There was once a girl named Autumn.
And she really liked Nathan, though she thought he needed to grow up.
It had been a week since the incident with the fireworks.
Nathan plead guilty, took all the blame, and the Authority soldiers had gone along with it, though Autumn wasn't sure if they actually believed Nathan.
They'd seemed ambivalent at best.
Arresting Nathan, they put him in jail in the next nearest district, which had a higher population. They let Autumn go free.
That was a week ago.
*****
Fireworks were punishable by death and the Authority intended fully to carry out that sentence against Nathan. In three days, they would execute him in the public square alongside a murderer and a bread thief.
Nathan had always wanted more in his life.
More adventure.
More fun.
More excitement.
But his excitement had brought him to this.
And Autumn was angry.
Angry with the Authority for their totalitarian dominance.
Angry with herself for letting Nathan go through with his crazy scheme, though she'd known it would end badly.
Angry at Nathan for ruining their future together.
Sure, Autumn had never told him she liked him.
Truth was, though he was a year older than her, he was immature.
And she needed him to grow up.
Then, once he became a man, she would reveal his feelings for him.
It would take a few years.
If he survived this.
And she was determined he would survive this.
*****
Which was why she'd stolen money from her parents and collected her savings and hired a local smuggler—a man by the name of Cartwright.
She'd heard about him—a local thief and smuggler.
Had broken people out of jails before.
She'd found him through a contact she'd had previously.
And now he stood before her, practically twice as tall, wearing baggy pants and a long-sleeved shirt that fell to mid-thigh. He had long stringy hair. Kind of a raggedy-looking guy.
"You sure this is going to work?" she said.
He took an obnoxious bite of an apple. Wiped the juice from his lips with his shirtsleeve. "Of course. I have a grenade."
And he held it up to her.
"What if we kill Nathan?"
"Who's Nathan?" he asked.
She put her hands to her hips.
He laughed, mouth full of apple. "Kidding. He'll be fine. At midnight, we break him out."
Anxiety filled Autumn's heart. She'd never done anything like this before. Her heart was beating even now and she thought she might faint. But she knew she would be tough when the occasion came for it. Nathan was her best friend.
She would never let anything happen to him.
"Hey, kid, you thought about what this Nathan boy is gonna do after you break him out?"
Autumn had thought about that.
She thought long and hard about everything.
She realized Nathan couldn't just go back to his aunt and uncle and live a normal life. The Authority would find him. He would have to run. He would have to run far, far away.
And he could never come back.
A tear rolled down Autumn's face.
She turned away from Cartwright.
*****
Nathan lay in the small cot in his small cell.
It was actually a little bigger than his room at home.
He tossed and turned, having trouble sleeping.
The cell smelled, odor rising from the hay-strewn floor.
He had a small window, bars between it.
One man manned the jail.
The man was leaned back in a chair beside a desk, whistling a tune, whittling a stick, and annoying Nathan.
On the desk sat a box of confiscated fireworks.
"Could you please stop?" Nathan said. "I'm trying to sleep."
The man stopped mid-whistle. A company man. A basic Authority Enforcer drone. Nothing special. Wearing the uniform. Wearing the ideology of the government itself.
A sell-out.
Nathan hated sell-outs with every fiber of his being.
Even though he loved most everyone.
The man stood from his chair, walked towards Nathan, waving the knife.
"What'd you say to me, boy?"
"You're barely thirty years old," said Nathan. "Don't talk to me like I'm a child and you're some kind of grown man."
The man continued walking towards the bars.
"Big words from a small man about to hung," he said, spitting through the bars, towards Nathan. Laughing.
Nathan didn't move from his place on the bed, laying on his back with his arm behind his head. "Well, I'd rather die being me than live being you."
"What'd you say to me, boy?"
The man rattled the bars.
Then shuffled away.
Nathan heard him retrieving the keys to the cell.
And Nathan waited, laying still.
And waited.
The man struck the key into the lock.
Turned it.
Nathan got to his feet now, cocking his head side to side.
"Square up, boy," said the man, throwing the door across. Old metal grinding. Needed oil.
This guy wanted to brawl.
"Do I look worried?" said Nathan.
"You done this before?" said the man.
Nathan had.
He ran at the man, pushing him back out through the door, shoving him back. Outside of the cell, in the small room just beyond, they began throwing fists. Nathan ducked and dodged and landed an overhand right. The man's knees wobbled. But he returned with a check left to Nathan's temple.
They smiled at each other.
In terrible pain.
Then tackled each other to the floor, wrestling and rolling. Throwing fists and elbows. Until Nathan finally elbowed the man in the face—knocking the man's head into the concrete floor.
Nathan went to punch the man again but the man was out cold.
Gathering his wits, Nathan stood and walked towards the door to leave the jail.
When he stopped.
Thought.
Turned around and went to the table, looking into the box of fireworks.
He'd never seen so many.
Apparently they'd been confiscated from around this district.
Nathan began sorting through them.
Occupied by the fireworks, he didn't see the man come awake.
Or remove the knife from his cloak.
Or sneak up behind.
When Nathan finally realized, he turned and tried to dodge out of the way.
But the man was mid-strike, with the knife.
The blade went through Nathan's right arm.
Screaming in pain, the knife stuck clean through his shoulder, Nathan front-kicked the man hard, knocking him to the floor.
Then Nathan pulled the knife from his arm, roaring in pain.
Dropping to his knees beside the fallen Authority Enforcer, Nathan jammed the knife through the man's back, into his heart. Blood squirted and Nathan had to block his face with his hands.
Spitting out the blood now.
Wiping from his face.
"Gross, gross, gross," he said, scooting away.
Then gripping his arm.
Pain roared as loudly as he'd roared when the blade had pierced through his arm.
Tears came to his eyes.
*****
And that was when Autumn came bursting through the doorway, Cartwright behind her. Cartwright had a gun in one hand. A grenade in the other.
Autumn saw Nathan, saw the blood, and put a hand to her mouth to stop from screaming. Then she ran to Nathan's side, dropping to her knees.
"Are you okay?"
"Well obviously," he said, as blood came from his arm.
They heard shouts from down the street: Authority soldiers.
Marching up this way.
Had obviously heard Nathan's screaming.
"We have to go," said Autumn.
"Well obviously," said Nathan.
She punched him in his good shoulder, and he took her hand, and she pulled him up, and they moved to the door.
That was when Nathan saw the grenade in Cartwright's hand.
He took it from him, Cartwright objecting.
Nathan pulled the pin and tossed the grenade into the box of fireworks.
That being done, they ran out of the small building.
*****
Running down the dark street, for it was close to midnight, hugging the nearest row of buildings, Nathan and gang kept to the long shadows. Down the street, not a hundred yards away, the Authority soldiers, a pack of them, ran hard.
The grenade exploded.
Blowing out the wall of the building between them.
Fireworks shot out the window and open door, launching into the street.
Lighting the otherwise dark place.
Loud explosions.
More shouting.
And Nathan and girl and Cartwright turned off the street and ran into the nearby woods.
*****
The trees in this district were thicker than in their own. Tall pines. Smelled good. And they ran, and ran, and ran. Until the shouts from the Authority died away in the distance.
Finally, they pulled up by a brook.
Panting.
"That was wild," said Nathan. "Did you—did you see those fireworks?"
Catching his breath.
Autumn punched him once more. "You didn't have to do that."
"That was my only grenade."
"Who are you?" asked Nathan.
"Cartwright," he said, adding a little smile.
"I've heard of you. Local smuggler."
"I'm known for my tricks. Among other things."
Nathan looked to Autumn. They exchanged confused faces.
At that moment, a gunshot sounded off from somewhere in the forest.
Cartwright's head exploded.
Nathan, in a state of shock, was frozen.
The world stopped for a moment as Cartwright's body fell.
Autumn had covered her ears, screaming.
Nathan took her arm and pulled her away, running deeper into the forest, as Authority soldiers emerged from nearby. Shouting and shooting. Bullets raced by their heads.
Nathan directed them through a stand of trees, using them as cover.
Continued running.
Moonlight slanted into the forest at varying angles.
"Shit, shit, shit," Nathan was saying.
Autumn's legs were shaky, he could tell as he pulled her along.
The men were hard on their heels.
Angry—zealous.
Nathan had killed their friend.
They wanted revenge.
They wanted blood.
And they could smell Nathan's.
His arm stung with every step he took.
Still, he raced onward.
"We need to go faster," he said sharply to Autumn.
*****
At last they came to a moon-washed valley, hills and mountains rising around it. A set of trees across the long and open expanse. The grass was up to their knees—higher in some places.
Without any other option, they ran, hand in hand, through the valley.
They would be open shooting targets for the soldiers.
And so Nathan sprinted as hard as he could while taking Autumn with him.
When they were halfway across the valley, a flurry of bullets came their way. The soldiers had reached the edge of the valley. The bullets flew past. Coming uncomfortably close.
Luckily, they were a decent distance apart.
"This is insane," said Autumn.
"I know I am," said Nathan.
Having a surge of testosterone.
*****
There was something about taking care of a woman that gave a man testosterone. Nathan felt cooler than ever, though he'd endangered his beautiful friend, as he pulled Autumn past the line of trees into this next stretch of forest.
"How long can we keep this up?" Autumn asked.
"As long as it takes."
She stopped behind a large rock.
"I need to catch my breath," she said.
"Okay. But hurry."
"We have a decent head start."
"Do you feel that?" Nathan asked.
"What?"
"That."
She sucked in more breaths.
"What?"
"The adrenaline. The adventure."
"Nathan, this isn't my idea of—"
But she couldn't finish her sentence because he took her in his arms and smothered her with a big kiss. Letting go, smiling, he took her hand.
*****
Autumn couldn't tell him how much she liked the kiss.
She was too mad at him.
Had to be.
She couldn't vindicate his crazy behavior.
So she said, "Nathan, how could you?"
But he didn't seem to care.
And inside, her heart had melted.
She barely noticed as he pulled her along, past the tall pines, and straight on till morning.