Color Runner

The bridge above her head offered her protection from the acidic rain pouring down. Two hours had already passed while she waited for it to stop. Moving through the burning rain was her only option.

She stood and brushed off her pants. It was useless. After months of wear and tear, dirt was the least of her problems. Her shoes were the only decent thing she owned. They had to be. Her last pair had just worn out when she found a brand new pair. Found. That’s what she like to call it. She didn’t like thinking that she was stealing, however, it’s what she had to do in order to survive.

She took a deep breath and ran. The pain started immediately. Tiny pinpricks that went to the bone. She was going to pay for it later and she was already running low on medical supplies. She had already been out too many times, so she would just have to make do with what she had.

The golden, heart shaped locket around her neck pound against her collarbone with every step. It was old and battered, but it contained the only picture of her family left. They had gotten separated a month ago. After the color wars were lost, anyone who was non-white had been put into internment camps and/or killed.

Maya was trying to change that. When her parents and brother had been taken, they were at the white house fighting for her families rights. She had been adopted into a black family when she was three. That made her a target. She was seen as an abomination. An outsider. Different. Anything seen as different was a threat.

Her old friends turned against her. They all turn their back‘s in order to obey the laws. Laws that were made to force their compliance, their surrender.

The rain continued to pour on her. Drenching her already ruined clothes. Her hair had started smoking. Most of the long length had been gone already due to the stinging water. Before the color wars had started, the environment had taken a turn for the worse. Rain had turned acidic, plants began to die, animal heards thinned out, and the earth began to heat. That is what caused the wars to start. Worries that the human race would not last with what little they had left and remaining discrimination from generations before.

She only had a little left before she would reach the abandoned house she had hunkered down in. It only took another five minutes of running before she saw the lights. Flashes of red and blue. They had found her. She cursed at herself, knowing she had drawn too much attention to herself.

She knew she couldn’t back down now. She had been fighting and trying for so long. Too long. She needed a new plan, but first she needed out of the rain.

She turned and ran in a different direction. St. Louis was a big place after all. She had to find a new place one they wouldn't expect. She had heard good things about the south, maybe Springfield. A place she would finally be able to eat the food she had been out scouting for. Her caved in stomach gave a harsh growl, but she pushed on. Maya could not remember the last time she had eaten. Not without constantly looking over her shoulder in fear.

She missed being able to be in public and not be scared. To eat a hot meal at a restaurant, not cold beans out of a can with her fingers. She look forward to the day she would be able to do that again. Until then she will run.

She ran and ran and ran. Until the rain stopped. Until she found a place for the night. Until the world changes she will keep fighting, keep trying, keep running.