Escape
Evan is sitting coloring his pictures the way Ms. Idarr from school wants him to when he hears a breaking noise. The fancy window in the big room has broke. There are pieces of pointy glass lying on the floor. A gold flying baby-sized thing is in the room.
"Evan, get away from the window!" his big sister Sonia shouts, running in from the kitchen.
Sonia has grabbed a knife from the kitchen - the big sharp one that Mama always said to stay away from, because it would cut you apart. But it doesn't cut Sonia apart. Instead, the big knife in Sonia's hands cuts the flying gold thing apart. Its snarling face turns into dust.
Evan thinks it's not fair. Sonia was the one who grabbed the knife, so why is the gold baby-thing the one cut? More baby-things fly into the room, and Sonia keeps slashing with the big knife.
Then, Mama runs into the room and waves her shiny-shooter around. The remaining baby-things Sonia didn't cut with the big knife go up in sparkles. Evan likes sparkles. Mama is lucky to have a shiny-shooter that must make them.
Mama's announcing-box strapped to her side sounds. "Walls down, I repeat, the walls are breached!" the man on the announcing-box says.
Evan is confused. Isn't going down to the beach supposed to be fun? Cousin Olivia said the beaches on her world were great. Why was the man so unhappy if there was a beach on the wall? Walls were boring anyways.
Mama starts shaking. Evan is worried - Mama is scared, but Mama is the bravest person he knows. Mama can't be scared. But Mama is shaking, and not-scared people don't shake.
"Come on, Evan, Sonia," Mama tells them hurriedly. "We're leaving."
"But what about the big knife? Sonia's not allowed to have it!" Evan says.
"Well, this is a special day," Mama answers. "Sonia can have the big knife with her today."
"Where are we going?" Evan asks again. Sonia nods.
"We're going to the tunnels," Mama replies gently, "the train tunnels."
"Like the one we take to visit Uncle Rory in Lemnos," Sonia adds.
Evan likes trains. The
chugga-chugga noise they make is so fun. And he likes Uncle Rory too. Uncle Rory tells the best stories. Evan wants to hear more stories and he wants to sit on the fun train. He runs after Mama and Sonia.
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They run and run and run for so long. Evan gets tired. He wants to stop now. The
chugga-chugga train is no fun when Evan is tired. Maybe they can go see Uncle Rory tomorrow instead.
"Mama, I'm tired," Evan says, panting between words with big breaths. "Can we stop now?"
"Keep going, Evan," Sonia says. "We're almost there."
"Yes, we need to get to the tunnels soon," Mama agrees.
It's not fair. Sonia has better legs. She can run longer. Evan is too tired to run. Why can't Mama listen to Evan and not Sonia and wait until tomorrow?
Mama picks Evan up and they keep running. They cross a big stone field that Sonia once told him was called a plaza. On the other side is a rock face with a round black hole on its side.
"There!" Sonia says, pointing. "I see the tunnel!"
But they're only halfway across when golden people-things with wings on their backs surround the area. Mama drops Evan to the hard ground and pulls out her shiny-shooter. She points it and the tip of it flashes with light. A person-thing goes up in sparkles.
The gold flying people-things with the metal wings kind of scare Evan. They remind him of Mr. Boren. Mr. Boren was the meanest teacher at school. He was always angry and shouting when people didn't do what he wanted.
Sonia said the gold people-things are called angyls. Mama didn't correct her, so Sonia must be right.
Mama looks angry. Mama never gets angry unless someone did something bad. Mama likes almost everything. The angyls must have done something bad to make Mama not like them. Evan decides he doesn't like angyls either.
Mama keeps pointing with her shiny-shooter and angyls keep turning into sparkles. Angyls are ugly. Sparkles are pretty. The sparkle-making shiny-shooter in Mama's hands is the prettiest, Evan decides.
Even with all the pretty sparkles, there are more ugly angyls. There is no space to run to the hole in the rock.
Mama is crying. Mama never cries. Only Sonia does. But Sonia isn't crying. She just looks scared.
Mama stops making sparkles and turns around. The crowd of angyls gets closer. She pulls Sonia aside. Mama and Sonia talk, too quiet and fast for Evan to hear. He catches phrases like "not letting them take us" and "the Emperor protects" and "end it myself". What does Mama mean? Sonia seems to understand. She stiffens and nods. Mama pulls back.
"Evan, listen to me," Mama says to him, voice shaking. "You are going to sleep now."
Evan doesn't want to sleep. It's still morning, and he just got up from bed. Evan only goes to sleep at night.
"But Mama," Evan protests, "I don't wanna sleep. I want to ride the train and see Uncle Rory!"
"I'm afraid our plans have changed," Mama replies.
"But I'm not tired!"
"Be a good boy, Evan," Mama says, more steadily. "Say goodnight, and close your eyes."
Evan says goodnight. Evan is a good boy, and good boys always do what Mama says.
Mama raises her shiny-shooter and points it at him. Her hand shakes. Evan smiles a little. He keeps his eyes open. Maybe Mama will let him see the sparkles this time. Mama always told him to look away before, but maybe this time she will let him.
"Close your eyes," Mama says again. Why are there shiny lines on her face? Mama's face is normally so smooth.
Evan closes his eyes, but he wants to see the pretty sparkles too. Evan opens his eyes just a tiny little bit, so Mama won't see. He hopes this doesn't make him a bad boy.
There is a flash, as bright as the sun.
And then only darkness.
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AN: This is definitely the darkest piece I've written so far. Hopefully I got the voice right, since this is quite different from my usual writing style.
As the rolls pointed out, there were no survivors at Helm's Deep.
In case you were wondering, Sonia was 15 years old and Evan was 4 at the time of the story.
@Durin
:<
