Escape - Stray Kids || completed

Ten

I woke up and rubbed my eyes and looked around. I'm lying on the sofa my head on Seungmin's lap and Jeongin's head was on my ankles. I look at the time and see it's our last day before we have to go to our independent sectors for our jobs. We fell asleep together after talking about what we are expecting from our new lives.

Thankfully we're all in similar sectors but Jeongin will stay here. My heart aches for him, being stuck in here while his family are being locked up and experimented on. Even when his family are released he won't be able to come out got a while. The police will continue searching for him for a long time.

All the boys were still asleep and I carefully removed myself from the sofa so not to wake any of them up. I pulled a blanket over their shoulders and smiled. I'd had friends before but not like these guys. I may have only known most of them for a few days but they already feel like family.

I quietly make my way over to the ladder which leads to the roof of the warehouse. The ladder creaks under the pressure of my weight and I get flashbacks of the test. I shake my head pushing the memory away and continue climbing. I open the hatch that leads to the roof and climb out. I walk over to the middle of the roof and look out over the city.

Slowly the city begins to wake up. One thing that hasn't changed over the century's of our new civilisation is that everyone rests on Sunday's. Guards and government officials still work for our safety but everyone else takes the day slowly.

Across the city I see lights turn on. The lights in peoples individual houses turn on first along with men and women who stand outside to drink their morning coffee or tea. Then the skyscrapers light up the orange and yellow sky. It's the same every Sunday. I see it from my attic window.

It makes me sad that in our city, even on a day of rest, there is routine. There are do's and don'ts. I sigh and look up at the sky I close my eyes and sit there. In the old poems we study in school they talk of a summers breeze being a beautiful thing. We have artificial weather here. I've never felt a summers breeze. I probably never will.

"You'll catch a cold" I hear a voice and turn around.

Seungmin stood there with a blanket and I smile. He sits next to me and wraps the blanket around my shoulders.

"A penny for your thoughts?" He says and I furrow my eyebrows in confusion.

"It's a saying I found in an old book where they used pennies as a currency. I don't have a penny, but I have a cookie inside" he says and I laugh at his sweetness.

"I was thinking about how nice it would be to experience the real world. The birds singing, the tide pulling in and pushing out, the summer breeze. All the things that made living more than a function" I say and he nods.

"I want that too but they don't keep us cooped up in here for no reason" he says and stands up.

"Felix is making some breakfast. It should be done soon" he walks back to the ladder and heads down.

I watch the skyline for a last few seconds then make my way back towards the ladder. Then something catches my eye. In the barrier there's a part that doesn't match up. In the fake blue skies mimicked by the barrier there's a grey dark cloud.

A gap. A weakness. Chan was right. The barrier is breaking. Then as if my magic. A bird. A large one from what I can see flies through the gap and lands on a nearby building and perches there.

I rush down the ladder skipping rungs at a time and run over to the kitchen area where they were all sat eating.

I arrive breathless and they all look up from their food.

"Chan was right" I say smiling "there's a weakness in the barrier. I just saw a bird fly through it"

"A bird?" Hyunjin asks and I nod.

We all look at Chan waiting for him to say something.

"Give me a few days and I'll have a plan" he says taking his plate to the sink.

"We're actually doing it? We're actually escaping?" Jeongin says in excitement and fear.

"Yes. It's not going to be easy but we're going to do it. Together" Chan says smiling and we are all filled with nervous anticipation.