Water Rebel

Chapter Five

I could barely see Regina’s brunette hair over the crowd. Then the crowd started parting. They knew who the outsiders were in this place. Us. 

    Logan started shoving through, pushing anyone and everyone out of the way to the forest. 

    “There.” She boomed. I felt everyone look at us, but kept pushing. If we got to the clearing, we would be gone. No one would catch us. 

    “Run!” Jon yelled and pushed us to the clearing with a final shove. We took off. 

    “Don’t let them escape this time!” Regina yelled at her men, who were now on our tails. Lucky for us, we knew this land like the back of our hand. We all split up and took the guards on a fun adventure. We had a meet up place incase if anything like this ever happened. It was just a few miles ahead of us, but I would never lead them there. 

    I ducked under a low hanging branch, then turned left. I was running in zig zags, the forest was getting thicker and I was hoping to lose the guards, which so far had worked. They were losing ground each time I looked back. 

    A laugh escaped my throat. I lived for this rush. My heart thumped in my chest and my lungs were barely started to become short of breath. I still had a few more miles in me. 

    I pushed my legs to move faster. I wondered where the others had gone, Logan would probably be the only one to go towards the cabin. He could get rid of the guards before they even came close to it. 

    The dirt beneath my feet slowly faded into a tan sand. I was close to water. Whether that was good or not, I would find out later. I looked up to the sky to check the time. Only four. I had plenty of time before the sun set. 

    I burst through the forest and to a clearing. It was a beach. Quite a nice little private beach. I would admire it later. I looked behind me one more time to make sure that the guards weren’t close behind me before I ran straight into the ocean. The warm water lapped at my feet, I went deeper and deeper until I was submerged to my shoulders. Then I heard the guards. They weren’t giving up. I started swimming out farther. This would be so much easier if I had my suit. My arms kept getting stuck in my shirt, and the sandals restricted the way I kicked my feet. 

    “There!” I heard the deep man’s voice. 

    “Sir, we can’t go into the water.” 

    “She’s in there, we can go in too.” Then I heard splashing. My heart stopped. They never dared to come into the water before. 

    “If we can’t get her out now, then we wait her out. She can’t stay in there all night.” 

    Jokes on you, I have other places that I could swim to. I kept going, their voices and splashes grew distant. 

    I started swimming to the right, I needed to make a big loop and get back to land. I was hoping that I had enough distance between us that they wouldn’t notice me veer off. 

    The ocean was so silent, it relaxed me. I loved it out here. The way the salt lingered on your skin, and the air was cooler, easier to breathe. I enjoyed the silence that filled my ears when I was under. I stopped swimming for a minute and untied my braid, hoping that going under water will help get some of sand out. Maybe wash it. 

    I sucked in a breath and submerged my whole body under. It was so clear. One wouldn’t think that polluted water would be so clear. Not a single fish in sight. No filth appeared in this water. Unless you look down. Down about a hundred or so feet where the water turns dark. You couldn’t see anything, except the occasional black fin flipping into the light, but quickly disappearing again. Whatever creatures were down there, they couldn’t come into light.

    I surfaced again, my hair was completely slicked back. I glanced behind me. Not a trace of the Queen’s men. Hah. I swam farther right and headed to the land in the distance. 

    Plus the sun was getting ready to set anyways. Since the Earth was all messed up now, the days were shorter. It would be completely dark by six. Night’s lasted longer too. The sun didn’t fully rise again until around nine in the morning. 

    My heart jumped when a loud c***k sounded, and a flash spread across the sky. Damn it. Today was just a bad day. Thunder boomed again. Lightning flashed. I had to get out of the water. I swam faster. I was so close to the land. The water was already starting to get shallow. I could almost reach. 

    It wasn’t the lightning that I was afraid of. It was the rain that was soon to come in those dark grey clouds overhead. The rain here, was like acid. Once in the homeless shelter, I punched a superior because they tried to sell Yuli off and they tied me up outside in the middle of a rain storm. The superiors thought it would kill me, but luckily for them, I lived. And I was pissed. The scars still covered some parts of my arms and legs. 

My feet reached sand, I stood and trudged out of the water and to the trees. Now to find some sort of shelter. I ran, I knew that the meeting place wasn’t far from here. It couldn’t be. My mental map told me I was heading in the right direction. 

    I swung left. The sky cracked overhead. s**t. It was just a matter of minutes before the giant drops started crashing to the ground. Right now I was really wishing that I had my suit. It would protect me from this stupid acid rain. I ran faster. I was a few miles away from the meeting place still. My hair kept getting pulled on branches behind me. I pulled it into a ponytail, as if that would help. 

    The world suddenly got dark, as if a curtain was pulled over the sun. The temperature dropped instantly. I looked up and noticed the black clouds covering the entirety of the sky. Thunder boomed again, and lightning struck. 

    Then I heard the sound of the rain start to fall. It was a light sprinkle at first, but I knew it wouldn’t stay that way for long. I ran faster and dodged a tree. The forest was starting to thin out. Thunder boomed again, but there was no lightning this time. Only the sound of a heavier rainfall. 

    Panic set in, my lungs started aching. All I could see was myself being twelve again. Being chained to a lamp post with no protection as the rain ate away at my clothes and burned my flesh. A drop burned on my arm. Ignore it. 

    “Chalie!” I heard the feminine voice yell. I knew it was Yulliana. I just didn’t know if it was in my head or actually to my right. 

     Then I heard a male’s. Masculine, but not too deep. Then I heard a struggle. The grunts of fighting. Oh god. My family. I twisted right, and broke through the trees. Before me, I saw the rickety old building that was the closest thing we had to a home. 

    The acid rain sizzled on the tin rooftop, but it wouldn’t burn through. Under the roof of the porch I saw Jon holding Yuli down, and Logan holding Jon. Good for Jon, keeping them there. 

    “Charlie!” Yuli screamed when she saw me. The others looked up, relief filled Logan’s handsome face. Jon’s eyes had turned dark green from concern, it was the only way he would show it. They soon faded back to the normal pale green.  

    I jumped into Logan’s arms. He pulled away quickly and yanked his shirt off. Holes started spreading across the fabric. I guess I was more covered in this acid than I thought. I looked at my arms. Burns covered various places, but it wasn’t so bad. They would be mostly healed by morning. Or they would become worse. 

    My shirt was just barely hanging on by a thread. My face heated when I realized just how exposed I was. I folded my arms over my chest. 

    “Let’s get you inside and get those burns treated.” Jon said and grabbed my shoulder, leading me into the cabin.