The sweat was coming off our bodies by the gallons. We were almost caught this stupid kid was going to get us killed, or worse captured which would lead to torturing then when they got what they wanted, death.


“What the h*ll were you thinking!” I yelled at her.


“Well we didn’t get caught, or killed. So what do you want me to say?”


“You stupid reckless incompetent girl they will want to know where the food went and then the guard will explain how he was out smarted by two teenage runners!”

“I told you not to call me a runner!”


“Well sweetheart that’s what the
now considers you. So get use to the thought.”


“I wouldn’t have to get used to it if you hadn’t pulled me along with you!”


“Do you want to go back to that h*ll hole you call a house?”


“No but…”


“Well then I guess you get use to the idea of being a runner because that is exactly what you are and will be! Got it?” She nodded slowly as if trying to cover the facts up. There were four facts that we both had to live with:

Fact one: We (weather we liked it or not) were both runners.
Fact two: Runners were teens that the government had tried to kill.
Fact three: We both had only each other.
Fact four: There was only one thing that we could do…. Survive.


Many people had grown up hearing about how bad the runners were. But now that I was one of ‘them’ it seamed that the real fault was the government. They make you give them 50% of everything you make every month, they won’t let you leave the country, they blame you for the world’s problems, they take your children and force them into the labor factories, then they make random children seem horrible by labeling them runners.


Runners are kids that the government are trying to kill. A lot of them are homeless or almost homeless. Runners had no set agenda and no set home. The government had ways of dealing with you if they couldn’t kill you… they went after your family. That’s what happened to mine. My parents tried to protect me and they ended up losing their own lives. The only way that I could truly honor them was by living day by day. Then when the time came I would be the cause of the downfall of the government.


None of this would happen to Kura though; no she came from a rich family. If that’s what you would call it, no one ever paid any notice to her as far as anyone cared she didn’t exist. when I found her she had just had a mental break down. Her father was beating her and her brother was watching and smirking. “That will teach you to walk in this house without respect.” I had heard him call out to the girl that would be my companion for the next month or so. When I saw the girl in trouble out of instinct I had rushed to her aid. When the small fight was over the girl and me were left out side and told never to come into their house again. Not that I had a problem with it. But when Kura started to cry I knew I couldn’t leave her there by her self, if I did she would die. It had been almost a week since I find her.


Now our job was simple, we just had to find enough runners to cause enough chaos to bring down the government, this would mean finding not only other teen runners but surviving runners as well, most of whom are rich now. You see when you have survived to the age of 18 as a runner the government was no longer after you, so when things like that happened they got good jobs and lots of times they ended up working for the government trying to track down other runners, there were some good people that helped the victims escape but a few were there for the money and the less runners that were captured the less money that was made.


But the only question was, how do we find the other runners? That was simple, on the streets. It is a rarity for a rich kid to be a runner. Rare but it does still happen. So the best bet would to be look on the streets, that’s were I could find out which surviving runners were decent and which ones we had to be careful about.



“Come on, I know where we can find the others.”



“But I’m starving!”



“We can have what’s left over. That’s so we get information or other runners joining us.”



“What,you made me risk my life for food that were not even going to eat!”


“No I made you risk your life for food were not going to eat so we would have something to negotiate with.”


“You are so… so… so…”


“Ah finally at a loss for words?”


“Imposable. You are so imposable.”


“Can we go now? Or do you want to keep this up?”


“Whatever.”


“Thank you.” As we left I noticed that a camera had been watching is the whole time. “S***!”


“What is it now?” Koura asked turning around. When I didn’t answer she followed my gaze. “Cr*p.”


“Do you think that they were watching us?” As if on voice command there were men in black uniforms surrounding us from each side.


“Yes, I do think that.” I said.