Testaments of Heart

Chapter Three

The train, flowing air consistently with its superb speed and open windows, gives Aislynn an easier environment to sleep with Phillipa buried into her shoulder. Empty and barely more than metal, four train cars, approximately filled with twenty persons each, moves towards an unknown destination. The people within have plenty of space and either sleep or silently cry. Their future uncharted and their past‒the home they leave behind‒haunting them with every mile racing towards a far away point.

Hours earlier, before being told to exit their trucks, Aislynn had held Phillipa until her breath became steady, and she no longer moved. Not once did she stir in her sleep, and not once did Aislynn even consider drifting to the same place. She just stared at the adjacent wall and thought of what she's leaving behind. Then, with no warning, the truck lurched to a halt and stunning sunshine filled the overheated truck, Phillipa immediately waking up.

They were given a few private minutes to obtain their bathroom needs before the soldiers had then led them to the train where many others, about one-hundred, sat and waited. After another group arrived, each person was given a plate of a meat, which Aislynn guessed (and hoped) to be cattle, green beans, and a slice of bread. No soldiers spat or harassed them as they ate their surprisingly decent meal, but stalked around them holding tightly to rifles in case someone made the fatal mistake to run.

After eating, the guards sent them onto the trains, ensuring there would be two other stops for food and other necessary needs. Gripping Phillipa's hand tightly, she threw herself onto a train car and sat away from the others, below a barred window. Phillipa and her said no words as the train began to move its way along the tracks, and soon Phillipa fell back into the grips of sleep. Aislynn soon followed, the overwhelming, stressful day finally taking its toll.

And that's where Aislynn sits now: sleeping on a speeding train to her unknown future. Her dreams filled with images of a soldier with a bundle of rope, a faceless man shot in the head, and a young girl facedown in her own front lawn. Aislynn doesn't sleep well, but at least she slumbers. She would need the rest and energy the dream world brings her‒They would all need it.

* * *

"Move quickly!" The voice jerks Aislynn from her sleep, and she cringes at the sun seeping in from the open train car door. "We have little time," the guard says while ushering the occupants of the train onto the ground. Aislynn pushes herself up and doesn't reject Phillipa when her hand envelopes her own. Together they jump down from the car and land on gravel, which starts to turn Aislynn's thin, blue shoes to a glowering grey. A woods surrounds them on all sides.

A city of it's own, realizes Aislynn, as she has only read about forests in books covered in their photos. She has never left the farming fields surrounding her village for miles on end, but now Aislynn looks up in wonder at the skyscrapers of wood, the clouds of green leaves, and streets of plants and flowers. Insects fly around the trees, ants walk upon the dirt, and birds sail far above, singing a melody of beauty. Aislynn can't help but find herself calm inside these woods.

People swarm around her and Phillipa, some still crying and letting the fear coat their existence. Aislynn pities them, while she raises her head a little higher. She notices others gazing at the forest in amazement. The sweltering sun beats down upon her skin, as she walks with the group down the curving gravel road. Guards, holding rifles in their hands, escort them towards a brick building of large capacity. In the back, only two doors a few yards apart lead into the building.

"Boys to the left! Girls to the right!" Suddenly a fork comes in the road, one path leading to the left, another leading to the right. Doing as instructed, Aislynn leads Phillipa into the swarm of dresses heading to the right. Noticing that many other girls were chosen than boy, Aislynn, barely, halts her anger from showing. She must stay calm and strong.