Chapitre 6: -Pain is Hilarious-
A rebellion. Could I do that? Should I do that? Are there even enough shapes here who'd want that? I haven't really met anyone who seems particularly upset about life.
How does one start a rebellion? Ive learned about rebellions in school back in my first life but it wasn't something I was particularly interested in. I didn't really pay much attention to history. Hell, the most I know about the American Revolution was episodes of Liberty's Kids and the Hamilton musical...
What would I even do once I get Will? I can't just take him with me. I know nothing about the world outside this city. What would we do for food or shelter? I can't just TAKE him from our parents. That's selfish. I need to at least ask Will if he wants to be with me or not. Ugh. Its not like I even want to go on the run from our government. I just want to be with Will.
I've never gone around purposely breaking laws before...I'm the kind of good girl who holds the door open for strangers. I've never shoplifted before. I separate my paper and plastic for recycling. The idea of going around breaking the laws here made me uneasy. Even if they are stupid laws.
I don't want to get in trouble.
I'm upset at the unfairness of it all but what can I even do?! I don't know enough about how the government is run to really oppose them. I can't fight off the guards around me. I don't have any money or influence.
I'm too scared to go against them.
I slump against the wall in my room, blinds down and huddled in my blanket. My mind is racing with fantasies of things I could do. Running in and snatching Will, guns blazing and doing cool dodge rolls like an action movie or using awesome ninja moves to take out the guards...
None of those are things I can actually do. I don't know how to fight aside from just punching, biting and kicking. As much as I used to imitate those kung-fu movies as a child it's not like I actually have any skill. Also, Shaolin Soccer isn't really the best example of things people can do in reality.
These are nothing but silly thoughts and fantasies.
Even if I could fight, what would I even do once I knocked out the soldiers? I'll be hunted down by law enforcement. I could go to prison. Will could get in trouble for being associated with me. My parents would get in trouble. Even if I'm mad at Gray for straight out disowning me, I still don't feel right just throwing them under the bus for my own selfishness.
Uuugh. Is there really nothing I can do? I crawl over to the window to peek through the blinds again. The soldier is still there. Oh my god. Don't they have break or any-
Wait! Break! I glance at the clock. It was early morning right now. Was that soldier there all night? They have to sleep sometime. And when that happens there should be some change of guards. If there's one thing I've learned about this world, its that they take their schedules religiously.
So all I have to do is observe my guards until I learn their schedules. Once I know that I can start planning how to get around it.
Wait for me Will. Big bro's coming.
---
It took longer than I'd like to come up with a strategy for ditching the guards. A week came and went, I got my paycheck for the 10 books and had a new book to copy over. I rushed through it with a nonstop work session with no sleep or food and finished my quota on the day I received it.
Now I have 7 days to plan out my escape.
I have 3 sets of guards. The night shift guards stay up all night watching my house. They switch with the morning guards at exactly 3/4ths of the way through the 'night' cycle. I marked that on my clock. The 2nd group watches the house for the remainder of the night and into the morning. They switch with the afternoon guards during the first 'break' period of the day. The afternoon guards stay until just after 'dinnertime' ends and its officially 'night' whereupon the Night guards show up.
There's not a lot of time between the guard shift. The next set will walk up and once the current guard sees them, they leave. There's at most a minute where direct line of sight to my house is lost when the guards stand in front of each other to acknowledge the other before walking off. Not a lot of time for me to just slip out and run down the street. They'll see me for sure.
Which is where my brilliant plan comes in. It took a little while to get the supplies I needed for this. Hopefully it'll work. I'm going to take advantage of the fact that our entire world is in black and white aside from us. If they're watching for a yellow triangle, they wouldn't notice something white moving around, is my hope.
I'm exhausted and starving from my work so before any attempts at escape I need to rebuild my strength. Luckily I have 7 days to do this. I shovel more food in my mouth. Bleh. I should spend today just recuperating. My arms are sore and I can barely keep my eye open. Just eat some more and sleep. That sounds good.
Days left 6. That's plenty of time.
I wake up feeling much better. I stretch and do some exercises to ensure my limbs are all working right. I check on my supplies for tonight. Good. Everything looks in order. I eat some more.
Where's my letter to Will? Here it is. In the event where I can't fit through his window, I'm just going to slip this letter into his room. I tuck it carefully into a bag I made myself. Spent a few hours sewing it from scratch. It was nearly flat, only enough space for putting thin things like paper. It had three straps, one for each of my corners. I can't put it over my arms, it would get in the way.
I also had a large, stiff white sheet. It was big enough to cover my whole body and then some. There were hooks on the edges for attaching it to my bag straps. Once hooked it would ensure the sheet wouldn't slip off me so long as my bag stays on.
I had a map of the path to get from my house to my parent's place. I had to walk around a lot to get the exact measurements of how far it was. The good thing about being a shape is I can use my own body as a measurement tool. Sure I got a lot of strange looks for swinging myself back and forth across the streets but its paid off.
I sighed as I checked over my stuff. Ok. Everything is all set. Now I just need to wait for nightfall. Ugh, it was around 'noon' now and I still had a lot of time to kill. I could go buy some more food.
I'm just...always hungry. Am I not eating enough? I know I ate a lot back in my first life but this is a completely different body. Plus I ate a lot because I love the taste of food, but the food here is bland and unappealing so I don't know why I'm always hungry. I chomp on some more vegetables. Ooh there's some Potassium in this one.
Having cleared out my fridge from my binge yesterday and today I head out to buy more food.
The guards start following me not so subtly. At least they don't follow me inside the store. I grab various vegetables (if any of my friends saw me eating so many vegetables they'd think I'd gone mad.) and glance at a carton of 'milk'. I haven't drank any of that stuff since I moved on to solids. What even was it? I pick up a carton. Yeah, this looks like the stuff Orange gave me and Will when we were babies.
I look at the label.
C10H10O4 + H2O + 2(CH2OH)...a long stream of letters and numbers
Well that tells me NOTHING.
I grumble but put it in the basket anyway. Whatever. It has a high number of elements in it, so at least it should be more filling.
The elderly triangle wasn't here today. At least I won't have to listen to her talk about her husband again. There's an equilateral here today. Looks around my age. She/he (I still have trouble telling until I hear their 'voice) smiles and rings me up. They look at the 'milk' and blink in surprise.
"You have a child already? You're pretty young..."
"Oh no, that's for me."
"Why would you drink baby formula?" He (its a guy) asks with a confused expression.
I shrug awkwardly. "I don't know, it was kind of spur of the moment."
He quirks his eye at me like he was judging my decision to drink baby food and I flush orange in embarrassment.
Luckily he doesn't say anything else as the rest of the check out proceeds. I pay him and hurry out of the store. Why do ALL my visits result in awkward conversations?!
---
Huh. The 'milk' isn't bad. Still tastes faintly of wheat. I do feel less hungry though so maybe its got more 'nutrients' in it? Would make sense if they're supposed to be for newborns. I check the clock again. Soon.
I strap on my bag with the pocket on my front and the sheet on my back. The map is memorized and Ive practiced counting the steps in my head. I'm as ready as I'll ever be.
I cautiously peek out the window. I can see the replacement guard walking up. Right on time. I count silently in my head.
Ok....now!
I open my door as quickly and quietly as I can and close it behind me as I throw myself face down on the ground.
I wait a few seconds and when I didn't hear running footsteps of the guards realizing I was outside I relaxed somewhat.
I'm a nearly flat creature. Laying on the ground like this makes me barely perceptible. The white sheet on my back covers my distinctive color and blends in with the white ground. Now is the hard part.
I slowly crawl by wiggling my hands and feet. I can't afford to lift myself any higher above the ground without risking discovery so instead I make an awkward shuffling as I inch slowly along the ground. This is going to take forever.
Good thing I've got HOURS to do this.
---
Shit. Am I still on the right track. I can't fucking see where I'm going with my eye facing the ground like this. No. I've got this. By my calculations I should turn left here and my parent's house should be right there.
I bump into something with my top corner and wince. At least I'm not going fast enough to really hurt myself. I carefully lift my head to look up.
Yes! My parent's house! I get up and quickly flatten myself against the wall. Ok. Now to shuffle across to Will's room.
I make it to his window and carefully knock on it. As I thought I can't get inside. I could slip my letter through the crack but I wanted to see if I could actually speak to Will. I peer in and see a tent on the bed, Will has a habit of sleeping on his side so there's a very noticeable shape under the covers.
I'm about to knock again when I hear it.
Crying.
"Will?!" I whisper as I knock on the window a little louder. He's crying! What happened?! Is he hurt?! Is he having a nightmare?!
The shape on the bed shudders before the covers are falling away and I can see Will's beautiful blue bricks. His large eye is watery and he looks around confused before spotting me in the window.
"B-big brother!?"
"Yeah, its me. Will are you okay? Why're you crying?"
He quickly wipes his eye and hops off the bed to open the window.
"Big brother? Is it really you? I'm not dreaming?"
"Its really me kid." I reach a hand through the window to brush against his side. "See? I'm real. Unless you know any other yellow triangles that might visit you in the middle of the night."
Will giggles a little and grabs onto my hand.
"Now what's wrong little buddy? You were crying."
"I-its..."
"Come on. You know you can tell me anything."
Will starts tearing up again.
"D-dad said that you didn't want to see me again..."
I had the urge to punch daddy dearest right in his eye.
"He lied." I said a little more harshly than I meant to. Will flinched and I was quick to sooth him with more rubs.
"Sorry for snapping. I'm just mad that dad would lie to you like that."
"I was so afraid that you didn't like me anymore..." Will said as he teared up.
"That would never happen. I love you more than anything in all the world."
"Even more than food?" Will asked impishly as he smiled at me through his tears.
"Waaaay more than food." I roll my eye as Will giggles softly. Seriously, just 'cause I'm always hungry..
"Look Will. The government said that I'm not allowed to see you. I managed to sneak away from my guards to get here but I don't know how often I can do that before I get caught."
Will looked at me in worry. I wished I could hug him but the window was too small. I grabbed the letter out of my bag and handed it to him. "Read that, memorize it and then destroy it. I've left directions to a certain bush in the park where we can hide and exchange letters. Its the best I can do right now. I'm going to see if there's some way to get permission to see you again...but frankly I don't know what to do..." I could appeal to the council but that's about all I could think of.
"It'll be alright. You're smart. I know you'll figure it out." Will beams at me, completely confidant in my ability to find a solution. I slump halfway in the window and sigh. If only it were that easy.
I chat with Will a bit more about how he's been. He's having lots of fun with woodworking and although he still hasn't made any friends at school there was one triangle girl who sat next to him during break. It almost felt like old times when we would just sit and talk about everything after school. Finally I check the clock and bid Will a fond good bye before I begin my arduous task of crawling back home.
---
I put in a request to the council for permission to meet with my family. It was refused. Of course it was.
Maybe I could forge some documents for an order to give me permission? I'm half decent at copying stuff. If I could somehow get hold of a signature from one of the council members...
Once again the questions of how pop up. How do I do anything? I just don't know enough about how the system is run to exploit it. All the law books and history books just say "The Circles decide." Well what the fuck does that even mean?!
At least Will and I can send each other letters. I just drop by the park during 'break' time and relax on a bench. Its nice to be able to communicate with him, even if its just letters. Even now I speed through my work so I have free time to do anything else. I have gotten some art done, just as a way of working out my stress.
My house is filling up with origami animals and I'm running out of space. Help.
Do they have paper recycling here? It's not like we have much trash since we can literally eat ANYTHIN-wait. Wait one fucking minute.
We can eat ANYTHING so why do we even have trash? What the hell are we throwing out? My house has a trashcan but it's empty. The trash back at my parents place didn't have anything in it. Its like we have a trashcan just because its expected, but we don't use it. I threw out my piece into a public trashcan since they were the only ones with stuff in them that I could hide the crumbled brick with. Augh this is going to drive me crazy.
The park has a public trashcan right? What's in there? I should go check it out.
This is how far I've fallen. Digging through trash because I am literally THAT bored. Its a mystery that doesn't require too much effort to solve and it'll give me something to do other than mope around.
I'm seriously doing this.
I look at the trashcan before me. As I thought, there's barely anything in there. Just some crumpled paper. I edge around it, my germaphobia making me unwilling to actually touch it. But it looks dry and...not dirty...if it really IS just paper then its not a big deal.
I look around to see my guards. They weren't actually paying me much attention. I guess their only orders were to keep me away from my family. Anything else I do isn't important.
After making sure they really weren't paying attention to me, I quickly reach in and snag a crumpled piece of paper. Ew. Ew. Gross. Gross. I know its not actually dirty but my mind still connects trashcans to disgusting germ infested pits.
I glance once again to see my guards engaged in conversation and only vaguely paying me any mind. Well here goes. I inspect the paper I grabbed. Hang on, there's words on it.
I straighten it out somewhat and read.
Tonights
Meeting
At the
Shop
What? Tonight's meeting? Which shop?
I crumple the paper and toss it back in. Was there secret meetings happening in town? It certainly seemed like it. My mind raced.
Hiding secret messages in the trash?
I don't recall seeing anyone else digging through the trash. The only people who mess with the trash is-
The Sanitation department.
Which consists of Triangles.
Oh.
---
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