Drifter

CHAPTER 6- Istoway

Chapter 6- Istoway

“Get up.” The man said to me, refusing to lowering his gun. I looked around, noticing many more men than I had anticipated, all dressed in similar black uniforms, but more importantly, all holding a gun.

I couldn't believe it. There were people on the surface. People were still living here.

With great pain, I did as he asked, still clutching my bleeding leg.

“What should we do with them?” a man asked the one who was holding the gun to my head.

His fiery burned through me as he said with a sly smile, “Take them to Istoway.”

***

These guys had a hell of a grip. By the time I was pushed into a big box with wheels, I had a noticeable red ring around my wrists.

One man with greasy hair sat opposite in the big box that had started to shake and move. He looked intently at me, as if trying to figure out why I was here through staring.

Ranger sat beside me, holding onto the fox who was trembling with fear so that Ranger would remain iron cold as he always is.

I looked around the moving box, trying to find chaines of any of the men with me but there was nothing.

It felt like something swallowing me up inside, making me choke on my own breath. Putting my hand to my head, everything hits me like a ton of rock.

These men had emotions. They had no chaine ceremony to separate the mortal five from their soul. They were weak and meaningless like I was. Father Seamus, the chaine inventor, hadn't given them a meaning yet.

“Where are we going?” I croaked.

The man smiled widely making his wrinkles on his forehead visible but he didn't answer.

I curled up into a ball and closed my eyes, wishing for it to all go away.

***

When I woke, the man told me I had slept all through the night. It was eleven in the morning now.

Looking outside the moving box, I noted how different the world was here. It was as if I had travelled to a different planet completely. The fake, plastic greenery was far below us, instead, trees I had only heard from my mother, surrounded us everywhere. Their branches reached for the sky, something I could only just see above the greenery, as a blinding light peeped through.

I blinked and rubbed my eyes.

“I wouldn't stare at the sun if I were you.” the man with greasy hair suddenly spoke up. “You'll blind yourself.” he sounded tired and exasperated.

“...The sun?” I looked up confused.

“Damn you people are weird.” he muttered to himself.

The ride was long and bumpy. I felt quite sick along the way. I wasn't sure whether it was the moving box or the face that the adults here still had the mortal five. My stomach flipped even thinking about it.

“We're here,” the greasy haired man said before picking up his gun and putting it in his pocket. “Get out.”

The side of the box opened and someone reached inside, pulling me out as I stumbled, falling flat on the floor. I hissed in pain to myself as a shock went up my pierced leg. I lifted my hands, noticing a wet, brown substance smeared around it from the ground. That was disgusting.

“Can't you see she's hurt, you idiot?” Ranger yelled at the man that had pulled me. He had his hands on the man's shirt with his chaine snarling behind him.