eliminated

:5:

what to listen to while reading this chapter:
"falling (in dreams)" -telekinesis

•~•

we ran and walked through the forest for what seemed like an eternity. it was so many minutes. or maybe hours? i'd lost count. surprisingly, i didn't run out of breath as quickly as i expected. but i was still getting tired. we barely stopped, and we had to conserve resources. i couldn't remember the last time i'd had a decent meal that wasn't freeze-dried and didn't come from a little foil package.

but i didn't have to worry, because blair voiced all my complaints. "can we stop?" she whined. "im hungry."

"we have to keep moving." sean said plainly from the front of the line. i was second, following after him. i'd literally just been staring at the back of his neck for hours upon end now. it was getting a little tedious and boring. i tried to focus on the natural aspects around me. lightly colored trees surrounded us, each one more beautiful and majestic than the other. their leaves were almost transparent. i could see lines on the leaves, almost like they had veins. maple trees, i remembered from my studies. the plants below us were thick and uncut, forming a pillow of grass and leaves underneath. birds cawed and chirped in the distance with no specific rhythm or pattern. it was relaxing. it made me want to sleep...i pinched my arm. we have to keep moving.

aidan jogged up next to me. he looked tired because of the dark circles under his eyes, but he smiled determinedly anyway. i wonder when the last time was that he slept.

"hey," he panted. "is it just me or is it cold?"

i shook my head. "it's just you. i'm scorching."

he tried to laugh, but it sounded more like a sickening cough. i winced.

"can i ask you something?" he said a little bit more seriously.

i slowed down to a fast-paced walk and looked at him. "what?"

"why did you take my place?" he said solemnly. "i mean, at the shooting. when she was about to kill me first. you barely knew me, and you still don't know me that well. you didn't have to do that, but you did. why?"

i exhaled and we stopped for a moment. "i don't know, aidan. i just..." i sighed. "something inside me just told me to do it."

he looked at me with his comforting eyes. they were light, like sean's, but not exactly the same. sean's were more like a mix between a clear sky on a sunny day and dark tree leaves. aidan's were the embers and blaze of the sparks of the fire, but they weren't hollow and haunting. they were warm, and gave me a sense of home and hearth.

"what was it?" he whispered.

i didn't even notice i was holding my breath. i exhaled slowly, without breaking his gaze. his expression reminded me of the way i'd seen my father look at my mother in times of distress, he was pleading, begging for a word, an answer to roll off my tongue. i closed my eyes for a moment and tried to remember what his eyes looked like. but i couldn't. so i opened them and the fire filled me up again. i didn't care that i barely met him, the emotions were so high that what i wanted, in that moment, more than anything in the world was to reach up and stroke his face and brush his hair back and reassure him it's going to be okay but--

"it's nothing." i looked down. "i would've done the same for anyone in your place." wether i like it or not, that's just the way i am. i quickened my pace to avoid any further confrontation.

in front of me sean stopped abruptly. because i wasn't paying attention, i tumbled into him. it was a domino effect. i felt blair hit me and then aidan. "why'd you stop?" i demanded. but it was self explanatory.

on the ground grew a single-stemmed white flower. it would have been beautiful, except for the fact that it was almost completely covered in a thick, dark substance that contrasted to the colors of the flower. sean bent down and scooped some of it up with his finger.

"it's blood."

i inhaled sharply. this was the first time i had ever seen blood from a living thing. no harm came to anyone ever in the society, so no one ever bled. this meant that there really was someone—or something out there. but it also meant that someone or something was there to kill it.

and it could still be there, waiting for its next victim to show up.

"i'm sure it's fine." aidan said, but his voice trembled and shook. "there's no reason to be worried."

rule number one of life: never say there's no reason to be worried. a split second afterwards, a long stick-like projectile object whizzed past my face, barely missing my nose. my heart skipped a beat as it struck a tree in the distance. i sighed out in relief and aidan put a hand on my back to steady me, but i swatted him away. i couldn't help but feel bad at the hurt expression he gave me afterwards. blair whirled around in the direction the arrow came from, a new spear at the ready. she gasped loudly and her grip on the spear wavered.

above us on a boulder stood an army of people, both men and women. some occupied spears and knives, while others occupied weapons like bows and arrows. i saw a few of them that even had guns. i shuddered involuntarily, getting a little dizzy as i remembered how scared and alone i felt on the stage at the shooting not long ago. the even scarier part was that the someone who was standing next to me at that moment was also the someone who was pointing a gun at my head and shot me straight through my chest. i inhaled shakily and continued to appraise the group of soldiers (or at least i presumed they were soldiers). they all had the same uniforms, a black leather jacket and black pants with stripes the same color as blood down the side. i wondered if the stripes mimicked blood. all except a girl in the front who seemed to be the leader. she had her hair in a neat braid to the side, and her gaze of concentration and protectiveness was more powerful than the strongest person alive. she had her bow at the ready, loaded with an arrow. i noticed that no one else did. she must be the one who shot the arrow.

"who are you?" she demanded, looking ready to shoot again at any second.

"we mean no harm to you." sean said cautiously, stepping forward and dropping his weapons.

"then why does the girl have her spear at the ready?" she questioned with a hint of disbelief.

i glared at blair from the corner of my eye. "put it down." i hissed, barely audible. reluctantly, she set the spear on the ground.

in that moment, everything changed. in that moment, i stepped up and faced my fears instead of running away from them. "i'm lila." i said shakily. "and this is blair, sean, and aidan."

the girl lowered her bow slowly. "it's a pleasure to meet you, lila."

then came the question, the one that i was dreading to ask, the one that i was afraid to ask, the one that my life was in grave danger of. "who...are you?"

and it was then, that all four of our lives changed. this was the time when we truly broke out of the protective shells the society had placed around us and understood the outside world. i blinked as if in slow motion, or as if honey had been placed between my eyelids. i could feel my pulse drumming steadily. it moved the blood to my arms and legs and every single cell in my body and made me feel light on my feet. she uttered two single words of the most significance that something had ever been in my entire life.

"the outlaws."

~

hey guys quick message and then i'll shut up, so from now on i'm going to post only on fridays and sometimes wednesdays starting next week. my schedule is kind of crazy right now so thank you for understanding and thanks for reading my story!!!