I felt one of his hands grip mine where it wrapped around his waist, urging my hold even tighter. I glanced over his shoulder ahead to see what was going on up ahead. A large fence was beyond the trees with a panel removed. In front of it stood twenty-some guards, all in body armor and carrying massive guns, waiting for us.
“Hang on tight,” he yelled. “It’s going to be a rough ride out of here.”
I gripped on to him as the bike picked up even more speed. I kept my gaze on the group we were approaching and couldn’t help think that we were already dead. I’d been forced to cower for years and I’d never do it again. I’d meet my death with eyes wide open. I wanted to stare it down and give the reaper the middle finger when I went.
I heard gunfire whizzing by. I recognized it from the drills the guards would do at the compound but I still wouldn’t close my eyes. We were flying toward the gate and zigzagging aggressively. I wasn’t sure if it was to make us a harder target or to avoid the bodies that kept dropping around us. That was when I realized he had some backup hidden. Newco wasn’t killing their people.
As quick as we’d approached the opening, we were through. I looked back at the gate as we drove away, watching as the rest of the guards were running for cover.
We were whizzing past trees again, but this time it wasn’t the government of Newco. This forest didn’t belong to anyone. It was wild and free, just as I was.
Chapter Seven
We rode the bike down more trails, but these seemed well worn. How many people came in and out of Newco by this route?
The sun had lit the entire sky by time we stopped but still hung low enough for me to judge it hadn’t been more than an hour or so. When we did stop, it was only because it looked like the path was ending. Up ahead in between a gap in the trees, I could see water and lots of it. Memories from childhood came to me of sandy shores and vacations with my parents. After so many years in the Cement Giant I’d started to think I’d imagined such sights.
I moved to get off the bike but his hand grabbed my arm, stopping me. I yanked at it out of frustration. This watchdog stuff was getting old fast and my patience was thinning. I was not going to live like a prisoner.
“Don’t go past the tree line.”
It was a barked-out order. I didn’t agree but that didn’t seem to matter to him. His grip dropped from my arm anyway, as he apparently didn’t expect anything less than me falling in line with what he said. He was right. I’d walk the line, but only because I liked the current direction it was laid out in. Where it fell tomorrow would be another story.
I raced forward to the gap. There was uninterrupted water everywhere, with the exception of a skeleton from the past that marred its perfection. Its iron limbs shot out of the water here and there and broke its surface in no particular order, just chaos. The bridge was all still there but instead of being in its glorious prime of life, most of it had sunk below the water, its bones broken as it exhaled its last breath of life before nature finished erasing its existence. Now it was just another sad remnant of the Glory Years, before the Bloody Plague had had its way.
They say that this planet used to be crawling with buildings and structures like this from a time that seemed more like a thousand years ago than the hundred and fifty it was. There had been so many people and they had made things that were unimaginable today.
I’d seen a picture of one of the great cities they’d called New York. I’d heard there had been other such places. So many that it was almost inconceivable to me if I hadn’t seen proof. These places were all uninhabited now, too dangerous to go near once they’d started crumbling. The Bloody Death hadn’t just killed our people—it had killed our world.
I looked away from the metal ghost and down the coastline that went on forever. It was a
“Hang on tight,” he yelled. “It’s going to be a rough ride out of here.”
I gripped on to him as the bike picked up even more speed. I kept my gaze on the group we were approaching and couldn’t help think that we were already dead. I’d been forced to cower for years and I’d never do it again. I’d meet my death with eyes wide open. I wanted to stare it down and give the reaper the middle finger when I went.
I heard gunfire whizzing by. I recognized it from the drills the guards would do at the compound but I still wouldn’t close my eyes. We were flying toward the gate and zigzagging aggressively. I wasn’t sure if it was to make us a harder target or to avoid the bodies that kept dropping around us. That was when I realized he had some backup hidden. Newco wasn’t killing their people.
As quick as we’d approached the opening, we were through. I looked back at the gate as we drove away, watching as the rest of the guards were running for cover.
We were whizzing past trees again, but this time it wasn’t the government of Newco. This forest didn’t belong to anyone. It was wild and free, just as I was.
Chapter Seven
We rode the bike down more trails, but these seemed well worn. How many people came in and out of Newco by this route?
The sun had lit the entire sky by time we stopped but still hung low enough for me to judge it hadn’t been more than an hour or so. When we did stop, it was only because it looked like the path was ending. Up ahead in between a gap in the trees, I could see water and lots of it. Memories from childhood came to me of sandy shores and vacations with my parents. After so many years in the Cement Giant I’d started to think I’d imagined such sights.
I moved to get off the bike but his hand grabbed my arm, stopping me. I yanked at it out of frustration. This watchdog stuff was getting old fast and my patience was thinning. I was not going to live like a prisoner.
“Don’t go past the tree line.”
It was a barked-out order. I didn’t agree but that didn’t seem to matter to him. His grip dropped from my arm anyway, as he apparently didn’t expect anything less than me falling in line with what he said. He was right. I’d walk the line, but only because I liked the current direction it was laid out in. Where it fell tomorrow would be another story.
I raced forward to the gap. There was uninterrupted water everywhere, with the exception of a skeleton from the past that marred its perfection. Its iron limbs shot out of the water here and there and broke its surface in no particular order, just chaos. The bridge was all still there but instead of being in its glorious prime of life, most of it had sunk below the water, its bones broken as it exhaled its last breath of life before nature finished erasing its existence. Now it was just another sad remnant of the Glory Years, before the Bloody Plague had had its way.
They say that this planet used to be crawling with buildings and structures like this from a time that seemed more like a thousand years ago than the hundred and fifty it was. There had been so many people and they had made things that were unimaginable today.
I’d seen a picture of one of the great cities they’d called New York. I’d heard there had been other such places. So many that it was almost inconceivable to me if I hadn’t seen proof. These places were all uninhabited now, too dangerous to go near once they’d started crumbling. The Bloody Death hadn’t just killed our people—it had killed our world.
I looked away from the metal ghost and down the coastline that went on forever. It was a
Similar Books
