Beyond The Wall

New life

One week ago

Mark's POV

It's was almost eight o'clock and I was just chilling in my room watching a documentary. My sister is supposed to come home after a week away from school. I heard a knock on the front door and went to check it out, at the door stood Nate, he was taller than me and he looked like they don't feed them ever, that was just the way he was built. Something like IV stand. That was a perfect description of him. I did not know what my sister sees in him. Nate and I knew each other well, 4 years ago we were friends and that was before he started to date my sister. After they started going out we drifted apart, we could still hang out but it will never be as years ago. Was I overprotective of my sister? Sure. Did I think Nate wasn't good enough for her? Of course, but it wasn't my place to meddle in their relationship. Delta was grown enough to make her own decisions and I trusted in her judgment of character. I knew that it wasn't all unicorns and rainbows and I didn't want to press Delta to tell me, if there was real trouble I knew she would tell me.

Looking up at Nate I greet him: "Hey Nate, Delta will probably be here in half an hour, you can chill with me in my room."

He accepted my proposition, and we entered my room, just talking nonsense. Nate was always a man of few words, but we bonded because of video games and south park. After a few minutes, my mom called my cell, she was still at work, I didn't even have a chance to say hello before she spoke, "Mark get out of the house now! Run as fast as you can, try to leave the city, and call Delta, tell her not to come, and if she's already headed here, then she needs to turn around, drive to the border. We need to go as far away as we can, there issued an immediate lockdown and they are taking all the women and men between 30 and 10 years old. Get off your but, take your passport and run!" Call ended. What the hell is this woman talking about? Is she on drugs? Nevertheless, I stand up take my passport from the shelf and look at Nate. , "Man I don't know what is going on, but we need to get out of here." As soon as I spoke those words we heard a loud explosion, I turned to Nate to speak but the next thing we heard was like a radio transmission, the voice said

"Everybody, get out of the building, we won't hurt you, but all of the people need to be evacuated. "

Something wasn't right, you could now hear the screams of people rushing through the hallway of the building, they didn't use the elevators. I turn to Nate and say "follow me, we are going up on the roof and then we are going to get down at the other side of the building" as I was running I called Delta to warn her. As we were bumping with the people on our way up I dropped my phone. Now was not the time to turn back and get it. When we finally reach the roof I can't breathe. Nate is in the same state as me, I can't get enough oxygen in my lung. I should really stop smoking. Nate breaks my thoughts

"Hey Dude does that looks like a wall to you."

He was pointing his finger at something in the far dark I try to look at what he is showing me but everything is blurry and dark. I should really start wearing my glasses regularly.

"Nate we don't have time for sightseeing, let's go down the fire escape stairs before somebody finds us here." As we go down, I start worrying about my mom and Delta, mom may found somewhere to go as she knew about whatever the hell is going on, but did Delta take my words seriously? She was so stubborn and she was so strong but that was all a facade. I knew that she needed somebody to protect her to be her safety net, she was always so alone. She didn't mind it, but deep down I think she suffered a lot silently.

I step on the last stair and I hear a click, my body is frozen.

" Lay on the ground!NOW!"

I feel a sting of the needle in my neck and everything goes dark.

6 hours later

I wake up on the bed, it looks like I'm in the hospital. Nate is beside me on the other bed, and he looks like s**t like somebody took all of his blood. I go to his bed and shake him, he doesn't even move or make a sound. Somebody opens the door. It's a girl, with pixie shortcut hair, she is really small, she's not smiling, her lips are in a thin line, but her black eyes are so determined and demanding. She holds so much power just in her eyes.

"Come with me," she said softly but strongly. I couldn't disobey her and I follow her without the question. I would follow this girl to the end of the world.

We go through several hallways until we reach a door.

"Go through the door, walk through the hallway, and to your right will be a big living room, you can ask others for the stuff, they'll help, goodbye."

As soon as she turned I felt that every light around as dimmed.

"Wait! At least tell me your name?" I pleaded

She slowly turned around and in one breath said "Jo, it's nice to meet you Mark" she smirked and left the hallway.

I push through the doors and find the living room, there were a lot of familiar faces, after a few minutes Nate enters still looking like something chew him up and spit out. Rushing to him I yell

" Nate, have you seen Delta, I can't find her anywhere"

" f**k her. What about me, my head hearts so much"- he replied

"WHAT? What the hell did you just say?" I roared to his face, he flinched

"Sorry man, I didn't think like that, I'm just frustrated because she is nowhere to be found and on the other hand I have this headache that feels like it's going to split my head in two" Nate explained and I just nodded. Something was up with him but I couldn't figure it out. He was hiding something. I walked around the living room and talked about this place, there were a few things I found out. There was no one older than 25 years, this was some sort of training facility and we were on some kind of brink of the war. People here are going to be in the first row at the war but we also had some kinds of secret weapons, and that was on the down-low. I go to the bathroom and do my business, I stand staring at the figure in the mirror, and at that moment I remember this scene in the book where people go to war and their general commands them to shave their heads, so they look like apparitions to the enemy. The enemy lost the war. As I remembered that I took the razor and shaved my head. I was ready.

Next morning

I woke up due to an alarm sound. In this room slept me and Nate and some other guys, they seemed okay and decent. What I mean is there are little to no chances for them to kill us in our sleep.

We get up and put on the black sneakers, joggers, and long sleeve shirts. I follow the masses of people and we end up in the cafeteria, I take the coffee and a water bottle but for a breakfast meal, there is just this one pill. I swallow the pill, and instantly I feel full like I ate 4 eggs and a beacon. Coffee on the other hand tastes shitty.

I couldn't help controlling my facial reaction of revulsion. A minute goes by and I still feel angry because of the shitty coffee when I hear a voice in my ear

" They purposely make it bad so you would give it up because caffeine is not good for your heart and anxiety."

I knew the voice, it was Jo I turn around my face meer inches away from her,

"what about you? are you bad for my heart?" With the spark in her eyes, she says "I'm the worst." And walks off.

There was truth behind her words, there was something about her both dark and alluring, she had me, and she knew it.

After an hour they led us outside, we were in the courtyard with their small box houses in the distance, they told us that we are not allowed near-black box houses and that here is where we will train and hang out in our free time. But our main focus is on our training and developing our fighting skills because at the end of each month we will be ranked. For the first training they focused on our endurance, we ran 30 laps, by the end I thought I was going to vomit my guts out, the sky darkened and they told us that we can go inside. After an exhausting first day that night, I lay in bed thinking of my sister. She would not survive this training, I'm certain that she turned around in time to go back to the city, but I couldn't help feeling bad about the taught of her all alone. Maybe mom will find her, and they can go somewhere safe. This is my new life, a life of the warrior, it's not turning back on my old life it's just shielding and protecting myself and them if I focus on what's to come.