Inside The Wall - Caleb VanSteenwyk (short books to read .txt) 📗

you? They’re making advancements. I’ve never actually seen them myself, but I do talk to Scar often. I could point you in the right direction, maybe even come with you and show you around.” Baron said with a smile.
“They still killed my parents. The Rebellion is the reason for those guards, too. They’re why they took us off the streets and turned us into fighting machines.”
“And now they’re figuring out how to reverse it. It’s a significant breakthrough.”
“Look, you can say whatever you want. But I am not joining the Rebellion unless forced to. End of story.” Saying this, I got up, and left Baron’s bar.
As I left, he yelled out. “If you change your mind, remember what I said!”
Chapter Three

The trip home was what ultimately threw me into the fight, and ultimately decided my fate. I witnessed something that happens ordinarily, but caused me to lose control.
As I walked home, I saw a fight going on, and everyone but the ones involved walking away. The fight horrified me, and gave me a choice to back up or fight. My first thought was to just walk away and pretend I saw nothing, until I saw the boy in the fight. He was about John’s age, and I thought about how I walked away from the fight with John. I knew I couldn’t do that again, and ran into the fight.
The fight involved three people. First on the assault was a guard, in his shining black armor, trying to take the boy captive. The mother of the boy, however, was not allowing it. She was fighting back, screaming, and crying. Without weapons, however, it looked like she was just throwing herself at him, hitting and kicking. All she accomplished with this action was to anger the guard, and he repeatedly at the cold earth. By now, all Peasants had cleared the area, running or hiding behind run-down buildings.
I ran out at them, taking out my knife as I did so. When the guard turned his head and saw me charging at him, he threw the boy and his mother to the floor, and faced me. From a sheath by his midsection, he took out a black handgun and pointed it at the mother on the ground. “If you take one more step, the mother dies.” He threatened. “Drop you knife, and back away.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. “Okay, okay. Just leave them alone, then.”
“You know that won’t happen. Drop your weapon, or the mom dies. And I have one more hostage if you don’t.”
I looked at the mind-controlled person in disgust. “Is their no person left in there? No one can hear me or react like you used to? You have no memory of your past at all? No sympathy? There’s no bell in your head that realizes that your pointing guns at a person?” I asked.
“I don’t understand your questions, and don’t have to answer them. Drop your weapon. One more pointless question, and the mom dies.”
“Fine.” I slowly bent down to the ground and set my weapon down. Then, I slowly backed u. The guard picked up the boy and his mom, the boy held in a headlock, and the gun pointed at the mother with his other.
“Come with me.” The guard said to the mom, who got up and followed, tears rising in her eyes, which were red and blurry.
If I continued pursuit, all three of us could die. But, I could save us all. Staying here would ultimately result in the boy and the mom wishing she were dead anyways, and I had nothing to lose. I ran up and picked up my knife, running towards them. To stay out of sight, I climbed up a balcony and onto the rooftops, Jumping from roof to roof to where I knew the guards would go – towards the Noble’s District.
I stayed near the edge, looking down at the Peasants walking by, searching for the guard. When I saw Peasants running away in a confused chaos, I knew that I was close. None of them wanted to get involved with a guard or Noble of any kind. They knew it would not turn out good for them, or anyone around them. If they took any action, the guards would see it as an act by the Rebellion. Even if they would somehow defeat the guard, every guard in the city would recognize their face, and they would be killed on sight.
When I spotted the guard with the boy, I slowed down, trying not to knock down the shingles, or make any noise. I crawled crouched down into their path, my knife in my hand.
Finally, when they were right in front of me, I stood up. The guard must’ve heard me, because he looked up just as I landed on top of him, digging my knife into the back of his neck. There was an initial ring of metal hitting metal, and then a crunch as the knife pierced the spine. The guard fell down to the ground. They were strong, but not invincible. Lying on the ground, the guard stared at me, probably putting my face on the wanted list. If another guard saw me, I would be shot at.
With a sudden, mechanical jerk the guard turned his head to the boy’s mother, and raised his weapon.
“No!” the boy cried out, and pushed himself towards the guard, but any attempt would be too late. The guard pulled the trigger sending a loud boom through the air, causing silence to take over, and the mother fell to the earth. When I looked down at the mom, the bullet hole was dead center on her forehead.
Again the boy cried out. “No! No, no, no!” He knelt down near his mother, and stared at her face, just to assure him there was nothing he could do. It was all over. Like the mother was just minutes before, the boy was crying and screaming uncontrollably. There were no audible words coming out of his mouth, only wails and murmurs.
Soon, it just broke down to quiet sobs. I finally spoke up. “Kid, we got to get out of here. More guards will be here any moment now.”
He didn’t look up from his mom, but he replied. “Why did you do that?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Why did you kill my mom? If you had done that, she’d be alive. You didn’t have to. You chose to kill my mom.”
“Look, I was only trying to help.”
“They were going to let her go!” He stood up and locked eyes with me. His were red and watery, his veins showing up prominently. There were bags under his eyes, and he looked like he had been crying for hours, not just minutes. “They said they weren’t going to hurt her! They just wanted me!” He continued to weep and yell at the same time.
“Look, they were going to take you away. You wouldn’t remember anything else for the rest of your life. They probably would’ve killed her anyways.”
“They said they wouldn’t! They said that they were going to let her go, and they just wanted to take me somewhere!”
“They lied.” I replied. “Why else would your mom be crying and fighting? She knew that they were lying. She knew that she’d never see you again.”
“They weren’t lying! You killed my mom, and I hate you!” He screamed, his voice shaking.
“Fine, hate me.” I replied. “But no matter how much you do, it won’t change the fact that what I’m saying is true, and that we will all lose people. Life will never be fair, and if I wouldn’t have helped, you wouldn’t be alive right now, and you mom would be lying on the floor, crying.” With that statement, I left the kid.

Chapter Four

The next day, I woke up to a rattling noise in my house. Slowly, I got up and gripped my knife, ready for any guard that decided to follow me home. Considering that I killed a guard, they would no doubt expect me to be part of the Rebellion. But if there were a guard that followed me home, he wouldn’t be alone. By any means necessary, they would exterminate me. But, for all I knew, John could be invading my house in black armor, raising his weapon to my forehead, controlled by the Nobles. I wasn’t sure if I could handle that.
Then I realized I couldn’t know. Their faces are all hidden behind visors, never revealed to any assailant. The guard I killed yesterday could’ve been John. It was unlikely, but I could never know. This thought alone froze me in place, my face dug into the worn mattress. But I had to get up, or else I could die here like a coward, face hidden.
I jumped up suddenly, facing the source of the noise, knife raised, trying to catch the invader by surprise. But all that was there was the boy from yesterday, struggling to fit through my open window. He raised his head and saw me facing him with my knife raised.
“Don’t hurt me! I’m not here for anything bad!” The boy screamed, raising his hands and falling into my house onto the dirt.
“I’m not going to hurt you. What are you doing here?” I asked him.
“I had nowhere else to go. Guards surrounded my house. And, I figured since you, uh…” The kid stumbled, unsure what to say.
“Saved your life?” I finished for him.
“Yeah, that. I realized that you were right. About what you did. It’s what you had to do. So, I thought that I should probably warn you. I heard the guards talking about invading your house. They’re coming soon.”
“The guards are coming here?” I asked.
“That’s what I just said, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, sorry. Let’s go. Now.”
“Agreed.”
As if on cue, the mesmerizing synchronized marching of the guard sounded. The window, I mouthed, being careful. I didn’t know how good the hearing of the guards was, and I doubted they could hear me, but you could never be too cautious. I motioned for the kid to go first, and lifted him up onto