know that can’t be true; the whole country was populated before the Medical Revolution. The towns and cities were fenced when the government formed the safe cities. Surely there would be ruins of abandoned towns, but I have no idea what I can expect to find. It’s as though the whole world I thought I knew crumbled away on my sixteenth birthday, and now only a few months later, it feels like a lifetime ago. I am not the same person. This isn’t the world I thought I lived in. The realization is daunting. I try not to think too deeply about anything right now, knowing it won’t lead to anything good. I need to keep a clear head and focus on my mission.
I tread one heavy foot in front of the other for what seems like hours. It’s black as night and the temperature dropped, but I’m still sweating.
The backpack feels like it’s filled with bricks and grows heavier with each step I take. I lift it from my shoulders, needing relief from its weight. The movement sends a sharp burst of pain through my wrist and up my forearm. I bite my lip to keep from screaming. I decide to stop and shrug the backpack off. I examine my wrist in the moonlight. The once white bandage is soaked through with blood. I don’t know how I couldn’t have noticed it before, but it’s damp and heavy around my wrist. I tear through the backpack, searching for extra bandages.
Will has rolled them up and placed them in the inside pocket. I unravel the blood soaked bandage from my wrist and drop it to the ground, then begin winding the new cloth bandage tightly around my wrist, but not before I catch a glimpse of the gash there. A pebble of blood appears at the cut and grows each time my heart beats. I quickly cover it, wishing I hadn’t seen that. Now that I have, there is no forgetting. My mind burns with the image. I stand and shrug into the backpack, but now I all I can picture as I run is my heartbeat sending more blood to my wrist. My legs feel weaker, my body more drained, all in an instant.
A twig snaps in the woods. I spin around to face it and almost lose my balance. I grab at the air to keep steady on my feet. My eyes dart to the woods around me, while my heart riots. Have they come for me already? I have no choice but to keep going. I take off jogging, hoping to put distance between me and whatever is in the forest.
All through the night, terrible thoughts fill my mind. I never asked Will if the military guards would cross the fence to come after me – it seems like such a vital piece of information. How could I not know that? I figured to get to me, they might go to any length. I knew of the friendly people they said I’d find at the outpost, if I ever found it, but why hadn’t I ever probed him and Rena on whether there were any unfriendly Radicals I needed to watch out for. I feel so unprepared and small in the wilderness. Even the name of it sends a chill down my neck.
Somehow, I make it through my first night. I don’t stop running until the sun is just rising over the treetops behind me. Surviving my first night feels like a small victory. I deserve a break. I find a good spot to rest, taking my time to be sure I’m tucked back into the thick cover of the forest. Pine needles crunch under my feet, and I make my way under a giant pine tree. It is wonderfully fragrant and cool underneath it. I drop the backpack heavily at my feet and nearly collapse. I sit with my back resting against trunk of the tree. With my good hand, I work free a bottle of water and down it greedily. And though I doubted I’d be able to sleep on this trip, when I tip my head back against the tree, I instantly fall asleep.
The sun is higher in the sky when I wake. Mid-morning. Birds are chirping and the woods feel less menacing in the daylight. I inspect my bandage, and though it’s not soaked through like last night, I decide to change it again. When I pull the bandage free from my wrist,