Challenge #32: Weekly Drabbles
Original story here.
Sarah continued to watch as Beth slipped away. Long after she had disappeared around a corner, she continued to stare after her. She hadn’t ever known anyone who’d tried to run away. Sure, she’d heard stories, but everyone has heard the stories and hardly anyone ever knew someone who’d actually tried to do it. She tossed and turned all night wondering where Beth was, if she and Jimmy had been caught.
Sitting down at breakfast, Sarah watched as security guards whispered in the corner. When her friend has confessed her secret plan to run away with her secret boyfriend, Jimmy, and defy the laws of Intellectual Mating, Sarah had been scared for her. It wasn’t until now that she realized how Beth’s actions could affect her. She was the last person to see Beth. She was Beth’s only roommate. Surely, she will be questioned about Beth’s whereabouts. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say.
Returning to her room, there were two guards waiting for her.
“As I assume you know, your roommate, Beth, has disappeared. We have a few questions for you concerning this,” said one of the guards.
“Okay,” she said nervously as her eyes passed over the club in attached to their belt.
“When was the last time you saw Beth?” he asked pulling out a handheld device.
“Last night as we were going to bed.”
“Did she say anything to you about wanting or planning to leave?
“No, never.”
“Was she acting differently?”
“No, not really.”
“Did you hear anything during the night?”
“No.”
“You expect us to believe that your roommate packed her things and left in the middle of the night without your knowing? That you didn’t hear or see anything? That she just ran away on a whim without telling anyone goodbye?” the guard practically shrieked.
“N-no, I mean, yes!” she stammered.
“Okay, okay,” said the other guard stepping in between the two of them. “Do you have any idea where she might have gone?”
“No,” said Sarah quietly. “I don’t know anything.”
“We’ll be in touch,” said the first guard gruffly, who stared at her over his shoulder as they left the room.
Alone, Sarah began to shake. What if the reason no one ever knew someone who’d known someone run away was because, by keeping their friends’ secret, they were deemed an accessory and punished just as harshly?
---
The full moon provided a bit of light, but after a few steps out the main door of the building, Beth was covered in darkness as there were no lights outside. There was no need. After curfew, only guards were allowed outdoors.
For the most part, the men and women were kept separate. Each had their own cluster of buildings for various purposes on either end of the city and they were rarely allowed to interact as They were convinced that fraternizing led to unhealthy physical relationships that would interfere with their overall plan, Intellectual Mating. Beth and Jimmy had met by chance as They typically never allowed Unequals, or those whose IQs were more than 20 points apart, to ever meet. Beth, eager to get away from the women’s quarters, volunteered to fill in for the women’s transporter who was ill. At the drop off point, there was the male transporter, Jimmy, waiting for the supplies.
Since then, they’d sneaked out to see each other on numerous occasions. However, sneaking out tonight was much more frightening. If she’d been caught before, they would have simply sent one of them away to another city, but being caught trying to run away? It was so unthinkable a crime that there was no publicly known punishment for it. Anyone else who had claimed to have done it simply vanished.
It was surprisingly easy to make one’s way to the men’s quarters after dark, though. There were so few guards as They believed keeping the men and women apart, kept them from understanding romantic love prevented them from yearning for each other. For the most part, they were right, but every couple years, there were rumors of one man and one woman vanishing, presumably together.
Beth could only hope that was because they’d succeeded in their plight.
“I’m here,” Beth whispered in the darkness through Jimmy’s cracked window, as they’d planned.
---
They stopped on the outskirts of the forest. Even though there were no lights behind them, the forest managed to diminish the little bit of light coming from the full moon.
But this was the only way to go if they wanted to be together. Sometimes what needed to be done wasn’t easy. Sometimes you had to fight for what you wanted.
They looked nervously at each other. Jimmy grabbed Beth’s hand and they smiled at each other. Both took a deep breath before they took their first steps into the forest, where they would shrug off their old lives and replace them with new ones where they made their own choices.