Authors: Brandon Chen
***
About a mile from the village was a large
apple tree that stood perched upon a hill. It was high and overlooked the
village in the distance. The night had taken its place in the sky, and the
stars were twinkling down upon the tree and the two young boys who were lying
underneath it. Their arms were folded behind their heads, and their bodies were
relaxed—more relaxed than they had ever been within the confines of the force
field. Keimaro sucked in a deep breath of cold air, not caring about the cool
temperature. This was really the first time that he had spent time with another
boy his age—or another human his age at all. He looked over at Yata and knew
that the two of them were much alike. Their seclusion from the rest of the kids
their age was out of their control. They were both isolated from society, but
it always seemed there was nothing they could do about it.
“So, tell me, Kei,” Yata said gently,
looking up at the gleaming stars that shone in the dark sky above them. “What
has got you wanting to leave the barriers? I always saw you as the type of kid
that paid attention to his studies. I didn’t think you were the adventurous
type. You were always so quiet.”
“Yeah,” Keimaro said with a shrug. “I
suppose you could say that there was no one really to talk to. People seem to
judge me before they even say a word to me. I could waltz up to a complete
stranger, and they would act as if they were completely disgusted with me. I
don’t particularly know why, or what I’ve ever done to them. My father doesn’t
really care about me either. The only people in this entire village that I’ve
felt some type of affection from have been my mother and my little sister, Mai.
Other than them, this village can go to hell. They want to keep us trapped
inside of some tight barrier, thinking that we’ll accept that we are on this
planet only to survive,” he muttered, beginning to pluck blades of grass from
the ground. “There’s no way that I’ll accept that. I’m here on this planet so
that I can experience things and live life to its fullest. Each human lives only
once. So, why in the hell do we need to spend our lives sitting inside of a
barrier, trapped like livestock? Why do we learn about the outside world in
school when we will never be able to see it for ourselves?
“I don’t want to be trapped in this village
like a prisoner. I want to experience new things. I want to meet new people. I
want to eat new foods, see new places, and do all kinds of new things! Staying
in one place—where it is hell for me, anyway—is pointless. I’m not even sure
what I would do if I hadn’t found the small gap in the barrier. To be brutally
honest, I might actually be dead by now. The bullying only gets worse, and it’s
only a matter of time before they beat me to death. When those idiots hit me,
no one cares. The teachers let the kids off with a small warning. It’s as if I
am an animal, another type of species. I see the way they look at me. They all
treat me like an outsider. And I’m sick of it.”
Yata remained silent during Keimaro’s long
rant, and the silence stretched afterward, dragging out in the night. “I get
you,” he said suddenly, and Keimaro turned to him with a look of surprise.
“You do?”
“Yeah, there was a time when I was like you,”
Yata said. “You see, my father was quite the murderer. He killed one of the
elders of the village in an attempt to try and escape the barrier—just as you have.
But he thought the only way to escape was to kill all of the elders since they’re
the ones who created this barrier. My father was captured and hanged before my
eyes. I was only five. At such a young age, I wasn’t really sure what to think
about his dangling body. I cried. I don’t really know why, though. He had never
been there for me and had always beaten me when I messed up. He wasn’t an ideal
father. But my mother was the closest person I had. I loved her so much. And
the government of the village … these elders….” His hands clenched into
tightened fists as he suddenly let out a low, anger-filled growl. “They took my
mother away because she was married to and therefore associated with my father.
They hanged her as well.” Yata gulped, blinking a few times. “They would’ve hanged
me as well if I hadn’t been so young. They hanged my mother, the one person I
had. She died there right before my eyes as I watched the life choked from her
body. And as I saw her corpse dangling there, her feet inches from the ground,
I wondered … why? Why did my mother deserve to be punished for something my
father had done?
“It was at that moment that I finally
realized the reality of it all. That these elders of ours aren’t the gods that
we think them to be. They cower in their homes, hidden deep in the village with
those damn armed guards. I swore I would finish what my father started and kill
them all.” Yata sucked in a deep breath and exhaled deeply. “But I suppose I
won’t need to, if we have found a way to get out of that hell-hole.”
“So, is that why you always pick fights
with everyone? Even against guys like Buu. Because you hate the elders and the
village?” Keimaro asked, raising an eyebrow at him. He hadn’t expected for Yata
to open up so easily, but he also saw that the two of them both wanted freedom
from this village. He wanted to see the world while Yata wanted to escape the
cruelty of the elders. It was about time that he had found someone who shared
his ambitions.
“And the fact that they piss me off,” Yata
muttered, shrugging lightly. “Fighting has always been a way to express myself.
If anyone messes with me, I don’t mind treating them like a punching bag. My
father taught me to be tough, you know.”
“So, why did your father … uh…?”
“Kill the elder?” Yata finished Keimaro’s
sentence without even a change in emotion. He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t
depressed. His expression was simply neutral as he looked up at the stars. “There
was a rumor that if all the elders died, then the barrier would collapse. He
killed one elder, betting everything on that rumor. Quite the brutal guy, huh?
I never said that I liked my old man. He was a very violent person, and he
ruined any chances that he had at getting out of Bakaara.
“I’m sick of looking around and seeing the
same stupid crap everywhere! I’m glad to have left the village. Even touching
this tree … is enough to make me smile.” Yata leaned backward and reached out
with his hand, gently running his index finger along the rough bark of the
apple tree.
Keimaro nodded his head gently at Yata’s
words. He knew what he was feeling. He knew all about being trapped like an
animal. “What’s the point in anything if we just waste time sitting there in
those walls? The world out there is vast, Yata,” he said and swallowed lightly,
concerned by the vehemence in Yata’s voice. “But there’s no rush to leave yet.
We aren’t ready. We would probably die as soon as we entered the Forbidden
Forest. We need to get stronger before we decide to go out there.”
“The Forbidden Forest,” Yata scoffed, as he
ran his hand through his hair and shook his head in disbelief. “To think that a
freaking obstacle such as a forest could be keeping us from our freedom. The
elders are afraid of some monsters in the trees, huh? That’s why they’re
keeping up this force field.”
Keimaro blinked when he suddenly heard
shuffling and spun around to see a young girl with long brown hair and blue
eyes, blinking at him. “W-What?” He was about to yelp when Yata clamped his
hand over his mouth. “Mm!” His words were muffled, and his heart was pounding.
Who the hell was this person?
Yata kept his hand on Keimaro’s moving
mouth for a moment and examined the young girl up and down before slowly
lowering his hand and placing a finger to his lips. The girl was wearing a
rather fancy blue dress made of a type of silk that he had never seen before.
However, the seams of the dress looked as if they were slightly ripped, and the
bottom rims looked as if they were splashed in mud. A red sash was wrapped
tightly around her waist and tied perfectly in front. Her long brown hair
reached down past her shoulders, something quite unusual amongst girls in their
village. There were a few scratches on her knees, and she squinted her eyes
against exhaustion as she fought to stay conscious. She was around Keimaro and
Yata’s age, only fourteen.
“Who are you?” Keimaro whispered to the
girl, who stumbled toward them as if she were inebriated.
Keimaro looked down at her feet, caked in
mud, and saw that they were bloody from blisters and cuts from walking barefoot
a reasonable distance. He saw the girl reaching up toward the branch of the
apple tree for a gleaming, shiny apple. As she reached, she fell and Keimaro
immediately sprang forward, catching her in his arms. He grunted, feeling her
weight bearing upon him, and made sure to stabilize her in his arms before
reaching up and plucking the fruit from the branch above and gently handing it
to her. She held the apple tightly and took a deep bite into it, closing her
eyes and savoring its sweet flavor. It was as if she were in some type of
trance, lost in her own little world.
“Kei, look,” Yata said in a serious tone,
looking off into the distance at a rising smoke that was drifting off from the
Forbidden Forest into the dark night sky. Something was on fire in the distance.
“I’m assuming that other humans caused that fire. Someone is nearby, and this
girl is one of them.”
“Yeah,” Keimaro said, allowing the girl in
his arms to continue munching on the apple. “Her clothes are much different
than what we have. What do we do about her?”
“I don’t know!” Yata exclaimed, scratching
the back of his neck. “We could take her back to the village. She seems tired
and beaten up from having walked so far. I’m assuming that the fire had
something to do with her. Maybe she was in it herself! Either way, if we leave
her out here, she is going to get killed by the beasts in the Forbidden Forest.
They’ll smell her blood.”
“Are you serious?” Keimaro said,
incredulous. “Bring her back? We can’t do that! Where is she going to stay? Like
I said, her clothes are too foreign! We don’t even know who she is. She could
be a spy for all we know. If she knows the way into the village, everyone could
be in danger!”
“You seriously think a girl our age is
going to be a freaking spy, Kei?” Yata snarled just as a roar split the night
sky and shook the earth to its very foundation. Both of their eyes widened in
shock and disbelief at the sheer amplitude of the sound. They stood rooted to
the spot, staring at each other in fear. In all the fourteen years that they
had lived within the force field, not once had they heard a single sound of a
beast. The only evidence of monsters had been minor tremors in the earth. With
the ground rumbling beneath their feet, they now knew what caused the tremors.
Keimaro placed one arm on the girl’s back
and his other underneath her knees and lifted her up into his arms, wincing at
her weight. His eyes locked onto a beast that burst from the trees—a black,
scaled tiger with a long slender tail that had a spiked circular mace-like
shape at the end. The mace-tail dragged through the dirt with ease. The
tiger-beast’s eyes were dark like the hue of the night, and it bore its sharp
teeth at Keimaro, who stared at the pointy daggers in fright.
Those things
could probably rip through the hardest of armors
.
“What is that? What do we do?” he gasped,
his heart beginning to pound furiously against his chest as panic struck him.
He blinked when he felt the weight of the girl bearing down upon him more. She
was unconscious.
Perfect.
“You’re fast at running, aren’t you?” Yata
yelled, beginning to sprint down the lush green hill and back toward the force
field. “We need to get the hell out of here! Let’s go!”
Keimaro snapped back to reality and spun
around, running as fast as he could while holding the girl. Ordinarily, he
would’ve been much faster than Yata, but with the extra weight, he was lagging behind.
He grunted as he heard the tiger growling behind him. He knew looking back
would only cause more fear in his heart, slowing him down. Keimaro panted, accelerating
as his breath began to grow heavier. The roar of the monster grew louder, and
the pounding of its paws on the ground was coming closer. He turned his head
slightly and in his peripheral vision caught sight of a pounce. He yelped and
spun himself to the side. He gasped in shock as the tiger landed directly where
he had been only moments before, smashing into the dirt.
I could’ve died
there
, was the first and only thought that hit him. He continued running
and saw that Yata had already slid underneath the force field and was waiting
for him on the other side.
Keimaro held the girl tighter and his eyes
were locked onto the tiny slit in the force field as the tiger began to dash
after him once more.
Oh god, oh god, I don’t want to die
, he thought.
Death was an end to every single dream he’d ever had! He couldn’t die now. Not
after meeting his first friend. Not after this new goal that he had set for
himself. Not after everything!
He pushed off of the ground and leapt high
with the girl in his arms, his legs flailing clumsily through the air. The
tiger swiped at the exact same moment and scraped the bottom of his legs,
ripping his pants. However, Keimaro had jumped high enough to avoid getting his
legs lacerated entirely. He landed heavily and got low, sliding underneath the
force field as the tiger pounced up into the air and slammed into the force
field at full speed. There was an electrical noise that buzzed before the tiger
roared, being thrown backward by a massive amount of force. The creature
slammed heavily into the dirt and rolled a few times before slowly raising its
head. It locked its demonic red eyes onto Keimaro and snarled loudly, as if
pledging vengeance, before turning from the force field and dashing back into the
direction from which it came.