Transparent Color's

Our breathing is heavy; we stop and lean over to catch it. It feels like we have been running through this field for hours. It seems to be never ending. I detach the water canteens from my belt and hand one to Toby. I tell him to drink sparingly, because we have to save the water for as long as we can.

Done drinking, I reattach the canteens and grab Toby’s hand to continue.

“Maggie I’m so tired, can we just rest until morning?” he uses that pitiful voice again.

“Not until morning, but we can for a little while. I feel it will be safer out of this field, who knows when the Collectors will come out to collect this wheat and us along with it.”

“Okay”, and he sits down.

I place the sack in the direction we were heading to, so I don’t get confused when we have to start again. When I sit down, I start thinking about Aunt Bristol and Uncle Ping. I wonder how Toby must be feeling.

“Toby, I didn’t get the chance to ask you before, but how are you?” gentleness comes over me.

He is looking down at his shoes, like the day I found him on the steps of the school, and then he lifts his head with tears in his eyes, “I saw them get hanged. I don’t know why but I did hear some words about them being traitors or something.” He looks down at his shoes again, “They weren’t the best, Maggie you know, but they were my parents.”

I move next to him and take him in my arms; he puts his head on my stomach and begins to sob. After a while he calms down and I tell him he can go to sleep. I will wake him when it’s time to leave. So Toby removes his jacket, crumples it up like a pillow, and lies down next to me.

The air is cool and silent. I begin to notice the throbbing in my left leg, remembering that I cut it on the fence. My adrenaline must be wearing off. I hunch down close to where the cut is to assess the damage. It is hard to see, from the lack of lighting, so I feel around it. Most of the blood has dried up but I can feel where the opening is. So I take my canteen off my belt and pour a little bit on to the cut. It stings at first but then feels a little better. I don’t want to rip my pants any more than they are, so I’ll take off my jacket and rip off the silk lining inside. I then wrap the lining around the cut on my leg and tie it tight. I put my jacket back on.

It did not take long for Toby to fall fast asleep. As I look at him, the thought comes to me, why would they be traitors? They always followed the rules of the Controller. Then my thoughts go to Clara and the last statement she said about me and Toby being Greatness and that we were going to save them all. What is that about? I can’t figure it out; I can’t figure any of this out! I’ll leave it alone for now, one mystery at a time and I need to be focused in order for us to get out of this field alive.

My eyes start getting heavy, so I decide to lie down for a bit. Looking up, I see the swaying of the wheat stalks; they must be about six feet tall. With a slight shiver I lay there surrounded by these tall giants. Past the stalks I see the brightest stars I have ever seen before. With the Cities spot lights you could never see the stars. You knew they were there though, just gleaming away. I breath in deeply, they are absolutely beautiful tonight.

My eyes start to close and I feel myself drifting off to sleep, when I hear a sound that jolts me awake again. Frozen for a moment, I can feel heavy breaths on my face. A liquid substance falls onto my forehead and I can hear a growl. I turn my head slightly and see Toby next to me wide eyed looking at me; his eyes motion that there is something above me. My hand slowly reaches for one of the metal canteens on my belt and with a quick motion I hit the animal with the metal canteen.

Striking again and again, until the unknown animal is not moving on the ground. It’s small shimmering body becomes dull and sinks to the ground. I hear another growl in the distance, so I jump up, grab Toby by the arm, bend down and grab the sack. We start running through the field again. Faster, faster, we run. Poor Toby can’t keep the pace, so he starts to stumble making me drag him along.

The soft ground begins to get harder with stones and rocks, without even realizing it, we were out of the field. I turn my head to look back, to see if anything is chasing us, I don’t see anything, good. I look back in front of me again and try to halt my run to a stop but it is too late. I fall off an edge pulling Toby along with me. We fall about twenty feet, into a mildly moving stream. Being dragged under for a bit I reach the surface of the water again. I am still clenching on to Toby’s hand, so I pull him close to me and he wraps his arms and legs around my back as I try to swim against the current. The other side is not too far away so that is where I will head.

It is not the easiest swim with Toby on my back but I know he isn’t the best swimmer. In the City we are required to have swimming classes, for what reason, I’m not sure; there was no water to swim in. The only thing I could conclude was if you were ever put to death by drowning, it gives you more of a fighting chance. I notice my feet can slightly touch the bottom if I stand on my tiptoes. With only my head and Toby’s above the water, I try to swim walk at the same time, by stabilizing my footing on the rock and moving my arms back and forth, to keep my balance. I finally reach the other side feeling with my hands for whatever I can grab on too. There is a large root from a tree, nice and thick that I use to pull us up. I take hold of it and stable my foot on a rock. I pull with all my strength up on to a flat rock outside the water. Toby lets go of my back and helps me to sit on the rock. Catching my breath, I smile at him and he smiles back. Man I never had to use those muscles before; I didn’t even know I had them. I guess when push comes to shove you find out your hidden strengths.

I look at the root, it reaches to the top, must be part of a tree on top. The jagged rocks stacked about twenty feet up, an easy climb, right? I tell Toby to grab onto the root and pull himself up with his feet on the rocks for support. I give him a push start up; I can see his skinny arms shaking and unable to pull himself any further then my push. So I go up behind him, pushing him up, as I climb up myself. We reach the top, and see nothing but darkness.

“Now what?” Toby questions.

That is a good question, I think for a minute, my stomach starts to growl and I can see him rubbing his and shivering, “Let’s dry up and eat. This seems like a good resting spot”

The bag must be water proof I pull the dry blankets out of the sack and wrap one around Toby. He sits down behind the large tree, with the root that helped us climb up. I start searching just around the tree for anything we can use for a fire; I do not dare to go any further into the darkness. The ground only consists of dirt, little twigs and leaves. There is some light from the moon and stars, but not nearly enough to really see what I am looking for. So my hands go searching and gather some twigs and leaves together in a small pile. I pick up two twigs and rub them together to make a fire, but the twigs are too thin and just snap.

So I grab two rocks and start banging them together. That does nothing but make a lot of noise. No sparks. I take those rocks and start rubbing them together with some frustration now, the rocks are getting warmer, but no sparks to make a fire. I just rub the rocks together some more, to make them hotter. When it seems hot enough, I unzip the pocket, reach in and pull out a pill and place it on the stone. Nothing happens, it’s not hot enough! I put the pill back into the pocket, and just out of curiosity, start feeling around inside the pocket. I can feel about thirty pills and then I start to feel something else; a small lighter!

A huge smile crosses my face and I pull the lighter out. I instantly start clicking the lighter until a small flame appears, placing it on the twigs and leaves. It catches and a small fire is gleaming. I add more twigs and leaves, to keep it going. I grab a flat looking rock and place it next to the fire. Once it is burning hot I place that pill on top. A fish appears. Toby and I just stare in amazement for a moment but my mouth starts to water and I know his is doing the same, so I split the fish in half and we eat.

When done, we both lie back against the large tree and fall asleep.