Rising From The Ashes

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I once heard a quote that history is just a bunch of lies agreed upon. I thought it was stupid when I first heard it, but it makes sense to me now. The history we’ve all been told is nothing but a lie to make the Officials look better. They destroyed people’s lives yet told everyone it was only for our protection. Well, I’m done listening. There has to be a way out, I know there is. I just have to find it.

-The Diary of Lucinda Jane Waders

When I was younger I used to volunteer at a nursing home. My mother thought it would be good for me and Catherine both and so every day after school we would walk down the street to Shady Pines Retirement and Old Age home. At least I did, Catherine refused to step foot inside the place and instead spent the time shopping at a nearby mall. Anyway, I had been volunteering there for a few weeks when I met a woman, the oldest patient in the place. Her name was Susan Kesler and she was one of the most interesting people I had ever met. I used to love listening to all of the stories she had from when she was a little girl. She told me all sorts of things, but there is one story I remember better than any other.

It started out like any of the others, but quickly turned into something else. She told me that her great grandmother had been alive back before the wall was built, which was fascinating to me. I had never met anyone that was alive during that time or that knew someone who was and was willing to talk about it. Mostly people never brought up what things were like back then and I hardly knew any actual details at all on how it happened.

Susan knew plenty of things about it, though, and after making me swear never to tell anyone, she shared with me the stories her great grandmother had told her. She told me about how bad things had gotten before the construction of the wall. How little resources there were and how overcrowded every neighborhood was. There were hardly any forests left because new houses needed to be constructed and no one had cars because there was so little gas and it was so expensive that no one could even dream of affording it. Things were miserable, but I already knew this. Every kid is taught about the conditions of life before the wall, it is mandatory curriculum in the schools. Then they teach us how the Officials saved us all by building the wall and how things immediately began to get better. That is what is supposed to come next, but that isn’t where Susan’s story goes at all.

She goes on to tell me about how when the wall was built the Officials had to go in and separate families. That they would go to homes and take the people who resisted and force them to go to their populations side of the wall. Husbands and wives and even children were separated until only woman remained on one side and men on the other. When we learned about it in school they made it seem like this was some heroic thing and that the people were grateful to be saved in this way, but Susan says it with a great sadness that changed the story to mean something entirely different.

Apparently, some people tried to run away with their families, so that they wouldn’t get separated. The ones that were caught were dealt with so severely that hardly anyone even dared to try it after awhile. And the ones that got away where eventually tracked down. No one got away with disobeying the Officials. That was just how things were.

The part I had never heard before is that there was a revolution, that the people tried to fight back. According to Susan a war was started shortly after the construction of the wall, but it ended almost as soon as it was started. The people that fought didn’t have any of the things they needed to actually stand a chance and were easily dealt with by the many Officials. Still the fact that anyone fought back at all was a surprise to me. We were told the time was peaceful and full of relief, not such an intense anger that people would risk their lives to put a stop to it.

Susan noticed my surprise at hearing this and told me that things aren’t always what you’ve been told. For some reason that stuck with me my whole life and has been on my mind a lot quite recently. Anyway, this was really only the beginning to Susan’s story. She told me the rest over my next few visits, which were ultimately her last few days of life. I think she needed to tell just one person the truth before passing on and I happened to be that person.