An uncomfortable lump emerges in my throat as the unsettling truth overcomes me. I might’ve just lost my last and only opportunity to run. Instead, I sprint silently ahead of the rest to catch up to Michele. "I thought you said this was an effortless trip?" I say sarcastically.
"Just follow me, Nathan, you'll be fine." He replies with a grin.
"Nate.” I correct, “Call me Nate."
He meets my eyes to respond but before he can, we look ahead and there it is; a thick concrete wall which towers up at least fifteen feet high. I force the lump down my throat abruptly.
I've never gone far enough to see it; half of me almost believed it was only a myth. I’m disappointed to find those rumors were false. It's covered in green and brown vines and growth running zigzagged up the massive base. Barbed wire blankets the top, making it seemingly impossible to get over. There’s no entry visible or a ladder or stairs. I can’t even spot any loose boulders to climb. So, reluctantly, I wonder how we will get over it the way Michele says we can.
We cautiously make ourselves known by emerging from the thicket, watching our surroundings while doing so. I lean forward to question Michele about our plan to overcome the invincible tower just before I see exactly how we’re making it over. A dead oak tree has fallen directly on The Wall. It's propped up just right, so we can climb up it. Seeing the one and only way to get over the monstrous thing, a horrible ache deep in the pit of my stomach shoots up to punch me in the throat. I feel like vomiting. How can something that will help my family so much feel so wrong inside. I’m doing the right thing, I tell myself as I follow the others. That question from this morning floats aimlessly in the empty-of-logic void in my brain. I still don’t know the right answer.
I mimic the others, climbing up the trunk of the awkwardly hunched oak. As each person makes it to the top and perches himself on the branches, within arm’s reach of the tower’s edge, they begin dumping any bags they brought along to carry their loot back in over The Wall.
“Brandon, you’re up.” Michele announces in a whispered voice.
The boy in front of me—Brandon apparently—moves past the rest of us to get into a comfortable position at the top. I find myself holding my breath for him as he stands on the very edge of The Wall’s peek, inches from the razor sharp spikes snagging his knees. A few of the guys reach over to support his upper half as he slowly steps over the wire, slowly and steadily bringing his second leg over to plant himself on the opposite edge of the treachery.
“Whoa, that’s still a long fall.” I call up the tree, finding that I’m still clinging to the trunk halfway down.
“Relax, Brandon’s a good jumper.” One of them calls down to me.
I miss seeing him jump but certainly hear the thud of him hitting the ground on the other side. I can already imagine his broken body lying motionless in the dirt over The Wall. I wince to myself, waiting anxiously for some sign that he’s okay.
“Alright, David, you’re next.” Michele sighs, waving his hand down to Brandon who apparently didn’t break his legs.
One by one they start jumping over. Too soon, all the guys are over and it’s just Michele and I left on the tree. I work my way up to the top, finding a solid hold for me feet as I lean to try and see over the edge, to no avail.
My uncertainty must show on my face because Michele chuckles under his breath before showing me the branch above my head to grab to keep my balance while stepping over the wire, "Just take a deep breath, and jump." He says with confidence, “We’ll all help you with the landing on the ground.”
He hesitates for a moment, monitoring my current balance in this tree top. I guess I passed the test because he nods once before adding, "Just make sure you jump far enough or you'll hit the wire." He says this with a friendly smile as he leaps out of the tree, landing on his feet with help from the guys waiting at the bottom.
I shake my head, heaving in a sharp breath. My actions are being put to the ultimate test now. I grip the branch above my head, stepping over the barbed wire cautiously. Take a deep breath and jump, I repeat silently as I stare down at them. And with one burst of faith, I stand up straight and leap off the top of the tree and over The Wall.
I feel the back of my jacket snag on the wire but rip right through. With the ground hurtling towards me much faster than I expected and my stomach leaping to take flight, I almost land on my knees, but the guys catch me, helping to break my fall. And In an instant, I'm back on the ground.
Still somewhat trying to catch my breath, Michele exclaims, "Well, that worked better than I thought it would!" He laughs along with the other guys and they walk on ahead, keeping their heads and voices down now.
Finally catching my breath, I get a chance to look around. This is the first time my feet have touched the other side, the Teck’s side, and the surprising absence of them is everywhere I look. The forest is so alive with sounds. Noises, animal noises, are all around me, animals I've never heard before. And in the blink of an eye, I'm suddenly fearful. I feel like I'm being watched from every direction.
I take a few steps forward and feel the pressure of the air hit my face. It's warm, a lot warmer than back home. How could one wall change everything so much? This is a whole world, a place I’ve never ever imagined. The woods are alive, green everywhere, and there’s a lingering wetness in the air from a recent rainstorm. Our forest is pretty much all brown and dead, nothing like this new portal I’ve stepped through, where everything is growing and thriving.
The animals here don't mind being seen either. Looking deeper in around me, I see creatures everywhere. Some I recognize –though they are all much healthier– and some I don't. I spy keen eyes up in the gushing trees, most likely belonging to small animals like raccoons or possums. My heart beats a little faster as the thought of, what if they aren’t the usual nocturnal critters that can be seen on my side? I pick up an easy pace to catch up with the others, and as I leave the small clearing of The Wall and enter into the unknown, I flinch as the larger animals react as they should; sprinting clumsily in the opposite direction. But still, as I trot uncomfortably behind Brandon, unease becomes me when the eyes return. They all watch me as I pass, out of sight but certainly not out of mind. I wonder briefly if they have these animals trained, like at any moment the deer would sound an alarm and give us away. I shake that thought away. Animals aren’t capable of becoming tame, I remind myself. They’re probably just as curious as I am, maybe even wondering how lucky they got to end up on this side and not the other. Nevertheless, for the first time ever I feel like the prey being hunted. It even feels like the trees are watching me as they sway in the wind.
The other guys suddenly take off running through the trees, not bothering to give me any kind of warning or reason why. I join them anyhow, ignoring the blaring in my gut to keep quiet. No one speaks or looks at each other. I imagine briefly that we’re running in a pack of wolves; swift, silent, and unknown.
Finally, after about fifteen minutes I start to see the trees stop abruptly in front of us, breaking open to the one thing I fear more than The Wall. Michele calls for a halt then and we all crouch in the shadows of the woods. I can see buildings in the distance.
"Alright, we don't have a lot of time." Michele starts out like a leader, "We need to go in, get what we need, and get out. Don't be in when the sun rises."
"Wait, wait.” I pipe in before he’s even finished speaking, “We're splitting up?"
"It's the fastest way to get what we all need. We wasted too much time waiting for you." He replies. He looks at me with irritation in his expression. I don't know why, he's the one who kept crucial details about this mission from me. That's it; I have to leave right now. I shouldn't have come in the first place.
“Look, as long as you get what you really need and don't waste time, you'll be fine, I promise." He says in a certain voice.
“I don’t know this place like you do,” I press, swallowing the urge to puke, “how will I even know which way to go?”
“You need to sort through your priorities, Nathan.” Michele huffs while observing the city in front of him, “Read the signs.”
I sigh, bouncing my legs with uncertainty. Reading the signs is going to get me nowhere fast.
“Can we just talk this through?” My voice has taken on a desperate vibe which I immediately hate the sound of.
“There’s no time!” Brandon turns to hiss at me, “The sun will be up in half an hour.”
Half an hour, I repeat to myself. I should’ve stayed at home.
"Alright, let's go!" One of the guys announces suddenly and they all take off running into the Teck’s city. I didn’t even have time to blink.
Michele, standing to run, looks back at me; smiling that suspicious smirk he approached me with yesterday, “Good luck, my friend. Don’t get lost. If anyone catches you, you’re dead.”
He disappears out of sight, entering the forbidden.
I sit there for a moment, still outside the city. What do they need the most? Something they can’t live without? I list to myself with my family in mind while standing to prepare my run. Food and medical supplies. That's what I'm after. So, taking another deep breath, I maintain a steady but speedy ambush into the city.
I run for a long time, not stopping to gather my bearings or catch my breath, or think through my plan in any possible way. I pass many strange buildings I’ve never seen anything like before. I don't know where I am, but it looks like I'm in the middle. There’s a big fountain in front of me with four roads leading four different ways around it. There are so many things that I don’t recognize; so many places. Because of that, I try to find what should be the easiest to locate; a hospital. That's where the medical supplies will be. I run fast, staying in the shadows near buildings, trying my best to find my way around but this place is a maze. I see a huge building with a red cross on it. I've seen that cross on many medical things before. That's my best bet.
Running inside, almost blown away when the front entrance is unlocked and unguarded, I immediately go into a room. The entire hospital is dark. I spread my arms out in front of me, feeling my way around tables and shelves. I stop at a set of cabinets with closed doors. After opening one and warily sticking my hand in, I gasp when I feel several vials lined up. The individual glass bottles are smooth and cool against my fingertips. Pulling one out, the label indicating what the brown liquid does is useless to me. In fact, all the signs on the doors, walls, and shelves make no sense. I don’t understand what all the shapes and patterns mean. So, shamefully, not knowing what is what, I just begin shoveling the bottles out onto the counter. My first attempt is shoving some of the vials into my pockets, but after one drops and the glass bottle shatters on the floor, causing me to yelp and jump out of the way, I scan the rest of the dark room for a solution. With my eyes beginning to adjust, I find a backpack in a nearby closet with the big Red Cross on its front and fill it up with all the supplies.
After roaming around some other rooms, long hallways and different storages, I begin to feel more and more uncomfortable, freaked out even. Something about the way the curtains gently sway in front of the large, sealed windows next to vacant hospital beds sends a wave of ice shooting down my spine. Turning corners becomes a struggle, expecting something or someone to be waiting for me down one of the many white walled hallways. The squeak of rubber on the bottoms of my shoes against the slippery, waxed floors echoes through the hospital. After finding some bandages and wraps in a group of file drawers, I decide I’ve stayed longer then I was originally willing to and it’s time to move out. I grab a few more things as I pass counters and shelves, making my way back the way I came. I take another deep breath as I peek out the large glass doors of my exit, readying myself to start running if I’m accompanied by any strangers out on the streets. After a short moment of prepping myself, tightening the pack on my shoulder, clutching it tight to my side, I slowly open one of the two doors and immediately dart for the shadows up against the building. I scan my surroundings thoroughly before pushing myself to run down a quiet street.
I listen to my feet as they thump the pavement with each long stride. I keep my breathing even, inhaling with my mouth and exhaling through my nose. I can feel the sharp pains squeezing my knee caps the longer I run. Pretty soon, my heart begins to pound hard in my chest. Keeping control of my breathing fails as I huff with heavy breaths. I can feel my calves tighten with each step, begging me to slow down and take it easy. The sharp jerks in my knees eventually turns to complete shutdown as they buckle under my weight. I realize a while down the road that I don’t even know where I’m going. I’ve continued to stay on the same path, noticing slightly how the scenery has changed the further down I go. Tall, bulky buildings and public art are what once surrounded me, but now I see only well cared for flower beds, gardens, and many different dwellings. It’s easy for even me to tell that I’ve now come upon living quarters; I’m not roaming about a city anymore.
While my second task is still set in stone in my mind, I have absolutely no idea where to look for food. I try to convince myself that they’ll do fine without; we do have ways of staying full on my side. Maybe abandoning this second mission is best? I did get the medical supplies which is far more than I ever expected. Besides, I’m out of time. The sun will be rising at any moment and the sleeping city will awake.
As I make up my mind, snapping myself back to the present, I find myself standing right in front of what looks like a mansion. I don’t remember stopping to think this plan over before making my decision but my legs thank me for the short intermission. I heave in three big gusts of air then, stretching my aching muscles, favoring each of my legs for a moment.
Standing in front of this brilliant structure, I allow my eyes to take in the pure beauty of it. How was this building even built? So tall and wide, with many different large glass windows, different designs and patterns which run up and down the front walls, no doubt merely for decoration. I can’t imagine the colors, swirls, and zigzags that clutter the front entrance and frames of the windows actually serve any kind of purpose to the buildings strength or structure. Simply child’s play, as usual. And the longer I let my eyes dance over the place, the more relentlessly I find myself scoffing in disgust. Workers are withering away from a week’s worth of empty stomachs as we speak; meanwhile Tecks over here are indulging in their silly dollhouses. It sickens me to my core. Still, the layout of the property is fascinating. The gardening work it must’ve taken to make bushes, trees, and shrubs look so neat and maintained is… I roll my eyes as the thought occurs to me. Workers who’ve come here to work in the factories or as maids and slaves to these people are the ones who’ve made this place look so amazing. My people.
My heart skips a beat suddenly when I realize how well I can see the many details of the lustful home. I quickly break my fascination to point my attention to the sky. The sun’s coming up. I let myself linger too long. I’m running out of time. My mind works fast to plan my next move, considering the idea that there’s most likely food in the building in front of me, but not giving myself the opportunity to find out. I’m not stupid enough to risk sneaking into someone’s home at dawn. I scan the far off surroundings, gripping fistfuls of my hair as I breathe out deeply in the process. To the naked eye, there’s no sign of any kind of wood. I’m fairly sure that if I just keep traveling in this direction, I’ll reach the edge of cleared Teck land and reenter the forest where I can find The Wall easily and follow it until I get to where I crossed over from.
I nod; a gesture that nobody will see but felt necessary as I’ve come up with a plan. I return to my path, taking off in a bit of a sprint which quickly turns into running as fast as my legs will allow. I take a sharp turn around the corner of the home, planning on cutting through the backyard and slipping back into what shadows are left down the street that continues behind.
The moment I round the corner, racing as if my life depended on it, I’m abruptly cut off as I slam into something
hard. The collation is so sudden and so unexpected that I feel my lungs give out, first from my front where my chest collides with the roadblock, and then from my back where I go flying backwards until I’ve hit the ground with a hard thud. I feel my bag leave my grasp, hurtling one way while I go the other. Landing flat on my back, I beg the earth to allow my lungs to breathe in some air, huffing and heaving due to the wind being knocked out of me. Before gathering and sucking some much needed air back into my lungs, even before I’m given a moment to get any kind of bearing of my surroundings and some awareness of what I hit, I scramble back as far as I can. I roll over onto my stomach once I believe I’ve put a little distance between me and the cause. I push myself up onto my hands and knees as I begin to cough and force my lungs to do their job. Once I’ve gotten a grip on some pure, sweet oxygen, I’m on guard. I freeze suddenly, stunned by the sounds of groans and moans coming from the ground merely inches away from me. I flip myself over onto my butt to get a shaky look at just what exactly I ran into. It's my worst fear. I didn't hit something, I hit someone.
Lying on her back as well, she too struggles to force some air back her lungs as she leans over to her side. Inevitably, eye contact is made. We stare directly at each other for what feels like forever, but in reality I know it's only a few seconds. At first she seems confused and looks as if she’s about to question me, but quickly recognizes me as the intruder that I am. It feels like I'm staring down a bear. I see her gaze drop over to the pack that I flung across the sidewalk, getting only a quick glance before her eyes return to study me. She's like nothing I've ever seen before. She's got smooth, cream colored skin, and her hair is a light blonde with waves that she has down around her face. She's wearing a long flowing nightgown that now has a rip in the knee. But her eyes! I've never seen such eyes! They’re a grey that makes her look very wise. Her stare almost burns me. It feels like she’s staring straight into me, like she’s reading my mind.
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