Blood Type

Blood Type Chapter 2

When I awoke, the sun shone through the crevice as another grim reminder that I was still on the run. Time hadn't stopped; I hadn't met my fate... yet. I hoped that this would change, and soon. Running was tiring. If only I could go back home to my parents and friends.

But of course, that would never happen. Not in my circumstances. It was likely that I would be on the run for the rest of my life. Which I hoped would never happen. It was to the point where when I went to sleep, I had nightmares. When I woke up, it was hard to tell whether or not I was dreaming.

I was still wearing nothing but the horrible hospital gown. I wish they'd let me keep my clothes. Even my school uniform was better than this.

I remember my school. I remember walking down the bustling hallways, passing by my classmates and waving to my friends. I remember getting lost in a sea of silver, the color of our one-piece rubberized uniforms. I remember classes, cramming for tests, and all of the homework. But I'd give anything to go back to that life. Anything.

Dirt covered my bare feet from running. Leaves and pine needles were caught in my hair. Yet any wounds I had acquired were healed.

I crawled out from under the crevice. Time to do some more running. And, more importantly, time to find something to eat.

But how I would eat was a good question. I didn't have a knife or any other kind of weapon to kill anything with. Was there even anything to kill? I could always rely on plants. I remembered that pine leaves were edible. Luckily, I had taken numerous survival classes in school. Some of my friends and I did it for fun. It was a joke at first, but it was beneficial in the end.

I ran until I found a part of the woods that was so dense, even an expert navigator wouldn't have been able to find his way out. This was the perfect hiding spot. And the perfect spot to stop and rest.

I looked around at the overgrown woods. Pine trees surrounded me. I knew what that meant. Chow time. I gathered as many needles as I could in my hospital gown. Sitting on a stump, I started a fire on the ground using two pieces of wood. The fire sputtered at first, but after the kindling was added, it roared like a wild beast.

I munched on the needles like a mouse with cheese as I sat next to the fire. It crackled and glowed, making warmth for me. I wondered how my friends were, if they were warm, if they had fires in their fireplaces.

I missed my town. It was small, with a population of only 3000 people. I knew most of the people there. I remember our house; it was a metallic green color. Homes lined with metal were old-fashioned. I'd heard of other towns whose homes were lined with rubber, like the rubber of my uniform. There wasn't much grass around the sidewalks or houses. A lot of the plants had died off.

I remember the buses that ran through town. They were black and sleek, much like the buildings. We learned in school that many people used to own their own vehicles that were like the buses but smaller. The government took them away to make transportation safer.

Speaking of transportation, I had to get moving again. If I didn't keep moving, they'd catch up me eventually. I got up and looked at my fire. It was almost burned out. I ripped a piece of the gown off, and used it to smother the fire. I spread the leftover logs and ashes around so as not to leave a trail. They couldn't know that I'd been here.

Looking into the distance, I sighed. I'd have to keep going. Even though my meal of pine needles wasn't at all satisfying, I'd have to keep going. Great.

I started to run. The ground felt the same as a flat floor because my feet were so used to it. The calluses were growing larger.

Suddenly, I heard an alarm. I panicked. They couldn't have found me! Not here! Crap! Crap it all!

The sirens grew louder, and I ran faster. Suddenly I was flipped; something had snagged my foot. I was dangling from it as my gown fell down. I lifted it back up, and saw that nothing but a rope was holding me up. How lame. They were going to try to trap me like this?

This would be easy to get out of. All I would have to do was create a spark big enough to set the rope on fire and burn me free from the rope. I lifted my arm and twisted my wrist to unravel my veins, but something stopped me. Correction, someone stopped me.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a boy, no older than me, watching my every move. Good thing I was still holding up my hospital gown, right? He had light-colored skin and curly white-blonde hair. He was wearing a type of clothing I had not seen before. It wasn't rubberized like mine.

I turned my arm toward him, tilted my wrist, and sent a shock wave right to his face. He didn't even dodge; he just stood there. As I was wondering why he didn't move, I noticed that he had lifted his wrists as well. I stared in utter amazement, and saw that he had unraveled his veins.

Did this mean that there were others like me?

I don't know exactly how it happened, but somehow he repelled my shocks, and they blew back in my direction. The force caused me to swing from the tree my rope was tied to, and I lost control of my veins. I quickly pulled them back into my skin.

It was over. The boy stood, staring at me. I was still obviously hanging from the tree, staring back at him, pulling up my hospital gown. We were both panting.

I unraveled my veins, and he unraveled his. I pulled them in, and he did the same. He must have thought that he wasn't going to let me get away with anything.

I was tired of playing games already. I decided to cut to the chase.

"Who are you?" I asked defensively.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," the boy retorted. "So tell me. Who are you?"

"You tell me first," I said impatiently.

He stared at me skeptically. He opened his mouth, closed it again, and finally opened it to speak.

"Don't try to hurt me when I tell you. And don't try to break free either," he said. "Name's Finch. Now it's your turn."

He was standing in a defensive stance. I could take him down, of course, but he seemed to trust me. I was scared, but I decided to return his trust.

"Spark," I spat. "Now can you please get me down from here? It's not exactly comfortable!"

He sighed, then scaled the tree and untied the rope at the top. Carefully, he lowered me down to the ground. He dropped down from the tree next to me and smiled. I had no idea what to do.

I started to get up. This whole encounter could have been a trap. He could be a doctor. He could be anything.

"Don't go," he said. I stopped, breathing heavily, unsure of what to do.

He held out his arms and unraveled his veins.

"Did you ever think you'd meet anyone like you?" he asked knowingly.

I stood there, staring at him, staring at his veins. They made a hissing sound. He must've been an airhead.

"There are three more of us like you," he said.

"And who said I want to meet them?"

I turned and dashed away from him, Finch I guess, as soon as I could. I thought I heard him call my name, but it was hard to tell.