Heartstrings

Chapter Eight

As the world falls silent around me, I clench my hands into fists and beat them at Hayes’ chest. My breathing comes out uneven. The hologram’s light still flickers around us. Only moments ago I had heard my parent’s voice, and the gunshot that silenced them forever. Hayes said nothing as I straightened and took shaky breaths to calm my feverish heart.

   Go further, past the Edge. There’s so much more out there. Don’t ever surrender. I close my eyes. I don’t feel anything inside. Hayes watches me as I slump over and sit down. Is there any point to go past the Edge anymore? I don’t have anything to prove.

   Hayes sits down next to me and looks at his hands. “I’m sorry.” He says gently. I don’t look at him. I squeeze my eyes further shut. “No one should have to watch their parents die.” I don’t say anything and neither does he. The hologram’s light has disappeared completely now, so it’s been ten minutes since my parent’s death. Our society works in horrible ways.

   “Are you going to do it?” He asks, looking over at me once again. “Go past the Edge, I mean. It’s a completely different world out there – we know nothing of the civilisation outside those walls.”

   I shrug slowly. “I think I have to.” It’s the least I can do for my parents, the only thing I can do to hold on to their memory. “But I wouldn’t know where to start – I’ve lived my whole life inside confined walls, I’ve never been out of Southside.” The truth hits home. I’ve never been out of Southside. I’ve never left those walls. I’ve never seen anything. Celeste, you’ve been living inside a bubble your whole life.

   “The border is near Eastside.” Hayes says, looking into the distance in the general direction of Eastside. “The main compound where Debra works is the last building separating Eastside and the Edge. There’s three main rooms, each heavily guarded and locked tight. Then there’s the last room, which has the release panel-“

   “Stop talking.” I say, rubbing my temples. “How do you know so much?”

   Hayes shrugs. He avoids the question. “Why, are you impressed, Southside?”

   I manage a bitter laugh. “More like disgusted.”

   “I worked for Debra for a very long time.” That’s all the explanation I get. I start to wonder.

   “How old are you?” I’m afraid of the answer.

   “Seventeen.” All mirth leaves his voice. He sounded older than that. Seventeen.

   I stay silent. I avoid conversation, so Hayes continues. “The release panel is a capsule – you stand inside, and within twenty seconds you are ‘released’ into the outside world.”

   I am surprised. “There’s no security protecting the release panel?”

   Hayes snorts. “Security means there’s a probability that the person inside can escape. That’s the last thing Debra wants. She doesn’t want Heartstrings to escape, she wants to make sure they can never leave the release panel.”

   My blood runs cold. I don’t respond, but I can see Hayes tense. He rubs a hand over his wounded arm. The blood is dark now- almost black. “You don’t have to come.” I say, slowly. “I’ll go by myself – I’ll find something on the other side, and that will be enough for me. I can’t make you come, not after everything that’s happened.”

   Hayes smiles slowly. “You don’t think I want to leave.”

   “Who would?” I ask, and he raises an eyebrow. “There’s a perfect world inside, and a damaged, broken world that no one knows about on the outside. Who in their right mind would want to go to the broken world?”