Escaping for Freedom

Birds sounded from somewhere in the world around me but they were unseen to the eyes and hidden within their burrows called nests. With the fallen snow quickly melting away and only leaving little plumps along the ground, it’s hard to tell if the end of winter will be approaching soon. The lake still remains froze, likely still safe to skate along but my body just moans at the thought of moving from my perch on the roof. I’m waiting for something that seems impossible and yet I can’t find it in myself to move away and allow my body to warm up once more with the heat inside the house.

Time is quickly fading and I know that the time has passed now but it takes me another moment before I anxiously tug on my red jacket that is keeping me as warm as it can in the winter wind. Sliding down to the edge, I dangle my legs over and then push off to hit the ground with an audible thud that sends birds in the nearby forest flying away in a startled haze. The softest of apologies leaves my lips as I round the house and open the front door with my shoes stomping off extra snow. Suddenly, my toes and fingers are numb while my nose feels as if it is now on the floor and missing which reminds me of an old song my mother would sing before making hot cocoa.

My family is always in the same story, on the same page, and the same few lines. Every morning they wake to the same thing in order to do the same thing they did the day before and it continues until the sun falls and they retire. I can’t remember a time before this anymore, not since the day my parents deemed the world a dangerous place and we came to live in the middle of nowhere. A television is only heard about in stories, cell phones the things that my brother and I will never be allowed to touch, and freedom is a silly thing.

Much like I expected, my parents are getting up from the couch in an identical manner with a goodnight as they disappear up the stairs to the bedroom. Seth now has eyes on me and I can only wave awkwardly before scurrying to the kitchen with quiet feet. I know trying to escape him is pointless but his questions weren’t ones that I would want to listen to at this moment. I’m leaning against the counter with my face buried in my sleeves of my red jacket, the sound of footsteps the only thing alerting me to his presence. I figure he knows not to say anything when he comes over and pulls my hands away.

“Why don’t we go listen to the radio? They won’t be able to hear anything if we keep it quiet.” I manage out from my sore throat.

Seth simply nods and I’m grateful for that as we walk to the basement door and I reach up for the lantern. After turning it on, we descend down the stairs and my brother runs ahead to work the radio that we’d spent months building in order to know just what is going on in the outside world. While he’s working it, I pull out the recliners that are old and moth bitten so I can sit down and let the lantern glow over everything surrounding the small area. It isn’t much longer before there is noise in the small room and we both go silent to listen.

“Dana, I think this growing pattern is really going to start catching the attention of people soon. There are mothers, fathers, husbands, and wives that are seeing what the government is blind to and they’re doing something about it!”

“I don’t know, Samuel. I don’t see what good hiding away will do.”

“Obviously something. Thousands of families are uprooting to live on their own or form colonies like we’re back in the pioneer days.”

“I just don’t agree with all of this mostly because of the evidence that these groups are no longer following the laws of the government which are put into place for a reason. It’s as if time is rewinding and if people don’t start getting a grip on their lives, we’ll all be back to the time when electricity was simply something magical. Just look at the reports…”

My hand reached out to shut off the radio, a loud sigh leaving my lips afterward and Seth gives me his famous questioning glaze. I know his questions are about to bubble up and I can only hope that my answers won’t make things hard for him. The news of what is going to happen only became known to me two weeks prior to today and my only action has really been to ignore it and hope it goes away. My brother knows better than to just do that which makes me hate him only slightly.

“Alana… our parents aren’t going to join one of the colonies, are they? I’ve been hearing about them for days now and we can’t live like that. This is hard enough but that’s just crazy!”

Present like always, the ache in my heart is making it hard to speak. “Remember what I promised you?”

“You’ll figure out what to do.”

“I’m going to do something.” I say firmly before straightening up at the sound of an owl from up above.

For years now, I’ve been listening to that hoot and I’m one of the few people who know that it isn’t an owl but a person. Months after my family came out to this land, I met a few people in the woods and that’s where I slowly began to learn about the colonies. People were getting upset with the government, blaming them for the economy and somehow things were twisted to people believing living in small independently governed colonies would be a good thing. Now they’re quickly spreading and getting larger—a reason to worry as more news on them comes out to the public. Recently a colony from the southern area spoke out about killing ten adults and four children, all convicted of petty crimes such as shoplifting food to eat.

Sadly, that is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what these colonies do.

When the whispers were overheard about my parents thinking about joining one of the colonies, I knew I had to do something and I did but earlier something must have gone wrong. Getting a call now couldn’t be a good thing but I left the basement after giving Seth orders to stay and I made my way up to the first floor. Pushing open the kitchen window, I softly cooed out like an owl and waited patiently till I heard it again but the signal different. They were ready. Everything was ready to go and this would be the only opportunity to do this.

Without thinking, I ran down to get Seth and spoke to him in hushed whispers, only telling him to pack his clothes and things he thinks are important but nothing else. My stuff is done, hidden under one of the floorboards in my room which I quickly removed in order to grab the bag. We were rushing but I couldn’t risk our parents waking up and stopping us if we went too slowly. Seth is scared by the way his hands are shaking in the moonlight and I assure him that everything will be okay. We just needed to get away from the colonies and away from our parents.

Out in the night, we run against the dark dying grass and toward the froze lake to make our way around. There are faint trails in the grass, markings for passing and going from the car in the driveway of the house that we were running from. The keys to the car were hidden but I could remember the time I had seen them once and thought they were my ticket to freedom. Now I have a new one and I refuse to let it slip from my fingers.

“Alana, where are we going?”

“Just up the hills and over to the other side like when we would play hide and seek. When we get to the fallen tree, we’re going to head into the trees.”

I could hear in his groan that he was terrified right now but there was something liberated in it, like he could breathe easily now. We follow the directions I had given and I remembered most of the ones that I was given in order to meet up with the others. It wasn’t much longer before we reached the arching trees where two massive jeeps were waiting and bags already packed in. Ross, Angelina, Brady, Macie, and Carmen—Macie’s younger sister—were all standing there with smiles as I pushed my brother forward for introductions. Ross took over, the leader of our little group and welcoming in a fatherly sort of way. He is more like a father to me than my own anyway.

Instead of sticking around, I move to push my bag up on the rest and hopped into one of the jeeps to lie across the back seat in order to sleep for just a few minutes.

--

A few minutes turned into a few hours with the way the sun is bright and glaring down into my eyes that were trying to flutter open. Groaning, I bury my head in the softness of whatever pillow I now had but a familiar smell and touch through my hair makes me sit up with a sleepy smile. Like always, Will is giving me his loving glaze with those crystal blue eyes and his dark brown hair that blew around in the wind only made my fingers twitch slightly with the want to run through the strands.

“When did you get here?” I yawned out, curling into his side as he kisses the side of my head.

“You were already passed out so I just let you sleep. You were far too adorable to wake up.” His laugh makes me melt on the inside.

“So did Ross decide on a plan?”

“We’re all gonna stay at this abandoned beach house for a few months. Ross wants to see how things plan out and its way out of the range for the colonies. He says we’ll decide from there.”

I find myself nodding, looking at Brady who is driving and Macie who is asleep in the passenger seat. Only two people out of the group with us but I still felt safer than I had ever felt.

“Is everything going to be okay?” I whisper quietly, turning my head a bit on his shoulder to look up at Will.

“Whenever we’re together, everything will be okay.”