The Fence

Quiet as a mouse, David moved swiftly through the moonless night to the fence.  The tension of the moment showed in the way he looked furtively around him for anything amiss. Years of patient waiting and thorough preparation had lead him to this moment.  In a way, its arrival was almost anticlimactic.  The grassy field on the other side looked just like the one he had just run through, but in his heart he knew the difference. 

David knew well the dogmatic teachings of The Order:  the fence was necessary for protecting the land from those that interpreted the The Sacred Writings differently.  Even a child knew order, prosperity, and unity reigned where he stood. On the other side of the fence lay the province of disorder, poverty, and discord.

David now knew what lay beyond by another word.

His journey to this moment had started with a single thought.  Angered by directive issued by The Order, he expressed his dissatisfaction to a friend.  Once David's confidence was betrayed, retaliation followed swiftly.  He barely survived his time in the reeducation camps, only the time spent interpreting The Sacred Writings for himself kept him alive.  By the time he left, he knew what he had to do in order to truly survive.

David took off his tunic and threw it over the top wire of the fence, he would no longer be required to wear it on the other side.  His muscular arms pulled him to the top.  Taking no glance at what he was leaving being, he dropped to other side to what he had sought for years.

Freedom.