Deleterious

TWO

  Unfortunately next morning when I wake up it's not because my knight in shining armor has saved me from a never ending sleep. It's actually the total opposite; it was his majesty Kurt Davis. One thing I should make very clear is, no one not even Satan himself prefers to hear his majesties haughty laughs and terribly high- pitched voice the first thing when they wake up. I sometimes wonder was he born with a naturally high- pitched voice or did he get some disease called high- pitchiritis or something. His voice is technically irregular for a man in his late thirties maybe early forties I forget. Anyway, I'm getting a bit sidetracked here. The point is today his voice is more irritating than ever is because he is excited. It's not like he is excited because of all the wonderful food we may scour today, he's excited that he gets to announce the four young people to go and do his job for him, which is find us some supplies to last us an year. I visualize him squirming in that green chair thing by the tree, which by the way he refers to as his throne. So much for America fighting its way out of the wrath of dictators only, to have the remaining people ruled under a dictatorship. With smoke coming out of my ear as a result of these thoughts, I go outside and walk to his majesties throne. Instead of taking the short way which is basically a ten minute walk I take the long way, besides the ceremony doesn't begin until seven thirty, so that'd be approximately in an hour. Another piece of information that I forgot to mention until well, now, is that when this invasion happened all the clocks stopped the days froze, we lost concept of time. Emmaleine Smith my history instructor told us that after the war and majority of the chaos was done, the original founders started off from January and was told to proceed from there. They started off from 12:00 A.M. This entails that, when it is about 2:00 P.M., the darkness begins to clear away. Remember how I mentioned occupations and responsibilities earlier? Well someone, usually those who basically have no chance of survival and did the worst in training, is assigned to be the master of the clock. Basically that person sits there and counts to 3,600 and rings some kind of bell, which is also not pleasant to my wonderful ears. Any way let's get back to my queer state of being. I decide that I don't want to go to the ceremony early and get more anxiety than I already bear, and then throw up in Kurt's face. So instead I decide to take the long path through the meadows and maybe steal an apple or two from the majestic apple tree. The meadow reminds me so much of a girl I once used to know, she wasn't really ever my friend, nor was I hers'. Between her and me, we just had a silent agreement that the rest of the kids were absurd, so we would stick together. Her name was Caroline Kohl, she had hair that was naturally red and her eyes were this weird shade of grey mixed with green. We used to come here together often and find rabbits or trees to practice or bow and arrow skills on. I always shot the trees, and she always shot the rabbits. She claimed that it was more challenging to shoot something that was in motion, and boy did she like a nice challenge. I shot the trees not because I was a wimp but because I didn't see the point in shooting something that has done us no harm. I guess I should tell you all that, she is still very much alive before you scream your pretty little heads off. Like I said Caroline and I were never friends, just training partners. When we both turned ten or eleven, we both lost that need to have company and we went our own ways. I will admit, I did want friendship, but she left. People come and go. The apple tree here has been here for as long as I can remember. Most people are too afraid to come here because they've heard about how there's strange noises lately coming from within the tree itself, muffled screams. People say this tree is haunted by ghosts. Personally I think that absurd. When I last came here at age eleven, I heard no such thing. The apple tree itself is really big with a huge bark and the apples are red as roses and several are littered on the ground. When I suddenly see the tree I immediately run down and pick up the nearest apple, after rubbing it on my black uniform pants I take a bite. Immediately the sweetness hits me. I sit down eating my apple and staring at the stars. I guess somewhere in there I drifted off because the next thing I know I'm awoken by muffled screams and wails. At first I think it's coming from someone and I immediately alert my senses for the origin of the noise. Finally the noise hits me again; I realize it's coming from the direction of the tree. I carefully approach the center of the tree.