As my lungs heaved in and out, I darted down an alley and thrust opened a door that revealed stairs leading down to my refuge. Locking the door back, I crept carefully down, feeling the brick walls in the darkness. A dim lit room lay ahead, and I went ever so slowly, hoping not to make much noise.
The stairwell opened up to reveal several beds laid out in rows to my left and a television with a couch in front of it on my right. A couple kids were huddled on the couch, watching the old TV with a blanket wrapped around them. I walked silently over to a bed where a girl was sleeping, her hair tangled and messy on the pillow, and the cover draped over her, conforming to her body. I knelt beside her, giving her a light shove.
�Terri, wake up,� I whispered, giving her shoves until her eyelids lazily rose. �I know I�m early, but, man, Mrs. Cooper found your note.�
This seemed to catch her attention. She sat up quickly. �She what?�
�Yeah, the cops chased me down here,� I said, climbing up onto the bed next to her. She screamed in frustration. The kids on the couch turned to her with evil, warning glares. She didn�t seem to care much.
"She really needs to mind her own business. In fact, the entire world needs to mind their own business. This is the 23rd century. Adults need to stop treating us like children. We have rights too,� she whispered as I followed along in my head with her civil right statement.
It wasn�t until 2206 that teens our age (fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, and older) started standing up for their rights so to speak. We just took a very, very different approach to it. Involved with the activists, many teens gather here, but there won�t be that many here anymore because we�re all leaving for a place better-a place better and fairer to us than Earth. It was just too bad that we were so stealthy that it took the government a long time to catch on to what we were doing, and they still haven�t quite figured out everything yet. They�ve been crazy about clues, though, and nosy teachers like Mrs. Cooper is one of the main people trying to crack down on us.
�Benji called and said he�d be here soon,� Terri said, grabbing the backpack that lay beside the bed.
�Well, then, it looks like I got here just in time.�
�Actually, a little late. He said that they�re stalling the shuttle just so that he can bring us. They weren�t going to let us on had he not pulled a few strings,� she admitted, taking a deep breath in relief, even though knowledge wasn�t new.
I smiled. Benji was always looking out for us. It was too bad that he wasn�t coming with us, and I probably wasn�t ever going to see him again. He was too busy here, helping other kids to come.
Terri�s phone rang in her purse, and she looked at me, our eyes meeting, and I could just barely make out that excitement in her eyes. Her face was lit up, and I smiled, my face lighting up too. She hurriedly opened the phone up, flipping it open once she�d seen the caller id.
�Hey, Benji?� she said. �Yeah, yeah, we�re ready.�
Ready. The word we�d been waiting months to be.
