We Are All Strangers (5 page)

Yeah, I was pretty sure that had to hurt.

Without a second glance, I yanked the door shut, and took off down the dimly lit tunnel.

I hated this part – traveling alone in a damp, poorly lit tunnel, but it was the only way to move between Sectors undetected.

Well, as undetected as one could be around here.

I mean, I didn’t doubt that a camera caught me slipping into the tunnel. In fact, I would have been more surprised had one not.

That was just how Troum was.

When my mother was murdered, I began to see things in a new light – I began to see
him
in a new light. I knew that he was trouble, and I knew that he would be our downfall. I guess it wasn’t until recently that I’d actually begun to question how trustworthy he was, though.

I was finally growing tired of living in a corrupt world, I suppose, though it wasn’t as though our world was perfect beforehand. Nothing was ever perfect.

But it was close enough before, in that, I wasn’t forced to face death on a daily basis, and I still had a family and an entire future ahead of me.

I wanted to go back to that; to go back to living in a world where hope couldn’t get you killed.

I wanted out.

I sat near the edge of the tunnel, peering out into the night, checking for any sign of the guards.

It had been hours since I had first left the Homeless Sector, and I was growing restless, having been stuck alone in the tunnel. There was hardly enough room to move within the small space – I could stand, and I had room to stretch my arms and legs, but that was about it.

This tunnel let out near the front of the Family Sector, directly across from the beach.

It wasn’t an ideal location, especially since I needed to be near the back of the Sector, but it thankfully wasn’t that long of a distance.

Once I was sure that it was safe to move, I slipped out of the tunnel, gently easing the door to the tunnel down behind me.

The night sky covered the Sector in darkness, but even in the darkness, I could see her.

My first instinct was to ignore her, after all, anyone traveling alone in the Sector at this time of night was obviously up to something, and I honestly didn’t need to draw any attention to myself.

For one, I wasn’t in proper Sector attire.

Secondly, I couldn’t be positive that she wasn’t a guard.

I went to move forward, my foot crushing a pile of twigs beneath my weight, forcing her body to tense up. By the way that she grabbed a hold of her bag straps - nervously and unsure of how to react - I could tell that she wasn’t a guard.

My first thought went back to the scrolling text from the tablet and the escapee.

It had to be her.

“Miss,” I tried to keep my voice low as I moved behind her. It probably wasn’t the best idea, as I didn’t want to come off as creepy, but I also didn’t want to alert the guards to our location. “You shouldn’t be out here.”

When she didn’t stop, I quickened my pace to catch up to her and moved in front of her, blocking her way.

Yeah, I definitely needed to work on being less creepy
, I thought.

“Hello?” I smiled as I lifted my hand underneath her chin. “If they see you out here, you’re a goner, Miss.”

“You’re not -—you’re not one of them?” She asked, seemingly surprised.

“Me?” I laughed at that one. Me? One of them? Yeah, no way in hell that would ever happen. “That’d be a no. This isn’t even my Sector.”

She forced a tight smile as she moved to go around me. “I should probably get going.”

I hadn’t been around many teenage girls. No. Correction: I hadn’t been around many
stable
teenage girls, having only known those that I had met in my Sector, but I could tell that something was bothering her.

I followed beside her, my eyes never leaving her face. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “You seem... upset.”

“Not to be offensive, but given that we’ve just met, don’t you find that to be a bit rude?”

It was safe to assume that I wasn’t making the best first impression.

“Nope,” I said, my lips tugging up at the corners into a friendly smile.

“I have a feeling you’re going to get on my nerves. How long are you planning on following me exactly?”

I chose not to answer because I, myself wasn’t sure how long I planned on following her, but that didn’t stop her from continuing her mini-rant.

“Fine,” she muttered. “You want to know what’s wrong. Where to start? They, Troum and his men took my sister from me, and I have no clue where she is. Oh, not to mention some jerk that utterly trampled over my emotions earlier today. “

“I see,” I nodded, taking it all in.

“Who the hell are you, anyway?” She asked angrily. “And why are you following me?”

“I have nothing else to do,” I shrugged. “And I’m always up for a challenge.”

“Who are you?” She repeated, her eyes locked on mine.

“The name is Glate,” I held out my hand. “Glate Whelmon. And you are?”

“Taylen,” I caught her glancing at my hand, probably disgusted by my scars given the odd expression on her face. “Taylen Fincher,” she said, shaking my hand firmly.

“Nice to meet you, Taylen,” I smiled, a true, genuine smile.

The light of the moon cast down upon us, highlighting her face. Vivid red locks of hair. Eyes as green as emeralds. Skin chalk-white. There was no denying that the girl was gorgeous.

“So,” I said, waving my hands in front of her face once I was able to gather my thoughts. “What’s the plan?”

“What plan?” She replied.

“Your sister,” I said, arching my eyebrow questionably. “What is the plan to rescue her?”

“I don’t really have a plan.” She began walking alongside the wall, her fingers dragging along the cement. “I was going to search throughout the Sector for her.”

“Ah, so basically you’re trying to get yourself killed.” I shook his head. “I’m afraid that won’t accomplish much, Miss.”

Apparently I hadn’t taken enough time to think about my response before I spoke because Taylen moved ahead of me, clearly annoyed and more than eager to get away from me.

I normally wasn’t one to bother with strangers, especially when I had a task that I had yet to complete, but there was something about her that pulled me in.

My supplies were going to have to wait.

“It’s going to take more than that for me to leave, I’m afraid,” I said, panting as I finally caught up to her.

Not too far ahead, footsteps sounded – boots crunching twigs as they slapped against the concrete. It was clear that they were headed in our direction, and given the panicked look on Taylen’s face I could see that she knew it too.

She nervously glanced up ahead at the front gate which was crawling with guards before turning her attention back to me.

I was beginning to see that Taylen honestly didn’t have a clue as to what she was doing.

“We have to go,” she whispered, panic coating her voice.

I reached inside of my pant pocket and pulled out my knife.

“Come on,” I whispered. “Stay close behind me.”

We crept slowly along the wall, ducking whenever a guard came into view. I lifted my finger to my lips and cocked my head towards the gate up ahead. Leaning against the gate were four guards with their rifles strapped across their chests.

I glanced back at Taylen only to find her fingers clenched into fists at her sides, her eyes landing on one guard in particular – a young guard with his finger ready against his trigger.

I pulled her closer to me. “Don’t,” I whispered, uncurling her fingers.

“How am I supposed to get past them? If he sees me,” she fell back against the wall. “If he sees me, he won’t let me go.”

“Well then, I guess we better make sure that nobody sees us, huh?” I smiled, plopping down beside her.

“Do you even know the first thing about fighting?” I asked as I drew in the dirt with my knife. “Or are you hoping your wits will be enough to save your sister?”

“I know how to fight,” she argued.

Yeah, I could easily tell that was a load of crap.

“Oh really?” I eyed her suspiciously before tossing her the knife. “Then I’m sure you’ll be able to make use of this.”

She nearly cut her palm in the process as she grabbed hold it. I watched as she turned it around to admire its design. “Thanks,” she said, tucking the knife away.

“You have no clue what you’re doing.”

“Maybe I don’t, but at least I’m doing something,” she replied bitterly, “which is more than I can say for the others.”

“Well, aren’t you a firecracker?” I grinned.

“Do you ever shut up?” She mumbled, lowering her head, her eyes focusing on the cracked concrete ground beneath us.

I let out a laugh, though, in my defense, I did everything that I could to stifle it.

“Look, I need to get out of here. Why don’t you go back to doing whatever it was you were doing before, got it?”

What I was supposed to be doing was gathering supplies from the Family Sector, but I had no intention of doing so tonight – not now that I’d met her.

When I was little, my father told me that the eyes are a gateway to a person’s soul, and it was only now that I truly understood what he’d meant.

I could see the desperation in her eyes; the need to rescue her sister. I could feel her loss. I could feel her determination, and I knew right then that I needed to help her.

It was stupid on my end, as helping her would mean that I would have to trust her fully, and well, out here, trusting someone could get you killed.

But I was willing to risk it for her.

The passion that burned in her eyes; the anger that drove her forward – I knew how it felt.

“Sorry to upset you, but I’m not leaving.” I tossed a small rock her way. “You’re going to need help. We both know that if I leave you now, you stand a better chance at being captured than you do at making it out of here.”

Taylen opened her mouth to argue, but I threw up my hand to stop her. “I know what it’s like outside of these walls, and I know what it takes to make it out of here alive. Trust me, you need me, whether you like it or not.”

D
esperate times called for desperate measures, so the saying went.

Two days ago, our lives changed. Again. We’d been living under the rule of Troum for so long that I’d almost forgotten what it had felt like to be free, to live a life outside of these walls.

The days before the Outbreak were days that I would forever cherish; days that held happier memories – of my sister, my mother, our family.

My father and I had found a way to manage, to suppress the pain, the longing, but times like now, I found myself eager to reclaim what was once, and she had only made that desire stronger.

She had, in a way, forced me awake; opened my eyes to new possibilities I had not thought to be achievable after the Outbreak. She made freedom seem attainable, although at a price.

Some would die, we knew that. Maybe it should have made us rethink our actions, our plans, but it hadn’t. Death was a part of life for us now. We’d lost so many residents after the Outbreak that we had come to accept that death was inescapable.

Some welcomed it with open arms, unable to abide my Troum’s rule any longer.

I had come close at times, but I pushed through the agony, and I was thankful that I had.

Had I not, had I allowed myself to die, I would have missed seeing her fight, her spark; I would have missed the impending change that was about to come to our world.

“Are you almost ready, Ana?” My father slipped his battered briefcase over his shoulder as he rose to his feet.

I had never been readier. “One second, I just want to do a double check, make sure I’m not forgetting something.”

At sixty-three, my father was getting up there in age, and even though he did his best to hide it, I knew that he was beginning to lose the fight and that the Sector was wearing him down. And I also knew that was the only reason he had agreed to occupy me on this journey.

He tied his hair back with a rubber band and adjusted his glasses before turning to smile at me. Even now, with the chaos that surrounded us, he had managed to compose himself.

If it wasn’t for my father, I wasn’t so sure that I would be as determined as I was today. When everything around us started going to shit, he was there to pick me up, to force me to keep going. He was the reason I had managed to survive this world for so long.

And now it was my turn to take care of him.

He deserved so much more than this – this hell.

The Widowed Sector had the ability to destroy a person, to tear them apart until there was absolutely nothing left other than desperation. They needed you desperate, eager for something – anything – to believe in.

They needed to break you, to wear you down to the bones. They needed you to suffer because Troum knew that the only way to command obedience from us was to make sure that we knew what it was to suffer.

But soon enough, the abuse would be over.

We were headed out of the Sector, not sure what we’d find on the outside.

It was a chance we were both willing to take.

Things were changing.

At first, I feared what she stood for; worrying that her actions could hurt what was left of my family. Troum had made her out to be a criminal, a threat to us all. None of what he had taught us was true.

Taylen was nothing more than a girl clinging to hope that, outside of this hell, there was a free world; a world that we had convinced ourselves no longer existed, although, in reality, we were the reason that it had stopped existing.

We allowed ourselves to forget, allowing the dreadful memories of the Outbreak to overshadow the happier ones.

After living under Troum's rule for ten-years, it was easy to forget what once was.

I had almost forgotten, but she reminded me. I forced myself to recall those days, engraving each memory into my mind, knowing that my memories were all that I had left of both my mother and my sister – I couldn’t allow myself to forget.

I took one last glance at my room, at the Sector clothes that lay in a pile by my bed, and reached for the doorknob.