The Vessel

A million years ago the world ended. Since then a group of five have kept the City running. Now, one of them has died.

I shouldn’t have said anything. I should have left like a thief in the night, but I couldn’t do it. I needed them to know I was going.

I didn’t understand the Third. It wasn’t like the Outer Rings at all. There were big buildings, loud noises, and everybody seemed angry.

Turn around! There’s still time! Just turn AROUND! The words ran through my head over and over again as I stood in the monumental line to get into the Center.

People are so ridiculous and easily impressed. All I did was stand close to Earth for a minute.

Violet was nice. I had liked her. She has such kind eyes, I thought—no, she had nice eyes.

There is no oppressor without an oppressed. That quote came from a book I read in elementary school called The Tail of Guhman the Mouse.

I made it back to my room just as the guards returned to duty. Very quietly I slipped into bed and shut my eyes, trying to get my heart to stop thumping in my chest.

Gone was the crooked smile on the Constable’s face, replaced instead by a deep, dark scowl. And screaming. My god, the screaming.

The red, blinking light above the camera turned off. A woman next to the camera dropped her cue cards as two brutish men lowered their guns on either side of me.

When they saw I was basically a human pincushion, they dragged Cam out of the car and beat her within an inch of her life.

What I just did was suicide. But it was not the first time I’d committed suicide since I’d left home, and I was still alive.