Angel Of Clinia

12. The Mob

We already ventured to the corner of Clinia. Thinking we had a whole plan, and we were still stuck in such a dangerous place was horrifying.

"I see it!" Taylor yells, running to the tall grey wall in front of us. We run forward, starving, but trying to make it anyway. We hadn't eaten, her more recently than me.

There were security cameras everywhere, but none were on. Maybe one of the UFO's made an electricity pole collapse. "How do we get across?" I tap on the wall with my balled up fist. "Can we make a ladder with stuff like your blanket?" "No, it wouldn't be strong enough, plus there's nothing to hang it onto, since we can't get up there."

"I see little stubs, we can put the ladder on them, then string up another part of the ladder once we get there." She attempts to grab the blanket from me. "We'll have to make multiple pieces of ladder and put them together if it is going to be strong enough." I say, sitting down to start crafting. "You go find supplies, I'll start making it." I tell her as I begin to weave very quickly. She nods and runs around the area to get the resources.

I think a few hours went by with just constant weaving and gathering. We finally did it. "Done!" I cheer quietly.

We toss the ladder up to the first stub, and it hooks on. I go first. I get to the top of the piece of ladder, and toss up the next ladder to the next stub. It latches on. I begin climbing. When I get to the next ladder, I get Taylor to grab the first ladder.

This continues on, until we get to the top. We get all of our ladders. And bundle them together. We can either slide down a very steep wall, or we can climb. We chose climb, since we didn't want to basically fall to our deaths.

We make it down and feel accomplished.

"Here we are! Burrville." Taylor places her sore hands on her hips.

I look around to make sure nobody saw us, but unfortunately, three people did.

"Hey you!" A boy yells. He seems around my age.

"Don't run," I whisper, "that'll only draw more attention."

The group hurries over with a revolver per person. "What's your business here?" They ask.

I try to come up with a solid excuse but Taylor blurts out "The government is abducting people and turning them into clones! They are coming here too!"

They look at each other and put away their guns. "We don't hate people from Clinia, we just didn't want you guys to be criminals on the run. Now why are you really here?" The boy asks.

"It's true. It's really happening." I chime in.

They once again look at each other. I waited for their laughs, but instead they say "count us in."

I guess we have teammates now. "I'm Devin Coles and this is my twin sister Ellie. Oh, and that's Stephanie, our cousin."

Stephanie, as in Stephanie Walsh? There aren't many Stephanies these days. She is known to be the most successful singer in Burrville.

"Walsh?" I croak. Stephanie extends her hand out and nods. "Walsh." She assures me.

I'm star struck.

"Wow!" Taylor yelps.

"What do we need to do?" Devin asks, clearly tired of the fan interaction. "Well we need to gather people here, which we did. Then that means now we have to get to Claude Valley and-" She's cut off.

"Claude Valley? Ha! As if." Ellie chuckles. "What?" Taylor requests while being seemingly perplexed.

"There is nothing that could make us go to Claude Valley. Nada. Nope. No way." Ellie paced in circles while waving her arms. "Okay, but why?" I ask, growing frustrated. "It's a crap show. People are scavenging for food, killing people on the spot! Muggings, murders, laws don't apply there anymore. It isn't what it used to be." Devin answers for his still disagreeing sister.

"What happened?"

"The leader was evil, so they had been restricted for way too long. When the citizens finally got rid of him...not peacefully, they started to ransack and got lawless happy. They did everything because they got so used to not doing anything. It was like a spring squished down just waiting to release and go flying." Ellie angrily reminisces.

We all remain quiet for a moment.

It stays awkward, so I speak up. "Well we've only got to sneak through, that way we can-"

"Did you not just hear what I said? No!" Ellie yells. People start peeking to see what the fuss is about.

"Shhh." Taylor signals.

We walk to a more private area. It's sandy and overly bright. There's tons of large rocks and tumbleweeds that we pass by. Also their snowmen are year round. They have cacti that they treat like snowmen. They put little cowboy hats and boots with spurs in them on the cactus for decoration.

"Cute cactus cowboy." Taylor giggles. "Huh? Oh yeah, the younger kids do that." Devin says flatly.

No personality much?

As we walk to the more private area, I notice the same person appearing behind us at some point. "I think we are being followed." "Don't be paranoid." Ellie tells me.

"Seriously." I boldly remark. "Okay, then where are they?" Ellie growls, coming to a full stop, and Taylor almost bumps into her.

Suddenly a huge mob pops out from behind the buildings. Glowing in the yellow golden sun, their spurs glittered and sparkled. Their cow print outfits all matched and seemed uniform like an old movie.

"Crap," I wail.

"We've got to get out of here."

The mob begins closing in.

"Jerry, relax." Devin yells.

"We don't want no Clinia folk here in these parts." Jerry spits onto the ground.

"Get to the high ground!" Stephanie bellows.

Taylor and I run as fast as we can to follow the twins and the singer. I start to fall behind, but catch up almost instantly.

We make it to high ground, still being chased by a huge mob. We see the wall and we are high enough up to get over. There are two cities we can enter. Clinia or Claude Valley. "Go to Claude Valley!" Taylor yells, barely audible when there is the sound of neighing horses, gunshots, heavy breathing, and people running. "No!" Ellie yells, and she leaps into Clinia. "No!" Devin yells down to his sister. "I have to go with her!" Devin looks at us with a melancholy face. "Come back!" Stephanie yells as Devin is in mid air, leaping down to meet his sister. The mob grows closer. "I can't leave them." Stephanie frowns, following the twins. "We can't go back!" Taylor yells, getting ready to jump to Claude Valley. "We can't," I grab her arm. "We'll make it back out." I drag her down with me as I jump to Clinia, barely escaping the large crowd that came barely 6 feet away.

"And stay out!" Jerry grumbles.

"Why would you do that?" Taylor shrieks at me. Her voice was broken and upset. Tears fill her eyes. "We can get back out, just like we did before." I assure her, setting my hand on her shoulder. She brushes me off. "Enough! We had made it, and you just brought me back down against my will." "It was for your own good, and you know it. Surely you can see that." I yell, also becoming frustrated.

"Well we should probably seek shelter." Ellie mutters.

So we do, with no speaking at all. Another old factory.