NATALIE PRIOR

CHAPTER II

"Hey girl, come 'ere..."
Natalie moved uncomfortably towards the man.
Bruno is known as the Biggest terror in here, the Fringe. His teeth were grimy looking, brown and he wore ratty clothes. No one bothered to get tidied up in here.
In the Fringe, she understood that all the impoverished and horrible people end up. Maybe she was nasty since she betrayed her family.
"Yes Sir?" No one dares to take his name, not even until they take their last breaths.  Once he has got you, you know you'll be dead by the next hour.
"I didn't call you, filthy...there's she!"
Natalie turned around to see. It was Kelly, her best ally, maybe the only friend she has made here. Kelly looked nervous and her hands trembled as the fruit slipped from her grip.
"Please, I didn't do anything. Pardon me..." Kelly fell over on her knees and started sobbing.
"Really?", he said sarcastically.
Bruno got up from his makeshift bench and yanked Kelly by her collar.
He swatted her and said:
"Where did you get this apple from? Tell!"
"I...I...got it there..." She pointed towards a shack.
The houses here are too cramped up to be distinguished and every step you take, you step on to ankle-deep dirt. Nothing herein Fringe is clean even by an inch. Even the sky was red and it looked like the clouds are made of coal.
Few people, who had little knowledge said that this is the aftermath of radioactive radiation in the area.
Natalie felt she had taken a very wrong decision. In the past few days, she had a burnt sensation in her chest and her spirit felt like sucked out.
But as she saw her best friend get beaten up, all her frailty vanished. Her eyes reddened with rage and she couldn't accept it anymore. For an eight-year-old, this kind of violence was too much.
She hurled herself on Bruno.
She felt like a vicious creature as her nails dug into the skin and she punched Bruno with all her strength on the face. She whacked until Bruno was knocked over his feet.
Her eyes filled with tears and this went on. Until someone dragged her off Bruno.
She heard mutterings.
She wiped her tears and saw her knuckles all split. She raised her head and saw it.
People encircled them. Bruno howled and everything went silent.
A feeling of accomplishment and grief-filled her at the same instant. She pushed away.
After an hour, when enough of tears had been shed, she came out of the lair. Water dribbled from the canopy, splashed on her cheek, mixed with her tears till she was all over dripping.
"Nat?" A hand touched her shoulder. A sob escaped her throat.
"I didn't mean to"
"I know. You meant to save me"
"Won't I be chastised? The others will hunt me down..."
"No, everyone expected to get rid of him. No person like him is admired. Maybe your way wasn't honest but you had no other option. You brought in that choice, you uncovered an option."
Natalie felt relieved at these intelligent words.
"Kel I'll always be there for you. Promise never to abandon me..."
"Promise"
They intertwined their pinky fingers with each other and swore. That was a bond that shall never be broken.
Suddenly, there were a series of screams as the engines of trucks and hovercrafts were sounded.
"They are here!", Kelly shouted at the top of her voice.
" Run"
They scrambled along and passed over the fence that surrounded the Fringe. There was a gunshot.
"Kel"
Natalie was petrified. A pair of hands clasped over her jaws. She heard some voices till the sweet but unsettling smell made her drift off.
"Are you sure it's her?"
"Yeah, it came upon the footage."
"Too young, isn't she, to kill?"
"Yeah, but I'm confirmed she's a Pure."

That day the council inflicted such an attack upon the people of Fringe, it destroyed honest lives.
It broke a vital, faithful, and cheerful bond between two allies. It was so hard but it broke because its Achilles' heel gave way.
Two friends.
Two innocents.
Only one made it out.
The Bureau, that was all...
Darkness enveloped her.