A Twist In Fate

Chapter 1

Chapter 1. 

“Nothing is more frightening than a fear you cannot name.”  ― Cornelia Funke

I was surrounded by the open air. The clouds moved lazily along the skyline, and the sun’s sparkling rays lit the morning sky. From my seat I could see what seemed to be the entire world. It was laid out at my fingertips. We swam in the clouds, like a fluffy ocean caressing every inch of us. I pressed my palm to the glass window, aching to fly among the clouds like a bird. 

The beauty outside the window was ruined by the loud, stale, and cold inside of the cargo plane. People all around me were yelling and laughing, ruining the serenity that lay on the other side of the glass. Morning came quickly, and with it came the waking of the others. The once silent plane was now full of voices. Along with the voices came the smell. The smell of over two hundred teenagers left in a small space for too long. 

My seat mate was snoring loudly, the loud talking from around the plane didn’t seem to effect his slumber in the slightest. I stared at his sleeping face, jealous that he could be so peaceful when everything around him wasn’t. He looked young while he slept, the only thing giving away his age was the light layer of stubble he had grown since we had left. His long blonde hair fell into his eyes, and I felt an urge to move it but I contained myself and turned away.

The flight seemed to be taking an eternity. It felt as though I had been locked in my seat for weeks rather than just a day. I longed to stretch my legs and walk around. But we were under no circumstances allowed to get up, there was the penalty of death if we so much moved without permission. Though the insatiable need to run was present, the thought of being shot in the head overruled any attempt of leaving my seat. 

The guards were stationed along the entire perimeter of the plane, waiting for someone to dare to fight back. They stood in position, hands trained on their guns. There must have been almost a hundred of them spread along the two levels of the aircraft. All armed with automatic weapons ready to attack at the slightest wrong movement, I craned my neck to see the front of the aircraft. The morning light offered little aid in my vision. I could only faint make out the line of guards standing by the doors talking. They were hunched over, physically exhausted from standing for so long. 

They feared we would revolt, and try to commandeer the plane. But, I think all of us were too tired to care. We were being transported to a prison facility large enough to house us all. The leaders decided we were taking up too much space at home and wanted us gone, so they decided to send us away. None of us knew exactly where this new place was, or how long it was going to take to get there. All we knew is that it was large enough to house almost three hundred convicted criminals. 

The young adult facility contained all the criminals from the ages of thirteen to twenty. We were all put in the same place to serve our sentences. From petty crimes, to multiple counts of murder we were all aboard the aircraft being sent to our new home. Our leaders believed that all crimes deserved punishment that one cannot grow without facing the repercussions of their actions. So it didn’t matter if you stole extra food rations or if you murdered your entire family. You were aboard this plane, and you were going to be stuck here for life. 

Shouts up ahead pulled me from my thoughts. I looked up to see a boy about my age running up the aisle with a lazy smile on his face. The guards all unlocked the safety’s from their guns and shouted for the boy to stop. I stood up in my chair to get a better view, the plane was now void of conversation aside from the guards yelling. People everywhere had stood up like I had, and a few people shouted in unison with the guards urging the boy to stop. 

He didn’t listen though. He charged at the guards with a cheetah like pace. Before he was even twenty feet in front of me, shots rang out in the cabin and the boy fell limply to the ground.. I screamed loudly, and clamped my hands over my mouth. The girls in front of me screamed as well, one burying her face into the other’s shoulder. His was frozen in his lazy smile. It was eerie to see, his glassy eyes staring back at you unmoving, with his grin spread easily over his face. I felt a hand pull me down into my seat. My partner had woken up, the chaos must have disturbed his slumber.