Chapter 5
In the beginning, C was probably the reason I’d stayed for more then one night in that underground grotto. After my first and last emotional breakdown, I shook back to life, and for some reason I had a strong impulse to stay. To this day I still don’t have a perfect idea of what drove that impulse. I do know that at the time there seemed to be more pros then cons of staying the going back to the life that I always felt was so unsatisfying. So when I got up the next morning I almost completely erased any thought of my parents. I will tell you that this is a very difficult thing to do. And I won’t lie; it wasn’t the last time I cried. I did sometimes shed a few tears in the dead of night. But after three months of brutal training and hard physical labor, I barely gave them a second thought, and eventually I almost completely forgot what they looked like. When I’d forgotten their voices, it was then that I found that I couldn’t cry over their memory. Like a lost pet, they had come in and out of life as though nothing had happened.
I never did move out of Nine’s room. There was never time enough to find a new place and then be bothered to move any of my belongings. It was too much trouble in our busy schedules. Even Nine, though sometimes would grumble about not being able to have her own area, would admit that it wasn’t something that was worth doing, or at least didn’t take priority over the many other odd jobs that we had to do. When I say odd jobs I mean of course that this would include anything from stacking boxes, making more tables and setting up dormitories. Basically I had to do whatever I was told to do throughout my stay there.I’d already adjusted to life. I had to adjust to my new way of life fast. I had no choice science the council over worked it. When I look back on it, I think that it was there way to help me get over my parents. They planned to work me so much I wouldn’t have time to miss my old life. I have to honestly say that it worked.
“Come here.” Said J one afternoon after I’d finished moving a number of food carts to the kitchens. I put down the box of what smelled like some sort of fresh meat. I rubbed my hands on my already dirt stained pants and walked over to him.
“Ya?” I walked over to him limping slightly. I knew he was going to dump a new workload on me. That was his job. To find harder things for me to do. He assigned all my jobs.
“Here.” He stepped aside revealing large wooden crates that were staked behind him. I didn’t understand how I hadn’t noticed them before.
“Let me guess,” I crossed my arms against my chest and fell back a step or two “You want me to move these.”
“Close…”he said throwing a large metal crow bar a my head. I was surprised that I caught it with ease. “But you also have to open them and unpack ‘em.” I wanted to smash his skull in with the crowbar he’d just thrown at me; instead I just grumpily marched past him towards the boxes. He practically leapt in front of me in protest.
“What are you doing?” He yelled.
“What you asked me to.”
“I didn’t even tell you where to go!” I rolled my eyes. He grabbed my free hand and pulled me in the direction of the dormitories. I’d never been there before. Curiosity began to over come me like a cool ocean wave.
The second that we walked through the entrance I gasped. I actually stopped and stared. I’d never seen a longer corridor in my entire life. It stretched further then my eye could see. Every 5 meters was a new door, like the ones of the council quarters, large, iron and rusted. J didn’t seem to notice face at all. He ignored it completely. He opened the first door on the right and waited for me to go in ahead of him. It took me awhile to take my eyes away from this dazzling sight but I managed to pull away and climb through the entryway. I had another shock. Inside that room was eight beds. Four bunk beds all lined up next to each other. From the top of the ceiling hung a small light bulb, but it seemed to illuminate the room quite well. There were four shelves and a few boxes and shelves dotted around the room. There was also, like in my room, a faucet that crawled up the wall almost 5 feet. Underneath was a bucket. Next to it four cups stood up right next to the wall. Each bunk had no sheet and no pillow, but the matrices looked a hundred times more comfortable then what I slept on.
“Now,” said J roughly bringing me back to reality “Here is your job. In each box there is a bed sheet, blanket and pillow. Each bed gets one of each.”
I turned my head slowly so that I was staring directly in to his face.
“What?”
“Better get started. You only have three days.” He hit my arm as though to encourage me to get started.
“You have to be joking!” I yelled at him as he left. He pretended that he hadn’t heard me. “Every room?”
“All the way down and back up again.” His voice echoed.
“I can’t believe this.” I moaned to myself. I sulked back up to the crates and tried to lift on. It was only when I felt the scourging pain in my lower back that I realized that it was to heavy for me to lift. I rushed over to the kitchens to grab a cart to push the boxes. Upon reaching the entranceway to the kitchen I stopped at the door where the lift was leaning against the wall.
“Her name and picture has been posted everywhere around that area, Blink. It was her old school.” I could clearly make out Nine’s voice from inside the kitchen. I stopped and placed my self outside the door so that I would be able to clearly listen to her every word.
“I believe you, I really do, but you can’t keep her cooped up here for over a year. It doesn’t make sense to do that.” I over heard my brother protest.
“How do you expect everyone else to make it through the year? The other recruits.” Nine protested bitterly.
“Look I…”
“I understand that she’s your sister, and I won’t lie that I’m becoming attached to her as well, but let’s think realistically…are you really going to let all this go to waste because your little sister needs some fresh air? Come on Blink. You know better.”
There was a long pause.
“What if she hid well?”
“For God’s sake Blink! Your smarter then this!” I heard her pace around a bit. “This is exactly why we didn’t want to bring her down in the first place. Because you’d get attached to her like a pet dog. Shit. What are you trying to do?”
“I’m just trying to look out for a little girl with no parents, no home or a future. I dragged her unjustly out of her bed and…”
“Blink get used to it. What do you think this is? You expect to be a foster father to over a thousand kids in the same position as Tylene?”
“Sort of I guess. This is there new home after all.”
“Look Blink. I respect you, admire you and heck…I may even love you. But you don’t know what the fuck your talking about. I think your sister’s presence has made you forget why we’re here. What we’re doing. What we’re trying to accomplish. Snap out of it.”
I sensed that the conversation was about to come to an abrupt end so I began to move slowly back towards the lift. I lifted the handlebars and began to push it quietly but as fast as I could. I knew that there was no point in my being caught. I knew what I had to do. Continue my job and pretend that I never heard anything.
It took me more then three days to finish all those beds. In fact it took me over a week. It wasn’t just one job that I had to do; I also had to pack food that Nine had prepared. There were containers and containers of different kinds of foods. I never bothered to ask what was in them. I knew better then that. I stood back and let what needed to be done, be done. That was the mentality in this place. I sensed it as well was told it a number of times. When I finished that job of dressing the dormitory beds, I was informed that I was just in time.
“Ok guys. Here we go. Tomorrow, I’m bringing in the first batch of kids. Thirty-Two of them, if all goes well. There can’t be any mistakes. This isn’t a trial and error test. This is it. We are officially in the revolution after the first recruits arrive.” Nine had made this speech over dinner. I was the only one surprised to see that people were already coming.
“So soon?” I inquired.
“Tylene, you’ve been here for only about 3 months. We’ve been here for almost 3 years. It’s not so soon anymore.” I nodded pretending I understood. In reality I was just agreeing so as not to start an argument. “Now if you don’t mid, I’m going to turn in early today. I’ll be up all night tomorrow.” With that she walked out of the room. There was an awkward pause as we all shifted in our seats trying to finish our foods, without talking. It didn’t work. Blink looked up at me and tried to give an encouraging smile.
“Tylene.” He began to set aside his half eaten dinner. The council has been talking about it for awhile and we were thinking that you’d be more comfortable set up in the dormitories with the rest of the recruits.” These words strangled me, making me choke on a piece of food.
“You what?” I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard.
“Well, I mean, you have been a tremendous help and all, but you are like a loose thread of sweater. You belong on the sweater but you have to let go eventually right?”
“Sure…” I started. I pushed my dinner plate out of my way. “I suppose you may as well just cut it off with a pair of rusty scissors rather then just fix it back in to place.” He opened his mouth to say something but quickly shut it. “Use a better metaphor next time. And specify whether or not you’re asking me or ordering me to do something. You’re getting the two mixed up.” I stood up and began to walk to the door. I reached for the handle when I heard a loud noise from behind me. Someone had just hit the table with their fist hard. It couldn’t be anyone else but C. I turned around and to my surprise I saw my brother standing up, hunched over in anger. He was furious. His temple was throbbing and he was staring at me with such an intent look. My heart stopped for a moment.
“Sit…back…down…”he pointed back at my bench. J looked as though he wanted to run while C had no expression what so ever. I obeyed. I sat down. But I wasn’t scared. I felt my anger sweep over me. I pouted and waited for him to talk. For a while we just glared at each other. Finally he spoke,
“Tylene,” he sounded a lot calmer now “It’s for the best. You haven’t even had the proper training.”
“I’m sorry.” I spat sarcastically “Was I asked? Was I given a choice between 3 months of back breaking labor or training?” He licked his lips and turned away. I swear it felt that he wanted to hit me.
“Tylene!” he yelled above me. “Shut up. Look you have a choice here. We are in power. We are in charge of you. If you don’t like the arrangement then you can…”
“What leave? Sure…you never even gave me a choice to come.” He sighed. I knew that I’d just hit a sensitive spot. I didn’t care. Why would I? What was he trying to do?
“Just…go…I’ll talk to you later.”
I pushed back the bench and sprinted for the door. I didn’t turn around to look at their faces. I ran to my room.
1 Comments:
I liked it. Though I'm still curious to see how your backwards-forwards plan is going to work out. Good luck. You're doing great.
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