W A R

Time To Begin

MINX'S POV:

The sky seems to be grayer on the other side of the wall. I look over to check if Issac had seen the poor body on the side of the road, he smiles up at me and I am instantly relieved, I want to protect him from the horrors this place will bring as much as I can. The farther into the vast nowhere we're going I start to see shacks which I assume are what they call houses out here. The shacks start to accumulate, and people who look half dead stare at the car like starving vultures. Issac waves at a few of them before seeing the dirty look I shoot him making him put his hand back into his lap. We turn on to a street the man in the passenger seat calls "Willow." We go all the way down the street to the very last shack. Our new house has two stories like our old one, it's sunken in at the middle and there's a hole in the window. The driver pops the trunk and says "Welcome home." With a hint of amusement in his voice. I scoff at him opening up my door to get out,  Issac jumps out of the car along with the passenger and we head to trunk. The man takes out our duffllebags then leads us to the shack. As he sets down the bags, he looks me in the eyes and says "Good luck out here, kid. You're going to need it." The feeling I get after he says those words and goes to turn around back to a simpler life, is the loneliest, emptiest feeling I've ever felt. I wanted nothing more but to collapse and break down in that moment but what would Issac do? I wipe my eyes as the man gets back into the car and drives off. I stand there for what feels like a whole eternity watching the car turn onto the main road back up to the wall. Issac is trying to pull his bag into the house when I snap out of my depressed gaze, I pick up all four bags and carry them into the shack. There's furniture here surprisingly. An ugly green couch sits in the middle of the room, there's a half-assed kitchen over to the left and a hallway to the right. I set down the bags and begin to explore the hallway. Issac bounces along besides me. There's a little bathroom with a shower. *At least there's a shower here* I think to myself. Issac runs up the staircase to the little loft above. There's four huge mattresses taking up most of the floor and a hole in the roof. I look around the room in disgust, thinking to myself *How could the government just allow us to live like animals?* We walk back down the steps and Issac declares he's tired and lays down on the couch, I dig out one of the blankets I packed and lay it over him, not even five minutes later he's out cold. "Time to get to work," I mumble under my breath. I go into the kitchen and look around, not much here, but, I find some old black trash bags and some tape. I go the the shattered window and tape the bags to the hole. I do the same to the rest of the windows, I don't want anyone to see something worth value. I step outside and head to the back of the house, there's some old planks and some large pieces of scrap metal, I take hold of the scrap metal dragging it into the house to the loft, I climb up onto the roof, place the metal beside the gaping hole, and make my way back downstairs to grab some more bags and tape. I shimmy my way back up onto the roof. I think for a hot second then start assembling the roof back together, I put the bags on the metal over the hole to give the place some instillation and tape it all down to the roof. After I have completed my job I creep around the faulty roof looking for a way down. I choose a place above a window and lay my body down shifting my legs down the side of the shack until my foot hits the top of the windowsill. I take a deep breath and leap off. The landing stings my ankles but I brush it off and go inside to check on Issac. He's still asleep and I decide to join him. I lock up the door and get out the largest knife from the survival tub that I packed up from our old house and lay on the floor behind the couch facing the door so if anyone was to break in I could stop it before it began. I lay there for a long time thinking about what I said to my father "I'll make you proud." How am I of all people going to take down the government? I ponder the question for so long it sends me into a restless sleep.