Perseverance ( completed! )

Dread

"What do you think it means?" Liam asked curiously as he saw me looking toward the sky.

"I'm not sure. But like I was saying before, we shouldn't be able to see those lights. So why? Why can we see them?" My eyebrows drew together in thought, face scrunching up as I clicked my tongue and sighed, unable to find a solution.

"It's alright dude. Here, let's not worry about that for now, yeah? Let's try to get back to your mom first, and then we can figure everything else out!" Liam spoke gently but cheerfully.

This is one of the reasons why I really enjoyed having Liam as a friend. No matter the situation, he always managed to make me smile, and he was incredible at lightening the mood.

Nodding, I smiled up at him. "Sounds good!"

So we continued on cautiously but quickly.

Neither of us wanted to be out on the streets right now. If a government official spotted us, they would stop us and question us, asking to run our implants and trackers to make sure we were documented.

What is a documented, you ask? It's basically those who the government have given trackers to, and those whose births have been properly recorded. And yes, we were both documented, but it's a long process that would slow us down unnecessarily.

We picked up the pace a bit, moving to a light jog. I was thankful for this movements, as I was freezing. There was a gentle breeze that seem to pass smoothly through my clothes and crash into my body at full force.

I glanced around curiously, slipping my tongue across my bottom lip in thought.

It was genuinely hard to think, because at this point I was shivering.

"Maybe we should find a place to camp out for the night?" Liam suggested gently, obviously having noticed how cold I was.

"I-I'm fine! We can totally keep going," I said quickly, but I slowed down to match his walking pace.

"Hey, Gabe, your mum will still be there tomorrow, alright? It's okay. We can't have you dying before we get there now can we?" My friend winked playfully, showing his pearly whites in a large grin.

I heaved a gentle sigh, nodding my head in agreement, smiling gently at his wink.

"Alright, Liam. But where should we camp out...?" I tilted my head curiously.

"Well you know the undocumented ones, right? Well I heard they have some camps on the outskirts of town where government officials usually never check. I'm sure theres an empty house or two around there that we could spend the night in?" He suggested hesitantly.

I quickly nodded. Any house is better than no house in this freezing breeze. But then again, I did have a very low tolerance for cold, so Liam probably was having no trouble in this weather.

Great. He probably thinks I'm a big baby that is complaining about being too cold, lovely.

Well, no time too worry about that. I just had to worry about keeping my eyes open, and hearing alert. But for a moment, I didn't even know what I was watching out for. The government? Not likely. It was more like, a feeling that you can't get rid of. Like something is about to go horribly wrong. Ha. Ironic.

Liam seemed much more calm than I was. But I could tell that he was thinking about everything, trying to piece something together. Anything.

Now, after awhile of walking, and tripping, we started to make it to the less wealthy part of town. Where fewer houses were fenced, and they had by far less technology. I couldn't even see the thing where they would have to hook up the automatic door closer.

It's quite strange to think that people used to live like this regularly.

Passing about 5 more houses, we decided to take a look at the sixth house. Cautiously, we made our way up to the front door. Raising my hand, I kicked on the wood.

Nothing.

Liam tried this time, paused, listened. Still nothing.

You may be thinking, its like 12:00 at night, so obviously no one is going to answer. Because they'll be asleep! But this part of town rarely ever had people living in the houses, because they didn't want to be anywhere near the undocumented ones. Personally, I didn't get it. But oh well, theres nothing you can do to change a whole cities mind. So live and let live I suppose.

"Let's go," Liam whispered gently, setting his hand on the door handle ad twisting it.

It didn't open.

Liam cursed beneath his breath.

"Let's try to go through the back."

I nodded, following quickly behind Liam.
We went around to the side gate, luckily that opened, and circled around the house to the back door.

Both of us seemed to hold our breath as Liam tugged it open. It opened!

I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding.

"Alright, we should go sweep the house first, and make sure no one is in here."

I made my way in, glancing around for a moment, trying to decipher anything in the dark house.

Liam closed the door behind us, locking it, and then pulled the slates down all the way to the floor. That took away a lot of light, but it would keep people from seeing movement and asking questions.

So far, I hadn't heard any noises which is a good sign. Well except Liam of course. Whom I stayed very close to. I could practically feel the heat radiating off of him.

After doing a sweep of the house, we concluded that it was empty. We also found a few blankets! Score.

Old houses like these usually have been ransacked of beds and anything extremely useful to the undocumented ones, so the fact that there was still a couch and blankets was amazing.

I flopped down gratefully on the couch, relief filling my bones to finally get to lay down. We had been jogging for quite awhile, plus it was late and I was exhausted.

Liam laid down beside me. It was a tight fit, but we took off the cushions that are usually used for your back, in order for us to have more room. It didn't bother me in the slightest.

A yawned worked its way out of my mouth, and I closed my eyes as my friend pulled the blankets over us then laid back down. Settling into the warm of the blankets and Liam, my back facing him, but absorbing the warmth he radiated.

As soon as I had settled down, I slipped into a deep sleep.

Run.
Attack.
Scavenge.
Hide.

My feet pounded against the concrete as I kept running, glancing behind me continuously, but he was still following. Knife in hand, his eyes mad.

But why me? I racked my brain for answers, trying to remember why, but the harder I searched, the further away I got from finding out the answer, and the harder the man chased.

Was that brick there before?

My body slammed against the ground. I scrambled to sit up, whipping around to see the man standing above me, the knife hanging dangerously by his side.

"Your camp. Where is it?" He demanded, but it sounded more like a snarl, the sound ripping out between his teeth.

"I don't know what you're talking about!!" I cried, genuinely confused. How did I get here? Where was I? And what in the world was he talking about, a camp?

Then he brought the knife up.

Up.

UP.

DOWN.

-

A/N

Oooooo sorry to leave you all on a cliffhanger, pffft!

Just a quick little note, I want to thank all of my readers for showing an interest in this book. I appreciate each and everyone one of you❤️
And don't forget! I don't bite ;)

Published - 2/4/19