Escaping the End

Chapter 32

As soon as Brooke walked out the door Gabriel went upstairs leaving Ashton and Klara downstairs alone. Ashton just stared at Klara who still had energy to spare even after spending the whole day with small children. He, on the other hand, was exhausted from chasing the children around and from the lack of sleep had gotten. After long debate about it, it was finally decided that he should stay in the same room as Klara until Kotone got there and she snored so loud that he couldn't get even an hour of rest.

Klara ran off up the stairs and Ashton sank onto the floor and started to doze off in the blissful silence. It wasn't particularly warm, but Ashton's exhaustion took him over and soon heat, place, and time didn't matter to him in the least. Not until Brant walked and started talking to him, at that point he jumped up from surprise and felt a weight all off of him. He turned to see Klara rubbing her head and looking just as dazed as him. He helped her up before turning to look at Brant who was struggling to comprehend what he had just witnessed.

"Um," Brant started as he moved forward, "Tomorrow, the old woman that I work for needs extra help so Ashton? Can you help out?" he asked him.

Ashton looked at Klara and then back at Brant, "Yeah, sure. If there is an issue here I'll be able to get back pretty quickly."

Brant nodded and went into the Kitchen area to prepare what food they had to eat for that night. Soon, Gabriel reammerged and raced outside, everyone in the room looked at eachother, but quickly shrugged it off as nothing. It wasn't until he raced back in and told everyone that Brooke's child had wandered into the surrounding forest somewhere. Ashton didn't wait for the full explanation of what happened and raced out the door while Klara followed close behind. They continued to run until they had reached a crowd of people gathered around Brooke.

She was wailing like a small child and cursed the heavens as she did so, "How could this happen to me? How could they let this happen to me? There is a God right, but how could this happen to me if there was?" she cried hysterically.

Ashton looked into the dark woods and went in. Several people tired to stop him, telling him it was far too dark to go searching for the child. Several others were criticizing Brooke for not being a better mother and said the child deserved to be lost if she couldn't take care of him.

Ashton felt the hot lump of anger forming in his throat and started yelling over all the people gathered around, "Shut it, all of you shut up!"

The area soon fell into a surprised silence, even Brooke took it down to soft sniffles as Ashton continued, "How many of you have or had kids before the Governor started the judgement?" he asked the crowd.

Most of the adults hands slowly raised into the air, and Ashton noticed a lot of them were also the ones saying the child deserved to be lost, "How did it feel to leave your children behind to be killed in that ruthless slaughter? Huh? At least Brooke still has her kid, even put her life on the line to save him, what is your excuse?" and angrily asked the crowd, "There was a mother that I shared a cell with in the execution building, she protected her child with everything she had. To the point that she lost her sanity! When I escaped, she begged me to take her child with me and I bet you everything Brooke would do the same!"

Those who mocked Brooke quickly became humble. Ashton knew that it was not necessarily their fault that their kids were left behind and killed, but he was afraid that if he didn't shame, them, they couldn't understand Brooke's place. Even Klara was shocked by what Ashton had said, but she quickly agreed with him. Brooke was sobbing in the corner of the crowd, but this time the tears were of gratitude for Ashton. Once most of the crowd dissipated back into the meadow, Ashton assured Brooke he would find her lost child and went into the woods. Klara followed closely behind.

There were tiny footprints in the muddy ground and Ashton instantly started to follow them like a bloodhound on a sent trail. He hardly even noticed that Klara was trying to talk to him as he quickly followed the path deeper and deeper into the forest. He thought it was strange that a child would get this far on their own, especially one that was only two years old. They eventually found him walking towards a river bank.

Ashton raced down the slope and snatched the child up before he got any closer to the water's edge. Klara waited patiently at the top of the small slope for Asthone to return with the baby. Once he reached her, they started back along the path to the meadow. It was quiet for the most part, only the occasional fuss from the baby. That was until Klara started to ask Ashton questions he really didn't want to answer.

"Ashton, you said you shared a cell with a woman? What, what was it like? You know, in, in that place." She quietly asked him.

He looked down at her for a second and then back at the path, "Awful, terrifying, painful. Everyday you could hear the screams of everyone. Children, women, men, even those on other levels. It, it was soul crushing. They did everything they could to make sure your life was a living nightmare. Children were beaten, everyone was starved, and they would kill pieces of your family in front of you. I am the last one in mine to survive," he explained dryly.

Klara gagged and stopped walking, "Then, how did she still have her child? You didn't lie did you?"

Ashton gave Klara a sad smile, "No, I promise I didn't lie. Not in my nature to," he said before losing all expression, "That woman lost her mind, they had killed her baby long before my escape. It took months for me to figure out how to get out of there and I wasn't it would even work. Two, almost, three weeks before my escape the guards had forced the baby to drink a slow acting poison. Within days it was dead, but the woman never realised it."

Klara gagged again and covered her mouth while she bent over, "She, she, she said you to take a dead child? What did you..." she trailed off, struggling to keep her stomach.

Ashton stopped to let her recuperate, "She needed some hope, some light before she died. I agreed to take the baby and as soon as I was safe, I buried it," His eyes grew dim as he continued, "The day I buried that child, that was the day something died in me as well, and my hope for a good future vanished."

By that point Klara had tears dripping off her face and she struggled to get any air to her lungs. The child Ashton was holding was fast asleep in his arms, but stirred as Klara's crying got louder. Ashton didn't understand why she would cry so much at this story, or what was bothering her but he didn't criticize her for it. They just stood there until Klara had calmed down some before going back into the meadow where they found an anxious Brooke waiting for them. Once she saw them, she raced over and snatched the child from Ashton.

"Thank you," she exclaimed, "Thank you so much! I don't know what I would do if I lost Skyler too!"

Ashton looked at her with his dull eyes, "It wasn't a problem at all."