Capital City

Suddenly, I was awake. It was dark and most definitely nighttime. There were noises - a lot of them - coming from outside the tent. Crashing, thumping, banging. They seemed to attack me from all sides, grappling for my attention, but it was just too much to process. Amongst the racket, I could hear voices, crying and shouting. It was painful to hear. I could almost feel the distress in the air. It was toxic.

I began to hear someone running towards where my tent was pitched.

"Sonny!" The owner of the footsteps was calling my name. "Sonny!"

It was my sister. She unzipped the door and stormed in with heavy breaths. She was wearing only her pyjamas; no shoes, no coat. Just an urgent, worrying look on her face.

"We have to go."

"What?"

"Andrew, wake up." She moved hastily over to my brother's sleeping bag and began to lift him out of it.

"What's going on?"

"Come on, we don't have much time."

"Ella!"

She stopped and turned to look me in the eyes. I could see the turmoil in her eyes. She didn't want to worry me, but she knew I needed to know.

"It's happening."

We ran. Faster than we'd ever run before. We sped through the camp, passing the other Outsiders, most of whom were shouting and arguing. Ella took my hand and led the way, and all the while I was holding Andrew's hand as tight as I could to make sure I didn't lose him. We couldn't look back; there just wasn't enough time. All I could think about was getting the three of us to safety before the men from the City attacked the camp. I didn't know where we were going, but I hoped that we would put enough distance between us and them if we just kept running.

"Papa!" Ella stopped and screamed his name. I couldn't see over the heads of the people around me, but I followed in the direction Ella was moving. Every time someone was in our way, we would have to push past them, and once we had pushed past, another small group were standing in our path.

We finally made our way through the crowd and Ella ran into Papa's arms. "Where is she, Papa?"

"She went to grab your things," he said calmly. Despite being such a confident man, there was still a hint of uncertainty in his voice. I could tell he was worried about all of us.

"How long will she be?" Ella was becoming increasingly restless. She didn't want Mama to be left behind with the rest of the Outsiders when the men from the City came to kill them.

"Not very long. Just keep going."

Of course we didn't want to leave him, but time was running out. There was a blue light creeping over the horizon, and we couldn't be sure whether it was the sunrise or the City coming for us.

I didn't want to wait to find out.

We reached the safe house not long after that. It was small, and not much of a house, but it was definitely safe. We were a long way from Capital City and far enough from the camp that they wouldn't come looking for us.

Andrew finally let go of my hand and sat down on the ground. He had carried a book with him. "How long will we have to be here?"

"Not very long," Ella said, trying to sound reassuring. "We just have to keep going."

Just then, the siren started wailing and the searchlights came on. We heard shouting coming from the camp.

"What's happening?" Andrew was beginning to worry.

"It's probably nothing," Ella lied. "I'll just go back and see what's happened—"

"No," I said sternly. "You need to stay here with us."

She looked into my eyes again, the same way she had when she woke me up in my tent.

"Wait here with Sonny, Andrew." She continued to look at me as she spoke. "I won't be long."

I reminded her gently, "Be careful, Ella."

She smiled weakly and left. I went to the door and looked out in the direction of the Outsiders' camp. I saw Ella running as fast as she could physically run; no shoes, no coat. Just a worrying feeling inside me that she was running in the wrong direction.