Chapter Text
“Do you ever dream of escaping?” Josh asks Tyler hesitantly. This is Josh’s 5th time meeting up with Tyler that week, and he had really loved spending time with the boy. They could even call each other best friends.
“Sometimes,” Tyler answers quizzically, “but it’s safe here.” He continues.
“I don’t know. I mean, you know what happened to my parents, Tyler. If we’re safe, then why are they gone?” Josh questions, knowing he sounded insane.
“Yeah, but who knows what’s out there? Trench is scary, from what I’ve heard. I’ve heard about that group of escapees around my district, too. What’re they called? The bandit- something others?” Tyler asks.
“Yeah! I’ve heard of them too! Banditos! That’s what they’re called.” Josh exclaims in excitement.
He had always liked the thought of them. The rebels. The escapees. Those who escaped the hallowing depths of Dema.
“I want to escape with you, Tyler.” Josh blurts out after a few beats of silence between the two.
“What?! Josh, no way. As much as I want to see behind the city walls.. I’m safe here. The walls confine me. Without Dema.. I don’t know what I am.” Tyler trails on.
“Exactly! That’s why we need to escape! To see what we are without Dema. I want to see it all with you. I want you to show me. We can show each other, Tyler.” Josh looks excited, but soon his smile melts into a look of sorrow as he realizes Tyler isn’t exaggerating.
“Please.” Josh pleads. He holds a hope deep in his heart that he can convince Tyler to come with him. To leave safety behind to see what happens, for the hell of it.
That hope fades quick.
“I- I can’t. You don’t understand. I- I’m sorry.” Indigo tears well into Tyler’s eyes, as vast as the ocean floor. His heart clenches with guilt.
“I want to be know you, Tyler. Just you. We could see it all, I’m begging you, please listen!” Josh yells, tears also beginning to flow from his eyes, dripping down his face as he looks at Tyler, his eyes pleading, please, don’t make me do this alone.
“No. I can’t.” Tyler says, trying to sound firm. He didn’t. His voice wavered with emotion, that he wanted to spend a lifetime with Josh, showing him Trench. To escape. To be free.
“I’m leaving tonight. I’m hoping you reconsider. If you want to come, meet me under Lisden’s tower at 3. I’m going to escape, no matter what.” Josh declares, though his voice is weary also. He walks away from their spot under Nico’s tower, with every step hurting more than the last.
Filled with guilt.
—— |-/ ——
Josh packs his things, which isn’t much, to be honest. His toothbrush, clothes, blanket, and snacks he kept after mealtimes under the noses of the Bishops.
Josh wishes he could take the drums with him. But he doesn’t.
He exits his room quietly, sneaking around the corners of the structure, finally making it to the cobblestone under Lisden’s tower. He looks around.
Tyler is nowhere to be seen.
‘Coward.’ Josh thinks, his mouth full with a bitter taste. The acid of betrayal, the smell of rot.
I love you, Tyler, but I can’t stay here. It seems that you can’t live any other way.
Josh sneaks about, his gray clothing allowing him to blend into the cold, bare stone walls. Josh looks down and finds the familiar mock stone.
‘Gotcha.’ Josh thinks, remembering the fake stone he had discovered months prior.
This must be the tunnels. The one Lisden and Keons were discussing three months ago.
3 months prior..
Josh awakens on the sterile white table, remembering nothing but the needle to his temple.
Cold, yet simultaneously blisteringly warm. A suffocating kind of warm. One that took over his brain, making him unable to think. But Josh try’s to remember what happened before the needle anyway, even though it hurt.
“Joshua. Remember these words carefully. You will never become a Glorious Gone while engaging in the disobedient disease that is music.” Lisden tells him, calling for the guards to bring the needles. Josh figures he must have been caught humming or tapping again.
Josh hops off of the operating table, noticing the blood bag attached to his arm, gently pulling the needle out. Blood comes out of his forearm, forming a small crimson drop that stood starkly against his paper white skin.
What tests did they run this time, Josh thought, but after a moment, noticed it hurt his head to think about. As his bare feet hit the cold marble tile, he could hear deep voices from outside the closed iron door. Josh’s heart beats hard against his chest. Bishops.
Josh listens closely, which doesn’t take much effort. He had always had a sharp sense of hearing.
“That entrance, under your Tower. You are to cover it with this stone. Remember its color. It’s different from the others for a reason. This is how you will capture and smear your escapees.” The voice says, Josh recognizing it to be Keons.
“Yes, Keons.” The other Bishop responds, and Josh lets out a breath he didn’t know he had held in. Lisden.
Josh’s thoughts tunnel, his brain being overtaken with fog and panic.
Escapees?
People have escaped?
What does smearing mean?
Is that what happened to Mom and Dad?
Tunnels?
Josh’s breathing quickens as tears spring to his eyes, unable to feel.
“I can’t breathe,” Josh whispered to himself, more like a panicked huff of air than a whisper. His heart beats hard, and clenches in.. anxiety? Worry? Who knows.
Josh thinks, I will be okay. Just breathe. That thought was just loud enough to help him calm down and regulate his breathing, nothing left but the cool tears that were once so burning hot against his cheeks. Josh wipes his eyes, and leaves the room, as he was told to before his ‘behavioral treatment’ as it was called.
Remember the colored stone.
—— |-/ ——
Josh lifts the stone, and sees a hole leading to a tunnel. Straight down.
‘It’s worth the risk,’ Josh thinks, and jumps down, all while simultaneously sliding the stone back into place, attempting to leave as little of a trace as possible.
Josh looks ahead, and sees the night sky outside the walls at the end of the tunnel. It looked so.. blue, a stark contrast to the gray sky of Dema. What’re those… lights? Josh asks himself as he runs.
Josh suddenly feels fear within his chest as he sprints, what if I’m caught? Lisden will be so angry with me. That means more tests. More experiments. More needles. This motivates his to sprint faster. Quicker. His breathing runs ragged, wheezing beginning as he runs through the greenery of Trench.
Josh feels like he had been running for hours when he suddenly trips over something that stuck out of the tall green things that Josh didn’t know were called, and slams into the dirt and rocks, his head colliding to the ground, causing vignettes in his vision.
The last thing Josh sees before the dark is an outstretched hand dressed in green and yellow, illuminated by a bright light.
A torch.
A bandito.