"You can run, but sooner or later, you run out of places to run to."

― Nalini Singh,

-

"We have to go," my voice sounds distant as I speak, unable to tear my eyes away from the Medic's icy ones.

"What?" The boy says incredulously. "No, not without Zeke."

"Now!" I yelp, as the black-haired Medic grabs a syringe from the metal table. She is flanked by two armed sentries. I jump to my feet, grabbing the boy's hand as tightly as I can and dragging him with me. I can feel him trying to resist, but he begrudgingly allows me to pull him along. As soon as we reach the door leading to the main part of the Ward, however, he rips his hand out of mine.

"We can't leave Zeke!" he shouts. His words are frantic.

I search for an answer, my head still spinning from what I just saw. "J-just trust me! We can't help him if we stay here," I sputter. I hear the sound of footsteps running towards us from down the long corridor, but I'm already running away, through the maze of dying people, through the front doors. I don't need to hear his footsteps to know the boy is following me. I know because I would do the same thing for my own siblings.

Many people crowd the streets, walking obediently in the correct paths towards their destinations. I push through them, the boy following close behind and muttering apologies as we disrupt traffic.

My path takes us to my apartment. We're only a half a block away when the ominous silence startles my ears. I throw my hand out to the side. The boy is slow to stop and crashes into it.

"Hey!" he interjects.

"Shh!" I quietly urge him to stop. I concentrate on the sounds around us, but I can find none. The streets around here are eerily deserted. I creep to the corner of my building and peer around it.

A small group of guards are conversing in front of my apartment unit. They seem to be holding a piece of paper. Squinting my eyes, I am able to recognize my own face. It was a blurry picture, so I could only assume it was from a security camera.

"What is it?" the boy asks, looking around the corner of the building as well.

"Sentries. They are looking for me. We can't go here. We can't go anywhere." My throat starts to close up and my heart rate picks up as I panic. If a few sentries are looking for me by my apartment complex, chances are more are scouring the city.

All the people we saw in the streets earlier. That wasn't normal traffic...

They were evacuating the area around this building. Around my apartment building.

The boy seems to be deep in thought. He roughly takes my hand and jerks me away from my home. Now it's my turn to be dragged along.

"Where are we going?" the question rips out of my dry throat.

The boy lets go of my hand to pick up his pace and glances back towards me, "I trusted you. Now it's your turn to trust me."

His face is grim as we pass countless blocks. We have gone so far from my apartment that we entered the 'Outskirts'. This is the rough part of town. Many junkies and homeless people find themselves residing here.

"Why are we... here?" I question, too nervous to mention the Outskirts out loud. I've never been here, but I've heard many terrible stories. Drug cartels have tunnels running everywhere in this place.

The boy's voice is low as he speaks, "We are going to my home. The sentries won't look there."

He lives in the Outskirts?

Thoughts ambush my head. What if he is in the Vitanox cartel? Has he killed someone? Is he a junkie? My hands start shaking out of fear, and my knees feel weak.

But I let the boy lead me deeper. He is, after all, my only shot at escape.

I think of the noiseless city. This sort of silence has only happened once before in my lifetime. It was when a deranged, disease-ridden man had escaped from the depths of the Ward. All citizens had to stay locked in their rooms while the sentries searched every nook and cranny. I had been glad for the security measures then, but now...

My heartbeat strains against my ribcage like it's threatening to break free.

"My family!" I yelp. His startling blue eyes whip around to look at me.

"M-my family... the sentries... what will they do to them? That's where they will look for me next."

The boy's brow furrows as his gaze searches mine.

"The sentries can not harm innocent civilians," he quotes. Words from the lawbook every citizen is provided with, but I do not trust their words now.

Tears well up in my eyes.

"I'm not an innocent civilian anymore, am I?" I whisper, hardly daring to speak the words out loud.

The boy hesitates, then shakes his head slightly, eyes downcast.

I bite my lip, begging my tears not to fall as I tell this strange blue-eyed boy everything I've figured out since I looked into that room in the Ward.

"They're taking the healthy people. Your brother... he hasn't taken his dosage in over a week, had he?"

The boy was quiet. I could sense his internal conflict. He still wasn't sure if I was friend or foe.

I continue, more urgently. "Neither have I. He had hallucinations? So did I. They must have been the result of stopping our daily dose intake... not from NVI itself. I never had any symptoms. No black veins. No insanity... yet. Neither has your brother."

The boy's deep eyes ignite with shock, and maybe a bit of fear, but I press on.

"The Medics probably took him and locked him in one of those long, liquid-filled tubes. He's in that room, still inside the Ward. You can go back and save him, and then you can both hide in your home out here."

I start to back away. My voice is soft and shaky as I speak, "I can't come with you. You'll be caught for sure."

"But where will you hide?" The boy asks, taking a careful step forward.

A tear escapes me. "I'll figure it out," I choke out. "But you need to-"

My next words are drowned out by the sound of a siren blasting from the speakers throughout the city. The boy and I both slam our hands over our ears at the sudden noise. I see his lips moving, but I can't make out his words. He takes another step towards me. I shake my head frantically, squeezing my eyes shut against the horrible screeching noise blasting through my eardrums. I try to back away.

My heel catches on an uneven patch of ground and I fall backward. As if on cue, the sirens stop and I have just enough time to register the boy is shouting before sharp pain slices through the back of my head and I succumb to the darkness.