On the Run.

(Hi guys! I'm working on this book, and this is the first chapter and half of the second chapter. It went along super great with this prompt, but I started writing it about two or three months ago. Tell me what you think because I will think about publishing it in the marketplace of Reedsy so you all can read it. The name of the book is Greta by the way. I have written around four more chapters of it. Hope you like it.)

Chapter 1- On the run.

   Today is the day I die. I was running as fast as I possibly could. I was so scared. I was now on the run from the lord. I hear them behind me. On my tail. I got the head start on foot, they got cars and motorbikes. The sound of the cars reverberated off the plants and the trees. Shaking the ground, making it feel like an earthquake. Now I’m definitely dead. They surround me. The lord comes to my side. “Give up. Or we will make you.” I know he’s not kidding. But I don’t find it threatening. So instead I grin at him. His eyebrows knit together. And then I feel a jolt of pain in my stomach, and green light explodes out of my body. I can no longer feel my bare feet on the cool dirt floor. Now I was sure I was hallucinating and dead. But the lord probably was too, because the last thing I see is his face looking horrified. It almost makes me laugh at him. And trying to get in a car. I don’t know what happens from there, because I’m probably dead. I should have never got on the run. That was a dumb thing to do. But worth it for sure.

Oh, yeah, my life is hectic today. But most days are nothing like today. In fact, they are usually completely different. But today felt different. I was tired of my life the way it was. Today had to be a day of revenge. I promised Greta that it would be. There was no way that I was going to pretend like that never happened. I don’t have a birthday, but Greta’s death day instead. Greta died ten years ago today. She was the only mother that I had ever had. Well, like the only mother that I had ever had. I knew that I had a birth mother that wasn’t Greta. It was the worst thing that could have happened to me ever. Greta came in and was teaching me something, I was five at the time. Then one of my guards came in and tried to take Greta out. I refused to let her leave. They aimed and shot Greta. And then she died in my arms. But her last wish was what makes today special. “Promise me, my dying wish, you escape from here and never come back.” And I swore I would escape. I’ve spent the last ten years trying to find an escape plan, and at long last, I had one.

But it failed. Backfired. The lord had found out I left and came to find me. Unfortunately, they caught up to me. But now it was too late. I was dead. I did it. I feel euphoric in a way. I escaped, and Greta’s dying wish came true in the end. The lord had lost his experiment. Oh right, I forgot that part! Basically, since I was young I have had to be injected with all these weird shots. And the shots were a weird neon green color. Every week there would be this neon green substance injected into me. And the placement of it differed. When I was younger, I would be afraid of the shots. But over time I just became used to them. They never told me anything about them. Or why did they keep me in a bullet-proof glass when I was not being injected. Why I wasn’t allowed to have anything other than blankets and a pillow and a bed. I was an experiment that lived in a glass cage. I’m pretty sure the lord only visited me to make sure that the shots were working.

I haven’t felt loved since Greta was around me. All those years ago. I needed to go on the run. I needed to escape for her. So I did. And then I was on the run. And then, I wasn’t even living. I hope neither was the lord. The lord is what I have been told to call the person who ran the facility I used to live in. I had only seen him once or twice a year, and every time he completely ignored me when he did see me. So this is what death is like. Huh, I imagined it differently. I think. I have always wondered what death would feel like. No one really ever told me about death. It was on my mind sometimes, but not always. I really thought about it more recently, as dying would definitely play a part in my escape plan in some way. But it was nothing like I had imagined. In fact, I kind of felt, alive in a way. I still had thoughts. I felt tired, sure, but it was not like what I had felt before. So maybe I was dead. Maybe I wasn’t. But by tomorrow, I would for sure be dead. Or would I be dead tomorrow?

Chapter 2-Hospital Gowns.

Hospital gowns are something I have become used to. They were the only clothes I was ever provided. Mine was really uncomfortable. Either with blue polka dots on white background, white, blue, or white polka dots on a blue background. All just as boring as the last. My environment was always very controlled, so I never had to worry about my temperature. When I went outside for the first time, I was cold. I guess that’s what I get for being in so little clothing in an escape. When I woke up, I was in a bed. I had survived! I was alive! I jolted awake to see a doctor by my side. There were some nurses in the room too. The doctor was about to pull a plug. I was it went to a life support machine. Then the nurses all screamed when I jolted awake. “Doctor! It’s a miracle! They are alive! Hooray!” They are celebrating. But I am very confused. I thought I had died. Why was I here? The same nurse notices my confused expression. She points it out to the doctor. The doctor says they must save another patient, to tell me about everything.

“Dear, you were found in the woods by some hikers. There were apparently other people that were debatable about living, but you had a staggering breath. Along with another. You are in a hospital right now. We were about to pull the plug, but you were awake before we did. Which is fantastic. We have been able to save you! Now, do you remember anything about what happened before you passed out, or when you did, or anything about it?” I shake my head. I never knew the time of day or day of the week. I just knew the sun was up when I had fallen. When that green light exploded from me. What even was that? A sign I was going crazy? I don’t know. “Well, that’s alright. We’ll deal with that later. Would you know anybody you were with, or why you were in the woods?” I shake my head. I don’t know if I can fully trust them yet. Even if I did, I probably wouldn’t just explain my life story to them. So I lied. “Alright. Do you have any family?”I once more shook my head. Not that I knew of. “Are you a runaway orphan, or an adult?”

Orphan? I mean, sort of. Maybe. But I really didn’t want to be put in an orphanage. “No, I’m an adult. 21 a week ago.” I lie again. The nurse nods. She looks like she isn’t shocked. She marks that down. Then she leaves the room. I look out the window and see that I’m on the first floor because there are bushes outside. I have to get out of this hospital. I had no other choice. The lord was there, and who knows how long it would be until he woke up as well. I needed to be back on the run. I needed to escape from his clutches. Now was my guaranteed moment of escape. Once more in a hospital gown, I was on the run. My new life. I should have got some money or found something like that, but I completely forgot I would need that. I’m running out of here. However, there are police officers at the gate. They are hearing about an escaped patient on the first floor. Me.