FREEFALLING

1

DISCLAIMER: *I wrote this in like 2012, fam. I transferred it from my Quotev account, so it's a younger me, but it was a pretty big hit on Quotev, so I figured you guys would enjoy it too

The current of the ice-cold river yanked and pulled me through its trail, and I remained to drift in and out of consciousness—mostly out. As warm fingers closed around my upper arm, my head dragged to the side until I gasped up to the available oxygen.

The oxygen was so sweet, so precious, that I breathed it in like a mad woman.

"Relax, you're safe." A boy whispered. I looked up into the warm brown eyes of a boy like me—a boy with those same grey spikes that trickled down his spike. I reached out for him, muttering nonsense. He pushed my hand back down, and I saw a crowd of people rushing over to my aid. There was an aged man with a rifle and a camouflaged hat. In addition, there was another man, although he was younger than the first. He too had a rifle, and a scruffy beard that was accompanied by a tarnished navy blue wool coat.

Just as I was longing for something as warm as that to be around me, two patterned wool blankets met my shoulders. I looked up to see the boy. He gave me a small smile, one that hinted of worry.

"Get her to Anne, Ben." the bearded man ordered.

I felt warmth surround me again as I was lifted up into the boy's arms. I fluttered my eyes closed again, leaning my head into his shoulder. I caught only a glimpse of his heroic stance as everything went black.

I awoke on what appeared to be a bus, looking up at the dirt-coated white ceiling. The buzzing fluorescent lights quivered in the cold air. I still felt miraculously numb in my toes and my hands, and I felt as if the world kept going fuzzy with white noise. As a drawer closed with a metal bang, I turned my attention back to the woman who was bent over the counter, counting pills and organizing supplies. This must have been the Anne that the bearded man had directed Ben towards.

"Where...where am I?" my words came out slurred, mumbled as if I was drunk. I blushed a bit, but as I tried to sit upright, I was abruptly pushed back onto the cot. It wasn't the doctor, but another girl, closer to my age.

"I'm Lourdes." she smiled weakly.

I imagined that she must have been beautiful, before whatever it was had taken its toll on her. The bags underneath her eyes were dark and rimmed with purple. Worry lines had made a dominant stay on her forehead. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she sniffled as if she had just been crying. I forced myself not to stare for very long out of respect. I imagine that I couldn't look much better.

Still, at the same time I wanted to reach out, to reach out and tell her that it would all be okay—but I wasn't sure if I was even okay right now. I sighed, closing my eyes briefly as I diminished the thought. When I reopened them, I smiled up at the boy who had saved me before. I tried to move my hand, reach it up to him, but something cold an metallic met my wrists instead. My gaze drifted down to my wrists, and I saw that I was handcuffed.

"What the hell?" My words slurred once more.

"Sorry about that..." he muttered, placing his hand on the back of his neck. "You were harnessed once, like me. They don't exactly trust us too much here." he placed his hand on the back of his neck.

"Ben, stop placing bad thoughts about the 2nd Mass. in her." Anne scolded.

The 2nd Mass?

I had heard rumours about the 2nd Massachusetts Militia. There was some big take-down in Boston that blurred together with the rest of the invasion. They sure as hell were famous on the east coast, though.

Before I winded up in that lake, or was harnessed, I belonged to the 3rd Massachusetts Militia. We were much, much smaller than the 1st or 2nd, less than 80 people. There were maybe 20 kids in all before it all fell apart. After we were attacked, and the lot of us were transported to a harness facility, I'd say that maybe 9 were left, one of them being my boyfriend, Dylan. As the bearded man entered, I snapped back into reality.

"We apologize for your current situation, but our last rescued harness child caused...issues." he looked from me to Ben at the last word, but Ben couldn't seem to look him in the eye. "I'm Tom. Can you start by telling us your name?"

"Fae." I said quickly. "It's Fae Walbrant."

They looked at me oddly, but after everything that had happened, my name was all that was familiar to me.

"Okay, Fae, how did you end up in that river?" he proceeded. Doctor Glass interrupted.

"Tom, I think that this can wait until we reach the school. She's in a state of shock right now, and I don't need you making it worse." She seemed somewhat upset, but smiled at him at the same time. I frowned, confused.

Tom and Ben reluctantly left, leaving me and Anne, and glum little Lourdes in the corner organizing inhalers.

"Originally, we planned on going to Charleston. There's rumours of other survival groups there, a huge resistance group. Better supplies, better people. It'll be a new start, a new hope for all of us. But still, after your appearance the Captain got very concerned. We're stopping at a school we scouted out until we can figure out.." she trailed off.

"How I ended up here?" I finished.

She nodded, biting her lip as she turned back to her work.