The Chase-Paused

The Chase - Chapter 1

I could feel the sting of the leaves as they connected with my cheeks. The branches were slowly slapping against me as I raced on. I heard a crack in the distance behind me. I whipped my head around to see if they were still there, but I was met with my light brown hair being blown into my face from a sudden gust of wind. Although I couldn’t see them, I still knew deep down that they were there. I could see the tress getting closer together and I quickened my pace in hopes of being able to lose them in the forest up ahead. Another loud crack behind me only proved that they were getting nearer. 

In the distance I could see a tree branch that was only a few inches higher than my head. I leaped towards it and swung myself up using an old gymnastics trick I learned. There was another branch up above, I grabbed it, and climbed up further. Satisfied that I was up high enough I paused to catch my breath and wipe the sweat out of my blue grey eyes.

A light in the distance caught my attention; it was the people who were after me, they were going in a different direction. I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding; at least I lost them for now. A few tense minutes passed as I watched the light slowly get farther away. I opened my tiny rucksack and started rummaging through, looking for my water bottle; I located it and starting drinking the water so quickly I ended up chocking on it, while droplets spilled down my chin. I screwed the lid back on the bottle and put it back. My eyes landed on my old wallet that was in there. Smiling to myself I took it out and looked at my old ID from when I was 16. It looked just the same as last time, the top saying Lynn Avery and below it a picture of a girl who was so excited about life, if only she knew what her life was going to be like. Sitting down on the tree branch I started to recall the whole ID card mess.

When I was 17 the government had decided that everyone needed a new ID card, I was excited at first, just like everyone else. I showed up to the ID station bright and early to get my new picture, I was so excited at how it turned out. As I was leaving a few men were telling all the people there that they had to turn in their old ID, I didn’t want to do that and I didn’t see the harm in keeping it, so I slipped out unnoticed. I was unbelievably lucky I got away with it. It turns out that the new ID cards all had locater chips in them so the government could keep track of everyone. They had wanted all the old cards turned in to prevent someone taking the wrong ID with them and losing track of their whereabouts.

Eventually word got out and naturally chaos started, people who were found to be possession of their old IDs or fake new ones were to be killed, which leads me to now, being on the run for my life.

Sighing, I put my wallet and ID back into my tiny green rucksack and climbed down the tree I was on. I started walking in the opposite direction of where those men went.

After a few hours of uneventful walking, I happened across a stream where I refilled my water bottle, before trudging on. The trees had started thinning and I could hear voices in the distance. I put on my nondescript dark grey hoodie and drew the hood over my face before stepping out of the forest. I was met with a city in ruins; slight smoking in the distance told me that the bombing that occurred here hadn’t been too long ago, which meant the town would be lurking with government officials.   

I walked over to the first crumbled up building and had a look around, I couldn’t find anything useful in the ashes so I moved onto the next one. This building had only collapsed halfway, walking inside I found it to be a convenience store. The entire refrigerated section in the back with the drinks was destroyed leaving a sticky puddle of soda on the ground. Near the front of the store was a section of granola bars, I walked over hoping to find a few. When I got there I found the boxes that were still sitting on the shelves to be completely empty, it looked like everyone had the same idea as me. Glancing at the floor I noticed a few boxed had been knocked over, I bent down and started picking them up one by one, the first few boxes were empty , but I eventually found a box filled with raspberry granola bars. I hastily stuffed the food into my rucksack before looking around for anything else that might have been useful. Realizing that the store was empty, I headed outside to be greeted by the blinding midday sun.