Short Story Collection

The Purge Part 2

The bus was silent. The sacrifices were chained to each other, and Laura was tied to Miyoko and Jack. What was going to happen to them? Would it be painful?

Laura looked out the window, blinking back tears from her eyes. They were close now: The grey wall loomed over them and the barbed-wire ceiling that stretched across the top of the wall cast shadows on the old bus. Laura turned to see Mitchell smiling like a maniac, eagerly anticipating what he thought was going to give him powers.

Well, Laura wasn't going to tell him anything. Ignorance is bliss.

Leif was on the other side of the bus, shaking and pale. Laura doubted she looked any better. She then did a double take when she saw Jack smile almost cheekily to one of his friends. Smile.

This through her almost completely off guard. She'd never seen anyone smile when they were picked, never.

The rusty creak that sounded when the gate opened made Laura snap back to reality. She'd never been allowed pass the gate, and she now saw what she had secretly been hoping to see since she was young: The outside of the city.

It was a mixture of many landscapes she had only ever heard about. To her right, water, beautiful, sparkling water and a pristine white beach. To her right, a forest, lush and green. But in front of her...

An old, crumbling building.

Laura inhaled the salty sea air, as she had been hiding her breath for a while. But she noticed something in the distance, on a purple-blue mountain...

"Is that a city?" Someone in the crowd asked. That was what it appeared to be, many buildings surrounded by a dome of glass. Colourful lights flashed, and Laura saw cars moving. It was truly an incredible sight.

Then the bang of a gun echoed through the area. Laura squealed and put her hands on her ears, thinking that was how she was going to die. Four more bangs, but they weren't from the exterminators.

It was Jack.

Jack and several of his friends held guns and were firing at the exterminators. Laura was so in shock she could only stand still in horror as the exterminators returned fire, hitting several of the people in the crowd. Laura yelled in shock when Michelle let out a howl of pain, a spot of red spreading across his shirt. He coughed up blood before falling to his knees, pure terror in his face.

He realised it to late. He knew he was going to die.

Laura hit the ground so fast she smacked her face in the mud. Someone was screaming, but it wasn't the exterminators it was her, her and all the other sacrifices that knew they were dead.

And then it stopped.

It could have been a few seconds later, or even an hour, but Laura was pulled to her feet by one of Jacks friends. Bodies littered the ground, including a few in blue suits.

The exterminators were dead.

So were half the unwanteds. Among the dead Laura saw Michelle and Leif and so many children...

"Unwanteds of The City!" Jack yelled. "You don't have to die! This is wrong, and you have a chance."

He pointed to the town in the distance.

"Head for the city." Jack cried. "We'll be safe there!"

"What-What the-" Laura spluttered. Then she stopped, her head spinning. It was to good to be true, but she didn't feel like she had a choice.

She turned towards the city.