

Sometimes I took shortcuts when walking around and going to Liam's house and such, but I cant remember any that come this far back.

"Not that I can think of... I'm sorry," I whispered in reply, voice soft and thoughtful.

Liam shook his head quickly, "It's fine! Here, lets try and circle around. Chances are, there wont be a road block if we head the other way. It will take longer, a lot longer, but at least we can try something," Liam shrugged.

I nodded quickly in response, following after him quietly as he made his way up the road and away from the road block. Once we were a safe distance away, we both straightened up a bit, now allowing ourselves to take in everything around us. And the sky. My gosh the sky. It was gorgeous.

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A/N
I'm sorry the chapters are fairly slow at the moment, I promise it'll get better if you stick with it!!
Oh! And let me know if you guys want longer/shorter chapters!
Have lovely days everyone~

Published - 2/3/19