Broken Down

"Why?" I ask. "Why is it like this? Why is it me?"

June 26, 2012 (2 years after the fall.)

"June," Oscar whispered in my ear.

“Oscar?” I asked. I hadn’t heard that tone since the time the resistance had begun. It was a time of despair and unspoken secrets. Oscar has always been by my side since then but that was before when we were young.

“Oscar. What is it?”

“Look,” He said. I watched as he pointed to the suddenly dark sky filled with ships and guns. The once busy room was then filled with silence and emptiness as if the other kids weren’t there at all. They were with us, safe from harm. Or so we thought.

“June,” He said breathless, I almost thought I could hear his heart pounding through his sweater. He was there every time I cried from fear of the Forces coming to get us, but that was a long time ago.

“Oscar, we need to get out of here,” I said, snapping out from my trance. I pushed him forcefully to hurry up out of the room.

“We can’t. We can’t disobey orders or we’ll get punished,” He said matter of factly. Acting like nothing was happening as usual. I guess this was our usual routine. Hide from the forces, train, patrol the sleep, but we weren’t prepared for a full on attack coming from the Forces.

It was always like we were safe from harm here at the Training Center. Like we were far from home and far from harm, but that was about to change.

“Children please follow me,” Mr. Tracker said as he quietly pushed us out of the room acting as if he didn’t notice all that was happening outside.

“See, Mr. Tracker knows what he’s doing. Of course he is one of the generals of the Alliance,” Oscar whispered. He tried to act like nothing was happening again but I can see beads of sweat forming on his forehead. He was marked by fear.

“Children,” Mr. Tracker interrupted. “We are going to meet the principal and the man in charge of all of you in the Black Lake woods. We are going to have to camp out in the woods for a few weeks while the Forces are foolishly trying to catch all of you,” He said in a tone that reminded me of Oscar’s father: commanding yet calm. I shiver at the thought of him in battle.

We followed him down to the basement dodging the sights of the Forces officers that were about to come in the building. We were pretty well trained to serve the Alliances, because that was what we were here for.