REDEMPTION

CHAPTER 1

"You never know how much you really believe anything until it's truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you."

- a quote from Before.

I opened my eyes and saw red. Everything was red.
A girl's face appeared before me. But my vision was blurred. I squinted my eyes until her features came into focus. Brown hair, Azure blue eyes, after which she was named. She was my best friend, and she kept mouthing something over and over again. No she was screaming, but her scream was lost in the thunderous sound of another explosion. Her hand clamped on my arm. God, my arm burned. The window nearest to me shattered, and suddenly I was wide awake. Azure was screaming my name.

I had fallen asleep during History class. I barely got sleep nowadays, always worrying after my grandfather, afraid he would do something stupid that would get us killed. He always seemed to get his crazy ideas in the night, and it had become more frequent. He was mostly benevolent and kind at heart, but he had a rebellious streak, which made me worry for him a lot.

My parents had died fifteen years ago in a bomb raid, conducted by the Rebels, when I was just an year old. That bomb raid was one of the ugliest to have ever happened in the history of Detrix. It had affected a large part of our country, and thousands of lives were lost. Detrix was small, with only a million or so population, and that bomb raid had decreased our numbers even more.
I was raised by my grandfather, who acted very young for an octogenarian, but he has Alzheimer's, which makes him very difficult at times. It wasn't easy living alone in a house with a forgetful, rebellious grandfather, but I loved him and as much as I wanted to escape this, my noble and pure conscience would never let me.

A few days ago, he got out of the house, late at night, and roamed the streets muttering profanities about the Rangers, in their bright, white suits with rifles slung over their shoulders, and the Protector. It's a miracle he came back in one piece, as the curfew rules are very strict and the Rangers are merciless killing machines.

Sometimes, he would forget that I was his grand daughter, and it would take me hours to convince him otherwise. This had become very frequent as well and all that stress was taking a toll on me. In fact I'm quite sure he wouldn't have noticed if I had gotten burnt to a crisp in a fire, and left him alone in this world, which is exactly what would have happened if Azure hadn't pulled me out of my stupor.

"Reyna! Reyna, we have to move! Get up!"

We dove under a desk as another window shattered. Glass rained down around us. The whole school had caught fire, and we were the only ones left in the class. Azure could have escaped with the others, could have saved herself, but she stayed back to make sure I didn't die. Being my only and best friend, she had considered it her responsibility to protect me at all times. Without her, I wouldn't have been able to get through fifteen years of my life.

"What happened?", I asked her.

"Bomb raid", she replied with a grim face.

The world wasn't like it had been Before.
Our country, Detrix, was surrounded by a magnetic force field that kept the flesh eating plants and animals out, or so we were told. There were Rangers who patrolled the streets day and night, meant to keep us safe and to make sure no one broke curfew, which was from six in the morning to eight in the night. If anyone broke curfew, the Rangers would teleport almost immediately through portals that were located on every street, and shoot the person, mercilessly, without any guilt, because not abiding by the rules was an act of rebellion and Rebels had to die. The President, who called himself the Protector, had devised this to make sure no one questioned him and he stayed in power. A clever way to instill fear, so that he would not lose his position. This was what my grandfather had told me, anyway. He hated the Protector and his system of Government, but I had not known any other way of life and I had gotten used to this by now. Even if the Protector was evil, speaking ill of him and The System could get you into deep trouble, and so I never went against him and accepted it, like everyone else. Almost everyone.

Azure and I scrambled out from underneath the desk and raced down the stairs, or what was left of it. Outside, the world had erupted into chaos. I had never seen a bomb raid before, and the sight before me left me dizzy and nauseous. People lay wounded on the streets, some missing body parts, some coughing up blood, some so badly damaged that they were beyond repair. Poisonous smoke stung my eyes and burned my lungs as Azure and I tried to find our way through the pile of rubble and corpses to the nearest safe house.

After the massive, unprecedented bomb raid fifteen years ago, the Protector had built underground safe houses so that the people would have somewhere to hide and there wouldn't be as many casualties in case another bomb raid happened in the future. We had never needed the use of the safe houses, until now. The thought of that bomb raid, due to which my parents had died, made my insides turn to ice, in contrast to the burning inferno around me.

Azure screamed as the building on our left exploded. We collided with the ground hard and the impact knocked the breath out of my lungs. There was a ringing in my ears and I felt lightheaded from all the smoke but we couldn't waste time.

"This way", I said as I pulled Azure up and dodged into the nearest alley.

She had a deep gash on the right of her temple and my left leg was burning from the fall, but we had to keep going. The metallic bracelets on our wrists were beeping, indicating we were close to a safe house.

Each citizen had a bracelet that would help them find their way to safe houses during bomb raids. They also served as a kind of tracker which is how the Rangers caught people so easily. The bracelets are made of a greyish, strong metal with a green glowing eye, Iris, which was the symbol of the Protector, and they were impossible to remove or destroy. The bracelets were put on as soon as a child turned 10, becoming moderately mature.

"There!", Azure pointed to a green glowing eye, The Iris, branded into a wall on our right. We held up our bracelets and the Iris scanned them. The wall split open in half , revealing a metal elevator that led down to the very bowels of the earth, the safe houses. We ducked in, just in time, and as the doors closed I saw a spark as the metal grinded against the brick wall and the whole place blew up in flames and the elevator gave such a shocking jolt that I could feel the rattle all the way in my bones.

I glanced at Azure. Her face was covered in ash and soot and her almond-shaped, azure-blue eyes looked almost deep and dark and fathomless as the pictures of the sea I had seen in books from Before. Her chestnut brown hair was matted and sticking up in all directions. The pale of her skin could not be seen anywhere and blood was flowing freely from the cut on her forehead. Her jeans were singed and her arms looked quite red.

I wondered how bad I looked. I was pretty slim with wavy raven-black hair that fell to my waist and always remained unruly and out of control no matter how many times I brushed it. I had bright green eyes which I always thought clashed with the color of my hair. I brought my hair over my shoulders and saw that the end was a bit singed. My hands and face were caked with soot and grime and I probably smelled like a roasted bird that had taken a dip in the sewer. My left leg felt as if the muscles were being ripped out from the bone and I wondered if it had been permanently damaged.

All the while in the elevator, Azure and I didn't speak a word. I knew Azure since we were toddlers. She was like my own sister and we could read each others minds accurately. Judging by how unfocused and afraid her blue orbs looked like now, I could tell she was deathly scared about her family. I was lucky on that part. I had no parents or siblings, only a very old and forgetful grandfather, who, although could be very trying at times, I still loved dearly as he was my last connection to my parents. I hoped against hope that everyone, including my grandfather, was alright and in one piece. I know I didn't have much to lose but if you have nothing to lose, then you have nothing to fight for either.

The elevator touched the ground with a thump and the doors opened.