Chasing Time (Prologue)

            Kala waited silently next to her mother, young enough to be terrified, but too old to take her mother’s hand. Instead, the thirteen year old girl sat in the wooden chair, bouncing her legs nervously, awaiting the unjust fate her father had always warned about. But he was gone now for the war spared no one. All that remained of her once great country was this city where all had come for refuge but none were willing to give it.

            There were two doors. Most of the refugees went through the door on the left when their name was called. It had to be where they were given some sort of restitution for their support for their country and were assigned a place to live, then were ushered out the back of the building so as to keep the line moving. At least, that’s what Kala and her mother believed. They had been waiting in this line for three days and were finally inside where the wait had continued for hours.

            Outside, Kala met a girl, perhaps a few years older, with the most beautiful amber curls and bright green eyes. Kala tried to befriend her, to have a friend in this foreign city, but the girl wanted little to do with Kala, even after Kala’s mother invited the lonely girl to be her impromptu child so as not to suffer alone in the city. But the girl proclaimed her family name and wealth prohibited her from speaking to dirty refugees, which Kala found odd for they stood waiting in the same line. But the girl stood without family and refused to show emotion.

            Once the girl with the amber curls was called, Kala knew she and her mother were next. The girl was asked to step through the door on the right—only the second Kala had seen. The other had been a young man, a war veteran.

            When Kala and her mother were called, they rose from the uncomfortable chairs and walked over to the door on the left. Stepping through, their few belongings were searched and put on a conveyor belt with a promise that they would be returned. They stepped through another door into a room where others were waiting, most sitting on the floor. A door on the opposite side of the room was closed and it seemed as if they others were avoiding sitting near it. Only in that place was there a little floor space left so Kala and her mother could sit through this waiting process for a few more minutes until a shout was heard.

            “Last one!” the voice yelled and two large men barged into the room carrying a struggling boy who couldn’t have been too much older than Kala, perhaps age seventeen.

            “Let me down!” the boy yelled and was consequently thrown to the floor. He scrambled over to the other door next to where Kala was sitting and began to pull on the handle. “I have to get out. I have to get out,” he kept mumbling. The others in the room were becoming unsettled and begged him to calm down or they would all get thrown out. The boy sat down next to Kala and pulled off his shoe.

            Watching intently, Kala saw the boy pull a thin metal instrument from the sole of his shoe. “What’s that,” Kala whispered.

            “Lockpick. They’re going to flood the room with a neurotoxin and I will not be here when they do.”

            Kala’s mother reached over her daughter and grabbed the boy. “What’s your name boy? Are you serious?”

            “Sam. My father engineered the toxin before they murdered him. Yes I’m serious.” The boy stood back up and began to play with the lock.

            Kala wondered if this boy was just crazy or if he was telling the truth. Either way, she had never felt quite so helpless.

“How much time do we have?” Kala’s mother asked.

            “I was the last one. Maybe seconds. It will come up from that grate in the middle of the floor. Someone in the room gave a cough and Kala grabbed her mom’s arm. Her mother kissed her head and held Kala tightly. Suddenly, just as Sam got the lock to click open, gas began to shoot upward from the floor. Sam grabbed Kala’s hand and pulled her through the door.

            “Mom!” Kala yelled, yanking from Sam’s grip. She helped her mother up and they both began to cough. There were large men, like the ones who dragged Sam into the room, waiting outside. However with the door to the room wide open, they too began to cough. They managed to grab Sam and throw him against the wall.

            “Go!” he choked.

            Kala and her mother raced out the back of the building and took off towards the blockade around the city. The gates were so thickly flooded with refugees that no one took notice to the two escaping the city.

            “That boy saved our lives,” Kala’s mother said breathlessly after they were safe in what remained of the woods.

            “At least we know his name,” Kala suggested.

            The two sat, catching their breath for a moment. “Looks like it’s just you and me, baby girl,” Kala’s mother said and kissed the top of her daughter’s head.