At least an hour passes. We sit there in the termination site discussing plans and answering questions. I constantly steal glances at the forgotten souls above us. This is wrong, so wrong. How can someone be so cold-blooded to kill? I shudder. I can't think like this. I'm slowly driving myself insane.
Adalene is playing with Meghan's blonde hair. She is so gentle on the outside, and frankly on the inside, but I would've never believed her to be so motherly. I wonder if her family was terminated, or if they escaped. I doubt they were terminated. The fact of knowing my family was terminated would've killed me. I admire her.
The bodies above are starting to cling to my conscience. My body is alit with fire. I want to get out of here. I need to get out.
I push my chair back. I stand as my body starts to go rigid.
"Mac," my voice quavers. "I need to get out of here."
"We have to stay close. We don't want the officials to see us." he says. "I know a place we can go." he finishes.
I can sense that he doesn't want to stay down here any longer. I need to find my parents. A boy's face flashes in my mind. How could I forget? Emery, hopefully he is safe. My parents must be worried, they must've got word of the fire. The government also must've released the missing list or the confirmed dead list.
At this moment, the specified scientists and researchers were probably using new technologies, unknown to me, to match the ashes and remains to the DNA samples and finger prints that the officials take to signify the student was whom they presented themselves to be.
Mac, Darius, Adalene, Claire, and Meghan all begin to head out of the site. I stay behind to collect my thoughts. I hear Mac in the other room.
"You all go ahead. I'll get Avery." he says.
The others oblige. His footsteps get closer. I watch as he walks up to me. He is stern and gentle. He looks as if he were older, but his features show that he is younger than Adalene. When he relaxes, he looks like any normal kid. He looks my age.
He stops in front of me and lifts my chin so that I must look into his green eyes. My eyes water, a sob escapes my lips and I begin to cry. I can't deal with this stress. I can't deal with the world. I just want peace, I want hope, I want love. Mac pulls me towards him. He embraces me.
"Avery, I would like to say that I have experienced what you are feeling but I know that that is not quite true. Human emotions are incredibly different and they can change quickly or can take a while to fade. Just know that I am here. No matter what happens, I'll stay by your side. You are brave, kind, intelligent, and careful. I trust you with my life. I saw what you did back there at the Academy. We will find your loved ones and we will finish this. Just stand tall, and we will face this together."
I can only manage a nod. I back up, wipe my tears, and I smile.
He smiles back. "There you are." he jokes.
He leads me through the dark and up the steps. I think about what he said. Emotions and feelings are different for all of us. They change constantly and they take awhile to fade away. This memory has been burned deep into my head. Now, all I have to do is lock this memory behind a door, or let it all escape and run loose.
As we break through the tunnel, sunlight shines through the dark clouds above. It's the first time I've seen the sun in long time.
In that instant, I allow that fear to captivate my mind. I count slowly, and it leaves me. I let that memory seep through me and break loose.
YOU ARE READING
Redemption
Action"The time for answers is not now," she said. "The time to break has just begun." Avery Rider, a fifteen-year old girl, lives in a society in future dystopian America. The society is built on fear itself. She attends the Academy, in which the society...
