It hurt that I couldn’t be what they needed, and it hurt I couldn’t be what I wanted. I was fed and watered daily, but something told me there was more to life than this. My cage may have had bars of gleaming gold, but it was still a cage.
Many referred to this place as The Kingdom, a utopia of sorts. I could understand why, but that’s not how I saw it.
Our grass was lime green, the water was a shimmering blue, our stores were stocked with food, and people could safely go for walks in the middle of the night, knowing the wall was constantly being patrolled. You could even score some happy pills, if that was your thing.
On the other side of the wall was the affront to my morbid curiosity.
The Badlands: a prettied up hostile desert wasteland.
&nbs
p; The pinkish plains were home to various gangs of undesirables and an enclave of cannibals.
I suppose that was the purpose of the wall in the first place: to keep ‘them’ out. The deviants and outliers: people deemed not good enough to live among us. Outcasts. Those rejected by society.
I couldn’t help wonderin how vastly different their lives was from mine, reckoning I was the only person in the whole city who wanted to know what life would be like outside that eyesore of a damn wall. It wasn’t like I’d never asked someone these questions neither. I had—many times. No one ever gave me a real answer. Just like ma wouldn’t share any knowledge of history with me.
Thinkin of the loaded up duffel bag stowed beneath my bed, I knew I’d be leavin this place behind sooner than later, and Ma and dad ain’t have the slightest clue. Nobody did but the man that shared my secret with me.
My reputation has never preceded me.
To anyone outside looking in, I was Arlen Prosner—spoiled rich bitch that did everything her daddy told her.
None of that was remotely true.
That girl would have never considered her uncle’s whispered offer to leave The Kingdom in two weeks time.
I knew once we left, we wasn’t goin ever return. Coming back meant going through a lengthy process, and most were immediately shot or turned away. There were two ways in and out of the city, both heavily guarded. No one was forced to stay in, but once you got beyond a certain point…that was it.
There were even signs posted; I’d memorized them by heart.
Warning: Beyond this fence is no longer the territory of Centriole. Thereafter no person within the territory beyond this fence is a resident of our city or shall be acknowledged, recognized, or protected by the governing body therein.
You are now entering the Badlands.
Good luck.
It was debatable if the ‘good luck’ was genuine or not, but I had questions, a wayward sister, burnin curiosity, and an itch to break free.
Even knowing what was out there, how dangerous and foolish the choice would seem to anyone else, I was goin.
When I looked at the Badlands from the comfort of my bedroom, I didn’t see mutilated bodies or a war brewin between two powerful men.
What I saw was the lack of a wall, freedom from a life of being a Stepford wife, and popping out babies for a man twice my age.
I didn’t see how damn naïve I was.
I didn’t see myself befriending a tiny blonde who was a full blown psycho beneath her flawless exterior. I never foresaw the path my life would take from that day forward.
I made a life changin decision, and I ain’t have the foresight to see how drastic it would be.
I could have never foreseen all the ways I was goin to suffer on a precipice of insanity, before death finally gave me peace.
Chapter Two
Present
Red wine scented breath was on my neck. There was pressure between my legs and a weight on my chest.