"Our world is bad, but the outside is much worse, Axelle!"
In the confines of Veridonia, surrounded by hills and streams, a deadly plague has claimed the lives of every child under the age of 18. For years, three teenagers-Axelle Henderson, Wylan Co...
Instinctively, I shielded Alissa from the gun—not because I believed that Madame Henderson would shoot her but because I didn't want this embedded into her memory. She had already heard the shots and seen the blood, she didn't need to see anything else.
Melissa Henderson's gun was pointed at Miles and he raised his eyebrows for a moment, I couldn't believe that he was the same frail guy that we rescued from the facility a few days ago.
"You're not going anywhere," Madame Henderson screamed, her voice reaching dangerous heights. "Come with me, and you'll live. Otherwise, every single one of you will die."
We all looked at each other, and we knew one thing. There was no way we were going to let go of the one and only opportunity to escape.
Ever.
Axelle's voice cut through the tension like a knife. "Mama, please, you should come with us. We'll see Papa again. We can all be together again."
Madame Henderson's grip on the gun faltered for a moment, and it seemed like she was almost thinking about it. The best part of her life, her happiness, her life, everything would be alright if she realized that power didn't make her happier.
Love would make her happier.
It wasn't until then that I noticed Miles slightly walk away from the scene, approaching the tunnel that was close by now. It was a dark hole stretching from one side of the fence to Vancouver, I presumed. Out of the many keys there, he had to find the right one. He just needed the time. While Madame Henderson focused on Axelle's eyes and her desperation to get her mother out of there as well, Miles left for the tunnel discreetly.
I didn't even notice Alissa standing in front of me and holding Axelle's hand tighter than ever.
Time was against us. Madame Henderson regained her composure and aimed the gun once again before noticing that Miles was gone. I thought she'd run after Miles to stop him from opening the lock, but she didn't. My heart stopped as I braced for the worst, she'd shoot either me or Keira first.
I closed my eyes and when I heard three bangs, my heart stopped. It stopped. It stopped. I was still alive, I could still think and I felt no physical pain in my body apart from my heart.
She shot Keira. She actually shot Keira instead of me.
I was still alive.
I didn't want to be alive.
I slowly opened my eyes, even though I didn't want to see anything. Anything at all. Especially not Keira. No, I couldn't.
But it wasn't Keira. When I opened my eyes again, it was Axelle on the floor. Bleeding. It was as though the world stopped. It broke apart.
A mother shot her own daughter.
Madame Henderson realized what she had done and dropped the gun beside her and ran towards Axelle who was now lying in a pool of her blood. Alissa was behind her.
Keira and I looked at each other and realized the sacrifice that Axelle made. She protected Alissa from those shots.
Madame Henderson knelt before her daughter, a fallen warrior, a victim of power. Madame Henderson finally discovered it. She lost the one and only person that she loved, and the person who was willing to forgive her for everything she had done.
Axelle was still alive, and she was panting. Alissa who was now clutching my hand screeched in disdain.
"Axy! Axy! Let's go, Axy. You said you show me tower. I wanna see Tower. Axy, why is red? Axy?"
I cried twice in my entire life. Once when my mother was killed, and Axelle described it to me. The second time was this. Axelle promised Alissa that she'd show her a better world, but she never promised that she'd see it with her.
She looked up at Alissa, ignoring her mother's pleas from beside her. Axelle only really loved one person, and that was Alissa. She whispered to Alissa, her voice weak and pain-filled, "Wylan and Keira will take really good care of you outside. They'll show you the towers."
Keira and I knelt beside her, Alissa pulling on Axelle's finger. "But I want Axy. Axy."
Tears streamed down my face, and I was helpless and torn. We didn't want to leave her but we couldn't stay either. We couldn't let her sacrifice be in vain.
I looked far into the horizon to see Miles struggling to find the right key, his fingers fumbling over the metal as time slipped through our grasp.
We looked back at Axelle and this time, she wasn't awake anymore. She lay on the cold ground, unmoving and still, her blood staining the floor beneath her.
Tears blurred my vision again, but I scooped Alissa into my arms as I heard the click of the lock on the tunnel.
We ran.
Even through the tunnel, Madame Henderson's anguished cries echoed. A haunting reminder that we survived. We would survive.
Axelle worked for this. She died to save Alissa from this world, and my heart ached that we couldn't save her. But we could honor her memory. We would fight for freedom. We'd fight for Veridonia's disbandment.
We kept running out of the unknown, the blood rushing through my veins as the adrenaline raced through me. Keira was doing the same, but she made eye contact and showed me a notebook.
Axelle's journal.
She was still alive. In these fragments, she was still there.
The brightness outside was mesmerizing. The light was real, and it wasn't created. It was the real sun. It was real. The tunnel came to a close and we all stopped for a brief moment.
We closed our eyes and felt the warmth touch our faces before we stepped out into the light.
Together.
-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈
𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳 𝙲𝙾𝚄𝙽𝚃: 𝟿𝟻𝟽 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳𝚂
𝚃𝙾𝚃𝙰𝙻 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳 𝙲𝙾𝚄𝙽𝚃: 𝟹𝟽𝟹𝟾𝟶 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳𝚂
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