Free Running Dry by Jody Wenner Page B

line.
    Somehow I get up and walk out of the office and instinct takes over and before I'm even outside, my legs are moving in giant strides.  I'm running faster than I've ever run, down the hall, past the line of kids waiting, and away from the school.  And that's it.  I'm running, but I’m not a runner. 
     
     
    Zane
    Once the meeting is done, my head is swimming.  Fulton tells me to walk with him, so I follow, down the path in a different direction than the one I'd come.  The others quickly disperse in every direction.
    We go a short distance and come to another large clearing.  Now I can see millions of stars and feel a light breeze.
    "Sit," Fulton commands, so I do.
    I feel cool, damp grass underneath me.  Behind me, I realize, is a high fence. We are outside the wall.
    "Where are we?" I whisper.
    "We’re on the ridge."
    "Outside the border?"
    "Yeah.  If you listen closely, you will hear gunfire every once in awhile near the areas close to the central fighting zones."
    I listen and I do hear some distant popping.  But there is something else too, a gushing, churning sound that can only be one thing.  "Is that…?"
    "The river.  Yes.  It's just below us on the other side of a steep cliff.  I wish you could see it.  It's amazing."
    "You've been here...in the daylight?"
    "Yeah.  I come here to think sometimes.  It's hidden and well downstream from the action."
    "Wow," is all I can think to respond.
    "Anyway," he goes on, "I'm glad you decided to come to the meeting.  I'm sure it was hard for you to trust me after everything I put you through.  I know it must have been confusing and I'm sorry.  I needed to make sure it was safe, for both of us."
    "How long has this group been meeting?"
    "We didn't start it, if that's what you're wondering," he says.
    "Oh."  The knowledge knocks some wind out of my sails and it must come through in my tone.
    "It's a long process to change an entire population's way of thinking.  Actually two populations."
    "I can understand that, considering up until today I didn’t think there was another soul alive who thought the way I did," I say. 
    "Exactly and it’s still not the most popular viewpoint, as you’re aware, but we’re getting there, slowly."
    "Zander believed in this cause?"
    "After he'd been out in the trenches and saw kids dying left and right, it became obvious to both of us how wrong it was...is."
    "Do you know...exactly how he died?"
    Fulton says, "He wasn’t careful enough.  He thought he could trust one of his cadets.  I told him I didn't think it was a good idea. I had a bad feeling, but he invited him to a meeting.  I was the only one who knew he'd done it.  The kid must have turned the info over to a superior officer because Zander was outfitted to run a special ops mission a few days later, which just smelled of foul play.  They never have new field officers run ops like that, especially alone.  I think they fitted him with explosives, but I can't be sure what happened.  I just know they sent him out there by himself that day and he didn't come back.  Then, in a twist, they made him into a hero.  It's messed up.”
    I swallow hard.  There's a lump in my throat.
    "I'm sorry, Zane."
    "Aren't you scared?  Is this worth the risk?" I ask. "What are the odds that anything will really change?"
    "You never know what might happen.  After losing Zander I was angry.  I hadn’t even really been into the whole Resistance thing that much before he died.  It was mostly his idea in the beginning.  But after, I just want revenge for what they did to him, you know?  And, I want change.  There is too much messed up about this system.  But a pessimistic attitude alone won't change the world," he says sarcastically and lightly punches my shoulder.
    "Sir?" I say.
    "You can call me by my first name out here."
    "Okay, Um, Devin.  When is the next meeting?"
    "We change up the days and tunnel locations each time.  Just check your mattress for another