Chapter 6: Reprieve

Asher and Sarah left the house shortly after the fight, not before changing their clothes and taking some from the house before leaving. Asher grabbed a black hoodie and grey cargo pants while Sarah took some worn looking black jeans and a navy jumper. Asher's messy hair was dyed red with dry blood and his hands were also covered with it. Sarah only really got blood on her clothes so she was relatively clean looking. Asher still felt a bit dizzy after the fight but knew that neither of them had the luxury of resting right now, so he forced himself to continue on. They had continued their previous routine of slipping through alleyways between houses and circling around areas where they could hear the voices of other people. Hours and hours passed with them doing this, remaining hidden from those out hunting people. Neither one of them had spoken of the incident since, both seeming to understand that it was for their survival and had to be done. 

Asher however began thinking back on the events as they waited patiently for a group of four people to pass by them as they hid under a pile of scrap outside a house. He was surprised at himself. He was surprised by how little killing another human being seemed to bother him. He felt no guilt or remorse at all for the man he had violently stabbed to death. He wondered to himself if it was because he had killed the man in self defence. Strangely when he had been stabbing the man he felt high from the adrenaline and after he had killed him he felt a sense of pride. He wouldn't say that he exactly enjoyed killing the man but he definitely did not regret his actions. If anything Asher was more shaken up by his own lack of feelings towards taking a life than the act of taking a life itself. 

Guess I'm a natural.

Sarah however had really surprised Asher. Asher had never expected his mother to be capable of coldly and efficiently killing someone like that. He knew from the bits and pieces his mother had told him and others before he was born the Boundary had been a much worse place than it is now, which Asher struggled to imagine. Back then the government hadn't enough resources to supply people in the Boundary. The food supply was low and it wasn't until the invention of protein gel when things started to improve. Protein gel was only around for the last twenty years but before that starvation was rampant in the Boundary. With the mass starvation people were forced to adapt and try to survive by any means necessary. 

Kind of what it's like right now. 

He imagined that people would steal, assault and even kill others in search of food back then, even though Asher could eat somewhat regularly he was never fully satiated. He could honestly say bar on his birthdays where Sarah went all out he had never felt completely full in his whole life, so he didn't doubt the lengths people would go to if they were hungry. Still Asher hated protein gel but thinking about it now he figured it was better than the alternative. Even disgusting sludge was better than being hungry. 

Sarah had never really talked in detail about what it was like to live in the Boundary back in those days or what she had to do in order to survive in such a harsh place as a young girl, but after seeing how efficiently she had just killed a man without anyone even noticing her he knew she must have been through a lot. Asher doubted that that man was the first person Sarah had killed and somehow with the way things were panning out it likely would not be the last. 

Interrupting Asher's thoughts Sarah said "Ash they've passed we can move on now." The two of them stood up from under the pile of scrap and carefully made their way down the street making sure not to make much noise. As they moved the red hue of light illuminating the streets for a moment changed to a green one. Looking up at the where the numbers were the quota had been reached with three hours to spare. 

Asher had not really been paying attention to the timer and population requirement so he was surprised that it had been reached and ahead of schedule at that. Just like that the population in the Boundary had dropped from over two million to just over one million. Sarah grimaced as she read the numbers but shook her head and looked down as if to shake away any bad thoughts. They had survived another day in this hell that was good enough and now that the goal had been reached with time still left it meant that things would calm down a little bit. Asher and Sarah approached a crudely constructed shack made from scrap metal and wood, entered in and secured the door and covered the windows. 

Asher was beyond tired at this point, it had been over thirty hours since he last slept and the fight they had gotten in had really drained him of any energy he did have, not to mention they had not stopped moving since. Asher walked into a small room that just barely fit a single bed and lay down on it and almost instantly he passed out from exhaustion.