The Marked

The Day I Ran

Hello my name is Adeline Fray. I was born in the year 2100 in a small rural town as an only child. My mother caught the deadly plague in her later months of pregnancy with me. After I was born she died so I was raised by my father.

My father was a cruel man with a very short temper. Most of my early childhood was spent locked in a bathroom fearing for my safety.

I vowed that the day that I was strong enough to fight back that I would. That day came on my fourteenth birthday. Fourteen was the age that government "Jackies" would come and get Marked children.

The term Marked as you may be wondering refers to the black Mark on children who survive birth from plagued mothers. Mine was on my wrist just like my best friend Jenna's.

"I know she's fourteen today." my dad said and then there was a pause as the person on the other end spoke.

I ducked back behind the wall as my dad looked over, his phone in his hand.

He turned back around before continuing. "Yes I was planning on getting rid of her today. I promise you that I don't want this urchin around any longer than I've kept her so far."

Another pause as the other person responded. "No I don't know who she was but she obviously wanted me to keep her. I was supposed to keep her longer until the Eve of her sixteenth birthday but I couldn't stand her any longer."

The phone call went on but I could no longer bear to hear it. I locked myself in the nearby bathroom until the talking was ceased.

I left to go sit on the couch in my living room and watch tv. Little did I know, my father had heard me creep away.

He came into the living room and sure enough he'd noticed my eavesdropping and I had pissed him off. He argued with me until he was within a few feet of me and was getting violent.

Scared, I had threatened him with the police. "The police won't help you! You can't threaten me! I'm going to give you the beating of your life!" He screamed as he grabbed my right ankle and tried to drag me to the back bedroom to beat me. I held onto the couch like my life depended on it. Which with my dad this angry, I dreaded that it did.

He started beating my legs and I hit him back to get him off of me. His face turned red and shook with anger as his green eyes rolled off waves of anger. "I'll kill you! You hear me I'll kill you!" He screamed in my face as he ran to grab his belt.

I raced out the front door and ran for my life. I reached a gate that surrounded a facility by my house and tried to climb over it. It just bent under my feet and wouldn't let me over.

I was hidden from the house by a shed but my heart pounded with fear that he would find me. So I ran into the woods my hair flying and branches caressing my limbs and yanking my hair. Yet I did not slow.

I ran around the gate and reached a nearby road. I considered flagging down a car but I was scared that someone would just abduct me.

So I ran across the road and into a Mexican trailer park nearby. I got odd looks from the owners but I didn't care. I ducked into the first empty one and searched around to be sure I was alone.

After seeing that I was I sat down in a chair utterly exhausted. Soon I was sound asleep.

"Yoo-hoo! Hey earth to Addy. WAKE UP!"

I shot up and into a defensive stance as the figure just laughed and hugged me. I quickly relaxed when I saw it was Jenna.

She let go and began to rummage around the kitchen. I took in her now not-so-shiny unkempt blond hair that was down despite her love for having it up and neat.

I reached into my pocket and tossed a black ponytail onto the counter by her. She smiled gratefully and stopped her search to pull up her hair.

After she had found two loaves of bread and several packets of beef jerky along with blankets, a knife, and other odds and ends piled up on the table she began to tell me her escape plan.

She avoided talking about how she got here and I sensed it pained her so I left it alone, as she did for me. She told me that she had found out from her parents that the only way for a Marked girl to survive was for them to hide their mark, get adopted, establish a new identity and life, and marry herself off.

I shuddered at the thought of having to marry whomever would take me to survive but if it was the only way I would do it.

I suggested we catch a train out of this city and then she suggested the one right by her neighborhood that frequently left town.

I agreed and with the two backpacks stocked with the supplies, we left the trailer and headed for our friend's house.

On our way there we found two dogs in a cardboard box settled by the trailer we had been in. We couldn't just leave them behind as it seemed they were underfed and their owners weren't coming back. So I chose the Husky as my own dog and named her Amy. Jenna chose the German Shepard and named him Brody.

As excited as I was that I finally got to have a pet, I suddenly remembered our other three friends Josh, Ashley, and Will.

"We need to go find Ashley." I told Jenna as we left with the dogs in tow.

She shook her head and I saw sadness and anger clearly on her face. "They already got Ashley. I went by there on my way over here and her house was stamped with the white insignia of an eagle. The bloody government got to her first." she said almost screaming by the end. We both knew she was probably already dead.

"Then we definitely can't leave the boys behind because Josh's 14 birthday is only two months before mine and Will's is a few days before his. They should be past due, that is if they haven't already been taken." I said as I bit my lip with a growing sense of dread.

"Don't worry, their parents would do anything to protect them and they would move before they let them be taken away." Jenna said, although she didn't sound too sure herself.

We reached Josh's house and snuck in through his window. Thankfully Will was there too which saved us a trip to his house as well.

They both agreed that it would be safer for their parents and them if they left with us. Every day their parents hid them was another day that they defied the government. It was treason and they could be killed for it.

We all crept back out his window and ran until we reached the train near Jenna's house.

We were all exhausted from running but the boys still volunteered to boost the girls up onto the trains and the dogs before getting themselves up.

We all collapsed on the ground in exhaustion and lay there until the train took off and sent us closer to a new start.