The Other Side of the Fence (English)

Chapter 3

It's the most incredible feeling in the world. I remember reading right before I fall asleep.

***

"I had the best dream about that man. I am telling you, there is a weird feeling in my stomach when I think about her. I think it could be that feeling Allie told us about once." One of the oldest in the group shares her dream with us as we listen carefully.

"You mean him?" Kristen corrects her.

"Uh? Him?" the girl asks confused.

"Yes, mom says they are not her, they're "him", and you haven't even seen them! How can you dream about them?" Everybody stares at her as if she had said something ridiculous. Well, she sort of did.

I'm sure crazy Allie would be fascinated about her daughter's story, and concern is the least thing anyone can see in her face whenever Kristen mentions the topic. She doesn't care much about her daughter, does she?

My mom says that they do something to her brain to control her crazy thoughts, and that is best to keep your curiosity and thoughts to yourself or you're going to end up like crazy Allie. Unfortunately, I was born with curiosity and I can't stop thinking about how life is on the other side of the fence.

As days pass, people start to forget about Kristen's story. Me, on the other hand, not so much. I start to meet Kristen and her mother to hear more stories, and one day, those stories become a plan. An escaping plan.

Kristen and I try to keep everything to ourselves, but I know my mom could easily suspect something, so we try to be extra careful. We plan to escape our village to the other side of the fence, not knowing what will happen, but our curiosity has always been greater than our sanity and we knew it was going to happen sooner or later.  We pack whatever we think we might need and try to be as brave as we can. I kiss my mom goodbye and I close the door behind me.

"I will be back soon mom." I whisper.

I grab my backpack with different essentials and a knife as a weapon. I leave my house as quietly as possible to meet Kristen in the corner of our neighborhood. She starts giggling as she sees me.

"Shut up!" I whisper. "What are you laughing at?"

"I almost got caught by my mom, but don't worry she's probably dead asleep."

"What do you mean? She knows we're going." I say, confused.

"Yeah, but she doesn't know we were going today. She would have come with us if she knew, and you know she's fun and crazy, but she's still my mom. I am old enough to do this by myself."

I ignore her words because I wanted Allie to come, I would feel safer around her and now I'm hesitating. If we don't leave now, I know I'm going to run home and hug my mom. It's now or never.

"Alright I'll follow you." I say, firmly.

We walk at a slow pace as we leave the neighborhood in case anyone is still awake and hears us. Once we are at a safe distance from it, we start sprinting towards the south fence. The streets start to get darker and darker and my chin starts to shiver as I hear the wind blowing through the lonely streets. It gets colder as we approach the fence and I am starting to regret coming here. The fence looks much higher at night than in the daytime and Kristen seems to read my mind.

"Is this the same fence? It looks twice as big right?"

"Yeah. But I think we are in the right place."

We look around us and move closer to the fence. I touch it with my shoe to make sure there is no electricity, and fortunately, there isn't. Kristen starts climbing without hesitation and I follow her. All those stories aren't true. You will be fine; it will just be a few hours. You will return home safely. I try to comfort myself.

We reach the top and once I look down, I realize that this was a huge mistake. The fence has definitely gotten bigger. I start to feel nauseous and the world moves around me. Oh no.

"Shit! The fence is moving." Kristen says and looks at me. Her face shows pure horror.

The world is not moving, but the fence definitely is. It is time for us to jump back to the ground. Who knew this thing would grow overnight? I guess that is what happens when we have a curfew.

I can't help but wonder why we didn't know about this. Is it really that bad out there?

"Emma jump!" I look down at Kristen and see her already on the floor.

I climb down as fast as I can, and once I am close enough to the floor I jump down hurting my ankle in the process. Great. I hope is not broken.

"Are you okay? Please tell me you didn't break your foot. We barely made it to the other side."

As I am about to respond, the fence turns red and starts blinking repeatedly. We both panic because we are sure we just got caught. I get up as I can and realize the injury is not as bad as I thought; it is definitely not broken.

"Please tell me you can run." Kristen asks as she grabs me and pulls me away from the fence.

"I'm good. Let's go." I say as I grab her arm and run with her leaving our village behind.