chapter five
529 Words
I was on this black ocean for a while, my organs barely contained by my jacket. Somewhere in the mess of the last few days I had lost an eye, but my leg nub was healing pretty well. At least, as well as it could heal.
I will not die of starvation, but my bodily functions such as healing wounds require food energy. However, I didn't think eating raw mutated fish was a good idea because it would actually take a lot of unnecessary energy just to digest it. Especially with my organs like they are.
The sun was starting to rise when I finally saw land. It was clear no one assumed I had fallen and drowned because there was a whole fleet of police boats waiting for me on the docs. So I knew continuing on like this was pretty useless.
“f**k, how am I supposed to get past them without them noticing?”
Then a thought came to mind as I saw other small boats like mine, broken and falling apart in the water. I could make them think this was just another broken and discarded boat. Again, the awful world around me was going to act as a camouflage for me to get away.
I leaned to the left so hard my hip started hurting. When this got the boat moving, I waited until it swung back toward the right and leaned full heartedly into that and had to catch my breath because this was the swing that tipped my boat upside down.
I was sure glad for my jacket because I really didn't want to go looking for my organs later, or what would have remained of them anyway. But my plan worked as I saw the bottoms of the police ships while my own paddleboat drifted by.
I smiled when I realized my boat had air. I really hadn't thought out the part where I wouldn't be able to breathe. I had to pull myself by my legs to get my head into the natural air pocket my boat created. Each shallow breath was a reminder of the freedom I was seeking, the safety I was hoping to find with J17. And that's what allowed me to keep going as my boat finally hit the shallow shore.
Then, I climbed onto the doc because I hadn't seen any other boats or ships around. I didn't bother looking behind me as I started hopping my way to what looked like a factory city and hopefully sector 8. Each movement caused me searing pain, but I couldn't exactly walk with only one leg.
I came close to falling over a few times, but I pushed through until I made it to a nearby alleyway and let myself collapse. When I was sure no one had spotted me, I started dragging myself in the direction I'd been going before. But I stayed far off to the side, hiding in junkpikes when necessary.
How I was going to find J17 once I got to sector 8, that was still a mystery to me. But now I crave freedom like never before, and I was so close.
- Writer
