The Chain Link Fence

Her third death came on the Sunday after Summer Solstice, just before sunset. There had been word of a breach in the perimeter fence, and she’d volunteered to go. She set off in the hope of slipping into no-man’s land and reaching the factory complex as darkness fell.

Impossible to know if it was just bad luck or whether there was someone responsible for tipping off The Seekers, although she had her suspicions. It was tempting to point a finger at the new recruits, especially those who appeared a little over-eager to please, too vocal in their determination to overthrow the oppressors. But it could just as easily have been one of the old timers, crumbling from the years of intolerable pressure on themselves and those they loved most. And few, in honesty, would blame them. It had been a long and bloody fight, one which drained the mental resources of even the most committed.

She found the gap in the fence quite easily. It looked new, just a few interlocking chain links sliced and pressed back, creating a hole just big enough to squeeze through. A few fibres clung to its edges, as though someone else had tried and become caught. That alone was enough to set her teeth on edge, to alert her to the possibility of betrayal, but it was too late to turn back. If it were a trap, then that was just too bad.

She was quicker and more nimble than most and was almost through by the time The Seekers appeared. She heard the rapid fire almost before she felt it thud into her body.

She cast off her pelt, leaving it draped across the ground, blood seeping into the rough soil. She glanced back as she sped across the fields to safety and saw The Seekers silhouetted against the sunset, gathered around the corpse.

The Chain Link Fence

A pity, she thought. She’d grown fond of that persona and each death left her a little diminished, a little weaker than the last. But there were other lives for her to lead and there would be other opportunities to bring the bastards down.