Route: One

Escape:

I was out of breath but still kept running, they had chased me back to the wearhouse and expected me to get the main road that headed to town but not today. I looked back out of instincts and saw no one after me, I felt relieved over exhaustion as I kept my pace. I ran into the last stretch of cornfields with my hands extended out in front of me blocking the prickly corn leaves. A dry burning sensation growing in my lungs from wheezing out my breaths forced me to choke as I saw the road.

Along with the road, I heard it, Route One. I pushed my self to my very limit, gasping for air and moving my cramping legs further and further until finally reaching the end of the fields. I came to a halt when I found myself at the edge of the forbidden road, the one that lead away from town. The road that is forbidden to even mention.

I leaned over resting my hands on my knees catching my breath, I couldn't believe it, I was almost out. The suffering was almost over.

I straightened my back, only now realizing the clean, fresh breeze that carresed my arms. Completely new to the sensation I choked a laugh ad I arched my head back letting my long black hair hang as the wind whispered in my ears. I liked it, this feeling of freedom, something I would have never felt back home, and then it hit, I won't be able to return home... Ever.

I was almost lost in the sudden comforting depressing feel of self depravation when the sound of the distant engine reached me.

Route One.

The forbidden bus, that is talked about by kids at school, and yet is kept a myth by parents. As it sped down the road I walked onto the middle of the road with my arms raised open, stop, please stop. I hoped and wished that he'd do just that. As he got the bus closer I heard the brake kick in, and he slowed until he came to a stop.

I remained in front of the bus, too scared to move when the screech of the doors parted open and out came the driver.

"Hey! What are you doing!" He called as he reached to lower my arms. "Where did you come from?"
"I-i" I stuttered, when words failed me.

The man looked around as if looking for someone, "come, you can't be seen here." He took my hand and guided me onto the bus, I would not have allowed him to do so but I was desperate, lurching the bus forward I sat on the first seat behind his.
"Are you from quadrent four?" He asked after a moment.
"No, I'm from Darskville." I replied.
"Right, why are you out here, and where are you going?"
Anywhere but home. I thought.
"I can't go back, I won't live there another minute," I said looking down on my scar, and bruised arms, "I'll go anywhere but there."
"But you know what will happen if they find out?" He said.
"No...they think I'm somewhere else. Where's the next town over?"
"Quadrent three, four is the furthest away from the rest."
"What do you mean by quadrent?" I asked trying to understand him.

He remailed silent, eyes fixed on the road as we roared past fields after fields of wild flowers.
"Nothing." He finally said, "that's how I categorize the towns."
"And exactly how many towns are there?"
"Five if you count mainland but dont listen to me, next town over is still a few miles away." He said.

I was too overwhelmed with being free that I didn't take his words serious, I Leaned back against the seat and stared out through the window. The scenary was something I've never seen before, back home the grey-ness of the town left a depressiong feeling that everyone is use to, every one except for me. I grew up on that, and no matter what I do I'll always know that but, there has to be something better. People back home remain submissive because they don't know any better. Their dark, cold, isolated because its all there is to be. Just going with the flow. Not me though, ever since I was twelve, the flow became just one in a thousand possibilities when I found a picture. Blue skies, happy simple people, a family of four, without anything dark in their expressions. It was something I had never seen before, everything about the picture seemed wrong, it was too bright, the colors were too light, too happy, too calm but, the more I examined the photograph the more I wanted to be in it.

My world is metallic, black, sliver, hardcore, everyone is considered tuff as nails, brave but as they promote that, kindness and love are left behind, and I want it, I want to know how love feels, how kind we can really be.

"Hey, you'll have to get off here," I snap out of my thoughts and look out the window, I see dead medows of dried weeds, a path formed by the lack of vegetation broth. The path stretches far disappearing into the lining of distant buildings.
"You'll end up at the outskirts of the main road, just follow it into town and go home." He said as he pressed the button for the doors to open.

I stood and moved to the door as the bus made a hard stop, gripped tight to the railing I watched as the path stood out from the meadow.
"Quick or they'll know and send out to search for you!"

I turned before getting off the bus and thanked him, "thank you, thank you so much."

The bus screeched into gear and left in a puff of smoke, I watched it closely as it shrunk in the distance. When at last I could not see it any longer I turned and took a deep breath. My life will not be one in a million, it will stand out and everyone will know who I am.

I walked down the visible path, imagining wonders instead of horrors, because if I were wrong and ended up in a place far worse than my home, then I'd be lost without a way back home.

I would not attempt to take the forbidden route a second time, that would just risk my chances of getting caught, and I couldn't accept that.