Falling Skies

Nineteen

The sun.

Its glow, its warmth, its life that it somehow breaths. It all falls upon Ryder as he exits out of the concrete hole with Wren next to him. Ryder let's out a gasping breath, his lungs filling with a foreign air, one that he breathed so many years ago and yet his body had forgotten the taste.

His hands fall upon the earth, grasping at the blades of grass all around them as he forces himself to get a footing on the soft ground. Wren helps, the fae pulling him to his feet as the two begin to run from the concrete building and towards the woods at the top of the hill.

The blare of the siren is so close yet it sounds so distant, so minuscule now in comparison to this new world. Ryder grabs at the earth once more as he stumbles in the grass. Eventually pulling his boots from his feet, he holds them in one hand and Wren's hand in the other as his bare toes sink into the mud of the earth. The substance cool and thick against his body as they run across the valley, headed north for the ascent of the hills.

The wood line is daunting, giants hovering in the distance, a thick blackness grouped together on the horizon. Yet Wren runs towards it with familiarity. A genuine smile hinting on his lips as the warmth of the sun washes over him, sparkling over his lavender eyes as he glances at Ryder from the sides of his eyes.

Ryder can't help but notice the beauty Wren has when he isn't trapped beneath artificial lights and confined to concrete walls and linoleum floors. He finally looks alive. There's a color returning to his hallow cheeks and his hair now glows a bright blonde rather than a dull shade of white.

The sounds of gunshots pull him out of his reverie, Ryder nearly losing his footing from the blast though Wren forces him to stay upright. They can begin to see the base of the trees, the dark brown of their trunks grouped together and the abyssal black that hides beneath the varying hues of brown and green.

"We're almost there!" Wren smiles, forcing their feet to go faster. He'll be damned if he lets them get captured when freedom is so close, close enough to feel, to smell, nearly close enough to touch...

The two grab at the trunks of the first tree, their bodies collapsing from exhaustion as they scramble to their feet to continue running.

As Ryder pushes off the ground a force falls upon him, a pair of arms forcing his down and onto the spiking blades of grass. The body above him digs a knee into his lower back until he yelps out in pain, unable to move and barely able to breath until the body pushes him to his feet.

"Not so fast."

Ryder turns around with enough force to leave his head spinning. The face ahead of him a familiar one, one that leaves his stomach churning as he tries one last time to rip away from his cousin's grip.

"December, let me go!"

"You're an enemy of Haven! You're aiding a prisoner! Who, by the way, seems to have left you." December nods towards the empty wood line before whipping Ryder back around to face him.

"He isn't a prisoner he is a person like the rest of us."

"He was a test subject that you decided to treat as a personal charity case, Ryder, nothing more. You set Haven on fire. You set your home on fire. Our home!" He screams, shaking Ryder in frustration.

"That place has never been my home." Ryder spits. "And you know that. I've never been welcomed in that hell hole, your mom didn't even want to take me in when my parents died. I'm just the kid that she got stuck with and that's all I've ever been treated as. I'm the baggage, December. I'm a reminder of her failed marriage and the family that she hates. And yet you dare tell me that that," he motions towards the burning building. "Is my home?" He merely scoffs, struggling to escape the grasp of his cousin.