Flyers escape

Leanne stood in the massive field, not quite alone, for tall grass and flowers as far as the eye could see accompanied her. An eerie breeze lifted her hair and revealed her bright and lively hazel eyes, searching for something.

The walls seemed to loom over her, though they were miles and miles away, Leanne could feel them closing in around her, trapping her, even in the vast field. She would never be able to leave this place. Leanne whispered something and let the wind carry her voice away.

A sudden lightness moved through her body like a worm, spreading and contracting in certain places. She hovered for a moment with great focus. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back allowing her curls to fall away from her face and settle to her back. “I can fly away,” she smiled. The sunrays glinted from her wings. The wind surrounded her like a tornado of freedom, filled with grass, dirt, flowers, and an escape… an ethereal feeling enveloped her soul and brushed away all other emotions. A gentle touch pulled her back to earthly senses, and to the ground.

It took her a moment to realize where she was. And looking to her right, she saw a boy, perhaps a bit younger than she.

He reached his hands out and started “tickling” her, only she didn’t laugh. “What are you doing, you... you..! Where the Hell did you come from!” she yelled, exasperated. She brushed his hands away and wrapped her arms around herself.

“I thought little girls liked to be tickled,” he replied. After an awkward pause he admitted, "Okay, maybe that was a little bit creepy. You just looked lonely out in this big field all alone." She rewarded him with yet another awkward pause. "It was hard to miss a beautiful young girl such as yourself standing in such an open place..." She remained silent in the compliment. "What?!" he insisted. "I come here all the time. I've been laying in the field less than fifteen feet away since before you even got here. I personally would have seen a big indention in the grass, myself, but I guess you're just not as attentive."

His face was turned so half was out of view. His caramel-streaked brown hair shadowed his eyes. His abundant fly-aways caused the illusion of a glow under the steady shower of the sun. She was standing close enough to notice their height in comparison. Her nose came to his shoulder.

She refused to look up to speak to him. Instead, she talked to his shoulders. Her eyebrow twitched in annoyance. She questioned suspiciously, "How did you sneak up on me like that? I would have heard the grass rustling."

"You would have heard all the grass ruslting, even while the wind bellowed in your ears and the sensation of flying overwhelmed every sense in your body? Sure, I guess the quiet rustle of grass could snap anyone out of that," he replied sarcastically.

She turned away and sat down. He attempted to sit beside her and she stuck out her leg so he could not. “You hold this land, then I liberate it,” he said, subtly referring to the war. Somewhat irritated, he sat down on her ankle. Ouch. Both of them winced at once. He lifted his weight to his feet for a moment as Leanne pulled her leg back to the safety of her chest and cradled her knees.

“I’m not a little girl,” she said angrily, still brooding on his very first comment.

He smiled and looked up, then they both sat in silence.

"I'm sorry," he said. His voice was soft and faint like an echo or a voice from the past. Leanne doubted whether she'd really heard it or not. She decided not to say anything so she wouldn't look like an idiot.

"Welcome to Freedom, by the way," he spoke again. She wondered if the name of this place was intended irony. "Well," he sighed, not getting a reaction out of her, "I guess since you don't want to talk about anything right now I could brief you over the schedule we go by here." He waited for her to say something, but she just stared ahead. "So we have to go every Friday to pick up our work schedules. Since you're a flyer, you'll start with training. We, as flyers, transport cargo and goods that the Fighters make. Oh yeah, and don't call them Fighters to their face, it's more of a derogatory term for a non-Flyer. Anyway... so, I'll take you to the information center soon, before it gets dark outside..."

Leanne coughed and then actually looked at him for the first time. Her spirited hazel eyes briefly skimmed his features. He had a long face and she could almost see his half-closed and lazy eyes. She couldn't make out the colour beneath the shadow of his eyelashes and hair... when he smiled his cheeks forced his eyes to close even more. She became frustrated that he wasn't letting her see his eyes, even though he didn't do it intentionally. Her eyes wavered and focused on his unmistakable humpback. "I don't care," she said, looking away and rolling over the image in her mind.

"Fortunately, we’re Flyers. That means we mainly transport cargo instead of making it, like the Fighters. So be happy."

“Are you insisting that I just settle here and live this way?”

He grinned. “Nope. Didn’t even think so. Let’s escape together. I'm on duty for the next week, dawn to dusk. I'll be too tired to run. Either way, we can spend some time getting to know each other until we can determine a good night to run... if you're up for it, that is..."

He said it almost mockingly. "You're weird," she said bluntly. "Run away yourself and leave me alone."

He stared at her, and she could feel it. "You haven't been here long, but I know a lot about you. I guess you could say it's a special skill of mine, because I'm a Flyer. We all have one. Mine is reading people, thouroughly and truly. I can see emotions and auras just as you can see colours. And I know that you want to escape. And I know that you don't trust me yet but, I've waited so long for someone," his voice resonated, sincere and full of truth. "I don't want to go alone, because truth be told, I'm terrified. But nobody, nobody I have encountered in all this time was ever truly willing enough to leave with me, should I dare ask them. Please, think about it."

Leanne looked up, a dandelion puff landing on her eyelash. “Sure. I'll think about it.” Should it matter who you trust when you're so willing to die anyway? They stood and she allowed him to walk her to the information center.

Through the week, after her three hour daily training, Leanne waited in the field hours before he got off work to meet him. They met and spoke of many things until sleep overcame them. They talked about unpersonal things at first like, names and ages, hobbies and such. By the third day they were discretely building trust and eventually began swapping biographies of how they had gotten there and what their parents were like. For Leanne, a sweet and gentle mother was all she could recall. For Dan, his parents were always wrapped up in the war effort and never heeded him much attention, until they eventually disposed of him altogether here, and then dared to die.

Leanne's training ended by the end of the week when she got her real work schedule. Someone had strategically or coincidentally planned the schedules so Leanne and Dan's work hours overlapped so that not even five minutes were available to converse.

Leanne, wondering if this was actually coincidence or if someone was watching them, stuck a piece of paper to the back of Dan's work card with gum. On it she wrote 'Tonight the moon will be full' and that was all.


*****


That night Leanne and Dan ran through the fields. Unlike Dan, Leanne was not strong enough to run full out the miles it took to reach the wall. “ Please,” she begged, “Just let me fly it!” Panting, she stopped and braced her hands on her knees, letting her head drop and breathing deep through her mouth.

“No, Leanne, your wings will reflect the search lights and it’ll be an instant give away. Hey, hey! In your nose and out your mouth. You'll hyperventilate!"

She breathed as instructed until her respiration slowed. Then Dan forced her on by pulling her wrist and occasionally stopping to let her take a break. Sometimes he smiled at her for courage.

“Over the wall,” he said, gravely serious, “they have barriers that inhibit flying. Your wings, as you know, act similar to your arms and legs. However, they are also like a heart. Electromagnetic waves pulsate through your wings at all times. As soon as you pass through a barrier... the waves in your wings, unlike your heart, are delicate enough to be ceased... The barriers, they're a reinforcement of a law passed while they were deciding rules for the war. No Flyers. Are you okay to give that up?” He became more serious in his brief conversations with her when she was regaining strength.

The intensity increased in the search for the two of them. The number of Flyers in the sky equipped with searchlights increased. They neared the wall and she could sense the fright in the boy, though he tried not to show it. He gripped her hand tighter and ran faster. She looked up, ready to collapse. And despite his humpback, for a moment saw a perfect man instead of a boy. His hair brushed his cheek each time he lunged forward in his running motion. His muscles bulged in his arms as he pulled at the air, almost as if it would make him faster.

They tore through the tall grass together, at this point deep in the field. It was well over their heads. It ripped at Leanne and gave her lash marks and knicks on her forearms and forehead. It stung. Her ankle hurt. Her feet hurt, with each jolting step she took.

“I can’t!” she cried, falling to the ground. Dan dragged her a couple of feet and skinned her knees before stopping from the dead weight. He looked at her, his eyes pleading. The lights temporarily subsided for a moment. Leanne's pupils dilated in order to adjust and all she could make out was a blurry smudge of a person standing before her.

“We’re so close,” he whispered, “we’re so close, we’re almost there… Leanne… we can do it, we can do it, Leanne.”

She shook her head and cried into her hands. Her whole body hurt and trembled. For the moment she longed for the castle again. Dan saw the pain that had been inflicted and the sudden rush of emotion, now that she realized it wasn't as easy as she had thought it would be. He knew what she was about to do. “Dan,” she cried, “I want to go back!”

The light poured from behind Leanne at an angle like a ray from heaven. Leanne uncovered her face to rub her eyes. She glanced up and for the first time, she was able to take in his piercing green eyes. She stared in awe as they shone like polished emeralds, bright and lively and beautiful. The light cut off and a differnt one from behind Dan flashed directly into Leanne's eyes, causing her to shield her face and obscure the view of her thrilling new discovery.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, scaring her. "Leanne," he said sternly, "you can't. You can't go back now because you will not be able to tolerate the torture they will put you through for trying to run away."

"But if I tell them it was an accident and I didn't know I was to work tonight and..."

Dan shook his head and held her hand between both of his. "Leanne," he said gently, “I will never let them take you.” He pulled her to her feet. She stumbled forward and toppled over again. Lights glinted from several directions, cutting on and off. Dan covered her with his body and mumbled repetitive prayers for good fortune and luck. “Can you fly?” he whispered after a moment’s hesitation. Leanne could barely hear it with his heart pounding in her ears. She felt like she was under water and her body felt tingly and numb. She nodded subconciously.

Dan helped Leanne peel her delicate wings from her back. The hair-thin grass threatened to slice her wings, like it did her skin when they were running. The light shone directly over them, unwavering. A painful reassurance that they had, in fact, been unmistakably found.

Dan quickly tore down the surrounding grass until his hand hit a firm, thick, durable stalk. He couldn't break it. He moved his hand down the row, his face distorted with fear. He pressed on the firm wall of bamboo before them, the tops of them cut like spears.

He looked away, and trying to hide the situation helped her spread her wings. Since they were external, they were sticky with sweat from Leanne's back. He tugged the ends gently to straighten the crinkles. He brushed his hand delicately over them. “Beautiful,” he complimented and patted her head. She blushed though he could not see such a subtle colour change in the bright light.

“Turn around now, so I can help you with yours," she insisted.

He smiled and sighed. “My wings are not like yours. Mine are made of feathers and they come from inside of me, drenched in blood. I will not be able to fly until they can dry off.” An epiphany of his humpback came clear to her now. Leanne pushed it aside, fearing his doom, and insisted he try anyway.

He glanced at the grass wall Leanne had not yet noticed and then slowly and painfully forced the wings out of his back through a permanent scar on his skin. She could see the raised scar over his shirt collar and the movement beneath it, like a worm beneath his skin. Leanne ripped his shirt just as the wings tried to pierce through so they could emerge easier. He grabbed at himself and grunted. Blood trickled from the spreading wings. And instead of unfolding to a few feet like Leanne’s, they continued unfolding for much longer. When he finally spread them, shock from their size and the sudden wind gust knocked Leanne back.

Stringy, torn membranes coated in blood dangled from his massive wings like spider webs in an abandoned home. Each wing was as long as a person and a half and as wide as three laying on top of each other. The searchlight continued pouring over their heads and the grass was definitely unable to conceal Dan’s large, godly wings.

He beat his wings into the bamboo wall and broke a few stalks with the wind force. He laced his fingers together and provided a step for Leanne. "I'll throw you over. We can't cross this. You'll have to glide a few feet, but it should just be dirt after you glide over the bamboo. Be careful." She climbed into his hand and he heaved his arms up in the air. She was lighter than he had thought and he easily threw her about four feet high. She fluttered her pixie wings a few times and glided over to safety.

Dan felt a twinge in his wing and desperately looked over to see an arrow head piercing through. In a panic, he pushed into the hole he had made in the bamboo stalks. His wings wouldn't fit and he remembered that he hadn't the strength to break the bamboo. He brought his wings straight up vertically, jumped as high as he could, and beat his wings down and up once. Some grass stalks broke but others pierced his feathers. “We have to get out of here!” he yelled to himself. “I can’t get enough power with all this damn grass stabbing me!”

Dan drifted back down into his hole. Leanne could see him through a slight crevice from the other side. he deperately tried to turn, then back up, but his wings were caught on the stalks and he was trapped.

A sudden surge of power ran through Leanne's body and she thought she could save him. He was so close to her, only a half foot of bamboo to break through... She pressed and pushed and shoved on the bamboo stalks. They seemed not to budge at first, but she continued pushing and pushing until she heard delicate crackles. Suddenly, it all gave beneath her and she fell through the narrow passage she'd made to Dan's hole. The bamboo was packed so close together that she couldn't have knocked in over without knocking it on Dan.

His arms were shielding his head and he looked straight into Leanne's eyes. She was lying on the ground, atop the broken bamboo. He flashed a melancholy smile and tried to turn around to see behind him.

"Dan!" Leanne yelled, "Pull your wings straight back up vertically again! That way you won't tear your feathers anymore! And then tuck them behind you and run through here. Come on!"

She was amazingly sensible in such a moment of panic. He did so. Even though not all of the stalks released his wings, he could travel with their weight. Leanne fell back through the passage first and Dan followed, catching her from behind just before she fell. There was only a three foot gap between the stone wall and the bamboo-spear wall. Leanne hadn't learned to elevate herself vertically yet and she had no space to take off.

“Leanne,” he said, panting, “climb the wall, then kick off and get your speed there. Do not fall all the way to the grass or your wings will be worth no more than shreds of cloth.” She nodded, unaware of his doomed feelings inside. She wedged her fingers between the black bricks and pulled herself up, only for her arms to fail her. She toppled back down into Dan’s arms. “Leanne!” he yelled as he heard the thumping, beating sound of wings so nearby and the roar of fighters on foot closing in. It sounded like war.

“Leanne, hurry!” he urgently whispered. He raised her again to the wall. She clung to the bricks until Dan laced his fingers together and raised his arms, providing a place for her to step once again. He boosted her up and she climbed a few feet, then turned her head and looked down. Was it high enough? She kicked off the wall and fell, and fell, and she was going to hit the grass!

“Dan!” she screamed. The searchlight caused her wings to shine dangerously bright. He couldn’t run to her through the reaction of shielding his eyes. When he could see again, he caught a glimpse of her propelling herself upwards with each stroke of her delicate wings. Then he spread his wings to their fullest and brought them down with one mighty whoosh. The grass stalks clipped the edges of his feathers. Leaves and dirt flew up around him while blood dripped from his wounds. He looked below and saw the fighters aiming their arrows.

“Leanne!” he yelled, but she did not hesistate. “Leanne, arrows!” he cried again. She could not hear him. How was she to dodge? The sounds in her head of the pumping wings of the flyers and the roar of the fighters after them impaired her hearing.

Realizing this, Dan forced another powerful sweep of his wings and elevated to her height. As she turned to face him, he grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her waist and spread his wings as far out as he could. He knew that his tattered and bloody wings could not fly them both over the wall. He reluctantly drew them around Leanne and himself like a shield and instead of soaring, they fell.

Leanne heard his painful grunts and moans as the arrows pierced the tender muscles and the feathers, the heads of them breaking through. Leanne stared, wide-eyed, as the arrows came through, more rapidly each second. She looked at him and then could only stare in his eyes as they both fell, to the pit of spears below them.

The thick stalks broke under Dan and Leanne’s weight leaving only bruises but slid and tore through his wings easily. He could not even unfold them properly now and as he tried to roll away it tore his wings that much more. He was pinned to the ground like a butterfly in a glass case.

Leanne uncovered her head after the fall. She quickly glanced around. Had they made it over? She hadn't seen anything after he eveloped her in his wings. Then she saw Dan, unconscious, on the ground below her. Blood seeped from his wings and the small cuts in his flesh. Someone grabbed her from behind, crushing her pixie wings like paper. It hurt. Forcing the tears back and pushing away the pain, she cried and outstretched her arm and fingers as far as they could, as close to Dan as they could.

Out of desperation, the two of them had attempted to flee together. Perhaps, it could have ended in success. Or at least failure with a gained love and trust. Or perhaps, none of it was meant to be. Lonliness crept into Leanne's heart. Should she ever find another so bold and daring? After all the years that boy had been there, why had he chosen this night and with her to run away?

*****
Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews Maugh. I couldn't have done it without you!
*****