Defying Destiny

2- Sacrifice, Crawl Holes, and Trash Talking in Spanish

Serenity, Carlie, and I have been friends since we were little. Serenity was the one I leaned back on when I couldn't take anymore. Carlie was the one that made sure there was a plan B for just about anything. I don't know how I would be able to fight in this without any of them, so I keep looking behind me to make sure that they're behind me. Serenity keeps glancing toward the building. She was worried because some of the class decided to stay behind so it would be less suspicious. Only about twelve people including me chose to come, even after I told them that we weren't coming back.

The twelve of us sneak along the backside of the portable buildings, thankful for the awnings. We pause with an unnerving silence filling the space between our shallow breaths. I could hear the sounds of the drums from around the corner beating hard and solid, like a ferocious heartbeat with no end. Alice tiptoes up to me with tears streaming down her face.

"Rey," she says, calling me by my nickname, "I can't do it. I just cannot do this. Rey, I'm scared." Her voice shakes as another round of tears stream down her pale face. I pull her into a hug because that was what Serenity usually did to comfort me. Again, I don't comfort, so it was an awkward embrace of arms and her tears.

"Alice, we have been preparing for this in gym since the Allocation battles started. I don't like following rules, you know that. We are going to make it to the cafeteria. You and I and everyone else will be safe. Alice, I promise you this will end." Another set of tears roll from her eye. I sigh and try a different tactic to get her to stay with the group. I see her eyes flick towards the west side of the Grade 9-12 plaza.

"Alice, don't you dare run towards the West Wing. They know that's the Evacuation Room. They are trying to hit the Renegades hard. They want to injure the Renegades as much as they can. This is the way they chose- get rid of the supply of future fighters. They are turning the tables again and this is the result. Alice going there will make everything worse. One less fighter against the enemy."

"I-I can't," she says. She turns away and starts to run around the corner toward the drumming soldiers. I scream after her and try to grab at her before she is out of my reach.

She runs and I turn my back away, flinching when I hear the bullets. She screams only once. I had known that girl since seventh grade. I have to keep the promise. I must end this battle. I have to for Alice's sake. For Mrs. Beverly. For the survivors. For the Renegades. For my family. My broken family.

I start to run. The rest of my group follows after me. Serenity runs in front of me because she is slightly faster than me. Carlie trails slightly behind because of an injury. Then, again we always fall into this same line when we run anywhere. The end of the row of portables is drawing closer along with the awning, our only protection. They are going to be able to see us now, I think to myself.

The ground shakes and I hear many more footsteps than the original amount of people that was escaping with me. Turning, I see a crowd of soldiers with their guns raised. Well this isn't as easy as I thought it would be. Carlie says a silent prayer under her breath and links hands with Serenity.

"Put your hands up where they can be seen!" A gruff voice barks from the center of the pack of Government soldiers.

"Well hello there," I say stupidly. Everyone slowly raises their hands. I see Serenity glare at me from the corner of my eye. "I was just trying to lighten the mood," I whisper. Even from the back of the cluster of eleven very scared or extremely pissed teenagers, I can see that a few of the soldiers have trained their guns right to my forehead. Potatoes.

"Who said that?" A burly, ugly man in a gray jumpsuit commands. Honestly, the jumpsuit does not compliment him very well. He looks fatter than muscular really. I squeeze my way through the crowd of people. When I look back, I notice that Serenity and Carlie follow behind me.

"Hola compañera allí la gente. Cómo va el día!" I say in Spanish just to mess with their heads.

"May I see your Allocation card?" The chubby guy glares at me, obviously not liking my usage of forgein languages.

"Tu vois maintenant, je pourrais avoir perdu la carte lorsque vous avez fait sauter mon école. Voir maintenant, dans tous les chaos J'ai probablement laissé tomber. Mon nom est Audrey Young, ou attendre, je suis juste un autre nombr comme tout le monde. Je pense je ne suis pas très important. vous n'avez pas trackers sur ceux-là? c'est votre faute si je l'ai perdu, pas le mien. Et pour tous ces enfants que vous effrayer qui se demandent ce que dans l'enfer qui se passe, je voulais juste pour vous le savez, nous sommes des êtres humains, nous ne sommes pas censés être des enfants jouant soldats." Oh sometimes you have to love the fact that they forced us to learn French. Serenity could speak French and Spanish more fluent than me and glared at me even more when she heard that I told him my name.

"I don't have time to play your little games." The fat man says again. More of the soldiers train their guns on me instead of the others.

"Do you not see it?" I state, "I'm not afraid of you. You should know me. I'm Audrey Young. Don't you remember the name? Yeah, I'm the girl whose father was killed. He was in one of your bombings. But that's the thing- you don't care who you kill. It's your own fault I'm not scared of you. Learn to deal with it. We're just 'children' according to your data you use to stalk us. Wouldn't it suck if we became children playing soldiers? Death doesn't scare me anymore. I have seen too much of it, especially in the past few minutes." I think of Alice, Mrs. Beverly, and the other children in the school. "It's casual now because of you and it shouldn't be that way." Turning my back, I walk through the crowd, my shoulders tense. I could feel the bullets shredding through me at any moment now.

"Run," I whisper to my classmates. "If you value your lives, run because I'm playing with death and it's going to get you killed. Now go!" Serenity grabs my left arm. Carlie does the same to my right arm. I smile at their loyalty.

"I wouldn't run if I were you." Another person from the group says. He's vaguely familiar but my mind slips the fact. I have absolutely zero connections with anyone working with the Government.

"You should really update your files because your Allocation Cards are old. You obviously don't know me." Smirking, I turn my back and run. My classmates left when I told them to. Surprisingly, none of the officers shot them, but I guess they were saving their ammunition for me, Serenity, and Carlie. The ones who stood up for themselves. I zig-zag my steps to dodge bullets. Carlie uses the broken metal poles holding up the metal awning as a shield. Serenity showed us a way out by running to the first row of portables. Her long brown hair has sweat and the smallest hint of blood dripping from the tips. I hope she didn't get hit, I think to myself. Carlie runs up behind me, panting.

Serenity crawls into a crawl hole under a portable near the main building. Carlie sunk into the musty room, happy that we got away. I unzip the bag Carlie packed for me. There's a water bottle, my Government issued phone, my illegal phone, my phone battery pack, a three fake Allocation Cards for Carlie, Serenity, and I. At the bottom of the bag was my hand gun which by the way is also illegal. What makes the gun even more illegal is the fact that a few guys at the science laboratory wing helped me make a few. Carlie and Serenity have the same version. Instead of sending out bullets, it shot mini bombs. It was basically a big flaming ball of fire. Yes it is on safety.

We take a moment to rest while we listen to the soldiers march down the walkway while sharing silent prayers about the others that originally were going to escape with us.

A/N: if you don't know Spanish and French, there are translations coming up next

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Here's a metaphoric cupcake to all of you guys that did reviews of the first chapter because that really helped me and @Open_pages set up more of the plot

Love camanam <3