Bound by Glass

11| The Sleeping Curse

At first, the air had been poisonous, consisting of nearly only carbon dioxide and other hazardous components. I admit, back then it was impossible for people to live outside. But, after a century or so...

People in the Globes wanted to get out. They didn't believe that after so many decades the air would still be poisonous.

They escaped.

And they lived.

The first Tribes with Outsiders were founded.

Still, the air was thinner than it used to be, and the ozone layer had become twice as thin due to all the radiation. It was liveable, even though the clouds sometimes showered acid rain, and the UV-radiation in the weak sun was even more dangerous.

It only made us tougher, right?

The plants? The variation between them had become nearly non-existent, so, for a long time, bailas, weeds and grasses were most prominent.

But, where plants die, the ground becomes fertile. Slowly, more plants were growing back, even though they were in a different form than they were before the war.

In this area, pine trees and bailas trees live together, side by side. Bailas can live anywhere, dry or wet, but they are a sort of weed. They are starting to mess up the progress nature made by suffocating the roots of the new trees and plants. Bailas trees are nearly indestructible, their wood hard yet flexible. That's why we use their wood for our huts. We also use it for firewood, because it burns three times longer than normal wood.

A screech sounded through the trees and I quickly crouched behind a bush.

A train had arrived.

I held my breath as the enormous, metal snake stopped. I had never seen one before, and the sheer force of the iron creature dazzled me. The sight of the cut down trees next to the tracks saddened me–man had never done anything but destroy nature. Out of the carts swarmed dozens of Authorities, spreading over the clearing. I bit my lip so hard it drew blood. It tasted metallic in my mouth.

All the Authorities were wearing the black suits I had seen earlier and held electro-gun in their hands. They stomped out of the carts, marching in perfect lines and units like machines.

A couple of Authorities in white suits stood spread over the area, looking like the woman I had seen back at the tunnel exit. It looked like they were each commanding one unit of about two dozen black-suited Authorities.

I gasped when I saw the female Authority again. She had her helmet tucked under one arm, and the other was making gestures. She was talking with some other white-suited Authorities.

Great. She looked like some high ranking officer.

I dug a little deeper in the bushes, peering through the leaves, trying to regulate my breathing as evenly as possible.

Please don't see me.

I could hear them talking. I slowly moved a branch of the brown bush, and now I could see much clearer.

A black-suited Authority walked up to the female Authority, "Captain Thorne, unit 5 and 9 have successfully reached the centre," he said. He folded his hands in front of him, and glanced around , taking a deep breath. "But..." he added hesitantly.

The woman, apparently Captain Thorne, cocked her head. "But what?" she asked. She took a step forward, towering over the frightened soldier, who was shaking visibly.

"They–" he said, "The camp is deserted, sir. All the Outlaws are gone."

I clasped my hand over my mouth, concealing a big grin. They made it out! I had to bite my fist to stop myself from pumping it in the air and yelling "HA! TAKE THAT!". Immediately, my mind started racing, wondering where they had went. I recalled one of the stories of the patrols–they had probably fled into the mountains.