The Harvest

Chapter 1: Leaving Home

Your fiftieth winter. That's when the harvest comes. My grandmother was harvested when I was 10. We've all learned to accept the fate except for me. They plump us up and make us fat. Then when we're fifty, overweight, and unhealthy they harvest us. It will be years before I'm harvested. That means I have plenty of time to escape.
Every year we are forced to mourn over loved ones who are used to keep the higher ups young and happy. Well it wasn't always this way. Life on planet earth was made unlivable until the so called savior aliens came and fixed our planet. With only one catch. Every year they take the fifty year old's and harvest or murder them. Something in the muscle tissue is used to make 'medicine' all the human world released, but the rumors are that these aliens are actually human eaters. I've even heard terrible stories of humans being eaten alive by these creatures or aliens playing with their food. They look the same as us, but they're not. Their senses are enhanced they're smarter, stronger, and faster then you would ever think. The only way you can tell the difference is the pigment in their eyes which causes their eyes to be colors the human eyes have never seen. I've never seen one. They're not common of course they live up on the moon or on Mars. Anywhere they want but they don't like humans they despise us, of course they would never say that to our face. Everyone's broken. No one has the guts to do anything anymore. Except for one place. A place constantly in war. A place constantly losing. A place on the north side of globe that is still in ruins. Our world will soon fall apart if we don't do something. I would rather die fighting than give my life for some selfish little-
     "Ariana!" My mother snapped pulling me out of my trance. Her voice was hard.
     "You're doing that thing again. Someone might get the wrong idea!" Her voice was like a splash of cold water to the face. Deep thought was often frowned apon. Oh another thing. These aliens can read minds. Their technology can't decipher what we're saying but it is programmed to say when we're giving off negative thinking brainwaves. You see these aliens don't want us to develop deep thoughts. They want us to be dependent on them like cattle or dogs.
     "I need you to take the baby to bed." She said. Her voice dripping with urgency.
     "Alright." I replied picking up the constant reminder of my dead father. I was left at my moms doorstep but the baby was the birth child. You're not supposed to have more than three household members but my father refused to give up either of us kids and so they killed him.   The pain was still raw and no medicine seemed to help. The baby was only three months old. She was still innocent and oblivious to the way the world was now. My mom hid the pregnancy she would never abort her child. I was doing it again.
     "Alright let's get you to bed now." I said in a hushed voice. The breeze from the cold night drifted into the window. I walked over and looked out at the inky black night. The stars seemed like they had been erased. The wind ruffled my hair. I got chills and stepped away. I closed and locked the thin glass window. There weren't many sights to see anyway. Just identical apartments as far as the eye could reach. I turned and saw the baby had instantly fallen asleep. A cold breeze seemed to fly past my arm and I spun around. I could taste the cold air that had blasted me when the window opened.I closed the worn out thing again and sighed. I guess the lock was broken. Since I didn't want the baby to get a cold I walked over to her crib and picked her up gently. I thought of how the small room must seem like a ballroom to a child her size. I put one hand on the cold brass doorknob and stabbed into my bedroom. I set the baby down on my metal bunk bed and found a worn out laundry basket. I filled the basket with blankets and laid her down to sleep. I would try and get the window fixed tomorrow. I stared out my window and drifted off into a deep dreamless sleep.

     The next morning I awoke with a pounding headache. I brought my sister to the plain kitchen filled with browns whites and greys, for breakfast but instead of cooking breakfast like my mom usually did she was sitting at the table streams of tears pouring down her face. I put the baby in the high chair and rushed over to her.
         "Mother what's wrong? Why are you crying?" She didn't say a word just handed me a crumpled up note.

       

Your daughter has been selected along with 19 other girls ages 16 to 18 for an exclusive experiment. At exactly 8:00 a.m there will be an official at the door please say your goodbyes quickly.

My stomach plummeted. Was I being harvested? I wasn't ready I hadn't even lived very long. It was five minutes until the clock turned to 8.

       "Ariana. I want you to have this." My mom abruptly looked up and in her hand was a intricately designed gold necklace with a strange gem in the center. I didn't think she was supposed to have it but I didn't question her.
        "If anyone tries to hurt you show them that otherwise you keep it hidden, understand." She placed it in my hand and then pretended she had said nothing.      Wiping her tears she quietly picked up the baby who was now crying. Three large knocks were heard at the door and my mother went to open it.  Two tall men in dark black suits and darkly tinted sunglasses were waiting at the door. I took a deep breath in and stepped outside immediately the two men stepped behind me creating a blockade between me and my family. They started guiding me towards the stairs, I looked back and mouthed to my mother 'I love you'.  The two men guided me to a hover car which I'd only been in about once in my life and shoved me in. It was sleek black and the smell of cleaner on leather seats made me cringe. What had I done to deserve this.

        "From now on you will be referred to as Lady Ari, more will be explained about expectations when we arrive." The first man spoke. The hover car lifted from the ground and I was terrified. I looked down as my house slowly disappeared and we rocketed into space. In a split second we were in space. I took one last look at earth remembering how it looked in the history books, it looked so different now as if a shiny toy had been abused and beaten into the mud. It didn't matter anymore though because I would never come back.