Just One and Done

The Well

     "Riley don't go to far." my mother yelled at me from the window of our cottage and I shrugged in response. "Riley!" she called again, but I continued to stalk through the over grown forest. My father was leaning against the front door with that look on his face, taunting me, telling me to venture beyond the border lines. I flipped him off and he smirked once more before returning to the safety of the house.

     He had hit her again, I wasn't there to see it this time but I knew. Its the only time when my mother leaves the window open, because she doesn't mind the burning winds flicking at her face and drying up her tears. About every twenty years the sun whistles it's fiery breath into the atmosphere of our Earth. Its been almost twenty years since the last one, and since the day my biological mother gave birth to me at 17 years of age and then vanished.

     My backpack wasn't that heavy on my back, but I could already feel the sweat dripping down my back underneath my jacket. The temperature was already starting to rise and my knife was beginning to get dull from hacking away all of the greenery in my path. I was tired. I slipped the sack to the ground and sat down against an old rotting tree. The forest floor was hard and cold and I pulled a canteen from my bag, twisting the cap off and sucking down the contents. That was my last one. I sighed and rolled over, closing my eyes and nodding off beneath the black canopy of burnt leaves.

     The inside of my eyelids were orange and I grumbled, wondering why there would be such light in the shade.

Fire.

     I opened my eyes to see flames right at my feet, and some dripping dangerously above my head. There was only one thought in my mind as I grabbed my things and scrambled to my feet. Run. I pushed myself off of the ground and stumbled past trees and bushes, away from the evil that was chasing behind me. The flames popped and crackled until the trees began to thin out and dead grass met my feet. The fire stayed back as the ground was to cold and bare for anything to burn much, but I continued to run. I ran until my feet hurt, until I could no longer hear the sounds of death, and until I reached the border.

     There was a border that everyone in our coterie spoke about. It was an imaginary line that separated death from living. If you passed it then you were going into another camp and therefore they had rights to kill you. It was uncharted territory that no one had ever bothered to scope because it scared them. I hadn't even seen the border before, until now. There was a change in aura when you came to it. All before me there was black. One building still stood, tall and barren with charred sides and holes. A few cars were scattered around crushed and rusted, and there were several piles of dust.

     I passed into the area, walking further through the black and finding more buildings and piles of dust. My fingers traced the scratches along the bricks until I got to one wall in particular. Burned into the wall was the imprint of a human being, their face the mask of sheer terror.

     "No!" I screamed and fell back over a brick. A burning blast of air swept the short brown curls away from over my eyes and fluttered through the holes in my shoes and jacket.

     "Who there?" a voice shouted from the distance and I once again ran to get away from the danger. "Stop!" It shouted again and an arrow flew past my head and grazed my cheek. I lifted my hand up to cup the stinging sore and catch the dripping blood. I ran for my life, back into the forest that was burning on the opposite side of the field.

     After a while I came across some bushes that were still green. A few of them had some berries and without thinking too much I began to pluck the blueberries off and eat them. I was enjoying the meal when a rustling sounded in front of me. The bushes were good for hiding and my skin was a light brown color that didn't stand out from the burnt leaves as much as the man in front of me. His skin was pale as if he had been washed out, and his eyes were a dark brown almost black. He searched the area and looked past me several times before moving on.