A taste of freedom

Chapter 12

"Girl, I'm gonna beat you up!" Marko yelled playfully, running towards me to punch me. She got close to me and threw a pretty good punch. However; I easily caught her fist. "I see all the training has paid off?" I laughed dodging a few more punches. "Ugh, why do you have to be so good at fighting?!" She grumbled, "if you can't even land a punch after almost three years your definitely a dumbass." I laughed, while everyone else watched us with soft smiles. "Ok children! Time to introduce yourselves! Sit in a circle and say your name and identification numbers!" I happily plopped down to the ground as everyone else followed.

"I'll start!" I heard Emma shout and raise her hand. "Ok go ahead" I told her. "I'm Emma and my number is 36194!" She sounded pretty happy, that's nice to know. Emma gets along with everyone but still, she has to work well with them. I saw her nudge Norman and he opened his mouth to speak. "22194, Norman" ahh, he doesn't trust them, I thought. Good job Norman, you should always be suspicious of someone new. "Good job Norman" I said blankly. "Oh it's my turn! I'm Don and my number's 16194!" He yelled. "Don keep it down! You never know who could be watching!" Gilda whispered to him so that only he could hear. However; I was still able to hear it. "Points to Gilda, but there's no one watching us." I smiled at her. "Thanks, I'm Gilda and my number is 65194." She's the mother of the group.

"Children hurry it up! We have things to do after this!" I said calmly "uh hi, I'm Luke and my number is 42194"I looked over at Luke, it's seems like he's a little wary but trusts me. "Ruth here and my number is 17194" good, good, Ruth you're always welcome to meet people but might not like them. I'll have to talk to her about it. "H-hi I'm C-Carter, my number is 99194." Aww, shy boy, Carter will get along just fine with them. "Yo, I'm Marko, number 82194" and then there's Marko. If she was to stay with them then she would be like a mother the whole time despite her normal behavior.

        "Oh, uhh, do I really need to introduce myself?" I asked, everyone knew me so I didn't see the point. "I guess not" Luke said. "Ok then! I'll tell you the plan and you can work out the details while me and Marko talk amongst ourselves!" I cheered "why aren't you and Marko gonna look over the plan?" Ruth asked me. Doesn't she know? Or did Marko..... lie? No, she wouldn't do that, right? "Um so, that you guys can learn to get along." I made up an excuse and then began to explain he plan to them. "Marko if you would"  I motioned for her to follow me. "So you're not getting adopted?" I asked, she slowly widened her eyes, and the turned away from me. "I-I'm sorry. I just didn't know what to tell you, when you said you were getting adopted. I just spoke."

        She slowly trailed her gaze back to my eyes, only to see my beaming face. "That's great! This way you can help Emma, Norman, and Ray with the escape!" "W-why are you happy?! What if you really do die because I wasn't there to help you?!" She yelled at me, tears brimming the comers of her eyes. "Well what if I don't die?" I tilted my head "what do you mean "what if I don't die?" What if you do die?!" I looked at her angry eyes. I randomly started to laugh, I just realized I had already won this argument. "Ok but what if I do die?" I asked "yeah, what if you don't die?!" I looked at her face as it contorted into a face of amusement. "If I don't die you'll probably never know and if I do die it's the same case. So, it's nothing to be bothered by."

         I turned to look at the others as they were still planning. I pulled out the pocket watch I 'borrowed' from Ray earlier. "Oh shit- chop-chop people it's time to go! Oh and Marko will be coming with you guys, ok?" I finished and they nodded "oh and one last thing, since I'm getting adopted tomorrow I'll probably never see you four ever again, so?" I spread open my arms for a hug from them. They just stood there and looked at me blankly. "Haha, very funny y/n" Ruth said sarcastically. However; Carter looked into my eyes, then soon came dashing into my arms, crying. "Shhh, it's ok. It's not like I'll be gone forever. You'll always have my memory."

        It was a whole crying fest after Ruth and Luke hugged me. Marko tried not to but she cried a little. "Ok dummies, time to go." I watched as the retreated back to grand valley. "The rest of you should get back. Besides I have something I need to finish. They left after I asked if they knew what was happening for the plan. I ran back to the rock I was writing in earlier and sat down, pencil in had and notebook on my lap. Time to write Ray's letter. "Hmm... aha, I've got it!" I started to write as I heard a crunch of leaves on the forest floor. "Whatcha doing there, y/n?" Ray asked me. "Oh nothing, just writing a letter for you" he looked at me, his face turning from a board expression to a surprised one. "A letter for me? Can I read it?" He asked sitting down beside me, leaning over my shoulder.

       "Absolutely not! You can read it when I'm gone!" I yelled, clutching the notebook to my chest. "Why do you keep talking about "being gone"? It's not what's happening, you'll never be gone." "Ray, do you wanna know why I'm getting shipped out?" I looked into his forest green eyes as they widened. "I chose to leave. I wanted to. As much as I want to help with the escape I want to leave. Well, that and I made a deal with Mama to ship me out instead of one of you three." I leaned back onto my arms, looking up at the clouds. "Y-you want to leave? Why would you want that?" He sounded astonished at this point "and what kinda deal did you make with Mama?" He finished.

          "Well, we don't get anymore chocolate until after my birthday next week, at which point I'd have to leave and I promised to get shipped out interested of one of you three. Since apparently I pose the most threat." I looked over at Ray, observing his facial features. The way the sun just perfectly shown on his face. "So there's nothing I can do?" He looked at me, his eyes desperately trying not to let any tears fall as I shook me head no. "Hey! How about we spend the whole day tomorrow together, reading?!" I perked up, Ray's sadness not dampening my mood. "That-that sounds nice." Ray smiled softly before grabbing my left hand. "Continue writing, I won't peek."

Word count: 1218