by K. Weikel
“Hey!” A Guard shouts out.
Daniel slows down as he draws nearer.
“You’re supposed to be asleep,” a second one says.
“I—” he stops himself, remembering his last trip through the gates. He doesn’t have an actual message to take anywhere this time. The only way to get through is to show his face. Elites are allowed to leave the gates.
Daniel takes an exasperated breath and pulls back the hood of his jacket. His heart pounds as his body readies itself for a random attack from the reformed rebellion. He sets his jaw.
“Daniel the Elite Runner,” the first Guard says, sounding shocked. His eyes bulge, and, suddenly, Daniel is aware of where the boy stands.
The Runner takes a few steps closer to the boy, whose panic shows tremendously in the moonlight. Quietly, Daniel begins to speak.
“I know what you are,” he hisses, his voice shaking. “If you’re going to run and tell them I’m here, go do it. But I guarantee you won’t see me tomorrow morning.”
The boy attempts to be confused, but Daniel shakes his head at the poor boy. “I don’t want to hear any excuses. Go. Now. That’s an order from me, and I’m an Elite. Don’t do as I say and you could find yourself guilty of treason and disrespect.”
With the last syllable popped from Daniel’s mouth, the boy shivers and sprints to move out of the way of the Runner’s hard stare. The other boy’s brow furrows, unsure of what just happened before him.
“Open the gate,” Daniel commands, moving to stand before the stillness of the doors. The Guard jumps right to it and the door scrapes open. As soon as there’s a big enough slit, Daniel sprints through and doesn’t look back. He barely even hears the sound of it closing. Doesn’t realize it until it slams shut and he’s standing before the wood-covered hole that leads to the place that held so many people—the people he had betrayed. He did the right thing though, didn’t he?
The Runner lifts up the hatch and slips down into the darkness, the sudden impact on his body from the ground making him fall to the hard surface as the black devours him. He closes his eyes and tries to remember the way. One leads to the Base, one leads to the World, and the middle one directs you straight to the Unnamed’s village, if you could call it that.
Just as he begins to walk, his eyes finally adjusted, he hears footsteps.
“I was beginning to think you wouldn’t show. After all, you do have an entire rebellion seeking revenge on you.”
7: Cross Examination
“So. How do you plan on infiltrating their system?”
Rose the Runner shrugs, a faint smile tugging at her mouth in the dark. “I was hoping you’d have the answer to that one.”
Daniel shakes his head, studying her. “How did you get away? After I...”
“Betrayed the entirety of the Unnamed?” She finishes, chuckling. “We had people everywhere, Elite Runner Daniel. It wasn’t hard to get free. The hard part was keeping the Unnamed focused on what we were really after: bringing down the Elites. Which, now, includes you. And I’m not sour about it anymore, you know,” she says, beginning to pace. “I’m completely and utterly over it. Well, a part of me still hurts, but, you know—doesn’t matter much to anybody else so why should it to you?”
“Rose—”
“Nope, save it. Lucky for you, you’re still at the position we needed you at in the beginning: an Elite. And our goal was to bring them down, once upon a time... but now it seems like they want to bring only you down from revenge. They’re ready to go to war.”
“And how do you expect to stop this war?” Daniel the Elite Runner asks, leaning against the wall beside him. “Wars are nearly impossible to disintegrate once they’re in motion.”
“Ah, but the war hasn’t started, you see.” Rose walks closer. “It’s in its early stages and will no doubt be in full-force once the Competitions roll around.”
“But why would they risk everything to destroy me? I’m only one Elite.”
Runner Rose sighs, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall too. “They want to make an example out of you. And not just to frighten the Elites, but to show the rest of the Unnamed what could happen if they’re double-crossed. Once they have you, the torture doesn’t end there.”
“Then where would it end?”
“When the Elites are all dead and bleeding out.” She pushes herself off the wall and takes a step back, watching Daniel closely. “They’re hungry for revenge, Daniel. It’s stronger than their long for freedom, and they don’t care who they have to go through to get it.”
Her eyes are hard as they look into his. Everything she’s saying is so extreme... but then again they did put a bomb inside of a girl to destroy him. Would his death by explosion be enough of an example for them though? Would it be enough for them? Or would they...
“Why are you here then? It seems like your life is on the line just by talking to me.”
“Oh, trust me,” she scuffs her shoe across the floor, scattering dirt. “It’s way worse.”
“What could be worse?” Daniel asks.
Her eyes rest on his face, intensity burning in them.
“Torture.” Rose’s voice is steady as she lifts her chin a bit higher, her hands continuing to rest on her hips. “It’s hard living once you feel the sting of death in your limbs.”
“Why are you doing this then?” Daniel asks. “Why are you risking everything for something that used to be, and when no one seems to want to think that way anymore? It sounds like that way of thinking is dead.”
“It’s not dead!” She snaps, jabbing a finger at the Elite Runner. Lowering it, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “It’s not dead... They’ve just forgotten...”
Running a hand through her hair, she exhales heavily, her breath and body weighed down by whatever plays in her mind.
“Daniel,” she almost whispers. “Have you ever believed something so fully that you would do anything, and I mean anything for that ideal? Would you kill someone for it? Because I did. The Unnamed wasn’t supposed to be about revenge or bloodlust... but about freedom. And... and I understand that everything comes with a cost, but the cost of those are far steeper than for freedom, whether they fail to see it or not. Freedom will bring happiness, whereas vengeance... vengeance is a fire you can’t smother. It only grows or finds a new home. And I don’t want... that... to be something this rebellion is all about. I need to show them their wrongs. I need to, of all the selfish things I could muster... I need to be free and...”
“Happy?” Daniel the Elite Runner finishes. He wonders if there’s ever been a true time where he’s been one hundred percent happy with his life inside the World. Even running, his mind would weigh with things going on around him.
“Yeah,” her gaze is distant for a moment, and then she turns her attention to the ground laced in darkness. “And... and if your intentions are aligned with any of mine, I beg of you, please...” Her eyes find Daniel’s through the blackness. “Stand with me. Through anything and everything. I know I’m asking for you to give up a lot here. It’s probably mighty comfortable being an Elite.”
“Not lately,” Daniel says, matching her soft volume.
She chuckles slightly, which turns into another sigh as she crosses her arms and leans against the wall. “I know you were a spy when Three, when Runner Jim...” she pauses. “When Jim the Runner recruited you. Not immediately, but I eventually figured it out. The best Runner in the World joining the rebellion, yeah right... I wish I would have seen it sooner... But if I did, we wouldn’t be here right now with all this potential on breaking down the Unnamed’s new way of thinking. And you wouldn’t be an Elite. You’d be dead because I’d probably be the one to kill you.”
Her voice gives out on the last part.
“Yeah, but you’d probably have your freedom right now. You beat Blaise too, remember? You came in second.”
She shrugs. “My story wouldn’t have been as great though, Elite Runner Daniel,” she smirks the
tiniest bit. “Just another girl trying to change the world.”
Daniel looks at her strangely. “What are you talking about?”
She shrugs. “Nothing.”
Standing up, she walks over to him, her arms still folded over her chest. Daniel grows nervous for some strange reason as she nears. There could be several reasons, but none of them really processes before she speaks again.
“So are you in? I told you I can’t do this alone, and I really feel as if you could change the world, Daniel.” She shifts her weight uncomfortably as she only uses his Name. It’s a sign of disrespect to not use someone’s Title, but he doesn’t think she’s doing it for that reason. Her breath shivers as she draws it in. “I need you, Daniel. If you aren’t going to do it for yourself, do it for Jim. Do it for the Chef girl in your mansion. Do it for all the miserable, ignorant, and unknowing people in the World, the Base, and the Planet. Do it for them. When the Unnamed receives the reigns of the three cities, they’re going to go full-force with everything. They’re the ones that were stripped of everything and left to die. They had nothing at one point, and once they have everything, they’ll become uncomfortable with sitting still where there is no conflict. So they’ll create it.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Because I know our history. And history, as often as we’d like to think otherwise, repeats itself.”
“You know of our history?” Daniel asks, dubious. Even the Elite Solver didn’t know everything about the past.
But she nods. “I was under the Elite Leader.”
“You Ran for him?”
She shakes her head. “Not necessarily. I just trained. That’s why he needed you. He liked you better anyway... But that’s beside the point. He would ramble about it when I was training, and I pieced enough of it together to understand and I began writing it down. When I joined the Unnamed I tried to share it but they didn’t care, really. They only wanted to know specific points of the past to try and figure out what to do.”
“So you were like a spy too?” Daniel asks, a smile of his own slipping onto his face.
She scoffs. “Yeah, but I was on the right side.”
“I thought I was on the right side too when I was,” Daniel shrugs.
She shakes her head. “So are you in or out?”
Daniel’s heart is suddenly heavy as she asks the question he even asks himself at this moment. Getting rid of the Unnamed would ensure his safety, yet the drive to be an Elite is so rooted down into his veins it’s hard to let go of his life’s work. On the flip side of that coin, the Unnamed, if they do change the Unnamed’s minds about what they’re doing, and they succeed at what they’re attempting, the world could be different. But could Daniel let it all go?
“Runner Rose, I—”
Voices at the other end of the tunnel.
All of the blood leaves Daniel the Elite Runner’s face and his body goes cold.
Who could be down here in the middle of the night?
8: Finally Seeing
The steps grow closer as Rose and Daniel freeze in their spots. The footsteps are approaching quickly and they’d hear if Rose and Daniel started running, whoever they are.
“Daniel,” Rose the Runner whispers, not taking her eyes off the dark hallway. “Daniel, we’ve got to run.”
“They’ll—”
“They can’t catch us.” Her eyes pierce through his in the darkness. “We’re the fastest Runners in the World.”
“From last year.”
Voices begin to grow.
“We have to leave, Elite Runner Daniel,” she whispers tersely and turns on her heel to sprint away.
Daniel groans as the voices escalate, and he turns around to follow. The voices turn to shouts as they hear the footfalls of the imposters, theirs growing in sound as they pick up speed. Daniel follows Rose through the hallways; it’s been so long since he’s been down here. All he learned about the Unnamed’s underground hideaway was only saved to his memory temporarily and forgotten over the past year. Hopefully he’s right in trusting her.
“This way!” She calls to him, looking over her shoulder. She banks a hard left. The Runner slows as she begins to ascend, afraid he’ll hit a step with his shins. The crowd behind them get closer, he can hear them. Lights dance in the hallway they had just come from. They’re gaining on them.
He makes his way up as a soft light illuminates from a hole in the ground. Daniel tugs his hood up over his dreadlocked hair as his available skin touches the dusty air. Rose slams the wood door shut and glances up at him.
“We’ve got to keep going. I don’t know who that was, but I have a good feeling it’s the new One’s crew,” she heaves as she turns to run once again. The Runner follows behind her easily, keeping his breaths steady. He looks over his shoulder once to see if anyone is following them, but the hatch is shut, dust beginning to sift over it.
The morning sun was starting to rise. Daniel hadn’t realized how much time had passed. To be honest, he doesn’t really know what time it was when he entered into the tunnels. He was so worried and paranoid...
“Okay,” Rose finally huffs, coming to a complete stop. “We aren’t being followed.”
Daniel the Elite Runner looks at their surroundings. A city lies not far from where they stand, the dust making its edges blurry as the wind blows it around. How far had they run? Where are they? The walls don’t look like the ones around the World, They’re much darker and the tops have pointed arches on them with deadly looking spikes all along their edges. Daniel can’t tell if they’re trying to keep something out or keep something in.
“Welcome to the Planet.”
“That’s the Planet?” Daniel gasps. “I don’t remember it looking so...”
“Hospitable?” She snorts at her joke. “A lot has changed in a year. Especially when you reveal every unknown secret of the Unnamed to the biggest city left.”
Daniel’s shoulders slump as Rose takes a breath and begins to walk towards the Planet. He very suddenly feels like an outsider, as if he doesn’t belong. A part of him worries that a band of Unnamed will be waiting just for him to walk through those gates so they can “make an example” of him. He actually wouldn’t be surprised if that happened. They were in all three cities. He wonders if they know his face too.
“Almost there,” Rose the Runner says, peeking behind her every so often. “We have two options. Number one, you state you’re an Elite and we get inside easy peasy. The only problem with that is the Unnamed will be alerted by loyalists. Then we will be... you know.”
“And what’s number two?” Daniel asks.
Rose shrugs. “We go over the wall.”
“The wall you called ‘hospitable’? I don’t think so. They probably have cameras everywhere.”
“On, don’t be so paranoid, Daniel. The Planet isn’t near as advanced as the World. Why do you think the Unnamed spread so much quicker in the other two cities than in the World?”
“But that makes no sense,” he says. He remembers the other Elites talking about the uprisings in the other cities and that they were like wildfire—but the government easily put them out. The Guards the cities train are definitely the best.
“Sure it does. I’ve scaled this wall a dozen times without getting caught. Of course, it wasn’t in the growing daylight.”
Daniel looks at her. She can’t be serious.
“What if you’re just trying to trick me?”
“What are you—are you serious? I could be killed for just talking to you. Why would I risk my life to—forget it. If you don’t want to save everyone, whatever. But you’re going to die too.”
She takes a step to walk away.
“No, wait—Runner Rose... I’m sorry. I just... There’s so much...” The Runner closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, some sand slipping in.
She comes closer, resting a hand on his shoulder. “I know... But there are some people inside here that can help us with shelter. They’re kind of like
Neutrals. They choose neither side—but they were once Unnamed. They share similar thoughts with me and I trust them.”
“What about the other Elites?” Daniel asks, fear blossoming in his chest. Who knows what they would do if he’s planning to... bring them down with an escaped prisoner? Maybe by staying here he will create two enemies.
Rose the Runner only shakes her head. “When they ask where you went, just tell them you were threatened and you needed shelter. You found it in the Planet and tried to lay low. So it’s not lying at all; you should be fine telling them that. Unless you’d rather lying, like you did to all of us.”
“You said you weren’t bitter about it anymore,” Daniel slightly snaps. He can feel the tension forming between them.
“Trust me, I’m not.”
“Then why do you keep jabbing me like that?” Daniel the Elite Runner forces the words to come out. She stares at him, simmering rage held in her eyes.
“Because you got everything you wanted and screwed the rest of us over. Do you know how many of us died because of your little ‘heroic act’? No. You betrayed us. Runner Jim died for you and you didn’t even care—”
“I did care, Runner Rose!” Daniel breaks, a knot forming in his throat. “I cared about him and I care about you. You two were my only friends, something I never ever had because of how focused I was on Running, on getting to the spot where I am now. Do you know how many times I wanted to just forget about what the Elites wanted me to do? Do you know how many moments I wish I could take back, especially the one where I ratted everyone out? I thought I was helping people by doing so. I thought I could save you and them all.”
“No, you didn’t,” she scoffs, shaking her head. “You just wanted to save yourself.”
Daniel watches as she turns to go once more, ready to carry on what they came out here to do. But he can’t help but wonder if it really was self-preservation that kept him going and that made him throw them under the bus. When it comes down to it, he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know much at all, in fact... Not even much about the conditions of his position. He’s seen terrible things over the past year, things that can’t be explained nor forgiven. Inhumane things that should never happen. And it’s all because of the Elite, the government he’s now officially a part of.
