The Long Walk Novels & Stories

On the train to college registration, my heart gave a sharp, agonizing flutter. I leaned over the bunk and tapped the frame below me. "Mom, Dad, my heart hurts. Can you ask Julian to grab my medicine?" Thunder flashed outside, illuminating the compartment. The five other bunks were empty. I had been forgotten again. Ever since my younger sister, Lily Hayes, fell ill last year, I became an afterthought. “She needs all our attention,” they told me. “Stop competing for love.” So I ate alone, studied alone, and learned to keep my quiet during my worst heart episodes. Then came the next excuse, my grades were too good. Seeing my success would stress Lily to the point of breakdown. So

On our third wedding anniversary, Lorenzo Falcone came back from Sicily with a chest of jewels. Without thinking, he slid the chest toward my sister Vella and told her to pick first. I stared, eyes wide, and the disappointment slipped out before I could stop it: "Lorenzo. It's our anniversary. Don't I get to choose first?" He faltered for just a second. Then he said: "Lily, as a Donna, you should know how to be gracious. You can't always act like a little girl." I'd heard that for over twenty years. Since I was a child, the eldest daughter of the family, I'd long learned to step aside. Give up the horse I loved. Give up my grandfather's keepsake. Give up the chance to study abroad. Give up t

The power in my voice was so absolute that even the most terrified survivor stood up. We began the march. It was a sight that the North had never seen and would never forget. Ten thousand people, half-starved and freezing, walking through a blizzard that should have killed them in minutes. But they weren't dying. I walked at the front, and everywhere I stepped, the snow melted instantly, leaving a path of steaming, black earth. The Blood-Gold light from my body acted as a beacon, a warm sun that traveled with us, keeping the frost at bay.

“Alright. Two.” The walk felt longer than fifteen minutes. The old stones echoing under my boots, the eyes peeking from windows, the knowledge that whatever happened today might leave a mark on our pack for years. I made myself walk steadily, not fast...not running. Running would look like chasing rumors or running from them.

In the pitch-dark house, a thin strip of light leaked out from beneath one door. My father went back to his room to pack his things. I walked toward that door. Inside, I heard my mother and Julian talking. "Samantha, it's hard for me to sit in the vice president's seat like this," Julian said. "There'll be dissent, after all—we don't have any official status. I wanted to talk to you… maybe we should just get our marriage certificate."

I did not need him to accompany me. So I went alone. After completing the usual tests, I photographed the report and sent it to Rachel. I never expected to run straight into Charlie. He was walking quickly, chest rising and falling, slightly out of breath–as if he rushed all the way here. A flicker of joy sparked in my chest. I was just about to show him the report–when a voice sounded from behind him. "Charlie, can you try to be a little considerate toward a lady?" It was Lynn Walters.

He sighed long and then looked at the long and empty road ahead of him. “Damn it. This is going to be the longest walk of my life.”

He just stood there, motionless, like a statue. I didn't look back again. I walked forward, boarding my flight, free at last. As for him—he became just another name buried in the past.

He was pissed if her family had really come to him thinking they could just waltz in and take his prisoners they will be in for a rude awakening. “How much further do we have to walk?” Lydia asked for the third time, they have been walking for the pass half hour and they still hadn't reached the spot where the tradeoff is supposed to take place. “We have one more mile to go.” Shanda said, looking at the tablet her son gave her. “Oh God we not gonna make it, who's idea was it, to park the van in Jerusalem? Now we gotta walk for forty days and forty nights. By the time we get there we gone need a nap, because we gonna be too tired to rescue or fight anybody. I know I done walked my inner thigh

The moonlight is barely piercing the canopy and I'm standing at the tree line, barefoot with blisters from wearing 6 inch stiletto heels, while the pack forms a loose semicircle behind me. "This," Margaret announces, gesturing to the uneven path ahead, "is the Moonlit Walk of Humility. The future Luna must walk barefoot through the sacred woods, guided only by the moonlight. The path is lined with thorns and stones, symbolizing the pain a Luna must endure for her pack."