An Inch Of Infinity (Short Version)

CHAPTER 59- Recollection and Risks

   I dream of my past. My parents had known that the royals could not be stopped, so they helped them. In return, the royals let them stay together. After the war was over and fought, the law that said each child belongs to the royals and is placed where it is needed and Keepers are to be trained. Eight years later, my mother is pregnant. She keeps her pregnancy a secret. She gives birth to two healthy girls with frizzy white hair. My parents named us Hope and Faith, because they hoped to keep us and had faith we would survive.

The next month was hard, but eventually the Keepers got a noise complaint and came knocking. My parents hid my sister and myself in different panels in the wall. I had cried out when they walked by and the Keepers found me. They wrote a report and my parents got in trouble, how much, they never said.

We were able to feed everyone after that, but before I was a year old, the Keepers came back and took my identical sister, while I was hidden away. She was more than just taken away, she was given a fate much worse. She was taken to become a Keeper. A puppet to the royals. I never saw her again.

Three years later my parents were killed on illegal day. I never liked illegal day. It's mostly parades and parties, but there is death and sorrow. I had been hidden, like always. I didn't even go to school. I visited the underground rebellion with my parents, but nowhere else. One day there were two gunshots. When I came out, everything was gone. The entire house was empty. I knew my parents were gone. I went to the underground rebellion HQ and I lived there. When I found out I could leave, well, I ended up here.

I wake up in a dark room. There is a sack over my head and my hands are cuffed to someone behind me. Coral. I'm sitting on a wooden chair. I yell out for help, but nothing leaves my lips. We're in silence cuffs. I try to bang my feet against the ground, but they slow down inches away from the ground and make a quiet thump. Nobody's coming. Corals hand squeezes mine. I squeeze back. Then light pours through the tiny holes in the rough fabric.

A rough hand pulls the sack off of my head, along with several hairs. The Keeper is there and we are in the hidden room. He pulls the sack off of Coral. He whispers something to her. Then he shoves a pill in her mouth, a purple pill. She swallows it. He turns towards me. I glare at him

" I will give you one chance. If you don't swallow this pill I will kill your friend over here, and you know I will do it." he snarls. I nod. He pushes the pill into my mouth. It is sweet. I push it under my tongue and pretend to swallow. He nodded and put the sacks back on our heads and leaves. I spit out the pill. Not even a minute after he leaves I hear a click. The handcuffs fall off to the floor.

"How did you do that?" I ask Coral as we both stand up.

"Kari taught me. She spent a long time making these things you know. There is an emergency escape incase Keepers get caught in their own traps. I'll show another time, but right now we have to go." she says. I race for the door. It's locked. I hit a light switch and light once again pours into the room. I see the empty box.

"You didn't swallow the pill, did you?" I ask her. She looks at the floor.

"CORAL! ANSWER ME!" I exclaim, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. She answers with a voice weaker than a mouse.

"What was I supposed to do? Let him kill you?" She Whispers.

"YES, no, just, you shouldn't have. He probably just gave you a poisonous, deadly, lethal pill!"I exclaim. The thought alone makes me feel sick to my stomach. I pulled an antenna off of a nearby computer with little effort. I pushed into the lock on the door and listened as the little tumblers clicked until the lock disengaged.

"How did you do that?" Coral asks amazed. I smile.

"The rebels taught me. They work with this stuff all the time you know, I can show you some time, but right now we have to go." I say, mimicking her. Even Coral smiles. I carefully open the door and look outside into the rain. It is dark out and too wet to climb down. We will have to take the vents out.

I look at the lock on the trap door under the bed. It's a finger print scanner, number code, key combo. He doesn't want us to leave. I pull the lever anyways.the door drops open a few inches and then gets stopped by the lock. It's hopeless. I hit the lock over and over again, jamming things into the keyhole and pushing the keys for the number code into the lock. When I'm done, he will not be able to open it, ever. I return to the doorway.

"You finally done?" asks Coral, "I hope so, because I might have just found our way out." she says. I don't say anything. She opens a cupboard-like cubby and pulls out a harness on a rope. She pulls the harness on and tugs on the rope. When she is sure she is secure, she jumps. After that she falls.