REGIME (English Version)

Chapter 1 - Slaughterhouse

- Tom... it's time! Go! - I always hated that phrase; it meant I had to interrupt my beautiful dreams and get up early to get ready for school. But this time was different. From that day on, I started to miss the times when I was abruptly awakened and had the feeling that I had just fallen asleep.

- Huh? Wh-what's going on? - I responded confusedly, getting up groggily with my eyes sticking together.
All this crap of the "global government" was unbearable, hundreds of cameras... even in the school bathrooms, drones and heavily armed soldiers escorting citizens. I grew up in this environment, so even though it was suffocating, it was normal for me. I saw the photos in my parents' picture frames... they smiled happily... the landscapes were of green trees, children running in the park, and birds in the blue skies. It looked a lot like the things I dreamed of... but after that day...

- Son, listen to me, and don't ask any questions, okay?

- What's wrong, mom? - I replied, worried.

- Go to the basement, now, and if you hear soldiers entering the house, run far away! - Without understanding much, I obeyed, barely knowing that everything would turn into a nightmare.

I could hear my mother rushing to the door, still clumsy and disheveled to attend to the soldiers who were rudely banging on it. The tremors were so strong that I could feel them from the basement.

- Excuse me. Louise Oliver? - asks the soldier who was accompanied by two masked men.

- Yes, sir... g-good morning. Can I help you?

- We have a warrant for arrest at this address. Someone in your residence is not authorized with the mark of the REGIME, present it now without resisting.

- I don't know what you're talking about... I live alone.

- Tsk... get her - says the captain of the soldiers as the two guards beside him quickly grab my mother brutally and drag her out of the house.

- What are you doing? Let me go!!! - I heard some loud noises coming from outside, but couldn't understand them clearly.

- You will undergo the authenticity test of the device implanted in your arm - after that, I heard a scream, it was my mother's, as if someone was hurting her.

- It signaled, sir... - says a soldier looking at his superior.

- You see? There must be some mistake... I was marked a few years ago - Search the house - the man interrupts my mother's speech, and the soldiers comply with the captain's order.
My mother always told me that maybe one day this would happen... she didn't explain it to me properly, but at school, I learned that we all have a mark on our arm provided by the government to ensure our safety and comfort. It was like a barcode on our right arm, we didn't use physical money or any documents. All the information was on a small device implanted in us since birth.
The soldiers came to look for her probably because they discovered that she somehow falsified my mark.
Upon hearing the soldiers' footsteps entering the house, I already knew they would take her, so I decided to obey her and leave the basement through the small window that led to the backyard.
I ran into the forest and spent hours fleeing, afraid to stop, imagining that those soldiers who took my mother were still after me. Hunger and thirst progressed with nightfall, so with my weakened body, I stumbled over something and fell, hitting my head directly on the ground. Then I woke up in a large tent made of sticks and sewn sheets, with a damp and smelly fabric on my forehead, I guess that was supposed to be a bandage...
I got up slowly and unconsciously disregarded the whole situation and the potential danger I was in after smelling a delicious smell of food, so I left the tent pulling the curtain in front of me.
- Oh... you're awake, kid - A man with a sparse beard and stylish hair was sitting on a log cooking over a campfire.

- Uh...

- Don't be shy... come over. There's enough for two! - He could kill me, and I knew that. But I was hoping he'd do it after I warmed my belly... I was famished!
After a few spoonfuls of that "hope-I-don't-know-what" soup, I felt better and at ease. The man strangely was very friendly and welcoming, and he kept stroking my hair while talking calmly to me, explaining the whole situation. He, along with some surviving members of his family and friends, joined together to travel to safe places where the Regime still didn't have dominion. He spoke about casualties and disasters with surreal nonchalance... I didn't understand how he could be so comfortable in telling me so many sad things... having to constantly leave places where you are already settled and live for years as a nomad. That was very scary to me.

- My name is Thomas. but everyone calls me Tom.

- What a beautiful name! I'm Matthew, pleasure to meet you, Tom! - Matthew helped me a lot to overcome that situation with his teachings. Over the years, he taught me many things, from crucial survival skills to the smallest details. He early on told me without hesitation that I might never see my mother again, and that everyone around me would certainly die sooner than I expected, but that was the fate of people who chose not to worship the tyrant in power. We are like defenseless cattle slowly walking to the slaughterhouse; that's who we are, and that's what we'll always be from now on.