I have been an orphan since I was born. My father was executed and my mother died during childbirth. One day after I was born, I was sent to the only orphanage in our enclave, an old broken down one room school house inhabited by wildlife. The only place I could be myself was in the small gym just outside the great stone walls surrounding us. The people of my enclave-one of the seven surrounding the dome-is only allowed outside once every two weeks. The gym is full of workout equipment, but not enough so that we get too strong. Despite being allowed out only once every two weeks, I sometimes try to sneak out through a small hole that I made by digging out loose stone with an axe. I’ve been arrested before, but that doesn’t keep me from still doing it. The watchmen usually only let me off with a warning, but not everyone gets a warning. One of the other orphans tried to sneak out and he got caught. The last anyone saw of him was the watchmen leading him to the old court building inside our enclave. Ten months later, a groundskeeper found a small skeleton behind the courthouse, half covered up by old boards.

“Rust!” Vex calls for me, “Let’s get going! We’re going to be late for the ceremony of remembrance!"

“I’m coming!” I shout back as I grab my sack of food for the day and stuff a few coins in my pocket that I scavenged. Nothing is easy to obtain in the enclaves. The dictator has the watchmen remove anything that could be used to overthrow the government and him, only leaving the bare essentials and hardly anything to trade or buy with. The ceremony of remembrance is held every month in honor of when the dictator was a shining light in the darkness after all but some of the world was destroyed in a nuclear war. At the ceremony, we sacrifice half of our income that we make to go to the rebuilding of the dome, a protective force field around the capitol to protect it and its inhabitants. No one in the enclave ever wants to attend, but if you don’t, there are consequences. Not too long ago, a neighbor of mine hid at home. The watchmen found him, and burned him alive at a public execution after stuffing him in a barrel. At night, I can still hear his shrill screams in the darkness.

“Hurry up!” Vex yells. I snap out of my daydream and hurry out the door of my rundown shack that I purchased by saving up money for five years.

“I wonder what we’ll need to do this year?” Vex asks me.

“I don’t know, I respond, but I hope it isn’t as bad as last year.” I respond to him, shuddering at the thought of it. Another part of the ceremony is an act of appreciation the watchmen make us do. Every eighteen year old has to participate, and this year, Vex and I both hit the age this year and dread what is coming. Last year, they made everyone compete in a series of deadly challenges. Multiple people were killed and the last ten to finish were shipped off to the capitol to serve as a slave to the dictator.

“Whatever it is, we both need to stay here no matter what, or run away, because I am not going to serve the dictator.” Vex states. On the way, we meet up with my girl, Ivy Drift.

“I can’t believe we have to do this!” she exclaims, “Why don’t we just run away!”

“It’s too risky,” I reply, “There are too many people around us and we can’t just make a run for it. The watchmen would catch us.”

“Actually, she has a point,” Vex pipes up, “If we can make a distraction somewhere else, we might be able to get through the hole in the wall. We have nothing to lose here.” All of us were orphaned. Not many people live past the age of forty anymore, and all our parents had died, either by execution or childbirth. Many people tried to defy the government, but not many got off with it. Suddenly a thought jumps into my head.

I have just the plan,” I respond, but we’ll need to turn around and go back home to get weapons.

The door slams into the wall as I barge into my shack. I rush to the back of the dilapidated building and grab my axe and a small pocketknife on my bedside table. As soon as I grab them, I am already running out. We plan to meet up at the chapel, no longer used in religious practices, but as a museum for the old days of the nuclear war and the dictator. Ivy is already there, but Vex hasn’t appeared yet.

“Where is he?” I ask, “Did you see him on your way?”

“No,” Ivy responds, “But he lives all the way across the enclave, so he could take a while to get back.”

Let’s wait for five more minutes, and if he isn’t here by then, we go through with the plan without him.”

“Okay,” she agrees. Suddenly, a shrill scream rings out.

“Let’s go!” I yell, “This might be our chance to escape, and we won’t even need to use force.” We start running toward the hole in the stone, when I catch a glimpse of the public square. I plant my heels in the ground and skid to a halt. Vex is being beaten by watchmen, his dagger he scavenged a few years ago, lying on the ground ten feet away. I can tell he has been shot multiple times, by holes leaking blood. He lays on the ground, watchmen surrounding him. Without thinking, I charge in. Vex sees me and tries to yell at me to stop, but all that comes out of his mouth is blood. At this point, he doesn’t even look like the friend I have known for so long.

I toss the sack of apples to the side, and brandish my axe. Blindly, I start swinging at the watchmen. My axe gets stuck in one of them, so I yank my pocketknife from my dirty pocket. As I try to fend them off, Ivy runs in to help. By now, people are realizing that we have an advantage in numbers over the watchmen and they pick up anything they can to fight. My axe finally falls free from the watchmen’s chest and I pick it up. The square is in chaos, a revolt breaking out. The watchmen try to keep us down, but there are too many of us. As the watchmen are distracted, I run over to Vex and check on him. His face is bruised and bloody, half of an ear missing, and blood soaks his thin cheap shirt, turning it crimson. I kneel down next to him.

“Hey, I’ll get help,” I reassure him, “Just stay here and don’t move.” I turn to leave but he grabs my shirtsleeve.

“Don’t leave me,” He gurgles, “I’m not going to make it, but I want you to escape and–” his voice cuts off and he falls limp.

“To do what?” I plead, “Please Vex, you can make it, I know you.” But I realize he is gone, his soul left him. I gently lay him down and wipe away all the blood with my shirt. “I’ll make sure that the dome is never repaired,” I whisper in his ear, “and that there is never a ceremony in honor of the filthy dictator again.” Then I leave him.

There is no time for mourning right now, not when we have the upperhand on the government. Vex’s dagger is laying on the ground, so I grab it and fasten it to my waist using my belt. After doing that, I run over to find Ivy. I find her in a fierce battle with one of the watchmen. She is already fatigued and can’t last for much longer. Promising to myself that I won’t let another of my friends die, I whip out the dagger and slice the watchman across his back. As he falls to his knees, Ivy finishes him off with a quick jab of a kitchen knife, a rarity in the enclaves.

“Let’s go!” I urgently tell her, “Vex has passed on and he would want us to take this chance to escape.”

She stifles a sob, but then follows me along alleyways and through wheat fields to the hole in the wall. To keep watchmen from not discovering my secret, I fill the hole back in with stones loosely each time, so Ivy and I need to pull all the stones out to get through. The heavy stones are hard work, but my time from sneaking out and visiting the gym has helped, and in half an hour, we have a gap. Ivy goes through first and I follow.

Familiar scents of the outside world reach my nose as I take in the view. Ivy doesn't get out as much as me, so she stands there, staring at everything. Our enclaves are surrounded by walls and not much landscape inhabits them, so everything out here is new for her. Pretty soon, we have to go, though, or else the watchmen from the capitol will catch up to us. I can see the bright blue dome surrounding the capitol city and all its inhabitants, from where I stand, and there are bound to be capitol guards-known as watchmen in the enclaves, for how they follow our every move-patroling the perimeter. Suddenly, Ivy talks.

“What are we going to do now?” she asks, “since we’re between the capitol and ring of enclaves.”

I realize that I never thought of what would happen after we escaped. I always just focused on getting out and not looking back.

“I guess we try to get into the capital,” I respond. But before I can say anymore, a string of bullets flies just above our heads, gouging off chunks of rocks on the thick stone walls surrounding the prison-like home we just escaped.

Without thinking, I dive to the ground and pull Ivy with me. Right now, we are concealed in the long grass, but pretty soon I hear the soft padding of a watchman's old fashioned cavalier boots coming closer. And closer. And closer. With nothing else to do, I carefully and silently pull Vex’s dagger from my belt, and prepare for the worst.

The footsteps stop close enough that I can hear leather creak and someone breathing through their teeth. Ivy presses against my side and whispers “Please tell me you have a plan.” I think about lying. Instead I whisper back “Of course I do. It just hasn’t arrived yet.” My fingers tighten around Vex’s dagger and for half a heartbeat I swear it feels warm like it remembers his grip. The grass shifts and a shadow falls over us. Then the shadow speaks and ruins everything.

“Stand up slowly,” the watchman says, voice younger than I expected and shaky like he hates this as much as we do. Ivy tenses but before I can stop her she blurts out “If you are going to kill us can you at least aim better than your friends.” Silence. Then a snort. Actual laughter. The shadow kneels and the watchman peers down at us with wide eyes and a face that looks more terrified than cruel. “I’m not here to kill you,” he mutters. “I’m here to run.”

I blink. Ivy blinks harder. “Run where” I ask. He jerks his head toward the blue dome glowing in the distance. “Inside. The revolt wasn’t supposed to start today. The order came down to seal the capital and leave the enclaves to burn.” He swallows. “My sister is still in there.” Ivy grips my arm hard enough to bruise. Suddenly the world rearranges itself in my head and the neat line between enemy and ally smears into something ugly and human.

More boots crunch behind him and the watchman hisses “Decide now.” I look at Ivy and see the same thought reflected in her eyes. Vex wanted the dome gone. Maybe breaking it means going through it first. I nod once. “Fine,” I whisper. “But if you lie to us I will personally haunt you.” He almost smiles. Then he motions us forward and together we slip through the grass toward the light that was never meant to let anyone in.