The Sleeping Prison

Chapter 7

Leo was lead though the mansion to a brightly painted room. The walls were yellow and pink flowers covered the walls and domed ceiling. Despite the contrast the colors look really nice together.
It reminded her of what the former country of China might look like.
The table in the room was decorated in Chinese patterns carved into wood as well as painted on, it must have been a replica, nothing this nice survived the apocalypse.
At the end of the table sat the awful man with the just as awful name, Hector. "Good morning, my love."
"I am not your love, I don't belong to you, I will never belong to anyone. And I do not love you."
"Oh don't worry, you'll love me soon enough, please sit." She didn't. "Leonora, I can assure you there is nothing wrong with the seat."
"Oh I know there is nothing wrong with the seat but there is something wrong with you."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You may do as you please, eat standing, I don't care."
When he said this she sat, on her own accord.
He looked at Eli, she tensed, "Go," he ordered. She obeyed, leaving the room quickly.
"I trust you like your servant. I made sure that I got one that you may have known before. Of course I would have preferred your friends but they're all dead." He said dead with all too much joy. "They would have been hard to tame though, they are awfully mischievous."
He said tame like he was talking about a horse that someone had waited too long to break and was a pain to break now that it was older. How is this acceptable?
"How are you so cruel? Those are people your talking about!" She yelled.
"Well yes... but they are less than us, too unorganized. They fit into the bottom of the caste system. It's better that way, then there messy ideas can't spread."
"The caste system is stupid! Making some people better than others is stupid. Think of all the writers, potters, and businesses men that are warriors by birth right."
"How could you think such a ridiculous idea? Your just a woman, you shouldn't concern yourself with these things."
"I think these things because I am a woman! I have plenty of time to think while you do whatever mindless job like cowardly robots! At least I have a mind of my own!"
"That is no way to address your fiance!"
"I will do whatever I want!" She got up, knocking the chair over and stormed out of the room. "Take me to my room Eli," she said to the startled Eli.
•••
Tensions were still high between Will and Julian when they completed the 10 mile walk to the small town on the border.
They hid in the brush, looking down at the small town. It was deserted.
"Ok guys we have 45 minutes to get what we need. We each need to get one type of thing. Will; building supplies. Grace; canned food. James; survival supplies. Luke; weapons. Hannah; extra clothes and medical supplies. Pack a bag. We won't be coming back for a while." Julian said.
"Oh! And if anyone sees a guard get away from the guard and whistle 3 times, got it?" Hannah continued.
"Julian what are you getting?" Will said rudely.
"I'm helping with survival supplies, and building supplies."
"Let's go!" Grace shouted before tensions got too high.
Will, James, and Julian went to the large building that had all the camping supplies as well as construction equipment. Julian went with James to start, let Will cool off and help cool himself off too.
"Will didn't mean what he said, ya know?" James broke the silence. "Will is Will. He's stressed, we all are. When he gets stressed he gets angry, he is angry at the world for taking his family. He had two little sisters no older than 8 so he is really worried and stressed,"
Julian immediately felt guilty. Will was just as stressed as he was and he was so busy worrying about his own problems and Leo he forgot about the others.
"I'm sorry, I was so freaked about Leo I forgot this was hard on you too."
"It's cool, Leo is your best friend, if anything happened to Will like that I-I... I don't know." James was always protective of Will even though Will was so much larger.
Once they reached the camping supplies they grabbed two huge duffel bags the color of dirt and started to fill them.
Water purifier: check. Fire starter: check. Canteens: check. Tarp: check. Camo outfits for 8: check. Pie irons: check. Insulated sleeping bag for 8: check. Fishing rod; check.
"Hey James?" Julian yelled from another isle.
"Yeah?" He yelled back.
"I'm going to help Will. I'll take the duffle."
"Ok."
Once he was in the construction isle Will had gotten together a hammer, drill, large tarp, hinges, netting.
Julian grabbed some tubing, wiring, and light bulbs.
They started to leave the building and by now James had joined up with them when they heard 3 whistles.
•••
Vance was just a soldier, a nothing. One in a million but never had he ever second guessed orders until today.
When he threw a stone into the lake, hard. He hated being a soldier! He was smarter than this! The only way he could use his smarts was to become a General but that takes years! And he really didn't want to hurt people.
He was a good leader despite his grumpy nature. He was grumpy his whole life, it pushed people away so he could protect himself. He knew a lot about the government and governments long before this one. I could lead this world, he thought, I could do it the right way.
He immediately regretted thinking it. It was not in a soldiers place to think it. Plus it was a way to power hungry kind of thought. He wasn't power hungry.
He missed his best friend, he was great. But he was also dead.
Dead because someone up in high places doesn't deserve to be in high places. He thought bitterly. My best friend is dead because of you.
He remembered earlier today when he was on duty seeing all of those people separated from loved ones, being treated like cattle, and those who tried to escape even killed, and the thought sickened him.
As the sun rose it was time for him to go on duty. He was looking for stragglers today. He was to seize them and have them sold.
Great.
He got up and headed back to camp. From there he was sent to a small town on the border of Shiera. They didn't expect anyone to be there so they must have thought it was sending men to get valuables.
He was loaded into a troop transport. It was tight and all the men had military gear on and none of them are small.
He felt every bump on the road. The guy next to him said "I'm so looking forward to getting in action! You?"
"Looking forward to shooting people? No. Looking forward to tearing people apart? No. Looking forward to dying? No."
"Well, you at least got to be looking forward to all the treasures!" This guy was way to perky.
"You really think we are going to be allowed to keep some of those things? They'll take them all away! And you know, what is valuable to me? The hope that you won't come back on this transport alive." He snarled.
The guy was silent. Good.
When they arrived it was a little later and he hopped out of the transport and went on patrol. There were only two patrols in this town, it was too small. The other guard was to guard the gates while he patrolled the rest of the town.
He was only there 10 minutes when he saw them. Two girls and two guys. The girl with brown hair and brown skin was holding hands with the guy and smiling at him. The other girl, black hair, black clothes, was poking the tall guy in the side and in the neck, pulling his hair. It was red, just like his best friend. His eyes continued to the last boy in the group. Vance froze.
When they saw him they froze, then they dove into a bush and whistled 3 sharp blows. Clearly alerting their friends.
He should have chased after them. He should have shot them. He should have made them slaves. But he couldn't.
The girl and the boy seemed so in love. The other girl seemed to be happy even if she was the third wheel. Those things weren't back in his home, happiness, joy, friendship. Why take it away?
He couldn't take that away from them. So he just stood there as a group of kids rushed past toward the forest. At the end of it he saw a beautiful boy with brown hair and blue eyes run past but he stopped and looked at him. He looked so much like his best friend, subtract the brown hair... So much like him.
The boy nodded as a sign of respect, and continued to run.