Federation

Prologue

Heart hammering, bare feet pounding into the earthy ground, twigs snap underneath her. The night air is cool and peaceful, the complete opposite to her mind. The silver moon shines above -glowing- acting as the only light in this vast woodland. Branches of the trees claw and scratch her arms as if to prevent her from escaping. Gasping for air she stops at a cross road in the dark, evergreen wood, to asses which way to turn. Right or left, right or left? She can hear them attempting to locate her. She starts to cautiously sneak away.

“She turned right into the forest, I’m sure of it.” A gruff voice commented. She stops dead in her tracks straining her ears to discover their whereabouts.

“Are you sure?” A younger voice sounded not 50 ft away from her. She ducks behind a tree to keep herself hidden. Placing her hand over her mouth to keep her breath from breaking the silence she waits for the verdict.

“Positive.” The gruff voice growled. “She needs to be found before she lets out the information.” Her heart skips a beat. They’re here to finish me. No lose ends left.

She darts off into the foliage. Trees pass her in a blur of greens and browns. She dodges thick tree trunks blocking her path. She vaults a fallen tree trunk and-NO! The hem of her rugged dirt and blood smeared dress snags on a branch of the fallen tree trunk and brings her crashing to the ground. Her head smacks on a stray rock. Her vision is blurred and her head is pounding. She tries to push herself up into a sitting position. She lifts her trembling fingers to her hair line. She brings them back down to conclude that that damned rock has cracked her head open. Damn it! Distant lights -coming from what can only be torches- shine in her direction. I need to move, NOW! Using the little strength she has left she drives up and digs her nails into the spongy forest floor and hauls herself onto her wobbling legs. Her knees collapse under her weight, her head spinning. She grabs onto a branch to steady herself. Taking a deep breath to get as much oxygen into her burning lungs as possible she takes off again, further, deeper into the black forest.

 

Chapter one.

“Stop 2, The Intrepid Federation.” The voice overhead announces. I gather my things, shove them into my threadbare bag, and start toward the door of the sky train. Sunlight steams through the spotless, clear windows of the Skytrain. Everything in the Skytrain is silver, clean cut and smooth. That voice woman must have been so bored when she had to record herself saying all the stops. I know I would have wanted to kill myself, but that’s probably because I have ADHD, short attention span. A hand presses into my chest, pushing me back from my exit.

“What is it?” I growl. I hate the Administrators. I swear they go out of their way to piss me off. They stand there looking all important in their pristine white suits and helmets, not even one scratch or smudge, pushing you around and treat you like scum, well me anyway. It’s only because I don’t trust them and I resist them pretty much all the time. Not everyone has this opinion of them. Most people think they’re a God send. There to make our lives safer and more peaceful without the need for violence they say. But something about them just puts me on edge.

“I just need your thumb print to make sure this is your stop.” The female Administrator informs me with a cold gaze.

“Of course this is my stop!” I heatedly proclaim. “Why would I attempt to get off if it wasn’t? How dumb do you think I am?” My face is burning with anger. Why does one little thing they do send me into rage? It’s not like she said ‘I just need to check if you’re a boy just pull your pants down for me.’ They just make me so angry. And I don’t know why.

“I know this might cause an inconvenience Sir but I just have to check its protocol as you kno-”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah I’ve heard it all before just scan my thumb for Gods sakes.” I lift my hand and thrust out my thumb for her to scan on her little device that they all carry. The green light proceeds over my thumb, the little contraption beeps.