text: Blair Wilson ANON Is it okay to run away?............Even when you running from someone you love? 
   
   
     
   
   
   ~ANON~ 
   
   
  THE TREES APPEAR AS A GREEN BLUR as I run. I could see the sun at its highest peak. I could hear the crunch of the dry leaves and branches,  with every step. I could see him already, trying to sneak up on a deer. A brown, white spotted, long legged deer. The kind of deer they only make in The Laboratory.  He is about to shoot it with an arrow.  A gold dipped arrow, a very expensive looking piece of craft.I step into the same, narrow path he is in. And scream by but off , scaring the tiny creature into the bushes. 
  “What the heck, Sparrow?” Liam asked me. 
  I don’t answer him. I just walk over to the creek, sitting by Big Oak, another Lab-creature. I sigh. 
  Liam understands that I want to talk to him and sits down beside me. 
  “What’s wrong, Spar?” 
  “Nothing”, I lie. 
  I wrap my hands over my knees and sigh again. 
  “Tell me”, Liam says, bumping his shoulder with mine. 
  I don’t answer. 
  I sigh another time, then lay down my back on the damp ground. 
  “Fine”, he says, copying my moves. 
  I look up into to the sky, the sun is almost done setting. I, then, look into Liam’s eyes. 
  “I want to run away, Liam. I want you to runaway with me.”, I blurt, feeling weight lift off of my shoulders. 
  Liam sits up, and sighs. I copy his moves. 
  “You know we can’t. We have family and friends here. How can we leave them? Why would you even suggest that? ‘We-” 
  “I know, I know ‘We can’t keep thinking about us, We have to to think about our neighbors, and our neighbors, neighbors, because without them there wouldn’t have been us’. Why do you keep quoting my dad?  It’s getting really tiring hearing you talk about my dad all the time” 
  “Well, he is the mayor and- hey! Stop trying to change the subject. We already talked about running away. It can’t be done. It’s too risky” 
  We were silent for a while. 
  “I can’t take this Liam: the tiring labor, the continuing food shortage. Its getting worse, Liam. People are dying. And The Officials won’t even let us bury them. They are being burned and the stench always stinks up the village. I am sick and tired of having to cope with the deathly changes. I am-” 
  “SPARROW!!!” 
  I look at him, then I look through the patch of trees, hearing my echo, not realizing I was screaming. 
  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scream like that. I am just so mad...and tired. So tired” 
  “I know Spar. We all are” 
  “Why can’t we just leave? Pack up our stuff and just leave?” 
  “We will” 
  “When? When will we be free of Them and stop being afraid of stepping out of our own doorstep? When?” 
  I could barely see through the salty tears streaking down my cheeks. I can feel my fists clenched, and I can hear my heart beating rapidly, out of anxiety. 
  “When?” I repeat. 
  “One Day”, Liam replies. 
  I sigh and lean my head against his shoulder. 
  And I repeat the words that will echo across the mountains when I scream them at the the top of my lungs. 
  “One Day” 
   
   
   Publication Date: April 29th 2012 https://www.bookrix.com/-naynalova