The Never Dying Group discussion

((YES! WE BEGIN!!!!))

Tom sprinted through the woods, branches battering his face, he had to get away from his parents...he had to!

Alex didn't want to leave, but he knew that there was no other choice. He had to go AWOL, and there wasn't anything his parents could to about it. At least, that is what he thought. He stared out his bedroom window, wondering when the best time to leave would be. He figured it was probably now, when no one in his house would be awake. So that is what he did. He took his things, (clothes and some money he stole from his parents) and left the house. He was lucky that they hadn't chosen to Unwind him in their last house, where they had motion sensor lights in the backyard. He slipped out the garage door without regret, unless you counted leaving his brothers and sisters (who were all under unwinding age, but not for long . . . ) He ran as fast as he could, while struggling to keep his backpack on his back. Then, he ran into someone. It was a boy, probably within the unwinding age, and his story was probably the same as his. "Who are you?" Alex asked, dazed. ((Btw, thats you, Tom))

tom stared at the other boy in shock, oh go what am I going to do? tom thought quickly. but this bo seemed nice, and safe enough.

"I'm Tom. who ar you?"

Kira woke up to her watch beeping in her ear. beep, beep, beep She stifled a groan. She hated the sound of that watch now, and would for all of eternity.

The watch signaled time to wake up, time to escape. Time to leave everything she's ever known. Time to be on her own, surviving by herself. Time to learn how to survive. Time to go AWOL.

She had been raised her whole life to scoff at rule-breakers, to think of them as below her. But now, in that position, she suddenly understood everything that had gone through their heads.

Just a week ago, she wouldn't have been able to believe her parents would do this to her. Top grades in school, undoubtedly the sweetest girl in the grade. (Well, that's how she acted in school, anyway.) Good in drama, music, dance, violin, everything. Naturally she would assume that this is where she belonged, the rest of her life. She had felt safe, warm, content.

Until she found the order.

Yes, she was a snooper. No one ever found out. Usually it was pointless eavsdropping, finding out about some pointless adult stuff that she didn't care about. But now, she was glad for her skill. At the same time, mad. She had found the order for her own unwinding.

Of course, she couldn't just go through with it. Who would? Only tithes, and Kira was NOT one of them. Wearing white, thinking they were better than everyone else...

Kira sighed to herself quietly, and gazed around her room one last time. Maybe when she turned 18, she could come back, and her parents would apologize.

Unlikely.

She pulled on her clothes that she had picked out the day before. Dark jeans, dark green T-shirt, jacket. She grabbed a back-pack that was compressed to be really small, and light, but still managed to carry some stuff she was bringing. Food, water, toothbrush, etc...

She checked her watch. 3:45 in the morning. She dragged over to her window, slid it open, wincing at the squeak, and removed the screen, which she set carefully on the floor inside her room. She slid out the window, landing on a ledge that conveniently happened to be right underneath her window, and put the screen back in. She then faced outwards, and inched lower to a place where she could jump off. When she was there, she leaped, landing with a soft thud on her feet. She suppressed a slight grin. She felt agile at that moment.

She took off into the night, to get as far away as possible.

"I am Alex . . . " He replied akwardly, picking up his things that he had dropped.

Tom glanced up and down at Alex "You AWOL?"

Kira slipped into the woods. Soon, she heard the sound of faint talking. Shoot! People... she thought, and quickly scrambled up a tree to watch from a safe distance, and where she wouldn't be seen. It was two boys, probably AWOL also.

"Uh, yes," Alex said uncomfortably, having the feeling that someone was watching him.

Alex turned around a few times and whispered, "Someone is watching us . . . I can feel it." Then he saw her. She was hiding up in a tree and was watching us. I fixed my eyes straight on her and said, "Hey, you, get down here."

Kira hid farther into the tree. Just then, she accidently stepped on a twig. A loud snap rang out into the silent woods. She winced, hoping that maybe, somehow, the hadn't heard that.

"Stop trying to hide," Alex yelled, "We can already see you."

Kira sighed, and slid down the trunk of the tree. She had heard that he was AWOL also. Good. Maybe a few companions would be nice. She walked cautiously over, trying to see if they had any intentions of capturing her and sending her back.

"Who are you?"

"K-Kathy," she said, quickly thinking up a fake name. "You?"

By the way she stuttered, she was making up a fake name. "Allen," he said quickly.

Kira guessed that he was using a fake name too, but he was better at hiding it. "So..." she said, looked around her for a path to a quick escape if needed. And it probably would be needed.

Tom looked at the girl, wondering if she could betrusted, or if Alex could be either. "I'm Lyle."

((G2G, sorry!))

"Uh huh," Kira said, not believing it.

"Okay, we are all lying about our names, and I told my real one to "Lyle". So what is your guys' real names?"

Kira narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Kathy, like I said," she lied smoothly.

((Sorry, but I don't completely understand the whole unwinding thing...))

"alright. I'm Tom."

"Stop lying, "Kathy". And thank you Tom, he said, sensing that he was telling the truth. "I guess Tom and I can stay together, but if you don't stop lying then we'll have to leave," Alex said with authority.

Tom nodded in agreement "obviously we're all AWOL so no use lying."

((Pretty much. You have to read the book to understand completely, so READ IT!!!))

Kira bit her lip. It would be safer in a group, but they could easily give her away, and they could be tortured into giving up her real name if she gave it. She sighed. "Look, isn't it safer to not know eachother's names? That way, if one of us gets caught, and forced to tell, we can honestly answer that we have no clue what the other names are."

"Right. Whatever" tom said skeptically

"Okay, then? Okay. My name's Kathy, and it looks like I'm the only safe one here. So... what now?"

"Are you both AWOL?"

"That's one thing I AM willing to answer. Yes, I am AWOL. And you?" Kira asked, hoping he wasn't some cop or something.

((Here comes Kai! WHEE!!! I LOVE Unwind!!!!! It's SOOOOOOOO ADDICTING!!!!!!!!))

Kairavini walked a few feet into the forest, hiding herself behind a large bush, and stopped, looking behind herself. The state home loomed into the sky, casting a shadow over Kai and all the plants in the woods around her. She sighed silently, wondering how she'd had to come to this- kicking AWOL, right when she'd just met the love of her life. Nobody ever said life was fair, she reminded herself grimly.

She turned towards the forest and started running before any alarms went off. She'd hacked the system and disabled this section, but the hack might have been overridden. It was best to put as much distance between herself and StaHo before anyone woke up.

"I am too," Alex sighed, "I never thought that my parents . . . " He paused. "I have to come back for my sister on her thirteenth birthday."

((So Kai's story is that she was at StaHo for a long time because she's an orphan, and then she meets a new guy and they really like each other (he won't be in the story) and then she finds out that she's going to be unwound, so now she's running away.))

Kai ran for a bit, then slowed to a walk, hoping that nobody else was in the forest. Suddenly, she stopped. What was that? Voices...? Oh crud! She tiptoed behind a bush, seeing the shapes of humans and hoping they weren't Juvey-cops.

((It's all the other peeps, by the way))

Kira looked at Alex sympathetically. "Oh. That's gonna be dangerous, rescuing your sister like that. Maybe they won't unwind her?" she said, trying to be hopeful.

Just then, she heard a twig snapped. She quickly gathered that the footstep that broke the twig was too light to be a grown-up, it would have to be a kid. "Come out," Kira sighed. "We're not cops."

She gave the other two a glare. "I hope."

"I'm not!" Alex raised his hand in defense.

"Okay..." Kira said, though she knew he could very well be lying. But he could just as easily capture her now, if he was a cop. So he would have no reason to lie. "Okay," she said, accepting that he was telling the truth. "So we're not cops!" she said to the person in the bushes.

"Yeah, come on out,"

((Now we need Nightshade...))

Kira frowned. "Well, I can understand it's hesitation," she commented. "Considering it doesn't know us. I know know you either. Huh."

"Did you just call the person an it?"

"Well, yeah, we don't know the person's gender, therefore making it an 'it'," she reasoned.

"Or you could refer to them as a shman," Alex chuckled.

"Shman? Hm... What about a goy? Or a.... birl? Hm... or..." Kira trailed off, going through lots of possibilities through her head. "I know! A.... shoot, I forgot. Lets just stick with 'it', okay? I'm getting distracted."

"No, Hemale!"

"Okay, 'hemale'," Kira couldn't suppress a grin. "But that's a little too much of a mouthful.... hm..."

Kai's patience snapped. "I AM female, you know," she said irritably, stepping out from behind her tree.

((I think she should have a boyfriend, eventually.))

"And my cousin made up the term 'Shim,' in case you're out of ideas," she added.

"That's perfect!" said Kira. "'shim'. I'll remember that from now on." Kira grinned. She had continued making up names so that the person would come out, angry. She didn't know about the other dude who's name she forgot, but... yeah. "And who's your cousin?" she asked, wondering if she knew the cousin. Then she could figure out who this person is- IF she decided not to tell. "I'm Kathy, by the way."

((By the way, Kai's from a state home, so she's not very sensitive to insults but sensitive to other people's....feelings, I guess... she's an expert at lying/sneaking around/being quiet/being obnoxious/being annoying/disguising herself... stuff like that. And she hates it when people invade her personal space... hmm... she doesn't like to show much emotion, either... I think that's about it!))

Kai stared directly at 'Kathy.' She was probably lying about her name. "My cousin is Lani. I'm Elizabeth," she said calmly. She knew that nobody would be able to tell she was lying.

((And by the way, EVERYONE believes her when she lies. And my cousin Lani actually made up the word Shim! We were making a Mii on their brand-new Wii, and we needed a good name... she-him! Shim! LOLZ))