Construction site

She opened her eyes to find herself in their house, if you could even call it a house. They had found it several years ago, abandoned and unwanted. It was a shed, and it let in drafts but it was better than nothing. She shivered but slowly she lifted herself off the floor. Her brother was still asleep. Now that she stood up he huddled the hole-ridden blanket closer to himself. It had always been like this for as long as she could remember, just her and her brother. She didn’t remember her parents, she only remembered being alone with him. They thought about telling someone, but after a while they decided it would be best if they didn’t. They didn’t want to get separated, so they made do with what they had. She would go around doing chores just to earn a little money, and her brother couldn’t do much since he was only eleven, most people rarely wanted to hire her for fear of her being irresponsible, and she was thirteen, but whenever her brother could help he did. She gazed over at the lone cabinet in their house, and opened it. Inside they had cans of beans, corn, rice, and many other things. She gazed over at her clothes that lay folded beside where she had laid down. She slipped them on. Then she gently shook her brother awake.

“Come on get up,” she said softly.

They didn’t have names, neither of them remembered having one and so they called each other brother and sister. Even though technically they might not even be related.

“Alright, I’m going… what are we doing today?”

“Well, I don’t have any jobs planned for today, and I don’t think you do either…”

“I don’t.”

“I was thinking we could sneak into the construction zone.”

“Why would we do that?!”

“Because we have nothing else to do, and we need some entertainment.”

“I mean… it does sound fun.”

“I knew it!”

“Yeah yeah, I’m with you all the way, but I–I get a little scared sometimes… just… just force me to come along when I start to doubt ‘kay? Cause I’ll regret not doing it.”

“Yeah I will.”

“What about breakfast?”

“We’ll eat after, we don’t want to get cramps while running.”

“Are we going to have to run?”

“Maybe we will, maybe we won’t, it’s best to be prepared.”

Her brother slowly stood up and let out a grin.

“Then let’s do this!”

They made their way towards where the construction site was. As they made their way to the gate they were stopped.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing? This is no place for kids. You shouldn’t be here, this section is off-limits.”

She smiled.

“Sorry sir, I didn’t realize.”

He grunted in response.

“Come on brother, over here,” she said as she led him out of sight of the guard.

“Where are we doing?”

“We’re getting in.”

“Don’t you think it’s a little dangerous to go in there? I mean after all they are doing construction.”

She gazed up at the fence that blocked their way, it surrounded a section of the forest.

“Are they though? Have you ever heard any construction going on, do you see anything being built there? What construction would they be doing in the forest?”

“I… maybe they’re building a new road… or something…”

“And if they are, we will see it and then we can go back.”

“I… how are we going to get in?”

“I don’t know, how would we?” she said in a sarcastic tone.

“I was really asking!”

“We are going to climb the fence. What else?”

“Alright! Alright, fine! Sorry!”

“It’s fine.”

“...Okay… are we going right now?”

“Yeah. What other time would we go?”

“Oh, okay… um alright…but you have to go first…”

“Yeah yeah, I know, but once I get to the other side you have to follow, no backing out.”

“Okay.”

She swallowed down her fear and placed one foot on the fence and started to climb. When she made it over to the other side, she waited until her brother had finally made it over.

“Come on,” she whispered.

“Why are we whispering?”

“Because we don’t want to get caught.”

“Oh yeah, right.”

They kept going until they were deep into the forest.

“Where’s the construction?” her brother asked.

“I told you they aren’t doing any.”

“Then what are they doing out here?”

“That’s what we are trying to find out.”

“I think that maybe it’s just further in, after all it is clearly a–”

“–Shhhh! Do you hear that?”

They paused. In the distance there was a faint sound of voices.

“Well… there they are… we can leave now,” her brother said as he started to turn around.

“Wait, we have to see them.”

“No, no we really don’t.”

“Come on. Remember how you told me to force you to keep going?”

“Yeah,” he answered begrudgingly.

She started to creep forward, and after a bit, she heard her brother's reluctant steps following her. She could hear the voices of the people growing louder until finally all she had to do was peek through the underbrush and she would see them.

“We should turn back, we’re going to get caught,” her brother whispered and she could hear the quiver in his voice.

She felt a little bad for suggesting this, but now that she was here she needed to know what was going on.

“Just a little peek, don’t worry I’ll be quick.”

“Okay, but I’m staying back here,” he said as he backed several feet away and ducked behind a tree.

Slowly she crouched forward and peeked through the bush. She couldn’t make out anything. She listened to hear what they were talking about but they were whispering now. She leaned forward to hear and see better, when suddenly she tumbled forward out into the open. She felt the bush scrape her, but she wasn’t worried about that. She was more worried how every eye was on her, and these weren’t normal people.