The Runaways

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Shadows stretched across the fields, and the sun plummeted. Sunset. Darkness blanketed Hidalgo.

Peder had never been aware of the clock-calendar glowing on his bedroom wall, not like now. Numbers blinked—09 changed to 10.

10 1021 08. After all those lessons it finally meant something! It was the 10th day of the 1021st trift of year 8. Peder had memorized his numbers and letters, but now they possessed a power. They weren't just sounds in a chant. They represented concepts like the passage of time.

Nurse Carmen smiled at Peder. He saw curiosity in her brown eyes, and hope. “Do you remember coming here? It was late last trift, just after free time.”

Peder’s voice was rough. He talked seldom and his tongue wasn’t honed for speech. “I was bad. I went to the fence. We were running in the fields, and I went to the fence.”

“Yes. Never do that. It’s too close to the Higgs generator. I had to fetch you.”

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