Outside

Chapter 4

"Not many trees or leaves. Further out there are. They look especially beautiful at this time of year." Occi explains. "If you'd like, I can take you out there sometime!"

The car rolls over a huge rock and bumps us around. The familiar felling of adrenaline fills my lungs and I look out the window once more, watching the earth roll by beneath me.

"I'll roll down the window." Occi tells me. "It's much more fun when you can feel the air on your face." I see her press a small button on her door and the glass in front of me slides down until it disappears. I stick my head out and feel the wind through my hair. I suddenly feel like I'm young again. Like the last three years never happened. I yell out in thrill and laugh. Adrenaline fills me like gasoline and I almost ask Occi if she could drive faster before deciding to stay content with the already intense speed. I pop my head back into the car.

"What's it like where we're going? Are there many people there? Where did you get these truck things? How do they run? Were you guys from the Aequa too?" I feel childish asking so many questions, but I'm so curious I feel I might burst if I don't get them answered.

"Hey, we haven't even heard anything about you guys yet." Drew tells me. "To begin, how'd you guys get kicked out of that place?"

Kyan interrupts. "Could... Could we stop the car for a little bit...? I don't feel so good." He says. I turn to him to find him pale faced with his hands on his stomach. I was so distracted by everything that I almost forgot about how motion sick he gets.

"Sorry, we have to keep moving to get back home by my deadline." Occi replies.

"Deadline?" I ask.

"Occi has a meeting when we get back with some of the others in our group." Drew explains. He rolls down Kyan's window. "That'll help." He tells him.

Kyan nods in return and rests his head on the window frame, his hair swaying in the wind. Half of me wants to yell "HA! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR TREATING ME LIKE GARBAGE!" And the other half of me wants to comfort him, but I know if I did either he'd get even more mad at me, so I do neither.

"Back to what I was asking." Drew folds his arms. "How did you guys get exiled?"

"Well, believe it or not, this guy and I were best friends before all this happened." I say bluntly, sighing.

"Wow, thanks." Kyan replies.

"Two nights ago, the government decided to not only break people up my age but by gender too, meaning Kyan and I would never see each other again. Being each other's only friends, we decided to stand against it. I knew that we'd probably be sent here, but I didn't care. I didn't want to lose him." I shrug.

"Oh so your plan was to get us exiled." Kyan snaps.

"But then once we got here he turned into a real jerk and now I couldn't care less." I brush the hair over the left side of my face, trying to pull out some of the dirt stuck in it that tickles my cheek. The curls have completely unraveled by now, and only a little hairspray is left, making my hair feel crispy.

The car stays silent for a few moments until Drew speaks up.

"Nearly everyone out here is from the Aequa. The place where we're going is where all of the people like you and me- the ones they kicked out- stay."

"Do you mind if I ask how you got exiled?" I ask him.

"I don't care at all. It's not like I did something wrong. I was banished the second I opened my eyes. Occi found me and took me in when I was a baby. We were exiled around the same time."