Protected Slaves

Epilogue: Freedom

We travelled through the woods that we had entered through from the Danger Zone. It turns out that The Officials had lied about the inhabitants of the Zone. They were rebels like us that had faked their deaths to escape the Protected Zone. Miles had hoped that his family were their but it turned out that Viktor had really murdered them.

The people from the Danger Zone walked with us through the forest as we tried to find our way out. Legend has it that there is a place like the Zones but they don't have anyone there like Viktor or the Officials. I was truly excited to see this new place that would always make me feel safe.

I still couldn't shake the light feeling that had entered my body after Viktor's death. It was a strange feeling and I could only pin it as freedom. A foreign word and feeling to me.

Ahead I could see that the forest was beginning to thin and small houses came into view. The group began to murmur and we pushed ourselves to walk faster through the forest. I reached out and took Miles' hand in mine as we broke through the trees to see another city.

People stopped what they were doing to stare at us with smiles on their faces. I didn't trust the smiles but nothing else about these people forced me to distrust us. The people came over to us and told us to follow them. We eagerly followed them through the city until we came across a group of people. Our guides said goodbye and left us with the other group of people. A woman stepped forward with a small smile on her face.

"My name is Livilla and you are?" the woman said.

Miles stepped forward. "I'm Miles and these are people from Tutis Mancipium. Rayla, Reece, Alex and Andrew."

Miles then introduced the people from the Danger Zone.

"Tutis Mancipium?" Livilla asked.

Miles nodded. "Yeah that's where we are from."

"My ex military partner Viktor used to run that place but apparently he was murdered," Livilla said.

"I killed him," Miles replied.

"Good, he was a pain in my backside," Livilla said. "Now, did you know that Tutis Mancipium means protected slave in Latin?"

"No we didn't," I answered.

Livilla looked down at me. "Even if you didn't know it, Viktor classed all of you as he's slaves and everything you did within the society benefited him."

"Really?" my mother asked.

"Yes. Enough talk of your old home. Come with me and I'll sort something out for all of you," Livilla said.

Livilla turned and the group that was with her followed her movements. We followed her through the unknown city and I couldn't help but feel excited as a new life awaited me.