Side Split

The Leader

I'm woken the next woken by my shoulders being shaken vigorously. I open my eyes to see my guide staring down at me, evidently annoyed at something, "Come on, we need to get moving again. You've slept enough."

"I wouldn't say I've slept enough," I reply in a poor attempt of humour that doesn't even receive a smile. My guide just walks to where the other two people in our group are standing, waiting for me so I get up from the hard ground. Sleeping on it wasn't that difficult considering I've had to sleep like that for years and it may even have been a little comfier than that of the cell floor.

Within ten minutes we're walking again, across fields and through woods. I expected the President to have patrols outside of the city's borders in case anyone were to attempt an escape from his regime, but that appears to not be the case. It does mean that his power isn't as large as I had believed it to be and I may finally be safe from him.

The silence is broken once again by the woman when we enter another forest. This one is denser than the others we've seen on the journey here and appears to be a lot larger too. "Stay here," she says before running ahead with the other person I've not spoken to or heard from, leaving me with my guide.

"What's happening?" I ask, turning to the man. The more I look at him, he doesn't appear to be much older than me which is surprising. Initially, I believed he could easily be in his mid to late twenties.

He takes a deep breath before answering as if talking to me is an exhausting task for him. "We're here now so you'll be meeting the Leader soon and I'm guessing we'll figure out why you're so important to her."

"Is she a good person to work under?"

"She's alright, I guess. Almost anything is better than working under the president so I wouldn't say it's necessarily a fair comparison to make.."

It never occurred to me that he may have been part of the President's regime. "I'm assuming everyone here came from the city then?" He nods, "So this is a refuge of sorts, that's interesting. I'm glad that people are able to escape the city if they want to." I monologue to myself, uncomfortable continuing the silence that's been enforced for most thof the past day. I look at the man's face as he stares ahead, probably waiting for the others to return so they can relieve him of my presence. "What's your name?"

He turns to face me to answer this question, which is a pleasant change, "I'm Cai. What's yours?"

"Kelly, nice to meet you, Cai. Thanks for breaking me out of the city, this has been a lot better than working for the President."

He laughs a little, a small smile emerging at the corners of his lips, "It was nothing, don't worry about it."

Before I can respond, the two others who accompanied us return on the expedition across the fields return. The woman does the talking again in her serious tone, "The Leader is ready for you now. Follow us." She sets off again in the direction she has just come from.

I do as she says, trailing her through the forest, noticing it getting less dense as we venture further into it and a smell of burning getting stronger. After a couple of minutes, we get to a clearing, not too dissimilar to the one I opened the portal in. There are some differences though, the most notable ones being the large fire which sits in the centre and a large tree stump, carved into a chair sitting on the opposite side of the clearing from me. On the chair sits a woman who I can only assume to be the leader I've heard spoken about on the journey here. She has long black hair and is dressed in a slightly dirty blue dress that is covering her feet which dangle a few centimetres above the leafy ground. She doesn't look too old, younger than the President at least, probably in her early forties if I had to guess.