Ashley nodded to him and followed him through the hallways and into the kitchen, where she helped him dig through the cabinets for anything that could be taken with them to eat. After a short period of time, they had filled up his school bag, and he was pulling her along by the hand to his back door. Without a word, they both ran out of the house and through the yards of their neighbors houses, until they finally had to stop to rest in the yard of an old church building that stood at the edge of the subdivision.

"Oh man," Caleb said between deep breaths, "that jerk wasn't kidding when he said our lives were going to go down the tube. What the heck are we going to do now? Stuck on our own with no place to go and in a crowd of people who fear those that don't look like them?" He turned to Ashley again, who looked like she had done something wrong and this was her fault, and gave her a small smile. "Don't look like that, you're worth it to me. We'll make it out of this somehow. Eventually."

Caleb sighed tiredly as he got up from his seat on the ground resting against the old church building. He extended one furry hand to help Ashley up, then shouldered the heavy backpack that contained everything he had to his name. They walked away from his old home at a slower pace now, exhaustion now overcoming the need to escape from the danger posed to him by his own mother and the town police. "Man," he said again, almost disbelievingly, "I never would have thought that something like this would happen to us, and by my own mom. Well, we stand the best chance of making it out of this somehow if we can get out of this town. If we get caught by the people in this town we're likely to get lynched, and in the name of god no less. We live close to a large city, so I suggest that we head towards it. At least there we probably won't be looked at as demons. I doubt that we'll be much better off, but we probably won't be mobbed there." Ashley nodded and took his hand, all the while looking up at him apologetically. When he noticed this he smiled at her again and rubbed her cheek with his free hand. "Hey, I told you already, you're worth this, and besides, we'll make it out of this somehow. We've just got to find a way to get others to look at us as people."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Ashley replied, seeming to take strength from his words. "Where are we going to sleep? We can't sleep on the streets, can we? I mean, if we did we'd either freeze or be robbed or killed."

"I didn't think of that," Caleb mused, his voice now becoming tight with the addition of another thing to worry about.

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Author guidance for This story

I intend for the plot line to be Caleb and Ashley trying to make it on their own in a world that doesn't accept them, so follow along with that. There should be enough already to go on for their personalities, and any other characters can be brought in as needed later. Two I intend on being brought into the story are a thief girl that takes a liking to them, and a cashier at a local grocery store that has a soft spot for them, as well as many possible minor enemies.

Ideal word count per chapter: 500-1000. Anyone want to jump in and start helping out on this?

updated Jul 5 '09 by Wolvendeer