Saturday, April 20, 2013

The Mountain - Part 2

Therese woke up the next morning before anyone else.  She ate her breakfast and packed a bag with everything she thought she might need.  She brought food and clothes and money for her trip just in case she found a way out of the walled city.

The night before she had told her family what she had seen.  Therese described the mountain and the plain and asked her parents if they knew how to get outside.  They had just stared at her.  Why would she want to leave the city?  They had everything anyone would need.  Hadn't a new water park just opened?  Was there a new store opening every week.  They had all that was new and fashionable why would they want to go outside?  She asked them about the old building and asked if they had ever been inside.  They said no and they were pretty sure it was illegal or at least very unfashional to got in there.

At that point she gave up and went to bed more determined than ever to get out.  Leaving the house at dawn she made her way to the wall.  She figured that somewhere along the wall was a gate or something and if she just search the whole thing she would find it.  The longing in her heart to see the mountain again ached.  There was a path that followed pretty close to the wall so she could see the wall as she walked down the path.

Therese walked and walked.  By noon she was about a third of the way around.  She stopped ate her lunch and watched the passers-by.  Where were they all going?  As the afternoon went on she walked and looked.  Therese never saw so much as crack in the wall.  At 2:45 she realized she was getting close to the old building and it's tower.  The building was near the wall about a block away.  As she approached the building she wanted to look again and she if the light was there still.  She went to the back of the building and move the board again and looked inside.  It was still there.  It must be electic she thought, a lamp or a candle would have gone out.  As she placed the board back she thought she saw it flicker.

The was lower now and the shadow cast by the building touched the wall.  But it looked different from the other shadows on the wall.  Going to investigate Therese saw something that hadn't been there the day before.  There was a thin space, the width of the shadow, a hole in the wall.  A thin breeze came through, it sounded like whisper.  Therese looked at the space.  Could she make it? It was very thin but she thought she could just make it.

Therese put her bags down, she could reach them once she got through.  She turned side ways a put her leg through.  She could just make it.  A funny thing happened as  she moved her torso through the slit, the wall seemed to grab her.  She pushed and pulled and without any luck.  She was stuck but she couldn't give up.  She could see the plain and smell the fresh air.  She was almost there.  As she strained and pulled she began to cry.  She was close. She could touch the outside of the wall.  The wall was about 3 feet thick and the crack must have narrowed as you got to the outside. The bricks that made up the wall grabbed at her clothes tearing them.  As she inched her way out she felt them tearing but now more than half her arm was out.  She could get a good grip now.  She pulled with all her strength and she pulled herself free there was a loud ripping noise.  She finally freed herself of the walls grip but as she did her clothes tore.  She made it, but she was naked. Therese turned to grab her bag only to find there was no longer a hole in the wall.  She was free but she had nothing.  No clothes, no food, nothing.  She was outside the wall, now what?

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