Police State

It was Anna who was crying because she had sold all her leftover supplies to get food for everyone. Laura’s knee was bleeding really badly. Everyone was scared and didn’t know what to do. Were we going to have to go back to try and get some bandages?

Some of the boys took off their shirts and the girls brought their blankets in. We poured water on it and held it with the shirts and blankets. It seemed like we had helped. It was all we had. Anna said we would need more.

The thing that scared me most was her unconsciousness. She just lay there as if she were dead. We had been so happy and careless that we hadn’t expected anything this bad. Where was God now? Surely he hadn’t planned this; had he? We decided to go back and try to get supplies. It was all we could do. We couldn’t let her get infected. Laura woke up within the hour and was screaming in pain.

When we had reached the place she was silent. It was so dark outside and the sight of the place sent me shaking. This time I knew I was ready to throw up. Jess tried to comfort me, but I could see the fear in his eyes.

Anna looked back at us then and said, “Remember. No matter what happens we will always be together. You are my family, after-all, and nothing will tear us apart in truth.” She got out and ran to the gas station while Laura was lying half unconscious and really pale. I wondered why it was taking so long.

Someone said, “They are probably questioning her about needing bandages at so late at night and why she wasn’t at home with her children.”

“They could be arresting her,” another kid said. “Maybe they know she escaped the war.”

Nobody spoke after that. Even after it was said, the words echoed in the engine. Finally, the silence broke but not by Anna.

“Please get out of the ambulance! All passengers are under arrest for trespassing and violation of safety codes. Get out now and no one will get hurt!”

No one moved a muscle. We were all so scared. What now? We can’t die, I thought. I ran up and opened the doors. One girl cried out, “NO! SARAH!” Suddenly, streams of men came charging in with electric clubs. The men were screaming, “QUIET! NO ONE WILL GET HURT. COOPERATE OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES.”

I ran before they cuffed my friends’ hands and pulled them away from each other. They were told not to speak and were threatened with weapons. I spun and dodged and kicked and no one cuffed me. “JESS!” I screamed as I ran, “I’m sorry Jess! I’m so sorry. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt!”

I couldn’t say goodbye to Jess but I saw a longing in his eyes. A tear rolled down his cheek. Then I was caught off guard as a tall man lumbered towards me. I couldn’t think of anything else to do, so I kicked the man right where it hurts most. Then I ran. I was running with the beat of the ocean crashing behind me.

The cars were zipping by as the men chased me. They could never catch me. I had life inside of me. I had visions of sunlight and wet sand, not dark streets and flashing lights. Not of screaming headlights and honking horns and angry voices yelling into your ears. Not machines, sending fear to the very insides of you. Beware of us! We are mad! That was their language. That was the language of the new foundation.

I was crazy with fear. I knew I couldn’t possibly outrun those men. I kept looking forward but all I could see was the highway, the endless road to oblivion. I ran faster. Maybe, just maybe, someone could help me. Who could? I mean, how could they?

Then a car came up to the side of the road and a man yelled out the window to “Get in!” I hurried up, and the men were so close behind me. I was fast enough to make it right as the stranger was forced to slam the door of a big cargo truck before he swerved to the right.

All the police cars were gathering around on us. We sped forward zooming as fast as we could, stalked by our predators like fresh meat. “Who are you? Little Girl?” He asked me. The police could keep pace it would be impossible for them to reach us in the moving traffic.”I’m Sarah,” I said. “I have to get my sister.”

"Why? Is she lost?" I felt like I had so much to explain with so little time. “Because everyone is!” I yelled as we quickly swerved to the left and again to the right. We sped up fast and looked like all was clear, then the man slammed on his breaks. All the lanes were filled with police vehicles.

We looked up to realize the police cars had surrounded us and the men were getting out. I climbed on the back of the truck through the window and yelled in fear. I felt a jerk when suddenly everything was moving again. The police force had gotten back into their cars…but why? It took me a minute before I realized the truth. They were going to crush me.

I held on tight in the cargo area as the driver sped up again. There were only a few lanes that citizens were still using. When the driver, who I didn’t know, swerved too fast, I practically flew in the air and landed on top of another car.

The guy in the truck yelled to me. “What the heck are you doing?” I couldn’t listen this time though. It was the best for all of us. The traffic jammed again and I leaped onto another worker truck as it honked so loudly I closed my eyes.

The traffic would start again and all I knew was I had to jump. With the slight movement I braced myself; the angry driver sped in all directions trying to get me away. I stood level and then I leaped as hard as I could to the destination. I was flying, and then I was landing. I landed on the back of black truck this time. Then it sped up so fast that there was no possible way for me to jump off. It went like this a good long time until the traffic stopped and the man yelled out.
CHAPTER NINE: Mistaken Identity

“Do you want me to help you?” He asked.

He told me to stay low and he would take me there. Finally he got out and helped me into a hiding place in the back of the truck.

The sun was out and it was beautiful, or at least I thought it was the sun...it took away my fear and feeling of danger. I had lived. I felt free again and momentary peace. I traveled with this man who called himself Leonard for so long. Maybe I thought I could trust him. Then I realized the mistake I had made.

I read the large glowing sign.

WASTE LAND  CORRECTIONAL FACILITY AND GARBAGE MANAGEMENT

There they stood. These were the people I wanted to get away from. I wanted to cry. There were guards and police waiting outside a large fence. Then doors closing were behind us as we drove along an ugly winding road.

“Welcome to the Wasteland,” my captor said as he smiled.

We were greeted by men in green uniforms, and taken in through a large door that opened and shut like a knife on the ground. I looked around at the hundreds of children in white uniforms. Some looked happy. A kid was hanging by his feet with a mask over his head; another girl was sleeping in a plastic bubble.

“What do we have here? Hmm. She looks bright enough. What is the trouble with her?”

“She tried to run away, numerous times, and I can’t watch her anymore. She also…” He whispered into the old guy’s ear and I thought he said something about mother. I screamed and then suddenly someone put something on my eyes, everything was funny and peaceful.

I woke up and I couldn’t see. They blinded me. I screamed and screamed until finally I heard a voice booming from somewhere, wall perhaps? “You are not blind, child, you are free and happy. Now come with me to a beautiful world…” The voice began lulling me into a dream, and a virtual world. There was nothing but blinding white lights covering the walls and the floor and the ceiling and every time I blinked out of the dream, I felt pain. I only felt pain.

“We can see everything about you,” a voice said from the walls. “We can see all your memories, and we can make you live them as if they were your own. We can take you on a journey that will never ever end. You can live forever, or you will think you can when you join us. No, we’re not all trapped like you are. But you are a failure. You are garbage. You are lucky to be given such paradise in America’s New Foundation. You get happiness and paradise. It’s all you ever dreamed of and more. Don’t be mad, get glad! Don’t be sad, be happy!”

The booming voice came from everywhere and it wouldn’t go away. I wanted it to stop but I was afraid to show them that I was resisting. I sat there and never moved. The lights bore into me. I don’t know how long I was in there. It felt like a whole lifetime. I saw things, beautiful things and terrible things but none of them were real. I remember that beautiful final moment. It was the end. The program shut itself off. I was in blackness. I was told to stand up and walk forward.

“Press the red button!” The wall said. “I was afraid, but I touched the wall and it opened to reveal a series of buttons and a window where I could see the people who were watching me. They didn’t look surprised, they didn’t look upset or anything. They looked right through me, I wasn’t sure. I only saw my own face reflected in their eyes. Was I always living in a false world? The torture and what I saw can be left to your own imagination. What I will tell is that the scientists were wrong. They thought I would become a slave to their false utopia.

The program was finally over so they stuck me in a metal room with four others. The others said they pretended they were blind. We quickly set to work on our escape plan. No matter how hard we deliberated, we couldn’t think of a way out.

If you didn’t contribute to the economy in any way, you were treated like scum and forced to live as complete outcasts. It wasn’t that simple to even be an outcast though because all citizens were equal.

We were treated like celebrities even in our own jail cells of cities. No complete “citizen” in America could go hungry. All the money was distributed equally to all who paid for freedom. Consumers were satisfied with their brainwashing products, and company owners were always fifteen steps ahead in society than the workers. Outcasts were slaves, garbage, discards of the new world.

So we figured since they thought we were brainwashed or stuck in fantasyland, they wouldn’t try very hard to contain us. The men came in one day and escorted us out of the cell through hundreds of other people. We faked the blind stare and pretended we could only respond to those commands. Other people were looking with disgust at us as they pushed us and tied up our hands.

One of the officers made a comment, “Don’t waste that strong rope, men! You won’t even need to.” Then he looked into my eyes, I almost blinked. He continued joking meanly.

“Are you sure about that? This one still has light in her eyes.”
CHAPTER TEN: Hidden in Plane Sight

“This one was on Level 2, there's no way she's still conscious.” I wanted to scream. Then the guards shrugged and with mocking laughter untied our hands. We were led into some sort of metal cage. Once the wall we’d been pushed through started closing my heart was pounding. We figured no one could hear us now so we began to whisper what we thought we should do. The two boys thought we were done for. The other girl and I said that they were planning on drowning us like pests.

It was pretty easy to tell this was true by the fact that there was water dripping from the walls and the giant pipe behind and in front of us. It was horrible because we realized that there was no way for us to escape. The pipeline in front of us, that we were sure led to the dirty river they were talking about, was barred over. The other pipe, we guessed, was where the water would pour out from. It was also barred off. There was only one solution. One boy was very skinny and looked like he could fit, with some work, through bars in the exit pipe. We decided to try to fit him through. He didn’t want to go in of course and thought it was a bad idea, but it was the only way. We thought that if somehow he could get to the other side, he might be able to open up the bars so we could escape. It was so dark that it was too hard to tell where anything was. The plan was so foolish at the time, but our insane desperation was what was driving us. It took a lot of twisting and turning and help before he got out.

He searched forever but could not find anything that would somehow assist in our escape.

“I’m going down,” he said.

He slid down the pipe, but all of the sudden we heard this big thump.

He yelled that the opening was sealed up and he was stuck inside. We screamed and yelled to him. Suddenly the pipe behind us began to stir. With a huge gush water blasted out it went straight through the cage into the sealed pipe where we knew our friend would drown.

“No!” I screamed.

I was not about to lose another friend. It seemed that every friend I ever made I was forced to lose. I just couldn’t. I began shaking the cage. I kept shaking it and shaking it. Screaming and crying all at once. My friend was going to die! We were going to die! It was all over. We all grabbed on to the top of the cage and helped each other’s feet up so that we were the highest possible.

The water filled up to the very top of the cage where we were, but then it stopped. The cage bars lifted and the water rushed us into the pipe. We fell down a long dark tunnel and eventually flew out into a giant river where we were rushed by a heavy current downstream. Water was pulling me under and pushing forward at an intense speed.

I was worried for my life just as much as I was worried about my new friends’ lives. The thought of once again losing my only companions was also just too much to bear. Bits of debris flowed everywhere. The river was disgustingly orange in color.

My arm got slashed by a sharp object, and then I was caught by something triangular in shape. It was a large pointy piece of rusted metal that was sunken underground. I had rushed right into it. As the river rushed me forward, I tried to get a hold of it, but it was too slippery. I fell directly on to the top point of the triangle and could feel it pierce into my stomach.

It was a terrible pain. As blood poured out, all I could think of was the horrible pain. Finally, I managed enough strength to pull myself off of the edge and hold myself in front of the object so I couldn’t be rushed away. I waited there, for what seemed like hours. I was waiting for the end. My friends were already dead by now unless they had found some way to safety, and even if they had they would never find a way to me so in a sense they were dead no matter what.

All my hope seemed to be carried like the blood from my cut, by the current: far away. My tears began to pour out. Pitiful horrible sobs began to break free from my troubled mind. Thoughts of nothing but despair and sadness filled me. Dark shadows clouded my mind. I could almost feel the empty roads, the dirty streets, and the mindless people. I could almost sense the dying lives of all who rebelled. So many people tried to stop it. I felt the pain as the last light in me flickered out.

The rebel me vanished into a wild dream where I was walking for miles on a long desolate plain. People cried out to me in all directions. They were hungry people. They were starving people. People who were alone just like me. Finally I came to a giant cliff. I began to climb it. With each step regaining more of myself. I began to feel lighter too. The air began to smell cleaner. As I turned to the sky I noticed it had no longer looked black, but grey and as I kept climbing it eventually turned to a clear crisp blue.

I was almost to the top. I focused so much on the cliff that when I finally got up to the top I was taken aghast by what I saw. There was a valley of beautiful flowers and green grass. There were great big trees with fruit I’d never seen. Everything beautiful that had ever been on earth was there. Feeling true happiness overflow, I smiled. It was a something that I had done so long ago. But this was only the beginning. There, sitting in a patch of daisies, was my sister Molly. I tried to call to her but she didn’t seem to hear me. Finally she did hear me, and turned around. She was smiling and waving. I began walking towards her. But then, just as soon as I got to the valley all the beauty began to disappear.

I cried out to her and she cried out to me but it was no use. We both watched each other silently as she faded into nothing. The sky grew dark again and the horrible wasteland returned. I was so confused and full of disbelief. I wondered if I was really dead or in some sort of dream I could not wake up from.Was I doomed to wait on this mountain for eternity? I decided I should try to climb down, but there was nothing down there. On every side of me was black dark space and I was left there alone and trapped. I lay down and dreamed again.