The Cloak, the only thing that was protecting me from the torrential downpour that had hit the small town of Andollia, the governing body had failed us, the people who inhabit this country. They swore to protect us from any country who stepped on sovereign soil, I believed and trusted them. My trust was broken when the neighboring country Avalon elected a new person into power. His first decision was swift; he wanted Avalon to expand, to prove that they were a military power to be feared by everyone. When the news of this came on every television in Andollia most reacted with the slightest reaction of fear, they felt that there was no way that they would want to ruin diplomatic relations with a powerhouse like us. Andollia was advanced in economic senses, though the governing body was planning to pass a bill to allocate a higher budget to spend on military forces in case of any attacks in the western world. I for one was against the idea of only upgrading our military, in the opinion of people like me I felt that it was best that we upgrade defenses and not the military. Of course, the governing body were angered by how I responded and ordered that I be put under house arrest for "treason against the country", this was an indescribable amount of disrespect to my family. What the hell were they talking about, "security" being a non needed expense and that the military will take care of us? They don't treat anyone with care unless you agree with their decisions and didnot attack anyone with ties to the government. Those worthless people didn't care for the democracy of our country, the sovereignty. I feared for my life, those who were wealthy were able to escape by means of transportation; cars, planes and boats while the scum of the country or the poor people were left there to be taken as prisoners of war and tortured. I heard the clanking of boots on the hard black pavement and mistook it as other people walking through the street mindlessly, not knowing left from right and up from down. The people started to recite an anthem, one that was comprised of a different language.
"Avalon, het grootste land ter wereld! We gaan een uitdaging niet uit de weg; iedereen moet bang voor ons zijn.Deze regering zal worden omvergeworpen! Leg uw verdediging neer, anders riskeert u gevangenisstraf " They screamed full of passion and fire. Whatever they were saying wasn't something welcoming, the only word I could make out was Avalon.
My heart intensified its beat, I wanted to scream but my mouth was trapped shut and restrained by my brain's response to run. The loud noises continued behind me, loud explosions and people screaming were the only thing I could hear. My ear's had tuned out everything else. Why did these things happen to us? The poor people, unlucky to see the life before now crumble under our feet, the regime was surely going to torture anyone who dared to say anything about their leader. I was frightened when someone bumped me off balance, I told him that the exit was in front of us, why was someone running towards the violence, the destruction. He didn't reply, only a small smirk was on his face. He questioned why a girl like me was doing insuch a poor community and I said that my parents had left for Bargeta, a country north to Andollia and that I had missed my only chance to get out. The rags on my body made it obvious to anyone that I was lying but those words left my mouth quicker than a cheetah and I had no control over it was impulse to escape here. There is no way that I am escaping this place alive, I hope that my parents and sister can outlive this horrific attack.I cried hot tears, streaming from my eyes fully visible to the man wearing a nice t-shirt along with medals going along with the outer jacket layer protecting him from the cold and darkness of the rain. Two men wearing trench coats approached the man asked "Wat wilt u dat wij doen, meneer? Stoort deze persoon u?"
" Neem iedereen gevangen, laat niemand weggaan. Ze verdienenons respect niet, deze arme dieren" They shook their heads in agreement then raised both of their right foots and put them on my shoulders to rest themselves, a pity I was treated like a dog, a stool to rest themselves after all the horrific destruction they had caused. I had no choice but to act like their slave to survive, these people were known for even the slightest bit of stepping out of line meant that you were put in prison or someone in your family faced the exact consequences that you were " responsible for"
"No thank you Soldier, I think I would like to have a conversation with this rogue we have here. I think its in our best and her best interest to speak up, my fair lady." Who did this man think he was to treat me with such a disrespectful tone and demeanor. His voice was creaky and hoarse as he lifted me off the ground and demanded that I would be taken back towards Andollia prison to be further questioned about the whereabouts of any of the survivors who had plans to attack the institute that the military stayed by and used as an outpost.
"I have no idea what your talking about! I'm only trying to escape from here, those people your after are insane people whom you can't compare to me at all. I..." My sentence was cut off by the eradicating noise of the man screaming at me to shut up and to listen to his commands, I wasn't under Andollia's control anymore, he was the highest ranking officer in the Avalon Military and was well respected. I had to follow his commands, he and his fellow officers laughed then one of them smacked me in the face retourting me as one of those unwanted pieces of garbage that the government was willing to risk the lives of some of the poorer people just to save themselves from the horrific consequences of their actions that had failed themselves and the people, they were unwilling to help us in our time in need. I felt that it was best for me to endure this rather than my entire family go through this troubling problem. A man then whispered to me " Ik ga je laten wensen dat je niet met de commandant had geknoeid" My face immediately turned into a chilled frown knowing that for me I was going to be put in handcuffs and locked in a room that would be freezing cold. I zoned out at the though of it, people around me yelled, even screamed that I should be grateful that I wasn't severely harmed by them because of their Commanders orders. These scumbags were going to pay for the pain they caused my home and pride.
"Wat was de reden dat je probeerde weg te rennen? familieproblemen" My gaze was brought to one of the soldiers who had his name on his arm and I could make out the name Tommy he seemed to genuinely care for my safety or so I though so, he quickly shoved me into one of the vans that could contain at the very most 25 people in there. Others were then forced into the van, the small little compartment was shut and there was a tiny slit of light coming through the bars. Each person cried and weeped hoping that this was all just somewhat of a horrific nightmare that they would wake up from to see the beauty of the capital of New Tyro with the influx of people going around the corner and people absurdly going quickly around the corner in their new cars. One girl in the crowded car looked into my eyes and buried her face into my shoulder, I sheltered her from the rest of the crowd who were now getting very violent and rowdy with each other. Shouting insults directly tied to which part of the city they were in and the social status.
" Whoever you are, thank you for comforting me" The young girl with blue hair and brown hair sincerely looked me in the eye told me. I was taken aback by the comment, I blushed.
" Shh... don't worry everything will be okay, just relax and let all the anxiety go away." I tried to calm her down but that only caused me more anxiety because I knew that we were going to get separated and she was going to be on her own to fend for herself against the other prisoners.
Then suddenly the doors opened and the soldiers shoved us out one by one, they ordered us to go into the groups of people that were our age. I gripped the hand of the little girl hard as the soldier grabbed my arm and thrusted me onto the harsh rough and corse pavement scraping my knee and arm. He insisted that I not interfere with the doing's of the military and that this was a common thing to do, something that would become a daily thing of life that the adults would have to see every day. We were enslaved without the possibility to escape and the soldiers had set up tower guards to stop anyone from climbing the wall and were not afraid to use their weapons to defend the great nation of Avalon, formally Andollia the land that I had known best. Another truck full of people that were around my age then were put into the handful of youth people that would be given their prison numbers and assigned a cell where most of our time would be spent inside and food was rarely served inside of the cafeteria or so I was informed. The rest of us had sad expressions on our faces, this was now my home? Somewhere where I would be controlled like a guinea pig in an experiment, a cruel experiment at that. One that does not allow one to go outside and smell the fresh air and run through the grass, instead we were stuck here in an eternal hell. One girl collapsed to the ground and screamed and one guard grabbed her telling her to shut up and to stand up, she didn't want to and the soldier decided to throw a punch at her.
"Je denkt dat we je berouw zouden tonen, jammer dat je hier vastzit." The soldier loudly said to the bruised lady and her boyfriend came to defend her, the rest of us keeping our eyes on the pair to see if either of them would throw the first action.
There's no way that the president would allow this? Right... I must be delusional, there's no way that a fight is brewing in front of these little kids. My brain questioned why this had to happen now instead of when everyone was in a slumber inside the gigantic cold metal box called prison. Soon guards drew weapons to deliberately stop the insuing fight from continuing any longer, people began berating them with punches to the helmet. Me and the rest of the woman decided against revolting and I whispered to a young lady.
" What should we do? I'm so terrified." The girl then looked at me her face holding the same expression as mine. One guard kicked my back causing me to lose my balance, the girl screamed "Don't do that to her! That isn't okay. How about you go back to where you came from you disgusti-" She was then cuffed in the mouth and taken into the prison. Not my only friend here, I couldn't power through this if I didn't have anyone to comfort me. The one guard also brought me in, except he decided to interrogate me. It felt like 5 hours that I was stuck in there when another came in and told the soldier
" Nu is het mijn tijd om dit meisje te ondervragen. Neem even een pauze. We hebben een zware dag gehad met het binnenvallen van dit kleine en kleine land." Then the soldier that was sitting across slowly rose from his seat and let his mask come closer to my face, only inches away from my face I could smell that he had on a strong cologne that smelled of strawberries. He spoke good English and whispered faintly into my ear so that the other guard wouldn't criticize him "I'll make this a living hell for you if you resist the orders from the commander" He said. I had no plans of angering anyone, I just wanted to wait out the war and hope that some countries would rebel against this dictatorship regime and Avalon. I was sent to my cell where they had soldiers with German Shepherds standing nearby used to intimidate us into fear. My roommate, Alexander was very welcoming to share his things with me. He told me that he was in the exact same situation where his family was stuck all alone, left to fend for themselves and that he feared that they may already be caught and sent to another prison to serve Avalon as a slave. His face was filled with guilt, he had secrets that he dared not to share with anyone and would take to the grave. But he felt that I was someone who was trustworthy enough to gain his trust. I felt jubilated to hear this type of news during such a rough period of my life. I consoled with Alexander and in my own notebook describing how claustrophobic this place was and the hard labor that was handed out to us. It was the middle of the night and I prepared to go back to my cell when one soldier grabbed my arm and put a hand over my mouth. He then led me to a white van and without any care for my safety shoved me hard against the side of it and did a routine check to make sure I wasn't carrying contraband. Then a blindfold was put over my eyes and duct tape was put over my face. The next thing I knew everything was completely dark and the noises of the van continued for the next three hours.
