The Privileged Legacy: Wanted

[That Day]

           The day that the House took on a new life was the day that two more lives were lost, deep in a wild forest. That day, the House found an orphan on its doorstep and sent out the Patrol; people didn’t just die nowadays, nor did they abandon children. But the Patrol never found the man and woman – the biological parents of the infant. And so, the baby stayed.

           Deep within the forest, many miles away, the woman gave her last breath. At the same moment, the baby’s cry echoed across the distance, sensing the sorrow that had already entered its little world. The woman said only one word, closed her eyes, and slept the Final Sleep beside her husband. The people who stood around the two beautiful bodies were bent in two, grief-stricken. For them, with these two noble souls, hope had died. It would be many long years before they would remember that, in fact, they had been left with one final gift from the husband and wife who had died fighting.

           Years passed…

[Beginning: Present Day]

           I was running for my life.

           Not just for my life, but for life itself. To change it.

My blood roared in my ears as a burst of frantic energy propelled me forward, but it wasn’t loud enough to block out the sounds overhead. The blinding lights of hovercrafts flashed here and there over my head, glaring through the leaves of the trees surrounding me. Flickers of shadow and light played upon my body as I ran.

           I pushed through dense foliage as I fought my way over the uneven and treacherous ground of the forest, praying desperately that I wasn’t too late. My heart was thundering a wild tempo and my breaths pulled in at ragged intervals, providing only temporary relief to my burning lungs. My hair whipped around my face, sometimes tangling in the extended branches. I didn’t stop for anything, letting it get torn out from my scalp instead of pausing to free the strands.

           I had just enough time to get to the tunnel; it was maybe twenty yards away, and I was a fast sprinter. Another burst of speed as I thought about who I was running from, but more importantly, who I was running to. A protruding root rose out of the ground and I stumbled and fell to the needle-strewn earth floor. My knee gave a sickening crunch and my hands were skinned raw but I picked myself up. No, not here, not now. Safety was at my fingertips.

Suddenly, one of the lights dropped out of the sky to hover right in front of me, cutting off my escape. I couldn’t get around it; the doors of the tunnel were closing. Lights were dropping out of the sky to form a circle around me, trapping me in a ring of enemies. I whirled around, body crouched, knowing it was useless but not daring to look to the tunnel. At least I won’t give them away, even if I get taken down.

           I was too late; I had failed.

           Caught.