Questions Left Un Answered

Chapter One-Just Another Day

The wind whistled by me with a chilling effect, causing me to shiver, while the long untamed grass and bushes irritated my legs as I walked by. Brushing against my bare ankles in agonising torment. Accompanying the bushes, were thorns. Which now I realise must have already done a number on my skin.

Around me, was a huge mass of trees, shadowed together with the early night making an illusion of a cage. I looked around in distress; it was not like me to go out wandering after dark. I do not even know how I got here. As I continued walking aimlessly into the unknown reaches of the forest, I noticed that the trees were getting tighter together. Almost as if wherever I was, I was not intended to escape.

I could tell it was sunset, a pure orange colour peaking through the trees above me. For a brief moment, I actually stopped to admire it. It was nice that there was something to provide comfort. The full blow of night would be approaching soon. Before I looked up and seen the sunset I would have thought it was night already.

However, something besides the band of trees unsettled me. Something that quickened the pace of both my walking speed, and my pulse. I could feel it deep within my bones. Something that made my heart race a thousand beats a minute. “Why did you come out here Gregory?” I taunted myself; there were a thousand more questions worth asking. Nevertheless, this one really ate at me.

Soon I had one certain conclusion. Someone was fast approaching. It was racing through the forest at an unnatural speed. Cutting through the vines and whatever blocked their way. There was more than one of them too; in fact, a group of them, and they were not too keen on a friendly greeting. I cannot remember the last time I was ever this frightened. Maybe the numerous times my father had rushed us out of our homes. Maybe the strange look he would get on his face sometimes, that blankvacant expression that would sit on his face almost every waking moment.

I seemed to have forgotten my little sister Missy, on the day she turned 16. That VERY day, my father came stumbling in the front door yelling at us to pack our things. Telling us “They’re back again.’’ He yelled, ‘’they have found us!’’

Well today, I am 18, an age I have scorned since my 17th, my 16th, and so on...

Suddenly I felt as if I were being jerked around like a rag doll. I must have lost thought while I was reminiscing my past. Only to see a large group of people standing around me in an absolute complete circle. Some were handling a weapon, obviously out of their own kitchen, and some, with torches. I felt fear grip me hard and I started to cry a bit. A single tear of pain rolling down my cheek. I must have been so distracted; I did not notice that my legs were scratched from knee-to-toe.

Dry blood crusted on the bottom of my jeans. I screamed in pain, the loud echo filling everywhere around me. For a second the people backed away in shock. Pointing their weapons closer to my bare throat. “What do you want from me?” I cried, my father always said it was not proper for a grown man to cry in public. But this was just too much to bear.

The people moved aside a bit, but only enough for a man to come through. A tall, muscular man that I was not too excited to mess with.

“You are a danger; we must be rid of you.” He replied. He sounded confident, but I could tell he was UN eased. He probably did not have a choice whether or not he would kill me. “Now, you will DIE!’’ The man placed his knife against my throat. The pressure was hurting me so much that I wanted to break down in tears. But another man held my head in place.

“The only danger around here is YOU people!” I screamed with rage, so many mixed emotions were filling my head that I lost it. I have committed no crime, and certainly no criminal offense to the law. I have been a good citizen; however, we were probably running too much for them to notice our behaviours.

I screamed in pain as I felt the knife dig further into my flesh, a shrill howl of pure agony echoing out into the distance, awakening almost every animal in the forest. I wanted desperately to release myself from his grasp, so then I could release all of my adrenalin by bolting deep into the trees. I would probably make it what? 100 yards, give or take. Slowly I would be trapped like a rabbit by a hungry wolf for his lunch. At least then, I could perish with the remainder of my dignity.

Drops of blood were seeping out of my broken skin. I could not bare much more of this torture. Why were they being so slow about it? Why couldn’t they just end my life and get it over with? I managed to notice though, that the people were wearing rubber gloves, and the face masks a doctor uses for surgery or when treating someone with an illness to avoid catching the disease. I did not know what to think, everything was just so over whelming. The only thing I was capable of thinking about was the knife that would soon slide across my throat and claim my life.

“You are a danger to us all.” The man stated, “Therefore you must die.” After he said that his partner grabbed me by the hair and pulled my head back, making sure that my neck was clearly visible. I grunted with pain and tried to fight their grip, but it was no use. Both men seemed to know what they were doing; they could probably deal with much worse than me. Though people have told me how attractive I was, and some of my ‘exes’ said I have quite the ‘six pack’. There really WAS nothing to me.

However, I had an irritating feeling in the back of my nose, one of those aggravating tickling feelings in the back of your nostril; that usually only meant one thing. I had to sneeze. I signalled to the men, but they laughed. They probably think I am joking, I thought. However, I was not planning to hold back such a teasing feeling at all.

“Ah-ah-ahhhhhchoooooo!” The man had immediately dropped his knife asI fell forwards on to the muddy, but somehow comfortable Earth. Yet with the satisfaction of getting rid of that dreadful tickle, I was surprised to see that everyone had backed up. Even the men had moved away, tearing their facemasks off in disgust, and then they replaced them with new ones.

“Uh-oh!” I said allowed, “I don’t suppose you could give me five seconds?” I asked, but they just looked at each other, than back at me again. I backed away, but bolted when I heard one of the people in the crowd yell “GET HIM!”

I was already a good ten yards into the trees, but I knew they probably were not far behind. Their weapons held up with confidence, torches singeing the hanging vines and branches as they advanced on their prey. Nothing can save my sorry soul. I thought as I felt my tired lungs begin to struggle for air. My legs going numb from exhaustion. I could hear them even better now, yelling at each other to “Run faster!”

I am surprised I survived this long, maybe it’s because of the toasted waffles I had for breakfast this morning. Or maybe it was pure adrenalin to escape my pursuers. I did not know but before I knew it I had stumbled over a fallen branch and was soon unconscious on the ground below me.