The Differents | ✓

F I V E

Some time later, I looked up and realized it was completely silent. My eyes strained to look somewhere further than the book in front of my face, and I looked around my room with some difficulty. It was just the same as I left it, but the eerie silence was what disturbed me. Wondering what time it was, I got up to look out the window and discovered it completely dark outside, with the only light being by the almost full moon. I had lost track of time again, and everyone was asleep. 

I picked up my book, three of its pages newly filled with ink, and set it on the windowsill, when I had an idea. Yes, it was risky, but Masks had to sleep too, didn't they? I glanced at the clock on my desk. It was the middle of the night. If I went immediately, I could be back with a few hours to spare until dawn. 

The first thing I did was turn off my light. If anyone was patrolling the halls, that would be the first indication that I was still awake and that would just slow me down. I opened my small closet and slipped on a pair of sturdy shoes, my mind putting the pieces together and whizzing to formulate and modify my original plan. I was going to ask people questions about that light, but what if they got suspicious? If I went to the Barrier now, I could soundlessly investigate while everyone was asleep and be back before anyone knew it. I tucked my book back underneath the mattress and cracked open the window, carefully removing the mesh and putting it aside. Sticking my head out, I let my eyes adjust to the darkness and looked around. No one was there, so I slipped on my dark coat and squeezed through the window, dropping to the ground soundlessly as I was taught to. I put the mesh back in place as best as I could and gently pushed the window closed, leaving a small gap at the bottom so I could get back in.

Glancing around myself, I looked for the best way to get to the Barrier. My room was situated at the front of our sleeping building, so while I had a good view od the courtyard during the day, it didn't come as handy at night if I didn't want to be seen. I decided to go around the back of the buildings until I came to the gateway leading to the field in between the Core and the Barrier. Then I'd make sure there was no one there and slip through when the time was right.

Arriving at the gateway, the Core was still as silent as if everyone was dead. I looked around, scanning for people I knew weren't there. Silently, I wished I had discovered how silent it was at night before -- it was always so noisy and stressful during the day that I could never concentrate. I was about to step out and slip through the gateway when a light in my peripheral vision made the hairs rise on the back of my neck and goosebumps erupt on my skin. Someone was coming. I stifled a gasp and hid behind a garbage bin against the wall. 

Peeping through the crack between the bin and the wall, I watched the light come nearer. My ears registered footsteps crunching against the rocky ground and as the light came nearer, I saw who it was. A lone Mask, on patrol most likely, holding a flashlight. They walked up to the gateway and swung the flashlight around. I saw them yawn lightly and then drowsily head back the way they came. I knew that Masks patrolled the Core and its buildings but I wasn't expecting such low security at night.

There'll probably be more at the Barrier though, I reminded myself uneasily. I waited a minute more, timed carefully in my head, and then ran for the gateway silently, slipping through and taking shelter behind a bush that lined the pathway leading through the field.

I looked around me. The Core's field was a vast expanse of grass and dirt with bits of scattered training equipment and a running track. There was also supposed to be a pool on one side of the field but it could only be used when the water wasn't frozen and when we actually had enough water to fill it. So for a couple of months each year we had access to it, and the rest of the year it was either dried up or freezing. Anyway, the field also had a selective area of forest, pushed off to the side and filled with tightly grown trees and traps that we were supposed to learn how to avoid. I mainly just climbed the nearest tree and stayed there until we were allowed out of the forest.