The Special One

• Angus Nipperess, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2022

I ran past the tired concrete houses that lined the street. Soulless faces stared from their driveways, watching me sprint past.

“Get back here Dustin,” an irate voice hollered from behind me.
I looked back, a multitude of Extreme Soldiers were running after me. Panic flooded my body; I knew this was serious. Extreme Soldiers were only deployed for the most highly dangerous emergencies. They were the best of the best.

Why was I in this life threatening situation? I was standing in-front of my class presenting the dangers and violence in the outside world. Tears rolled down my face and I was unable to speak or function. My peers glared at me; mouths wide open and eyes bulging out of their eyelids.
“The SPECIAL ONE,” they all whispered.
The SPECIAL ONE has the ability to look beyond, to feel the emotions and pain that the outside people once felt. For years people have searched for this person, they are to be hunted; for the act of feeling beyond the imprisoned community is considered to be the worst of all crimes. My mother had always warned me to be careful of my emotions and to hide them from everyone…….. Or else.

The soldiers were getting closer; my legs cramped and ached. I followed the road that was surrounded by exact replicable houses. Looks are deceiving in this town. Nothing is as perfect as it seems. I turned into a side pathway, no buildings, just trees and bushes. As I looked back, my foot rolled in the ditch between the path and grass causing me to fall sideways into the bushes. The soldiers ran past, desperately trying to find where I went.

SNAP!

A thin stick on the ground below me had broken.

The thumps of footsteps behind me grew louder. I turned my head to see a looming, dark figure – an Extreme Soldier! I kicked frantically at the soldier in the darkness. My leg smashed his face, forcing him to let go of me. I jumped up and ran, dodging sticks and trees. A hidden sign stood out in my peripheral eye sight.
“CLIFF AHEAD”. My brain sharpened. The idea struck me like a bolt of lightning. It was now or never. I pounced on the boulder to my left and rolled it forward with all my weight against it. The ground vibrated and shook as the Extreme Soldiers stampeded toward my direction. I pushed the boulder one last time. It descended off the cliff edge, falling at a tremendous speed. I screamed as loud as I could just before it hit the water like a bomb. I flung myself into the bush beside me. The Extreme Soldiers stood at the edge of the cliff, looking down at the water.

“He must of eliminated himself, no one could have survived that!” the Extreme Soldier said.
I watched them walk away from the cliff, back into the dark forest.

This was not the end…..

But only the beginning.