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The men were searching the house. I could hear Father shouting my name, but there was no empathy in it, just anger. I feared what would happen when he found me, but first I had to help Jess and Simon get away.
I didn’t go into the house. Instead, I went down an outside staircase and into one of our three basements. This one was the least used; over time it had become piled high with boxes of junk.
A single bulb overhead illuminated me as I pushed through the boxes towards the back wall. There, my fingers felt for a loose brick and pulled it away. I slipped my arms into the gap. The rough stone grazed me as I felt around inside. My prize was pushed well to the back. I strained, reaching deeper, my fingers closing over its edge.
There it was, thin, made of wood, about three feet long. A board of my own.
I dragged it out of the hole, put the brick back in place and made my way back outside.
I glanced up at the house, and saw lights on in the windows above me. I grimaced; this patch of garden had little cover. I braced myself. Then, taking a deep breath, I raced out across the lawn.
I almost made it. A few feet from the bushes at the far end I heard a muffled holler: ‘There’s one! Out there!’
They were on my trail. I could only hope that Simon and Jess made it on to the train, and that no one recognised the runner as me. My punishment might be the same.
I dashed into the trees, the last of the dusk and a new moon lending me just enough light to see by. Voices rose back by the house, and flashlights struck the first of the trees. They’d be slower than me, but not much.
I caught up with Simon and Jess just short of the station, and we helped carry Simon up the steps to the platform together. Jess had their clawboards under one arm, and I had my board under mine. Simon sagged between us, his strength gone.
‘How long until the train?’ Jess asked.
‘I don’t know. Can you even get on it? Is it slow enough for you to catch?’
‘I think so. It wasn’t going so fast before. It’s easy for me, but what about Simon? He has no chance.’
I held up the board I had brought. ‘We can use this.’
Jess reached for it in the darkness, felt it with her hands. ‘A skateboard? Where did you get this?’
‘Is that what you call it? We don’t have them out in the GFAs. The roads are almost all gravel. I used to ride it in the house when my parents went out.’
Jess scoffed. ‘Huh. Erase all signs of the city, eh. Roads, technology . . . poor people.’
‘I found it in the forest. Near here, actually. It was pretty well buried, but it must have been really good once, as it works. I had to clean it up and fix the wheels, though.’
‘How are we going to use it?’
Before I could answer, I heard a rumbling in the distance. We stood up, walked to the edge of the platform, saw twin points of light in the distance. Still two or three kilometres distant, it rolled towards us like a mythical beast out of the darkness.
And shouts came from the woods. ‘I heard something! That way!’ Flashlights danced. They were still some way off, but closing.
‘Get him up!’ I said.
We hauled Simon to his feet. Jess gave him a clawboard and he hugged it to him like a child’s teddy bear.
‘Listen to me!’ she hissed into his face, one hand gripping his forearm. ‘Your leg is hurt, but your arms are fine! Your arms are strong, Simon! And they’re going to get you out of this. Be strong, Simon. Be strong for me!’
‘Get on this,’ I said, pointing at the skateboard. I’d oiled the wheels good. I was certain my plan would work.
The train rolled closer. It wasn’t speeding, but it was moving quickly enough. I didn’t fancy their chances.
I saw shadows moving in the trees as the train bore down on us.
‘Go!’ I shouted. ‘You pull, I’ll push him!’
I leaned into Simon’s waist and began to push him forward. He cried out in pain, but we were picking up speed. I feared hitting a divot or a crack in the platform, but it stayed true. The train rose up behind us, impossibly huge in the darkness. I looked back, and its lights illuminated a group of men climbing up on to the platform.
‘Faster!’ Jess screamed over the roar of the engine and I shut my eyes and ran.
‘When I say, lift!’ I shouted. ‘Simon, you have to try to jump!’
I could barely hear over the roar of the train. It was at the station now, closing fast. The men, one of which was my father, shouted things I couldn’t hear clearly but I kept my eyes shut anyway and didn’t think of them.
‘Now!’ Jess shouted. ‘Jump! For the love of God, jump!’
I screamed as I pushed up and across towards the train. I felt Simon’s arms lifting up, heard a metallic clank as he reached out for the train with his clawboard. Jess was just in front of me, but already gone, already lost. I felt Simon catch and then the train jerked him away from me. The skateboard, now devoid of a passenger, caught under my feet and I slipped forward, sending it over the platform edge, where a thud and then a splintering crunch ended its use forever beneath the train’s thundering wheels. I hit the platform, the wind knocked out of me. As I rolled, I looked up and along the platform, saw the shadows of what might have been two people, hanging off the side of the train. I thought one of them might have waved, but it could have just been a shadow. And then they were gone, the train disappearing into the forest, a roar of noise and the stench of old metal and new smoke trailing in its wake.
As the train faded into the distance, I rolled over on to my back. My head rested on the dirty concrete of the platform, and I thought about Simon and Jess. For a few brief days they’d been in my life, breaking open everything I thought I’d known about the world. Suddenly the comfortable life I’d always known seemed different; malicious, threatening. The weight of understanding pushed my eyes shut and I let my breathing lengthen.
A second later someone was shaking me. ‘Carl! Carl? Are you all right?’
I opened my eyes to a blinding flashlight.
‘Oh my, you’re bleeding! Did they hurt you? Those bastards tried to kidnap you, by God. How did you manage to get away?’
I just shook my head, not confirming or denying anything. As my father dabbed at a cut on my forehead with a tissue, I wondered where Simon and Jess were now. I hoped they made it to wherever they were going, but it wasn’t important anymore. In my mind, sheltered and protected by the comfortable life of the GFAs, they would live on forever.
END