Surrender

Carlton Walter's POV

Carlton Walter’s POV:

           Ethan kept saying please as we took him out of the burning house.

           We settled him down on the fields and I listened to his heartbeat. Yes he was still alive.

           Just then I heard a voice that was very familiar say, “Those Confederates will lose this time.”

           My father. I looked at Alfred - he seemed to recognize the voice too, for his eyes were full of fear and astonishment.

           “We can’t stay here or else they will catch us and they might even force us to fight the battle.” I didn’t tell him the real reason for why I wouldn’t want to stay here - I didn’t want to face my father.

           We carried him through the fields, but had to stay low.

           Then I heard Alfred muttering “ … underground railroad…”

           I’ve heard a lot of the slaves talking about the underground railroad, but none of them actually tried to escape, due to all the swearing and threats from my Father.

          “Do you know the way to the underground railroad?” I asked him.

          “Yes, some other men were talking about and I overheard them speaking. Ever since, I have always had a dream of escaping and going into 'the land of the free' ”.

          “Well, now is your opportunity. Lead the way.”

          He started walking a bit faster. Pretty soon we had come to the end of the fields, passed the hospital and mail station and started into the railroad. And, I was the one carrying Ethan the whole trip.

         I actually had thought that the underground railroad was actually underground, but to my astonishment it wasn’t - it was just like any other street or neighborhood.

         Alfred explained to me why it was called the underground railroad if it had no physical appearance to a real railroad. He said that they called it the underground railroad because the activities were carried out in secret. They used railway terms to describe how the system worked. Various routes were lines, stopping places were called stations, those who aided along the way were conductors and their charges were known as packages or freight.

         When we reached about the middle of the forest, we laid him down and I took out the stethoscope from the kit. He was still breathing but it was very shallow. I could tell that he needed water, but we didn’t carry any. We’ll have to wait till we arrive at our first station - if they even carried water.

        He had a burn on his forearm - where he had fallen. It wasn’t severe though. The welt on his forehead was impossibly large.

       I looked at Alfred - he didn’t seem to need me to tell him that we had to go.

       He stood up and helped me to pick Ethan up.