Mercy tossed the last few vegetables in her backpack and quietly closed the door. Her backpack was larger than the average fifteen year olds. It was almost as long as she was tall. She slipped it on, and cautiously stepped down the stairs. She had to be careful. She could hear her father in the bedroom at the end of the hall. She could hear him snoring.
The snoring was the reason she had to slip out. He would be mad if he found her gone. Afraid that a surprise journey would make him angry, she had chosen a day to not try and succeed. Today was a Sunday, and the next day was Saturday.
Mercy crept through the kitchen area, and raced to the front door. She opened the door, and carefully stepped outside. She ran silently across the porch, hopped the fence, and ran down the street.
She slowly crept along the street, dodging hawks and dust devils. She was deep in a depression, and could recall the road. As she stepped on the road, she looked around for anything. She slammed her foot on the starting curb, and easily rolled out of the depression.
From the time she was old enough to run, Mercy had loved the dirt roads. On any full moon, she would wait for the light to turn thin into a sieve, and run out to the new dirt road.
She followed the dirt road north. After some time, she could glimpse the lights of the city from the hill that the dirt road was on. Something was wrong. The streets were deserted. No cars drove by. The empty street was just behind her.
"I should have known," Mercy muttered.
She ran as fast as she could when she saw two people suddenly standing in front of her. Mercy started to panic. She dropped her backpack, and the contents scattered all over the road. One of the people was her neighbor, Bekki!
The other person was a young teen, her age. He could not be her father, she was too short. She could see the bow and arrow on his back.
"Ms. Mercy," Bekki said. "I did not expect to see you here. And...and Mr. Kade, did I show you Mercy yet?"
"Yes?" he answered calmly.
"Mercy, this is Mr. Kade. Mr. Kade, this is Mercy."
"Hi!" Mercy said, snapping over her shoulder.
"Hi," Kade said. He was surprised at how light she was. It was if she were made of feathers, with nervous energy.
"Are you on serious business, Ms. Kade?" he asked.
"Actually...no. I thought I might stop by the old park for a while. I thought I might walk around. I didn't realize it would get so hot so fast."
"It is hot," Kade said.
"That is a very nice bow," Bekki interjected.
"Oh, thank you," Kade said. "I found it a few...a few days ago."
"You guys should go," said Mercy. "It is a long walk here."
"Well, I have some clothes in the bag," Kade said pointing to the backpack. "May I?"
"That is what it is there," she said. He reached for it, and Mercy quickly grabbed it from his reach.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"For a walk," Bekki said.
"Where?"
"Just around the old park," Bekki said.
Mercy noticed that the girl's glasses were broken. She must have fallen down, but she looked okay.
"That is not very far," Mercy said.
"We will be fine, dear," Bekki said. "Have a nice walk."
Mercy looked from one to the other, and back again.
"Okay," she said. She turned, and started walking down the road.
As the two were about to walk off, they heard a scream from behind them. They looked back to see a stick protruding from a large dust devil. It was a man, and he was dressed in a large body suit. It was obvious he was driving the dust devil.
"Whoa!" Mercy yelled. "You have a dust devil."
"Yep," the man said.
"How long has it been working?" Kade asked.
"It works fine," the man said. He quickly stopped the machine, and it fell to the ground.
"Sure does," he replied. "It started yesterday."
He pulled the dust devil up and walked up the street. Bekki and Kade walked after him. They watched him as he walked into the apartment just down the road from them.
"Is that him?" Bekki asked.
"No," said Kade. "I would recognize that hair anywhere."
Mercy heard the commotion from the door, but did not hear her name being called. She looked up to see her parents standing on the porch, Bekki waving back at her as she jumped off the curb and ran back.
"Mommy," Mercy squealed. She ran to her mother and hugged her.
"You left the scene of a suspected crime," said the man.
"Crime?" Mercy answered. "What crime?"
"I have it on camera," he continued.
"If you have it on camera, how would I be guilty?"
"I...I witnessed it," the girl replied. Mercy turned and looked at her.
"You witnessed it?" Mercy asked. "Did you tell your sister?"
"Well... not yet. I will get her tomorrow."
"Oh... Okay, well...the next time I see you, tell me," said Mercy.
"How do you know her?" Mercy's mother asked.
"She is a neighbor," Mercy answer.
"Did she hit you?" her father asked.
Mercy looked up at him, and stared.
"No," she finally replied. "She did not hit me."
"Well, you are not allowed away from the community or the apartment," her mother said.
"I wasn't going far," Mercy replied. She tried to walk away from her parents, but they stood in front of her.
"How did you get past the fence?" her father asked.
She looked up, and stared.
"I jumped it," she replied. He continued to stare.
"You are not allowed to leave the apartment alone," her mother said. "It is too dangerous."
"Too dangerous?" Mercy asked.
"No, too dangerous," her father replied.
She ignored them, and tried to run away.
"Mercy!" her father called. "Please answer my question."
She walked back to him.
"Yes?" she asked.
"The fence," he repeated. "Did you jump over it or crawl under it?"
"... Why?" she asked.
"Well... if you crawled under it, you are not allowed to leave the apartment," he explained.
She was surprised at the ferocity in his voice. And she knew that he was angry. She knew he hated her leaving. He did not want her to, but she needed to know more.
"There are no safety hazards outside of the city limits. We don't have any wild animals. We have only been attacked by dust devils, truchers, and dust storms."
"Well, you leave tomorrow. You are not to go outside alone. It is too dangerous."
"What are we going to do? You caught me leaving. You can't go chasing after me."
"We have a meeting to go to tomorrow," he explained.
"Like a meeting?" she asked. "Like a convention?"
"No, just a meeting. You know that your father will not make me do that."
"Oh please," she said. "You want a lawyer? You need a lawyer. They are just criminals, that's all."
"Criminals?" he asked.
"Yes, criminals!" she replied. She watched her parents as they exchanged glances.
"Criminals," he said blankly.
She walked back to her father, who was looking intently at the bunk. She walked back to her mother, who was putting her hand on her shoulder.
"When did this town turn so mean?" she asked them. They did not reply.
"I know, this town was once peaceful, but now it is just so messed up. It has been awhile since I was with my dad," Mercy said. "I don't like how it is now."
"Well," her mother said. "It is okay, it is back to a calm state. I mean, people die in nature from time to time. It is just a part of life. We have not been attacked in our part of the city for a few days now. It does not happen everyday, so you can relax a little."
"I just wanted to see it. That is all," Mercy explained. "I just want to see the barren and lonely place where so many people have died. I wonder if they have the side effects of the ones before them. I wonder if they will use them as talking points. I wonder if they got the classes from them."
"The classes?" her father asked. She looked up at him. He was a very big man.
She noticed the cat sitting silently on the bunk.
"Uh um, they are numbers," she said.
"What are numbers?" he asked.
"Numbers are used in school," she replied. "They are used in life."
"What are class numbers?" her mother asked. "What do those look like?"
She looked down at the floor as thought of how to explain this.
"They are very long numbers," she said. "I don't really have but one. It is a one..." she was curious as to how to explain it in human speak."
It was the first time she understood how strange she was. The way she spoke was very different from humans. She had not gotten the hang of it, and was curious how to say things.
"I have a few," her mother said. "One is for the bathroom. One is for washroom."
She wondered if numbers had anything to do with numbers. She walked to the door, and opened it.
"One is to open the door," she said. She heard her mother say something from behind her.
"Why did you stop her?" her father asked.
"Let her go," her mother replied. She was a little more than quiet. "She is her own person. She does as she likes. She is not a little girl anymore. She will get into trouble if she goes out."
"I know, but at the same time, she is not an adult," her father said.
"So?" her mother asked.
"She is our daughter. She goes through a lot with us. She needs to grow up."
Her father picked up the cat from the bunk, and put it on the ground.
"You let her go," her mother said. "No one controls me. I will go."
She turned, and looked away. Her face was betraying nothing; she did not show any of her emotions, or reveal even the thought that she could go. She was wearing a coat, but her purse was still on the table, and no one could easily see her bag, for it was in a different spot.
"Okay, I'll go," she told her mother. She gave a sigh, and turned.
"Thank you," she said.
She was rewarded with a look. It was a sneer.
"I will report you," her mother said. "Just like I report all the parents who take their children out. Do you understand me, dear? Do you understand that I have vowed to report every parent I can find abusing their children? I will never forgive you if you do that, and I will never be able to be that person again."
She walked out of the room. She turned and took off her coat, and hung it on the hook, and walked past her husband.
"Let her go," she said. "She is her own person. She is not a little girl anymore. She will get into trouble if she goes outside."
"Let her go?" he replied. "I will report you. You know why. You know why you have a walkie-talkie, and a hidden room. You want to put her in there, with that? She is like a fish out of water. She needs more social interaction. She needs to learn how to interact with people. This is not going to help her understand humans or how to learn how to be a human."
"It is okay," she said.
"No, it is not okay. It is not okay for her to be out on her own. It is not okay for her to see the world like this. She is a citizen. She is not a child. She needs supervision."
"But, she needs to see how it is to be a child," she replied.
"She is not a child," he replied.
"In the safety of our apartment, she can be a child," she replied. "If she bumps into something, she just says, "Hey you" and she will ask, "Am I okay?" She can still be a child."
"You have become strange," he replied. "You still trust your daughter. You talk about her like you are her parent."
"She is my child," she replied. "I want her to lose it all. I want her to get the experience to not trust anyone, but at the same time, she is not a child. She is just learning more so that she can become a more independent adult."
"Independent? How will she be independent? She is not even allowed out of the apartment. She will learn the world with us, learn how to be a better person, and she can trust it. We can teach her... but how will she learn without us? She needs supervision. She needs boundaries. She needs rules. She needs someone to say no. Who will say no to her then?"
Her mother walked away.
"You are right," a voice said. "I do need your permission."
She turned around, and saw the girl. Standing silently.
She looked young, but she was different. She was shorter and chubbier. Her hair was longer, and brown. She looked vaguely like her mother.