Kim’s Earth: Skye: Stealing Shoes (part 2)

[k_a_webb]

Part 1

Back before the injection Skye hadn’t ever believed things could get as bad as they were. Even though she’d read the newspapers, had seen the arguments against it, she hadn’t thought for a minute that her life was going to change forever after that day, but it did. Those who had been against the idea in the first place, had said that the contraceptive they were using hadn’t been properly tested, were right, and most of them had probably died too, having not been able to afford the £1000 fine they would have to pay if they didn’t go. Now the country was full of gangs of children who’d gathered together because most of the adults had died.

There were still some people over the age of 18: those who had survived the injection, like Skye, and those who had family with enough money to be able to pay the fine, because someone within them had a feeling things were going to end up the way they had. Although she didn’t believe anyone could have imagined exactly what was going to happen, especially not how dangerous their children could be if they were left to fend for themselves, even though it was something they might have read about in school. She never had, being in a higher level class, so she’d studied a different book, and for the first time in her life she felt disadvantaged by her lack of knowledge, as if she’d read the book she might have been better prepared.

It did seem unlikely though. Even Ethan, who had studied the book, hadn’t thought that they might get attacked, more than once, by children who didn’t like anyone over the age of sixteen entering their territories. Skye couldn’t help wondering, when they were safe, if those children realised that one day they would end up being chased off by people who had once been their friends, because they were too old to be a part of the group any longer. Or if the youngest understood that he might end up entirely alone unless they did accept change better than she thought they would. However, for every group they’d come across like that, they’d also found children who had wanted the help of adults, who didn’t want to be in charge of their own future, because they were scared.

No matter how hard it had been Ethan and Skye had done their best to find those children someone to help them. Occasionally it had been easy, after knocking on a couple of doors they’d found someone happy to take in a group needing help, with plans for the future, who often asked the two of them to stay. A couple of times it had been tempting, especially when she was tending wounds left by a group who hadn’t been anywhere near so friendly, but Ethan was looking for someone, so their decision, no matter how hard it was, had always been to go on, to continue on their journey as they did have a destination in mind.

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.