Escape from Eadred
In another time and world, a small family wanders into a strange place where they find themselves among a society of people, Eadredians, who are very hesitant and often hostile towards outsiders. The family tries to pretend that they have always been there, all the while seeking a certain place that may hold answers for them on how to get out safely before they are discovered as aliens and suffer the consequences.
In a high tension situation where the family tries to find refuge during the cold nights, they sneak into a building they think will be unoccupied for a while. They find a back room and fall asleep as they are wearied by the day.
While asleep, however, a few Eadredians who apparently frequent the building regularly come in and turn on the lights to find the family asleep on the floor. Astounded at the sight they wonder if they should kick them out into the cold or let them stay until daylight.
The family, scared of what might happen next, begs the Eadredians to let them stay for the sake of their small child. They are allowed to stay until day and are told that they can move to another building where there is actually small homes for people like them. The family are so relieved yet can’t shake an uneasy feeling. The family has no choice now, since they have already been caught, and they try to sleep the rest of the night, only to really find themselves barely getting any sleep due to their paranoia about the Eadredians who found them.
When day finally arrives, they are greeted by the Eadredians who found them and rushed to get out. In the hustle of being forced out, however, they neglect to get their belongings or get fully dressed, and their child is barely dressed for the outside cold. The family is forced into a great hall that leads them to the outside of the building, and they are among hundreds of other poor looking people who seem to be all heading in the same place. Like cattle being herded toward a slaughter, the family is forced to keep moving forward with the hundreds of other strangers. The closer to the outside they get, the more anxious and uncertain they are of the outcome of this supposed kindness from the Eadredians.
They hear the others talking and wonder what kind of setup this is. Before long they finally make it to outside and see a long line of people walking in the cold snowy ground. They ask someone how far to the other building and if everyone is going there, and are returned with obscure responses. An ominous dark cloud begins to cover the landscape ahead, and what sounds like screams can be heard from far ahead. The family tries to turn back and run, but more people push them and keep them from turning. Try as they might, the family is unable to get out of the path to darkness.
Frantic and desperate to get out of this place, the husband and father of the family sees someone with something like a bat and takes it away from him without a second thought. He yells and raises the weapon in his hands, and tells everyone to get out of the way, and does whatever he can to get his family to safety, away from these people and from this place.
When the husband turns around to check that his wife and child are safe, and still behind him, he no longer sees them and instead hears their cries trailing off. In the distance he can see the Eadredians carrying his wife and child off farther away, towards the darkness, passing all the others in the massive line. He tries to chase them down, but the faster he tries to run the more force of others come against him and keep him from ever getting back to his wife and child.
Just when the husband thinks all is lost, however, he sees his wife and child emerge from the shadows. His wife is carrying one of the weapons the Eadredians had used to strike fear in everyone. He is speechless but as she and their son get closer, and they reunite, all the others that were once crowding around them back away and let them go where they can finally leave Eadred and forget the nightmare they lived while trapped there.
Word count: 743