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My lungs burned as I ran. I dragged in breaths of thick, polluted air. Before long, I could barely see two feet in front of me. My eyes watered. Sharp branches snagged at my skin. Leaves whipped across my face. My hair got caught in one too many vines.

I came to an abrupt halt. I had no sense of time or direction. How long had I been running for? I wobbled back and forth and a dizzy spell almost rendered me helpless. I held my arm out in front of me until my fingers touched the trunk of a tree. I used it to hold myself up.

Several voices caught me off guard. Before I could find a place to hide, two young rebels leading a man with a white coat came out into the clearing and spotted me. The man with the white coat was a scientist from the medical lab. I knew because my father took me once to give me a tour. The younger males were rebels. They were wearing cuffs on their upper sleeves that designated them as such.

“Oh no, you don’t,” one of the rebels caught me by the arm when I tried to run off. A third rebel revealed himself and captured my hands behind my back, preventing me from escaping.

“Please, don’t kill me,” I pleaded.

“You’re from the settlement back there,” the rebel claimed, studying my face with morbid curiosity.

“Don’t touch her,” the scientist warned. “You’ll regret it!”

“Shut him up,” the rebel demanded and then circled me like a vulture.

There was a scuffle between the other rebel and the scientist. They ended up on the ground fighting each other.

“Don’t touch her. She’s the youngest daughter of North. A royal. Leave her alone or you’ll most certainly regret it,” the scientist yelled.

I sighed in inward defeat. That scientist had just blown my whole cover.

“Oh really?” The rebel grinned and stopped walking around me in circles. “You don’t look like North. Not one bit.” He propped his hands on his hips and squinted as if trying to decide what to do with me. “We don’t care about royals. Your settlement is burning. North will be dead soon. You’re worth more dead than alive.”

“I won’t be a problem. Please. I just want to leave. I don’t want to go back to the settlement,” I said.

The rebel laughed. “You won’t get off that easily. Let’s see what that weirdo has in his medical bag. Toss it to me.” He caught the scientist’s bag with one hand and started going through the bottles and syringes.

“Hey! Don’t—” The scientist’s protests were brought to a quick halt when the rebel punched him, knocking him out cold.

I struggled as the third rebel held me. “Please. I’ve never done anything. I’m not like my father…”

Nothing I said was taken into account. They already hated me and they didn’t even know me. I was a royal with North blood. That was enough for them to want me dead.

“Aha!” The rebel lifted a glass bottle from the bag. It was half-filled with clear blue liquid.

I shook my head. “Oh, God. Please no.”

“Oh, God. Please no.”The third rebel mimicked me, making me feel less than human. They laughed at me.

The first rebel unscrewed the cap and sniffed the contents. “Doxinide,” he read from the label. “Last year, my little brother was chained up like a dog, shot up with drugs, and taken against his will. He begged these evil lab devils like the one lying on the ground to let him go. They laughed in his face, did what they wanted with him anyway, and took him away. I couldn’t help him. You know why? Because I was paralyzed on the ground, bleeding from the neck. That was the last time I saw him. When I woke up at a sanctuary, I couldn’t remember my name.” He filled the syringe with Doxinide. “But you know what it feels like to be powerless, don’t you? Don’t answer that…I doubt you do.”

“I—”

The rebel thrust the needle deep in my neck, injecting me with the poison. “Don’t worry. You will wake up soon…”

I collapsed to the ground.