Free Minds

Chapter 15.

"Beth, I'm taking someone's shift at the hospital today," Mum announced from the living room. "I trust you can lock up."

   From my seat on one of the chairs in our kitchen, I mumbled through a mouthful of my breakfast, "Of course."

"Don't talk with your mouth full, you'll get food on your uniform. It's almost seven thirty by the way, shouldn't you be getting ready?"

"Yeah, I'll be done soon," I replied.

   A week had passed since what happened on Liberation Week. After showing no symptoms on the third day of being on bed rest, I decided it was best if I just made her think that Zavlon Academia had resumed to normalcy after that the made up flu scare had been confirmed to be normal flu and those few students who had 'caught' it were feeling better already.

   Even though I hadn't been wearing the school's uniform on that day, it was still triggering to have it on now. I couldn't wait to hide it back in my closet when she left.

"You know what?" I tried not to squirm under her scrutiny as she spoke to me. "I can drive you to Zavlon today if you'd li—"

"NO!" Off the top of my head, I blurted out an excuse, "I mean... I think I should just go by myself. The school is going to organise this roll call thing at the gates and that could take a while. I wouldn't want to keep you waiting."

   My rambling had activated her side gaze into full force, but sixteen years was enough time to master the art of not getting my lying ass caught.

"Okay, fine." She sighed. "Don't forget the mask I left on your desk. That never-ending email your school sent about sanitation measures was not enough to convince me."

   But I worked really hard on it!

"Don't worry about that. I have everything I need." I said, patting the bag in which she had shoved all the sanitation supplies, including two more masks, two bottles and even a pair of rubber gloves.

"Okay, love you," She told me, walking out the door in her nurse's uniform.

  It took me a while to take my eyes off the closed door after whispering, "Bye."

***

   Turn back. You could always come tomorrow, the silent voice in my head said over and over. Who addressed problems on a Tuesday anyway? it continued, Next week Monday was always available. Or... the comic books in the garage were enough to bask in till the inevitable worst arrived.

   Where was the part of me that overpowered my initial unwillingness to even think about Zavlon and coerced me into taking the bus to school right after Mum left when I needed it? Was its task to just lead me to the opposite side of the road closest to the school and leave me hanging?

   The not so far distance between me and Zavlon's familiar environment was enough to contain the fresh memories flooding through my mind. It was still difficult trying to comprehend how this previously safe haven could ignite repellent chills and still maintain its treacherous normal state from the bus stop where I was crossing the road to get to right now.

   I stared at the lonely footpath that led one to Zavlon's gates. The very path I had run through from predators for my life hadn't lost its welcoming state. Not that that mattered though. I'd be an idiot to believe it was as empty as it seemed.

   I looked toward the woods that stood tall at the left and right side of where the pathway began. The wild, green trees, grasses and flowers that made up the woods continued and ended right where the outside walls of Zavlon, housing the large gate I had run through, were.