Honored

Chapter 14: The Great Exile (Part 11 - Part 14)

Part 11

My sleep was fitful; my mind enraptured by memories of the outside world, but I wasn't even getting to leave with everyone. I wasn't going to see the blue sky today, yet the thoughts still invaded my mind. I was leaving this blasted city today. Freedom! Even if freedom was just the Wall again, I wanted out.

Dan and I made our way down the road toward the main thruway. The crowd was visible from a distance. Shaved heads dotting the crowd in plain grayish undyed shirts and pants. Many of the crowd in more colorful clothing with backpacks. Adults holding the hands of children. Some children clung to a back or a leg. And then a fairly large space on either side maintained by guards spaced evenly apart fencing in the crowd. Beyond the guards people lined the streets, many with tears in their eyes and trying to reach past the guards to say goodbye to people in the crowd.

We quietly joined in the milling crowd. A few people near the back of the crowd saw my wheelchair and quietly pointed in my direction whispering to each other. I touched my cheeck remembering my first Exile which was just Kevin and I on horses we had no idea on how to actually ride. This time there were far too many people and too few horses to mount all of them on horseback.

Dan's hand gently rested on my shoulder. His eyes were focused on the giant gate into the Wall at the far end of the street. Was he looking forward to going back into the Wall? Was he looking forward to something beyond me becoming a cyborg as well?

It felt like an ending. Like there was nothing after it. Were Dan and I just to become emotionless beings living and working within the Wall doing, well, something? Would we even care? "Are you looking forward to going back to the Wall?" I asked.

He looked down at me, and then shrugged. "Maybe. But I don't think it's going into the Wall that is making me feel -" He paused and stared back at the gate. "I'm struggling to put a name toward what I feel. I do not feel the way I felt before becoming a cyberperson, but I think I would call this apprehension, or maybe excitement. It might be both. It feels like leaving this City and heading into the Wall is the beginning of a future. Being in this City has felt like stasis."

His lips twitched into a very slight smile as looked down at me, "I think there is a future for both of us. A future not contained by this Wall."

"Do you know something about the Walls plans for us?"

His eyebrows narrowed, and he seemed deep in thought. "No. I don't know. Nothing concrete. I just, I don't think we will be staying in the Wall."

A future. He was staring back at the gate. I liked the thought of a future beyond the Wall. I couldn't see myself being content to wander the dark halls of the Wall for centuries the way Lok seemed to.

Everyone in this crowd was hoping for a future beyond the City. One of those shaved heads, an older woman looked familiar. Was it Rachel? "I think I see a person I once knew when I was Dishonored," I told Dan.

"Do you want to go talk to them?" he asked.

Did I? Yes, but did she want to talk to me? I hadn't seen her since the day I'd been dragged off the depths of the Dishonored prison. My stomach felt a little off. Maybe it was better not to talk to her. And what if it wasn't her? I'd last seen her somewhere between three and four years ago.

She looked around the crowd as if looking for someone. I was certain it was Rachel. She didn't look that different.

"Yes, I want to at least say hi." I started to wheel forward to attempt to make my way through the crowd and she noticed me.

A smile lit up her face as she pushed her way toward me. "Liv! I heard rumors it was you, but it really is you! You survived!"

Her infectious smile chased away my leftover fears, "Rachel! I'm so glad to see you. You decided to leave the City?"