[#1] RUNAWAY
A family with a wife, a husband, and a teenage daughter. Husband gets home from work for the NWS, removes his handmade overcoat, mask and hat. He walks into a disagreement of the wife and daughter. This is apparently an ongoing argument that has resurfaced. The husband tries to get involved but is overpowered by the two females. He walks out of the room.
The daughter says some things to her mom that are even more upsetting. The mom starts into a firm lecture and grabs her arms. The daughter, tired if fighting, pulls away and starts walking out of the room forcefully. She says she going to run away. The mom asks where she plans of going. The daughter yells back, “it doesn’t matter, anywhere but here!” She grabs her handmade overcoat patched in leather and canvas, puts her mask and hat in her shoulder bag and throws it over her head. Her mom begins asking, “You’re not serious…there’s no where to go out there! It’s not safe!” Then yells to her husband, “Honey, get over here!”
The daughter grabs the door latch and lifts it to open. The husband then runs over to them and sees what is happening. He asks, “Where do you think you are going?” The daughter is then half way out the door. The husband continues, “They will catch you after curfew! You know that.”
The daughter says, as she closes the door, “I will find a place to go.” She pauses, looks at her dad, “Sorry, dad,” with tears welling in her eyes, and pulls the door closed.
The husband turns around to the wife, “What the hell was that about?!” She can’t be out there! You know what they’ll do if they catch her! – Hell if they find out we are short a person after curfew WE will be fined! We can’t let that happen!”
The wife tries to interrupt with no avail. The husband grabs his over coat and puts his mask inside his coat. “You can’t ever let her be, can you!?” He looks at the clock. “I have less than 20-minutes to get her home!” He leaves through the front door.
The daughter walks briskly through the corridors of family living quarters, for what seems like forever. She comes to the end up on the fifth floor. She runs down the stairs. Every step her tears go away and she begins showing anger on her face, with her motions more deliberate. She gets to the bottom of the stairs and heads to the left, like she knows exactly where she wants to go. But does she?
She knows if she runs off too far she will get closer to the compound border where she risks exiting to the outside world, or even worse, find an entrance to the underworld. Her pace remains quick; her eyes wide open as she realizes she is close to curfew knows she has to find protected shelter soon. If she is caught she could end up in detainment, and her parents would be fined. However, if she ends up in the underworld the under dwellers could mean far worse for her.
The dad reaches the bottom of the stairs, slightly out of breath. He looks both left and right up and down the road between the tall rows of cement and steel buildings of housing. Lucky pick, he turns to the left, “shit.” He breaks into a run. He looks down at his wrist watch, secured to his arm with leather bands. He pushes faster, looking left and right down the corridors hoping to see the silhouette of his daughter in the dark lit enclosed compound in which these people live.
With the numbered buildings passing her on both sides, and not one of them offering a place to hide, she looks ahead at the compound entrance. This fully guarded gate is only passable if your purpose to leave is justified. But being only minutes away from curfew she knew her chance of getting past the guards tonight was not likely. She runs to the right and stands up against the side of a building just inside one of the alleyways.
She is breathing heavy, catching her breath. She closes here eyes, “What am I doing?” And pounds her clench fists back against the wall. With her eyes still closed, she hears noise shuffling to her right, deeper into this alley. It’s rare to see anyone else out this close to curfew, but doesn’t think anything bad of it. She walks curiously over to towards the noise and from the dark along the cold cement wall appears a person. This person, a man, wearing all black, from his boots up to his face mask and hat speaks, “Go home! The police to will catch you.”
“No,” the girl replied. “I am not wanted there anymore.”
“Go home.”
“I need a place to stay tonight until day light and I will leave the compound.”
“Why?”
“Look! I don’t want trouble, but I am not going back!” as she takes a few steps closer. She realizes the black garments this man is wearing and patched together much like her overcoat. “What are you doing out here?”
“I don’t live here.”
“What do you mean?”
“I am an underdweller.”
The girl’s eyes widen in fear and starts to back away.
“Wait!” The man says. “I will help you this once.”
“You’re an underdweller, I don’t want your help!”
Just then, a light melodic siren sounds, then a female voice from the loudspeakers mounted in the street-facing side of the buildings, “Curfew will be in effect in 5-minutes. Please return to your homes immediately. I repeat, curfew will be in effect in 5-minutes, please return to your homes immediately.”
The girl looks up at the buildings where the sound is coming from. Underneath the sound, she hears her father’s voice in the distance, “Ada! Ada!”
She gasps, and under her breath, “dad…” She turns to the man standing in front of her. “How will you help me?”
“Follow me.” The man turns around and starts walking briskly. The girl hesitates, and then follows in the same manner. The man stops and pulls out an object, sticks it in the side of the building wall to the left of them. They enter into a doorway into the building, a door completely flush with the building and hidden from the naked eye.
The father hears the noise of the closing door down the alleyway as he passes. He stops and walks into the alleyway, barely lit. “Ada?” The siren sound churps twice, indicating the 2-minute warning. The father’s heart beat is pounding out of his chest in fear for his daughter, and fear for himself. He is torn as he hears the siren, knowing it will take more than 2-minutes to get back home. He sprints into the alleyway and doesn’t see anything. “Dammit, Ada! Where are you?”
He looks down at his watch and turns around to head back home. As he is running he hears the sound of a vehicle coming up behind him. He looks to see it’s far enough away he may be able to beat it back to his home. The adrenalin from running the whole time is starting to wear, but something gets in his head to push harder. He finds some hidden energy and sprints back to his building. Running up the stairs he slips on a step slamming his shin into the corner of a stair. He hollers out in pain, picks himself up and keeps running. He makes it to his door as the vehicle with spot lights passes by slowly. As it hovers to check the floors he makes it inside, as a shimmer of light from the spot light gets cut off by the closing door the father throws his back against the door and falls to the ground. Coughing while catching his breath, with a slight dry-heave, his wife comes running around the corner by the door way. She looks at him worriedly. He looks up at her in anger. They pause, waiting for one of them to say something.
He coughs and speaks, “It’s your fault…she better turn up in the morning.” He looks down at the ground.
The wife starts crying and falls, leaning against the wall, “What are we going to do?”
The husband gets off the floor, and staggers past the wife. She says again in a worried and trembling voice, “What are we going to do?!”
He drops his overcoat to the floor and sits on the couch.
***
The heavy door closes behind Ada as she follows briskly behind the man. It is completely dark and Ada is following the sound of footsteps. A flicker of light sparks from a lighter. She is now able to barely make out the hand holding it and the silhouette of the head she is following. The man stops abruptly and knocks once on metal, with an echo carrying back the way they came. At the same time the faint sound of the 2-minute warning siren. Her attention is turned back towards the man as the lighter goes out. The sound of a metal latch fills the air. A wide metal door swings away from them as a red illuminating light guides them in.
“What is this?” Ada whispers.
“Shh,” the man responds.
Just past the doors is a circular hatch on the floor. The wide door closes behind them revealing another man in complete black. Both men look at each other and nod as though they are acknowledging something. The first man opens the hatch, “Hurry. The heat sensors will still catch us if we don’t get down there.” Ada climbs down the ladder, with both men following. The latch gets closed behind them. There is a light glow of a bulb further down.
The ladder seems to keep going. They pass the single bulb and now Ada can’t see anything below her. She keeps climbing down until her foot touches a larger surface. She gets off of the ladder and moves to let the two men get down. The first man asks Ada, “Do you have a mask?”
“Yes.”
“Put it on.”
Ada reaches behind her and reaches into her shoulder bag and pulls out her mask and puts it on.
“Ready?” the first man asks.
“Yes,” muffled by the sound of the mask over her face.
He grabs her arms and they begin walking in complete darkness. It sounds like a small tunnel of some sort. It’s getting cold, and she can feel on the back of her neck and hands the thickness of the air. In the distance she can see a reflection of a light around a corner. They walk closer and the landscape of ruins of the underground city start to appear. The light is coming from a light hanging from a cement pole that looks like an old pillar to a large building. It’s attached by a heavy looking rope and an electricity wire loosely hanging and running off into the near distance to another flood light.
The men stop and face her. The first man says, “You are Ada – I heard your father calling. I am Rolin. This is my partner and friend, Nate. It is important that you stay close to us to ensure your safety.”
“Okay…Rolin.”
They begin walking into the underworld. Such stories spoke of this place as being deadly, unhealthy, and if you are unfamiliar with the territory, you can get lost. People have ended up here one way or another, accidentally or not, and have died of starvation and thirst. You must be resourceful in this place otherwise you will not survive anyway. Ada, knowing these stories and what the underworld is all about, feels strangely confident with these two men.
They walk into a ruined building structure, only to find a high security entrance. They all enter as Rolin punches in a code on a keypad with what looks like foreign markings. Upon entering the two men remove their masks.
“It’s okay,” Nate speaks, “the air is safe in here.”
Ada removes her mask and hesitantly takes a deep breath, then a sigh of comfort.
“This is our home. Welcome.”
October 24th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Awesome!!!