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Escape.
Recently I've been having a lot of dreams. I hate it. For most of the dreams offer alternate realities. Clear blue skies with occasional puffy clouds. Clean air which smells faintly like wet grass. At times calm breeze visits and caresses me softly. And there's Chase, sitting right beside me, smiling. His cheerful innocent smile. It's calming. Which is just plain silly. I open my eyes and slowly take in my surrounding. Same old dirty ceiling. Faint noises indicating the presence of beings asleep around me. On my left is Gill, sound asleep as usual. I turn my sight towards the little ventilation on the opposite of me. The slightly orange light tells me that it is still dark outside. I slowly get up to a sitting position before stretching a bit. Suffice to say, however little hours of staying still in a cramped place would agonise your muscles. Careful not to step on others' limbs or faces, I make my way to our wardrobes. 3174...3175...3176. I open the old dresser and flinch at its squeak. I pause and look back. Thankfully, none of the other occupants seems to be disturbed by this. I look back at the wardrobe's lower right hinge and make a mental note to oil it later. I take out my thin jacket and wrap it against myself. Crouching down, my right hand slips into the piles of fabrics and feels for the little metal. I found it the other day when I was on my way back from the Hole. I'm not sure how I managed to not get arrested for "unrightfully having in possession of the Polar". Little Polly was canned for keeping a heart shaped rock she found while mining. The image of her little body in a pool of blood and her voice of begging were burned permanently into my brain. It was too awful to witness. Too gruesome. I close the wooden door and creep my way to the sole door in the room. It is locked. And with high-tech alarm system, no doubt. It is too troublesome and risky to try figuring how to unlock it...the ordinary way. I place my fingers on the left part of the door, where the hinges are. I slide my finger up to where the upper hinge reside and lean my right ear on its cold metallic surface. Slowly twisting the secret knob, I carefully listen to the familiar soft whirs it causes. After a little more than a minute, it makes a tiny click sound. Smiling to myself, I push the huge piece of steel until I could peek at the surrounding area. As expected, the guards trust this piece of steel too much that no single soul is there. I turn upwards to take a good look at the sole camera in front of the door. I'm really thankful the camera isn't made with a motion detector. It still has blind spots. I count to myself in sync of its turns. Beads of sweat starts to form at my forehead as I got ready for my dash. My mind screamed 'now!' and I dash out madly and away from the camera's view. I lean against the walls to catch my breath. I must have looked very silly from a distance. The thought makes me softly chuckle to myself. I'm going to be caught one day and I'll probably be skinned alive or something. But maybe dying is better. With my back still on the walls, I move towards the west side of the area. The only 'green' place in the whole area, which is a total opposite of the east. The Porters live in the east side, whilst us, the chattels, live in the southern west of the island. The fact that the nature still exists in Polars' reach comes out peculiar to me since the Polars practically created everything artificial as substitute. I shrug off the thought and remind myself that I'm here to relax. That nothing else matters while I'm here. I sit down and look at all the wonderful greeneries and flowers in front of me. I sigh contentedly as I wrap my hands around my knees. I wonder what these flowers are called as. My eyes dart towards the little move in the shrubs and anticipate myself for the intruder. I was ready to make my run when a little raccoon peeks at me. I let out a relief sigh and smile at the little guy. "Out for a walk too, little guy?" I relax more as I place my hands on the ground behind me and shift my weight backwards. I look up to see a perfectly dark sky and a small but perfectly round moon. It was an artificial sky. The Portals love to be on control of everything. There are no stars. Then why do they place a moon here? "I wonder how the real sky look like." "Do you want to leave?" I'm startled by the additional voice. I look around frantically in search of the source. Shit. If I'm found out, I'm dead. Way beyond dead. This time for real. I'm going to die. "Calm down. I'm in front of you." I respond to the voice and turn back to my front. The same raccoon is looking at me with its beady eyes. I'm sure there is no other presence than this guy. I frown to myself at the absurdity. Maybe I'm imagining things. The raccoon sighs and continues, "Look. This is not going to be easy to explain, so don't ask. But let me repeat my question....Do you want to leave?" I gape as I witness the furball talk. I try to make this as sound as possible. Maybe it's an engine? A machine? A spying robot? But if this really is a robot, he should have sent the report in by now and not talking to me! Besides what did he ask? Me? Leaving? This must be another stupid dream. Or I must be a complete lunatic right now. The furry taps his left foot impatiently as I gawk more at him. "What? Speak. Are you dumb?" "A-a t-talking raccoon!" He frowns, "I'm not a raccoon. This is only a temporary look, okay. Ignore this please." "A-a t-talking raccoon offering me a way to leave! I must really have hit my head hard. This must be a dream. This is crazy. This is simply impossible." The raccoon hisses and makes his way to me. I could only watch it for all I know if I try to escape he will probably notifies the Polars. And I will bid goodbye to my nightly escapades. Heck I might as well bid goodbye to the world. The next thing I know is pain. "Ouch! What the hell! Why did you do that!" He scratched me! "To ensure you that this is real." So perhaps, he might be a truthful being. Not a machine, but a creation of the mother nature. However, I'm still sceptic to take all this in seriously. How can I know he's not a deceit? "Okay," I start carefully, "prove me that I could believe you and you're not a figment of my imagination!" The raccoon sighs again, "If you still think that I'm a mere illusion, I have no way to prove anything to you." He pauses and looks me in the eyes, "Consider this. Do you really want to stay here? Don't you want to know how the outside world look like? Are you really willing to go back? And most importantly: Do you have anything to lose if you leave?" My mind had answered every single question of his almost immediately without hesitation. No, Yes, No. No. Although I would tell myself that I had lost hope of escaping long ago, I had always known, there is light, although dim and shaky, that still believes. I'm silent for a whole minute before answering, "What do you want in return?" The raccoon grins showing his pointed teeth, "Smart girl, aren't we? I will ask for my payment after I help you. And you won't escape without paying even if you tried to." "...as long as it doesn't involve in forever bond or slavery." The raccoon beams at me, "I assure you it won't be." "Okay." "Good! Shall we go now? Or do you want to grab some things first?" "No, I'm good, I think." "Marvellous. Follow me." I stand up and follow the little figure as he leads our way into the greens. I had never dared go further than my spot for I would have no chance if I were to acquaint myself with the beasts and creatures that lurk beneath the beautiful nature. Now that I have the chance to take a good look, I start to analyse the area. As far as my sight, I could only see tall trees whose barks are about 30 metres wide in diameters. On the floors spews up occasional mushrooms, the kinds of which I have never seen before. Mosses cover the terrain making it quite a slippery path. If I'm not mistaken I thought I rememb- I stop, "Wait." The raccoon turns towards me. "There are cameras inside the forest." "Oh. It has been taken care of." "What?" "I said I had taken care of the cameras." "I heard you the first time. How?" The raccoon opens his mouth and closes it again, "Well... I'm good with electronics." he says that without looking at me. I squint at him in disbelief. "Come on. Let's move. The dawn's breaking." I could really still turn back. I have taken note of the turns we've made in case something went horribly wrong. I really still could. But I don't want to. As I ponder about my decision, we go deeper and deeper into the forest. I never knew the forest is this deep. "We're here." I halt my step and saw an ordinary looking tree in front of us. "We've arrived...at a tree." I hesitate and circle around the tree. Maybe in some of its crook hid something special, or maybe it has an extraordinary shape, or maybe it's a machine, or something! But really, all I could see is a painfully ordinary tree. A not-too-old-not-too-young tree. "Are you done with your silly judgemental mind?" I turn towards the raccoon, "Are you sure there's something special of this tree? I faintly recalled we passed by a few dozens that look exactly like this one." The raccoon clucks his tongue. I didn't know if raccoons could do that commonly. "It was called a perfect camouflage. If we were to place it in an easily recognised item, we would be found out." His reason makes sense to me. "So..how are we going to escape again?" The raccoon grins his toothy grin and says, "Impatient much? Watch." He then lifts his paw and aims it at the tree. He closes his eyes in what seemed to be concentration. Slowly, soft green little lights are formed on his paw. The little lights gather into floating alien scripts and began to spin in fashion. I'm really trying my best not to freak out. This might be by far the craziest dream or illusion I've had so far. I watch closely as the spinning lights spin faster before the raccoon takes his paw away and looks to me. The spinning lights had carved a door in the tree. "Are you ready?" I gulp, "F-For what?" The raccoon chuckles and answers, "For freedom, of course." "I-I..." The raccoon keeps looking at me in amusement, "I'll try my best to explain everything after this." He puts his paw on the door and pushes it. I could see more of the lights, but in neon blur. The light is almost blinding that I had to turn away from it. "Oh, just close your eyes as we go. Come on." The raccoon bows in courtesy of a gentleman, "Ladies first." My heart is beating fast. I'm not sure about everything, yet I'm excited, though a tiny bit of afraid, I inch forward. I slowly take my step, one at a time. I don't want to trip on my way, after all. I squeeze my eyes hard as I step into the blinding lights. -- If you haven't realised it by now, let me make this clear: This is a fiction story. Labels: Story |