Away from the North

Chapter 5

We walk towards the border faster than we've been walking. We stocked up on food and supplies at the last town, having been about a week and a half since we almost got caught by guard and store clerk when we restocked. We stare at the fence that is buzzing with electricity.
"How are we going to get over that?" I ask Jul quietly. He shrugs and looks around the area. He walks over to a box and takes a lot from the ground before throwing it into the box. The buzzing of the fence stops.
We quickly jump over it, not wanting to be near it if it comes back on because of a backup generator. We are walking away when I hear the buzzing of the fence coming back on.
The place isn't guarded because a lot of the troops are working in a war to try to win a small country somewhere else in the world. The rest are usually set by the line where the North and the South's towers can watch each other. It's technically the main border but we would never have gotten by if we went that way.
We walk further out into the area before stopping. Mounds of dirt are placed randomly along the ground and trip wires are everywhere. The doctor said that under the mounds are bombs and that the trip wires will set them off as well as if you step on one.
We walk carefully through the part, making sure not to touch any wires and to stay as far away as we can from the mounds of dirt. I stop for a second and look back, seeing that even though we've been on the other side of the fence for a while, I can still see it pretty clearly.
I turn back around and we keep navigating through the minefield, occasionally stopping at places where there isn't anything to take a drink or have a bite of two of some dried fruit. We finally get to a point where I can look back and no longer see the fence.
We keep walking through the minefield, getting closer and closer to a point in the middle where there is nothing set up. We calculated that the minefield from the North's border to the middle is about three miles long and the one from the middle to the South's border is two miles long.
We finally make it to the middle and carefully sit down on the ground. I take out some jerky and hand Jul a couple of pieces before grabbing a few for myself. He gives me a piece of cheese and I eat it with my jerky, resting so that I can make it the other two miles to the South.
"Okay, let's go," I say to Jul. He nods and I grab his hand to pull him up off his butt. I doing my backpack over my shoulders and we start walking across the minefield to the South. Their bombs and trip wires are more intricately placed, making it extremely hard to avoid them.
We walk through very carefully, not being able to afford to touch even one wire without setting off a bomb. We make it halfway through the minefield and stop to look at the South.
It's looks a lot cleaner than the North and the buildings look really nice. It doesn't look like anything is broken or rotting but then again it could just be to show that they can have nice things and the rest of their country is actually disgusting like ours.
The only nice buildings the North has are the ruler's and the guard towers near the main border, the rest are falling apart or disgusting. We continue walking through the minefield and finally make it to the other side.
The part has a couple of guards but they haven't seemed to notice is yet as it looks like they're trading posts. We run towards it and five behind a wall. I look up and see that it's a small house, presumably where these troops stay while they are guarding this place.
I peer around the other corner and seeing no one, start walking quickly away from the border. Jul walks beside me and we make it to a town by the place. There are cars driving around everywhere and signs flashing with light.
We stare up at them in awe and walk down the streets. We keep on guard for any guards but there doesn't seem to be any here. People walk by us and take no notice of our disheveled appearances. We keep walking and find a small park.
The benches aren't in cases and there aren't any statues of their leader around. We sit down on a park bench and I take out a bag of nuts. Me and Jul eat them while we watch people and cars go by. There are people out in the park for early morning jogs as the sun comes up.
I close the bag of nuts and put it back in my backpack as the sun rises. I yawn and stretch, tired from walking around and avoiding mines all night. Jul looks over at me and ruffles my hair. He stands up and I get off the bench too.
We walk out of the park and down the streets. I follow him tiredly, trying not to trip over my own feet. As we walk by a cloth shop a girl comes out and stops us on the sidewalk.
"If you guys need a place to stay I have an extra room," she offers kindly. I nod immediately, my tiredness ruling all my decisions. We follow her inside and she leads us to the extra room and tell us where the extra blankets and pillows are if we need them.
I set my backpack down and grab clean clothes before walking to a washroom. There's a faucet and a shower like you see when out old great leader would your his house on television. I strip my clothes and hop in the shower, washing off.
I struggle to keep my eyes open as the warm water washed the weeks of dirt off my skin. I lather my hair with some hair soap she has and smile as I smell how sweet it is. I finish my shower and then the faucet off.
I get out and put clean clothes on, feeling refreshed. I mumble to Jul about the shower and he runs in there. I flop down on one of the two twin beds and close my eyes, falling asleep immediately.