Part 1
Free.
The word races through my mind, looking for something to connect with, but it’s been so long since I’ve heard or even thought it that I have no concept of freedom anymore. Even now it amazes me and I can’t stop to think about it or I might freeze and then they’ll catch me and I’ll lose this wind rushing against my hot skin, this grass swishing against my legs, this burning in my lungs as I run. I can’t stop, not now, not until the smoky buildings that block out the night sky are just bad memories. Not until the steel fencing that looms in the darkness is behind me, miles in the past, and the alarms that ring around me, raising the guards, are muffled screams I hear only in nightmares.
When the first shouts cry above the klaxons, I jump for the fence. Even though I know it
