Olliven's Escape #4

I crawled to the foot of the bed and thrust my hand under, pulling out a dark black bag stuffed full of things. Like i said, a year of planning. I'd bought the bag the last week for a sum of 500 Republic Gold, the same amount my mother and father made each month at best combined.
It was worth every last coin. There was separate compartments like this bag was made for running away. There was a food storage section I'd already stocked full of what i thought were proper supplies, a waterproof part for clothes and other important things, and a little pouch on the inside that worked brilliantly for holding my citizen's I.D. and what little money i had left.
One of the boys - Kristoffer I think - called out my name in his sleep and my heart froze. I thought i'd been caught at first, and i was about to shush him when he went on and cooed Jamie and Jeffon's names as well before smacking his lips and starting to snore.
A sigh escaped my lips and i put my hands on the window sill, poking my head out and looking around.
Of course the coast is clear, anyone caught out of bed after hours is to be shot on sight, no one's would even dream of poking around out of place, especially in the slums where the police enjoyed showing up randomly and beating people down for the smallest of things.
I had to go.
No. I should stay.
But the government -
But my family...
A war was going on in my head, but i swung one leg over the sill, and then another, and before i could process anything, i was climbing down the wall. The perks of being poor is that your house isn't well kept and there are plenty of cracks in the siding that could double as foot and hand holds.
Dead grass crunched beneath my feet when i landed and i flattened against the house in case anyone had been near by. The road, for some reason, sounded like the safest route because of how noisy it was to travel through the grass. But then i'd have to go around road blocks until i got to the city.
That's where my year of planning came in to help me.
Where that year didn't help me, was preparing me for living out on the streets by myself.
I survived one, maybe two weeks until i gave up and sat down in an alley in the pouring rain with thirteen coins to my name, no job, no food, and no other clothes besides the ones on my back.
That's when a figure came up and extended a gloved hand to me. I somehow knew that if i didn't take that hand, i wouldn't survive. Those fingers clasped around mine and hoisted me to my feet. That was the first time i saw MAD.
To be honest, i didn't see him again until a year into my stay in the refuge. Ave was always going in and out of his room or office, but he never came to see us other kids...

*****

Olliven trails off and looks at Eyrin. "But that's a different story. You basically know the rest. I became MAD's scout, you ran away, came here, the government took everyone, and now we're at war. Such a happy end to a story, don't you agree?"