In order to leave, I had to let my parents and my sister know. I couldn’t just tell them to run away with me one day. They wouldn’t know what was going on. It would also help if they were in on it because they could help me plan. I don’t know if I can do all this on my own.

I walked out of my bedroom into the living room where my mom and dad were folding laundry. I asked them when the next Event was. Events are gatherings where the soldiers give everyone a new list of rules to follow and the punishments for each rule. As of now, we could only wear certain colors, and we could only own certain things, and we had to attend all the events. Plus, we couldn’t have any possessions. Soldiers came to every home and took everyone’s possessions the day the rule was initiated. The only thing we could own were two sets of clothing per person, a small wristwatch, and a small TV with an antenna so we knew when the events took place. There was only one channel on TV. On this channel, Ching’s leader is telling everyone the time, date, and location of the next Event. My mom said the next Event was next Friday at 7:00 PM. That’s one week away.
“Mom, Dad, I wanted to ask you both something.”
“What is it?” Dad asked with a worried expression on his face.
“Well, I don’t think this is the right place.” I said.
There were cameras everywhere. Following us. Watching our every move. The second we said, or did something that was against the rules, they would come bursting through the door.
“Is everything alright?” Mom whispered.
“Um, yeah. It’s just about Michelle’s birthday.”
That was a lie. I couldn’t tell them what it was. We would be killed a second later. I also didn’t want Mom or Dad to worry. So, I just told them it was about my sister’s birthday. It was believable. It’s in two weeks. Plus, there’s no reason for Mom and Dad to worry. There’s nothing wrong, in particular, it’s just, everything. That’s why we need to leave. We need to be gone by Sunday. That’s four days. We need to plan. We need to get supplies. There’s so much to do. I don’t have any idea how we’re going to do this. We’re going to have to figure it out by Friday, so we can be out of here by Sunday.

I went into town to get groceries because my mom couldn’t since she was cleaning the house. While I was there I looked around so I could try to find all the cameras. I needed to know where I could talk to my parents without arousing suspicion. I can’t just go into the woods. That would be too obvious. Plus, there’s probably cameras even there. They’re everywhere.
I needed to find a place where it was too loud to be heard. A place where we could better blend into the crowd. I can’t think of any noisy places anymore though. People are so nervous now, everyone in public talks in whispers. Maybe at the bus station. There are more people there than anywhere else I can think of besides the Events, but I obviously couldn’t talk to them there because there are too many soldiers around.
The bus station. The more I think about it, the more I think that’s the best place. There’s only one camera at the bus station. Also, there are about a hundred people waiting for the bus at a time. With everyone talking, even if it’s just a whisper amongst themselves, it will be impossible for the cameras to hear us. I have to somehow convince my parents to walk to the bus station with me without telling them though which may be a little more difficult. I could ask them to ride with me to get a birthday present for Michelle. I don’t know, even if I were going to get Michelle something for her birthday, there isn’t a lot we’re allowed to buy anymore, just the necessities. Ching’s leader sends soldiers to every house with a week’s worth of food and supplies in them. They don’t even let us choose our supplies. They will only let us go shopping if we tell them exactly what we’re going to buy. I guess it wouldn’t be a lie if we really did get her something.
She’s turning twelve. I don't know what she would want for her birthday, but Mom would probably know.
I got the groceries and went to check out. Once I was finished I got on the bus and went home. I walked through the front door, and both Mom and Dad were sitting on the couch. I could tell they were both waiting for me to get home.
“Did you say you needed to talk to me about Michelle's birthday?” Mom said.
"Yeah, I just said that we should get her present soon." I told her.
“Sure do you know what you want to get her?" Mom asked me.
"Not exactly, I was hoping you could go with me to help me find something."
"Okay, I think we can go right now. I don’t have anything else I have to do.” Mom told me.
I don't know how she's going to react when I tell her we have to leave. I just can't stand having these people hovering over my shoulder.
When we got to the bus station, my mom started talking about what we should get Michelle. I guess she didn't figure out that I just needed place for us to talk without being overheard.
“Mom, I didn’t really want to go shopping for Michelle’s birthday.” I told her.
“What do you mean? Her birthday is coming up.” Mom reminded me.
“I just needed a place for us to talk about things.”
“Kara, what are you talking about?”
“You know that this isn’t fair.”
“Why are you being so vague? What’s wrong?”
“Mom, come on, you know what I’m talking about. You knew I would tell you this sooner or later.”
“You’re talking about the government.”
“This isn’t even our government. It’s a government telling us what to do. This isn’t right. We need to leave.”
“What are you talking about? We can’t leave. What do you expect us to do? Pack up and go into hiding somewhere?”
“Mom, that’s better than living for another month just to die anyway. They don’t even treat us like people. Ching citizens are the people. We’re just their slaves. We make money and give it to them. They tell us what we can do, say, and think. We can only have what they allow us to have. We can’t even buy the food we want. They tell us what food we can have and give it to us in a brown paper bag. This isn’t fair you have to know that.”
“You really don’t think I realize that? If we try to leave, we die. If we stay here at least they give us some food.”
“If we stay, we’re going to die anyway. If we try to leave, at least we’d have a chance of being free. Don’t we have family in Cade? Why can’t we live with them? I’d rather risk dying for the chance of really living. Even if I die, I’d rather die than live like this.”
“Okay. I will talk to your father. I see what you’re saying. You’re right. We shouldn’t have to live like this when your grandmother lives in Cade. It would be wonderful to live with her again until we can find our own place.”
“Now let’s get on a bus before someone notices we’re just using this place as a way to talk,” I said.
Mom laughed. “Okay let’s go get your sister something for her birthday.”
When we got back from the store, we hid Michelle’s present in the hall closet. We got her a new book along with a box of candy. I think that she will like the book more than the candy. She loves to read. I’ve never found a book that I’ve actually liked. I don’t really like to read that much.
Mom told me that she would go to the bus station with Dad tomorrow so they could discuss things. They had to go to the bank anyway so they could make sure they had enough money to pay taxes to the Ching government. It’s wrong that they could make us pay taxes when this shouldn’t have been their land in the first place.

We will leave tonight. Dad agreed to escape. He said he’s been wanting to for a long time but he didn’t want to endanger us.
Dad says that the best way for us to get out of the country is by crossing the border between Ame and Cade. We have bikes in the garage. We will travel to the border on a bike. It will take a long time but we can do it. We live on the northern part of Callie near the coast. To get to Cade’s border, we will travel north through Washe, and Oregg. Then we will cross the border.

We leave first thing in the morning. We will leave before the sun comes up. We each have a backpack with one flashlight, some food, and one small thermal blanket. It will take awhile to get there on bike. Dad estimated that it would take about a week of traveling with few stops. The only stops we will make will be to sleep for a few hours. We will have to go on little sleep.
We will stop in the woods so it will be more difficult to be found. This is the best plan we could’ve come up with. I think we have a good chance of escaping. Even if we get captured, I’d rather be killed than kept prisoner.
Five days. Five days of traveling on a bike. Five days of hiding from soldiers. Five days of sleeping in the woods. Five days of three hours of sleep each night. This is the longest bike ride of my life. It is also the most important.

We have slowed down. We should be closer to Cade than we are. We just passed into Washe, and we have about three days left of traveling when we should have two. It’s just as well. It won’t matter how long it takes as long as we’re not caught. It won’t matter how tired or sore we are as long as we aren’t caught. It won’t matter.
Two more days without sleep. Two more days of long hours riding bikes. Two more days of silence, going hours without saying a word. We only talk for brief moments if we’re going to turn here, or we could save time by going this way. It doesn’t matter though. We haven’t been caught. I don’t think anyone has noticed our absence. Once we are noticed, it will be more difficult to travel without being spotted. We have to get to Cade before anyone notices.
About one more day left. We are almost to the border. We are still in Washe. We have to speed up. There is no way we have much time left. I’m surprised we haven’t been stopped yet. We’ve had to pass through two towns so far, so we just tried to blend in. It worked. For the most part we’ve been staying near the woods. It makes it easier to hide and know when someone is close.
Ten miles until we reach the border. Ten miles until we get to one of the largest fences in the country. There are many fences that separate each Quarter, but the largest ones separate the country from Cade and Meto, and along the oceans so there isn’t a way for someone to escape. There are ten miles of this journey left. Once we travel ten miles, we will be stopped. There are soldiers that patrol the border. We have to surprise them. We didn’t plan this part of the journey because we didn’t think we would make it this far. None of us said that aloud, but we all know that’s what we expected. We need to prepare ourselves for the sight of soldiers; the distance we’ll have to run without bikes. We may get shot. We are going to have to climb over the fence. I hope we make it.
There are two miles left. We are hiding from more soldiers. The number of soldiers is increasing. The amount of time until we are free is dwindling, if we even escape; if we aren’t killed.

I can see the fence. I can see the soldiers. There isn’t an inch along the fence that is unmarked. I have never seen this many soldiers in one place before. Hundreds are lined up with the fence shoulder to shoulder. We all gasp. I don’t know what we expected. We hide behind a patch of trees, waiting until someone comes up with a plan. We sit in silence for a few moments until someone finally speaks.
“What do you think we should do?” Michelle asks.
“Well, we need to distract them until they break their formation.” Dad suggests.
“Good idea.” Mom adds.
“How are we going to distract hundreds of soldiers without them spotting us?” I ask them desperately looking to my sister and parents for an answer.
“Can we throw something to make a noise?” Michelle asks.
“I don’t think so, this is the only patch of trees. They will surely find us.” Dad answers.
I noticed that a couple of soldiers left their posts. They probably left for lunch.
“Look,” I say as I motion towards the soldiers as they walk away. Now there is a small space between the soldiers. If we distract some of them, we could make a run for it, and hop over the fence. But how could we possibly distract them long enough to run to the fence. The fence was about a hundred yards away. We need to come up with a distraction. We need to come up with something before the guards come back. We probably only have a couple minutes.
“Look! A rock! What if we throw a rock at one of the guards over there. They’ll think that it’s coming from the right, and we’ll run left toward the spot where the guards were before they left. We have to hurry though!” Michelle said.
“That’s a really good idea!” I said, “But who’s going to throw it?” I asked her.
“I’ll throw it. We have to throw it really hard so it doesn’t look like it’s coming from this way.” Dad answered.
Dad grabbed the rock. He looked at it for a few seconds; then threw the rock.
Perfect hit! It hit the soldier, and all the soldiers looked the other way when he cried out in pain. Then, we ran. We ran until we reached the fence. We started climbing. We were halfway up the fence when we were spotted.
“Hey! They’re escaping! Capture them!” one of the soldiers shouted.
We climbed as fast as we could. When I reached the top, I looked down; braced myself and jumped. I landed really hard, but I managed to stay on my feet. We were in Cade.
The soldiers were still chasing us. We had to run until we could reach the nearest town. It didn’t look like it was anywhere close, but still, we ran. We ran for miles. Finally, I could see a town in the distance.
“Look!” I shouted while pointing.

Everyone looked up and seemed to run faster. Hope gave us a reason to run. It gave us endurance.

Once we reached the town, I turned around. When we first crossed the fence, about two dozen soldiers were chasing us, but now, there were only five. Even though there were only five, they were still bigger, and stronger than any one of us. They did have guns, but I guess they were startled when they realized we were crossing the fence, so they must’ve dropped them as they began to climb.

I found a police car. I ran up to it and screamed.
“Help! Please help us! They’re going to kill us. If they take us back to Ame we will die.”
The officer must’ve known what Ame was like. He must’ve known we were trying to escape, maybe many have escaped. There’s no way of knowing.

The officer turned and shot the five officers. Five shots. He didn’t miss.

I hugged the officer. “Thank you! We’re free!”