I Sign Myself, 'R'

Chapter 1

“we’re not going to find anything”, said Anne, trudging along behind her best friend, Ira, whom she loved like a sister.

“If we don’t go, I’ll never be at peace again”, called Ira.

“We won’t find anything”, said Anne, disapprovingly.

“There’s a chance”

Anne tried a different tack, “Even if we did find something, we wouldn’t be allowed to keep it.”

“Who said I'm going to tell the authorities?”

“No!”, cried Anne, “you wouldn’t! we’d be killed!”

Ira stopped abruptly and turned to face her.

“Look Anne, I didn’t ask you to come. You saw me leaving and decided to come. If you don’t want to share in this adventure, then you can still turn back. Im fine on my own.”

Anne glared at her for a mere second, before dropping her gaze and saying, “all right, all right. Move on.”

The two sisters continued until they reached the end of the muddy terrain they had been wading through. Ahead lay a sandy stretch of land on which an excavation camp was based. This camp was the point of interest of the girls.

“How do you plan to get in?”, asked Anne

Ira didn’t look at her but instead stared off into space. She mumbled softly and distractedly, “the floor…it isn’t paved…so we could…”

Anne suddenly smiled. It was a mischievous smile, one that didn’t suit her character at all.

“Where do we dig?”, she asked.

“The east side of the wall. It has a thin wall. We could get through easy.’

Anne nodded and ran off to a nearby shed. She rummaged around for a while and emerged with two spades. If you don’t understand why, then I think you should read more carefully or get glasses.

Anne didn’t take too long to return. The two girls attached one of the spades to their belts.

“we’re going to have to climb down this cliff and then get to the main camp.”

Anne nodded. They began their decent.

The two girls had spent six years of their life on this bare terrain and knew it well. They were both excellent climbers and had scaled this cliff many times before. But ever since the explorers had started digging, they had not been allowed to. They did so now, and with great expertise for every part of the cliff was familiar and had a feeling of homecoming to it. They were very confident indeed for they would spot any unnatural differences immediately.

When they reached the top, they immediately ran. They were bound to be spotted if they didn’t move quick. That was pretty much how life had been. If you didn’t do it and if you didn’t do it better than everyone else, you die. Period. No pity, no mercy. You took everything you got. It couldn’t be deemed selfish. The time to be honorable was long gone and over.

The two sisters had reached the east side of the wall. The girls started digging. Within a quarter of an hour, they had made a sizeable hole under the wall.

“Ira, I don’t think I want to go first”, came Anne’s voice.

‘understandable”, said Ira and began to wriggle through. She passed through fairly quickly and saw a large chest in front of her. What luck! They could hide behind it!

Anne’s face appeared under the wall. Soon, the two girls were cowering behind the chest, waiting for an opportune moment to explore the excavation camp.