In The Shadows
He dropped into the darkness with a splash, the flashlight flickered on revealing the 20th century brick wall wall in front of him. Nate’s shoes were covered in sewage but he didn’t care, his focus was on the surface above. Crouching on the ground, Nate turned off his flashlight, fearing it might attract the very thing he was trying to avoid. The search party passed overhead as he sat there The noise of the mechanical search dogs soon faded and Nate was left lying there in people’s filth.  It was half an hour before Nate pulled himself up off the filthy ground and pictured the map in his head. The stolen map that he had spent hours memorizing every day when he was supposed to asleep back at the institute.
Nates footsteps echoed through the empty, sewage filled tunnels. Only a little farther before he was at his destination. But then he heard something, a soft vibrating sound at first, but it got closer and clearer until he could make out what it was. It was someone talking, but not just one person! There were multiple voices all very close by! Nate picked up the pace a little bit, but they only got louder. He took a right, hoping he could lose them around that corner, but he got no such luck. He could actually hear what they were saying now, “Where is he?! You said he’d be here!”
“We’re going to be in so much trouble if we don’t find him”
“Don’t worry guys, he’ll be here, trust me.”
Nate was determined not to let them find him, but as he rounded the last corner, he ran straight into them…
?????
Ever since President Trump had come into office, nothing had been easy. The US was completely isolated from the outside world, cut off from Canada by a manmade canal deeper than the Pacific Ocean. The Canal was purely designed to keep us in, there were guard posts every 20 yards manned with machine guns around the clock. The water was infested with starving sharks that would eat anything in sight. Only the bravest ever dared to cross that canal, but none ever made it to the other side. They were either ripped apart by sharks, or ripped apart by bullets. As for the southern border, Trump had followed through with his promise and built the biggest wall the world has ever seen. Trump said it was to keep the Mexicans out, but few actually believed him. Many knew the real reason behind the wall was to keep us in, just like the canal. The wall was half a mile thick and spanned the entire southern border of the US, over 10 billion tons of raw, intimidating concrete. There were no doors of stairs to get on top. The guards at the posts lived up there in the small village on top. The only way to get up there was to take a helicopter.
Trump tricked the parents into sending their kids to “boarding school” for free. Those who decided not to send their kids away disappeared and were never heard from again. The boarding schools kids were sent away to, were actually military camps designed to train the generations of the future. All kids were to take rigorous exams that involved military strategy, overall academics, combat skills, and survival skills, which determined their group ranking. Nate had placed in the highest ranked group out of them all along with four other people, Makenna, Dylan, Jordan, and Ashley. They did everything together, they ate together, they learned together, trained together, and lived together. And together, they aced every test that came their way, whether it be combat or academics. Their top ranking came at a cost though, they were cast out by the other groups in at the camp. The Alpha group, as they were known, was not like the other groups, they did not care about anything other than succeeding at everything they did. And they were very good at being good. But that didn’t mean they got special treatment from the officers.
On the day the Alpha group devised a plan for escape, each one of them knew there was no turning back. The abusive generals in each class drilled them so hard that the only reason they were able to fall asleep for their three hours of allotted sleep time on the cold, hard rock that served as beds was because their bodies were exhausted. Every night from 2:00 am to 5:00 am, the Alpha team would plan their escape. One day they were at the sparring ring, just like they always were on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Nate was facing off against Dylan in the sparring ring, a bamboo pole flew by him as he ducked and spun out of the way. Attacking with his own pole, Nate sent a flurry of hits at Dylan and knocked him off balance, swept it under his feet and knocked him to the ground.
“Thats enough!” said general Frost.
Grabbing Dylan by the arm, Nate pulled him onto his feet and they walked out of the ring. As soon as both of Nate’s feet were on the ground, General Frost ordered them all to do 150 pull ups. Nate, Dylan, Jordan, Ashley, and Makenna all grabbed onto the sturdy wrought iron bar drilled into the cement wall above them and pulled their chins up over the bar again and again. They all jumped off the bars with their heart rate only slightly above it would be if they were sitting on a couch, a luxury which they hadn’t had access to since 2016 when Trump became President and they were all brought to institutes around the country identical to the one they were in now.
“That was easy!” exclaimed Nate.
“Don’t be so c***y Nathaniel, I could still take you any day, in fact, why don’t you hop in the ring right now?”
Nate and General Frost jumped into the ring and grabbed their bamboo poles with which they would be fighting each other.
It was immediately present that Nate was about to get the whooping of his life, as soon as Nate got into position the general attacked him with so much force that he could knock out a rhino with a single blow. Nte clumsily fended off the attacks and pushed him back, only to be confronted with another series of hits seconds later. This routine went on for a good twenty minutes with Nate getting pummeled by General Frost. The general should’ve called it off by now but he seemed ---- bent on beating Nate to a pulp and seemed to have an endless amount of energy to do so. But then something snapped and he slowed down drastically, Nate saw his opportunity and took it. The general was knocked off balance and wept off his feet, Nate’s favorite move. As General Frost was flipping to the ground, Nate saw something shiny fly out of his pocket and land in the corner of the ring. While everyone was distracted, Nate quickly went over to the corner and picked the shining object off of the ground. It looked like a very old key, maybe nineteenth century? This peaked Nates interest and he figured Ashley would know something about it, she loved things like this., but when he rejoined the group he couldn’t bring himself to mention it. This was the first thing Nate had discovered on his own, and he wanted the glory to be all his.
Every night while they planned their escape Nate would sneak out of the room, to go look for whatever the key was for, and come back and hour later and silently sit down on his rock slab without mentioning a single thing to his friends. The rest of the group was curious about his activities but knew that if Nate wanted to say something, he would, so they left him alone. The Alpha group devised a plan A and B for the escape and accounted for every possible scenario, once that was done it was time to start gathering supplies. They set up tasks and positions for everyone, Makenna was the thief her job was to steal the map. Once the map had been acquired, Nate was tasked with the job of memorizing the map, since he had the best memory of the group. Dylan and Ashley stood guard constantly in case anyone was came into the room. As for Jordan, her job was to keep a lookout, since she was the best at blending into the shadows. Alpha team took three weeks to prepare for the escape, they ate half ration and saved the other half for their voyage. Makenna also stole training equipment and was even able to swipe a few of the guards’ daggers while they slept.
Finally, the day for the escape came. That night, at the mess hall, Dylan picked a fight and the whole hall was soon filled with yells and crashes as punches were thrown, along with trays and food. This was Alpha’s chance to escape, they quietly snuck through the crowd to the main doors. Once they were all through the massive oak doors the hard part began. They navigated the dark labyrinthine halls in a  single file line, Jordan was most accustomed to the shadows so she was at the head of the line. They came to a corner and Jordan signaled for a stop. She quickly peeked around the corner and signaled two fingers, meaning that there were two guards. It was decided that Nate and Dylan would be the ones to handle the guards, so they snuck around the corner and approached the guards. Each one took a guard in the temple, their hands a blur. The guards slumped to the ground and they dragged them off into the shadows. Nate noticed a key ring on his guard and swiped it, figuring it would be important later on. Sure enough it was, Alpha group was soon on their way again, Jordan back in the lead, they came up to a set of steel reinforced double doors that seemed to lead to the outside. They were locked, obviously, so Nate went up to the doors and inserted a small silver key into the keyhole and turned it, but no luck. He tried another key, this one was gold and slightly bigger. This one fortunately worked and they were soon back on track. Through the double doors was the courtyard, as soon as they stepped out onto the grass they were enveloped in darkness. This darkness wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that the 100 yards of grass between the door and the outer wall of the institute was filled with traps and mines so as to keep them in. They decided there was nothing they could do to help them get through this mine field without alerting the guards on the guard towers, so there was only one option left. Trust their instincts and hope they didn’t die.
“Follow my lead,” Jordan whispered for fear of someone hearing her.
The first few minutes went by with relative ease, Jordan in the front of the pack again, since she was the one most accustomed to the shadows.  Then came Dylan right behind her, followed by Makenna, who was right in front of Ashley. Bringing up the rear was Nate. They all held onto each other so that they didn’t stray from the pack and end up in chunks all over the ground, it was so dark that even Jordan could only see two feet in front of her. Unfortunately the relative ease of the escape came to a screeching halt when Nate tripped and lost his grip on Ashley. Nate crashed to the ground with about as much grace an old man falling down the stairs.
“----!” thought Nate, “I screwed up the whole mission!” They all froze in their tracks, listening for any sign that people heard them… Nothing,
“I think we’re all good,” whispered Dylan, “Are you okay Nate?”
“Yeah, a little scratched up, but I’ve had much worse”
They started sneaking through the labyrinth of traps on the institute grounds, but only made it ten feet before Nate heard a soft clicking noise, like the one that came from bionic animals.
“You hear that guys?” he whispered
“Sounds like a bionic animal!” Jordan whispered. Nate stopped in his tracks, his heart pounding, and prayed that it wasn’t a bionic dog, and that it wouldn’t find them. But it seemed that today was not their lucky day, the dog started barking and Nate saw three spotlights all headed towards them. Without thinking Nate set off at a full sprint hoping he wouldn’t blow up, the rest not far behind him. The bionic dog was gaining on them and in that moment Nate knew exactly what to do. He stopped dead, swiveled around and pulled out a dagger, the dog came flying at him and his training kicked in. diving to the left, he dodged the attack and simultaneously stabbed his dagger out to the right. He felt the dagger hit home and rolled away, he left the dog lying on the ground and sprinted for the wall with the Alpha group right in front of him. They quickly scaled it and climbed down the other side, a split second later they were  face to face with five guards with their guns trained at their heads.
“Go on without me guys, I got this,” said Nate.
“No! We’re not abandoning you Nate!” said Ashley.
Nate grabbed her hand and looked her in the eyes, “Yes you will, I’ll catch up, I promise”
“C’mon Ashley! We gotta go!” said Dylan.
They started to run down the gravel path but were blocked by two of the guards. Nate sprinted at them and slid under them, turned around, and swept them to the ground with his leg. He rolled away and bullets flew by where he was half a second ago, Running again Nate headed straight towards the other three guards, jumping to the side as one of them shot towards him. Nate felt a sharp tug at his side but didn’t stop running at them, he pulled a dagger out of his belt and threw it at one of the guards, not waiting to see it hit home, Nate ran by the guard and pulled the dagger out of his chest ducked to avoid a clip of bullets and spun around, swinging the dagger out and slashing the guard across the face and kicking the other down to the ground, knocking him out. The other two guards got up off the ground and charged at him with their own daggers, Nate pulled a second out of his belt and bent his knees in anticipation of a fight. They both charged at him at once and he charged back at them, at the last second he dropped to his knees and sliced the tendons in their knees, they cried out in pain and Nate ended their lives with a swift slice to the throat. Standing up, Nate wiped the blood off his daggers and replaced them to his belt. He set off at a run down the gravel path towards the abandoned town.Behind him he heard the noise of the hover crafts and fighter planes starting up but he didn’t look back. Nate ran through the abandoned streets of the once bustling small village of Winterberry until he found what he was looking for. He quickly pulled open the manhole cover and dropped into the darkness with a splash, the flashlight flickered on, revealing the 20th century brick wall in front of him.
?????
Four faces stared straight back at Nate, all four of them were holding weapons, mostly daggers and knifes. In the darkness it was hard to tell if Nate knew them but then she spoke.
“Nate! We thought we lost you!”
It was Ashley! And Jordan, Dylan, and Makenna!
“Man am I glad to see you. I thought you were the institute.”
“ What happened to you side?!” Exclaimed Ashley
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” Nate chuckled, “I got shot by one of the guards, but it just grazed my side, I managed to avoid the worst of it”
“Oh my god! We need to get you some help!” said Ashley.
“No really, I’m fine,” said Nate, “It’s not like there’s anyone still here that can help us, and we definitely can’t go back to the institute. Let’s just keep moving”
They walked through the damp sewers, this time Nate was in the lead since he was the only one who knew where to go. They reached an intersection and stopped, Nate recalled the map in his head and took a right. He kept his eyes trained on the wall to his right, as if he were looking for something. He suddenly stopped dead and pulled a silver key out of his back pocket, the key that fell out of the general’s pocket, and felt around the wall. Nate soon found what he was looking for and inserted the key into a tiny hole in the wall, he turned it and there was a soft click behind the wall. Nate pushed lightly and the wall swung inwards revealing a sleek, silver 1957 Chevrolet Corvette, modified with the latest technology to be a flying car. The group admired the car and Makenna jumped in the driver’s seat, she being the only one of them who had actually learned to drive before she was taken away to the institute. They hopped in and started the car with the keys under the visor, Makenna pressed a red button that said “open” and the wall in front of them disappeared, revealing wide open skies. Nate laid down in the back seat as the car pulled out and flew off in the direction of England. The last thing Nate heard was
Ashley exclaiming, “Nate!” as the world around him faded into darkness.