Tunnel

Tunnel

Whenever I look Cole in the eyes, I am reminded of two things.
         The first is water, but it isn't because of his eyes being blue.
The second thing would be the feeling of hope. No matter what we go through, Cole never loses hope.
I first met Cole at a small river about a quarter of a mile from a wall separating us from the Outside. It was a warm, sunny day that I couldn't understand how it had suddenly become the most frightening days of my life.
My brother and I loved the woods. He and I had gone there often, putting down our Comps when they became too much for us to deal with.
I didn't want to be separated from my brother, but I knew that the day would come when Fate would take him away, and then it would take me too.
Fate is a machine that decides what life you will have. All the adults say that Fate is fair, and gives wonderful lives to people, but I know that this is only because those people never had to choose for themselves in the first place.
When my brother turned eighteen, it was the worst day of his life. He had hoped Fate would be kind, and let him be a doctor, like he had always wanted... but it was not meant to be.
The Last Gift consists of a small black envelope with the receiver’s name on the back in white painted letters.
On the back of that envelope was my brother's name. Eric Denvir. Upon reading the letter, his face contorted into a look of pure horror, and he passed the letter on to me.

Eric Denvir,
Fate has scanned through your records, and has chosen the best life for you. In twenty-four hours, three members of the Police Force will come to collect you and bring you here to Fate Center for a necessary memory wipe, then begin your training for the Force.
We hope you are satisfied with your new life,
The Happy Staff of Fate Center

The next day, just as the letter said, men from the Force came and took him away. I hated those blank, dead eyes. The men on the Force had no memory or emotion. They were hollow shells, and that is what Eric was to become. A living, breathing machine. Eric would have no children, would feel no love, and never remember me.
My parents said they were proud. Proud. I never looked at them the same again. It was disgusting, to see them smile as the three men took my brother, who was crying and calling out to them, away from the life he was already satisfied with.
Suddenly, my brother was gone, and all those times he had called out to me and smiled were gone. I would never see him again.
A year later, I sat alone in the woods, when a quiet voice sounded from within my ears. "How long will you be staying, Lucy Denvir?" My ECD. I quickly yanked it from my ear. The noise was too bothersome outside of school.
I unzipped my bag and tossed my Comp and ECD inside.
From inside, I felt the Comp vibrate, and I already knew the message that had been sent.
"Lucy Denvir, you seem to have taken out your Electronic Communication Device. This is your 213th offense this year."
It doesn't matter, though. Since this is such a small offense, no one ever calls the Force about it.
Besides, it wouldn't get me any closer to my brother. He wouldn't even be able to remember me, let alone be allowed to see me. They would just give him some other job to do if I were caught.
My legs were suddenly itching to move, so I got off my knees and started randomly wandering. With my mind trailing off, I was taken by surprise when I suddenly stepped into the shallows of a narrow river.
I took a quick step back, then flopped down to pull off my soaked shoe.
It was then I noticed the bubbling on the surface of the water. I quietly crawled over to the river's edge to look, but the bubbling had stopped. The water was murky, like someone had stirred the sand on the bottom.
But in the afternoon sunlight, something gleamed, and my hand shot into the water. By the time my hand touched the slimy surface of the bottom of the shallow river, my arm was in shoulder-deep, and the long bangs of my brown hair almost touched the moving surface of the water.
I pawed around for a couple of seconds, then gave up, sighing. Some fish had probably swum by.
As I drew my hand out of the water, something wrapped around my wrist, and before I even had time to be surprised, I was submerged in water.
Someone's knee was on my belly, holding me down in the water. I sucked in a breath that filled my lungs with water. Long fingers were suddenly wrapped around my throat, and I was pulled from the water, sputtering.
In the light, I was momentarily blinded. "Who are you!?" a low voice whispered. My sight came back, and I was faced with the blue eyes of an animal.
Before I could answer, I was pushed back into the water. My heart was pounding in my throat, and I knew my attacker could feel it.
I couldn't hold in my breath any longer, and I let out the little air that I had left.
Water was in my nose, my mouth, and my lungs. It was all I could breathe in. Was I going to die?
The whole world faded away as I fell into a deep sleep.
***
My eyes shot open, and I sat up straight. I immediately regretted this decision when the headache started.
"Lie back down, fool." It was the same voice as before. Everything rushed back, and I heard the gurgle of the river, and I looked up to see that night had already fallen. A lump of fear formed in my throat. Why had no one come for me?
I turned to the direction of the voice, across the river. I saw the silhouette of a man facing away from me. "I won't hurt you. I can't really do anything from this side of the river." There was a long pause before he sighed. "Are you alright? I had to preform CPR, you know."
CPR? That hasn't been taught in so many years. With all kids taught to swim from an early age, CPR became unnecessary. How did he know how to preform it?
"I'm sorry, but I'm going to ask again. Who are you?"
I swallowed down the lump, and sucked in a shaky breath. "I... My name is Lucy." My voice was small, but I knew he heard it when he stood.
"Well, Lucy... I know that you must be scared, but I need your help." He moved slowly to the edge of the water. "I'm injured, and I don't know where I am."
He stepped silently into the water, and with each step closer, I felt my heart beating faster. My eyes were getting used to the dark, and if he got closer, I would see his face.
The man kept his head low, as if in submission. He inched out of the water, and I started to move back.
When he started to move in even closer, that fear became something even more terrifying. I tried to let out a scream, but all that came out was a breathless, silent cry. I tried to stand, but the man rushed forwards, quicker than lightning, and pulled me back down to the ground.
"Please. Help me. I don't want to die." His hand was wrapped tightly around my wrist, and he pulled my hand to his arm. Something warm and sticky was there, and as he guided my hand further up, I realized it was blood. I wanted to vomit, but I couldn't. My fingers found the ugly wound, and the man let out a gasp of pain.
"Someone... Someone shot me when I found this place. I had just managed to escape, when I heard you coming. I hid in the water." He laughed just the slightest bit. "I'm sorry about what I did. I thought you were the one who shot me."
The man lifted up his head to look at me, and I finally saw his face.
He had lightly tanned skin, and those same blue eyes as before, only they were calmer. In his mess of black hair was a single, small braid that fell into his choppy bangs. All of his hair was choppily cut, as if no one had taken a proper pair of scissors to it.
I don't know why, but looking into his eyes, I myself became calmer. My breathing slowed, and my heart wasn't trying to jump out of my chest anymore.
"Fine... Come with me, then." I whispered, standing. Looking up at the sky, I wondered what time it was. I looked around my surroundings again, worried my backpack was still in the river.
Leaning on a tree was my backpack. It was soaked through! I quickly unzipped the bag, already knowing my Comp and ELD were ruined. I guess that was why no one had found us by then.
After about an hour, I had found the way back home.
The lights were off, indicating my parents weren't home yet. That was good. I wouldn't have to explain my absence to them, or the strange person I had with me.
I slowly opened the door, looking around, just in case they were home.
The man still had his hand around my wrist, and I felt the muscles in his hand tighten with fear as we crept inside.
Moving faster now, I flicked on the lights and went to the kitchen to find the Med Kit. We still had one, because me and Eric had never wanted to the Med Center. Our parents had found it strange, but accepted it.
I opened it up and pulled out what I thought was needed, and made him sit down on the floor. I pulled a clean rag from the drawer and ran hot water on it.
He seemed to know what I was doing, and carefully took the rag in his hand. Biting his lip, he put the rag on his wound, and sucked in a deep breath. He cleaned his wound slowly, with shaky hands.
I ran upstairs to my room, and searched for my brother's pocket knife. I would have to get out the bullet somehow. From what I had felt, it wasn't in too deep.
When I felt the cold metal, I flinched a little. What was going on? Why was this happening to me?
I clenched my hand around the pocket knife. It didn't matter right now. This guy was in danger, and I had to help his somehow. I couldn't just leave him be.
From down below, I heard him groan. He must be in so much pain. When I thought about, how had he even managed to pin me down in his condition?
I thumped down the stairs noisily, to let him know I was coming. I peeked around the corner of the stairs to see him leaning back on the cabinet, his eyes shut. Was he sleeping?
He looked so defenseless, sitting there–like I could reach out my hand, and he would crumble away like dirt. The once white rag lay just inches from his hand, splotched with dark blood.
His blue eyes snapped open, and he stared me dead in the eye. It must have seemed like I had been spying on him!
You were, you idiot! I thought. My face suddenly felt hot, and I felt sick. Was this embarrassment? I'd never felt embarrassed before.
"Did you find what you were looking for, Lucy?" he whispered. I nodded slowly, and came from around the corner. He smiled a bit. "That's good."
I quickly moved to the rag drawer and tightly folded one of them. "What are you doing?" he said as I handed him the rag.
"It's something for you to bite down on. I haven't done this before, but I know it's going to hurt like hell."
He looked at me for a couple of seconds, then bit down on the rag, and turned his head away from me. When I knelt down beside him, I saw that he was shaking. We both were terrified.
“Stereo, play the loudest music we have at the maximum volume, please.” I said. If this guy did scream, it would all be over. The neighbors would call the Force, and both he and I would be captured.
“This is ill advised, Lucy Denvir.” the stereo said, buzzing to life. “Music at this volume level would-“
“Now, stereo! Please. It’s important.”
There was a long pause, and I almost thought that I had offended the stereo. Then I realized that this was a stupid thought. No matter what, machines did not feel. They did not love or hate. They only silently obey.
“Processing… Music brought to you by MCC. Enjoy.” The music was unintelligible to me. The blood was pounding in my ears, drowning out all sound.
I won’t go into gruesome detail, but I wouldn’t have needed the music to drown out any sounds. The man never screamed. His face went pale, and he clamped down on the rag, but he never ever made a sound. If it hadn’t been that rag he bit down on, it probably would have been his own tongue.
By the time I got the bullet out, the man was violently shaking, and I heard him whimper a bit, despite the music. I wanted to say we were done, that he would be alright. But that would have been a lie. I still had to disinfect and sew the wound.
I pulled out the bottle of disinfectant, and he knew what was coming. The disinfectant foamed viciously in the nasty wound, and his hand wrapped tightly around the handle of one of the floor cabinets. As quickly as I could, I cleaned out the disinfecting liquid.
Sickness set in when I pulled out the needle and the stitching thread. I almost vomited as I began to sew the wound shut. My breathing grew heavy as I finished sewing and began to knot the thread.
The man spat out the rag and gasped for air, falling face-first to the floor. “Thank you, Lucy…” I stayed silent, getting on my hands and knees to scrub the floor clean with the cleaner rag.
An intense silence followed that seemed to cause a heavy pressure in my head.
“Is there anywhere I can go? Somewhere I can hide? Anywhere, please.” I thought for a moment. He couldn’t go back to the woods, and if he went any farther into the city, he would surely be caught.
“If you really need a place to hide… the best place is here.” I said, standing and picking up both the rags. Touching them made my stomach fell like it was in a washing machine.
“...Okay.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his head turn in my direction. My head was throbbing, and my hands were sweating. Was I afraid?
Trying to brush off the unpleasant feeling, I stumbled my way to the door leading to the laundry room. I opened the slot and dropped the rags inside. “Washer, clean these twice through, then dry on high.” I said, rubbing my temples.
Realizing that I myself had blood on my hands, I flinched at the feeling of blood on my face. My body automatically jerked away my hands from my face. As the voiceless washer complied, I went to the sink and washed my hands with the hottest water I could stand. I desperately scrubbed my hands clean, and splashed water on my face.
By the time I was done, my face and hands were numb, and my fingers were pruned. I felt strangely drained all of a sudden, and I just sort of stared into space, which doesn’t happen often.
“I’m so sorry, Lucy.” the man said. His low voice wasn’t loud, but it startled me. I thought he had probably fallen asleep by then. “I asked you for help, and you don’t even know who I am… I just—“
“It’s okay,” I said, cutting him off. “I’m fine, and you’ll be fine. I don’t know how long it will take to heal, but you can stay here until you do.”
Again, my heart was thumping. Since when was I so bold around another person? I’d never interrupted another person’s sentence before. What was happening to me?
“My name is Cole. Cole Harris.