After

He Who is Different Shall Not Live

I hate this place.

I wish I could leave...but there's no where to go.

The world isn't what it used to be, or at least how it is in the stories. My grandmother use to tell me stories of her when she was a little girl. She said the ocean covered at least 70 percent of the earth. No ones seen the ocean in decades. We don't even know if it still exists. As far as we know, the only thing left of the world is us.

No ones been out of the dome since the toxic spread. The outside remained unexplored for several years. The toxic destroyed everything it touched, now there's only red sand and red water left. We were told that if we left the dome, we would die; so they sealed off the doors so no one could leave. It was for our own good.

A scream broke me out of my thoughts and I was pulled back into my sad reality. I moves towards a crowd of people and before I know it, something shoots into the sky. It took my eyes a while to realize that that something was actually a someone. I blinked several times astonished by what I was seeing. It was a boy who looked about 11 or 12, and he had wings sprouting from his back! Wings!

Another scream had caught my attention followed by another and I too wanted to scream, but inside I was mesmerized. "Freak! Someone kill it!" someone shouted.

"No! Please, help me! I don't know what's happ—" before the boy could even finish his sentence, there was a loud gun shot. Before I could do anything, the boy was falling faster than I could move.

"No..." I whisper. They didn't have to kill him! I wanted to scream. It was quite for a while as everyone watched the dead boys body. I pushed against the bodies, but before I could make it to him the men with guns took him.

"Everyone please, go back to your daily routine. The elders will take care of this!" a man in uniform announced.

"I can't believe it!"

"I know! That was the third one this month! What is going on lately?"

"Where are all these mutated children coming from?"

I was still too frozen to move. Was I really the one who thinks this was wrong? Yes, mutants. Three mutant children had been exposed since late September. Three children have been killed. They didn't even hesitate to do so, they just...shot them. Everyone knew it was unlike the government to act rashly and destroy human life. It's the one things we try to preserve as much as possible, but fear prioritized our safety so naturally the only way to be safe was to kill the unexplained.

All three possessed different powers. The first one had the ability to produce electricity in her fingertips. She was only 11. The second one could read minds. He was 15 years old, and now that poor boy with the beautiful wings who probably didn't even know he could fly. They were killed in an instant.

"Ruby! Ruby, snap out of it!"

My eyes focuses on Isaac. He shielded me out of the crowd until we were in a dark alley. Oh no! "Isaac!" My voice was high as fear burst through my lungs. "He's dead! The boy didn't even know what was happening to him! They just shot him like an animal! What happens if they find out about—"

"They're not going to!" He cuts me off. His voice was final but I was still trembling.

"Isaac you need to get out of here, if they find out about you...they'll kill you too!" I was shaking. The image of the boy's face before he died played itself over and over again in my head. "Ruby stop it! That's not going to happen! I'm not going to die, now come on we can't stay here. People will get suspicious."

The people have been more cautious these days, especially towards their own children. There's been talk of some top secret experiment conducted by the elders years ago that's been leaked. No one really knows if it's real, but it didn't really matter since everyone had their own opinion of what's been happening. Some people believe it's the toxic air seeping into the dome infecting their children. Other's believe it's the wrath of god finally come to punish us for destroying earth.

"Isaac, do you think it's true?" I whisper, keeping my eyes straight.

"What is?"

"The experiment."

"No. My father would never allow that." He frowns.

I bit my lips from saying anything else. Isaac's father was one of the elders, I've only met the man twice. He was a good man, ambitious and caring.

"I have to go back to my little brother." I tell him.

"I'll take you to him." He gives me a soft smile. Isaac and I grew up together. He was older than me by a year. In just a few more months he will turn 18 and will have to join the militia. I know he doesn't want to go, but because it's the law he had no choice. Even if he is the son of Edgar, our most trusted Elder.