WIP Work in Progress

Amelia Bertravski August 25th, 2340

Never thought I would let one of those Riverites set foot in my house. Now I have two. That man was lucky he had the baby with him, otherwise, I would have left him out there to fend for himself after the first night. But I can't turn away a baby. Wilson reminds me of Endymion when he was a baby. He has the same bright smile, the same glimmer in his eyes. It's like having my boy back again.

Jackson told me they were on the run after escaping one of those camps. I had heard about them on the radio. Jackson said they forced them to work in the mines day in and day out digging tunnels for soldiers to advance through unseen. I told him the soldiers do need protection and those tunnels won't build themselves. Jackson didn't see it that way. I didn't expect him to understand. Riviera has never been a nation that understood how to fight a war. The important sacrifices that must be made to win a battle. They could have killed all of them but instead chose to put them to work for the greater good of battle.

But I have to admit Jackson is a good boy. Every night after dinner he has offered to wash the dishes. He has fixed several things around the house. I never thought I would be living peacefully with someone from that country but so far it is working out well.

After breakfast, Jackson helped me work in the yard while Wilson played on the porch. He didn't seem like himself.

"You are quiet today. Is something going on?," I asked him.

"Didn't get a lot of sleep last night. I had a terrible nightmare," he told me.

"About what?"

"I thought I was back at the camp....in those mines."

"Was it that bad?"

"I worked 12 plus hour days with maybe a 10-minute break in between. I hardly ever got to spend time with Wilson. Every day a different person got taken away to Neverland. One of my closest friends was taken away to that place. I'm not sure what happened to him afterward."

"Neverland? You mean where that boy who never wants to grow up is from?"

"No. This place is not magical at all. We called it Neverland because whoever went in never came back. We didn't know what happened in there and honestly, I'm glad I never found out. We all guessed it was some kind of torture chamber. It was this big steel building without windows. There was only one door. I still see it in my dreams."

He bent his head down for a moment then looked up at me.

"In my dream, I was being dragged off to that building. When I got inside they locked me in this room and started shooting some kind of gas inside. I couldn't smell it but I could feel it. It started burning my skin and I began choking. Then blood started coming from my eyes. I looked up and saw them carrying Wilson and my wife into a room that looked similar to mine. I tried to bang on the door for them to stop but I couldn't move because the pain was so intense. That is when I woke up. I heard stories about things like that and much worse happening inside Neverland. I knew if I wanted to get my family back together I needed to escape otherwise I could end up in there too."

I sat for a while soaking all he had told me in. "You know things weren't always so hostile between our two nations."

"When I was in school I read in history books our nations used to be strong allies until the Great War of 2220. Ordin turned their backs as Axel pushed their way in and burned our towns. Even though we eventually won, we paid a steep cost in lives and homes."

"Yes, that was a terrible time in our history as well. It was our damned Ordinian pride that forced the strain. Come on let's go inside and I will tell you the whole story."

We walked back inside. Jackson grabbed Wilson as we sat down to the table.

"When I was a little girl Riviera and Ordin worked together as one. We are so close it makes sense that the two nations would help each other out. If either nation was ever threatened the other would step in and help defeat the opposition. But that was when Riviera and Ordin were economically equal. During the Depression of 2218, Riviera's economy took a grave hit. Many were out of jobs, people stopped going to stores because they could no longer afford the food prices so businesses were closing. People stood outside of the capitol protesting begging the government to step in and help but in reality, the government was also broke as well."

"Ordin sent money over to them to help at least stabilize things so the President could figure out how to get the country back on track. Unfortunately, other nations knew about Riviera's trouble and tried to take advantage. That is when Axel came in and tried to take over. Axel's king had been wanting to invade Riviera for years but because of their military strength and the strong alliance the country had with Ordin, they did not dare make the attempt. But with Riviera in such financial strain, the military budget was cut dramatically and there was no way they could adequately defend themselves so Axel took the opportunity."

"That's what our books said," Jackson exclaimed. "Your country could have intervened but didn't. Thousands of people died because your government did not come to help us."

"Yes, but that decision was not popular by the majority of us here. We wanted to help. When the decision was made to stay out of it, people here protested. Our nations had been united for years, no one felt it right to abandon you in your time of need. But the people didn't make those decisions and when our king at the time explained why we needed to remain neutral, it made sense."

"What did he tell you that made the uproar calm down?"

"He told us Ordin was a nation of winners. Never in our country's history have we entered into a war that we did not easily win. But he said the war between Riviera and Axel, even with our help, was not a war that could be easily won. Axel had been building up their military for years and they were a much stronger nation at the time of the war. And Ordin could only supply a certain amount of military force to Riviera without taking a drastic hit ourselves so we could not help you without hurting Ordin...or at least that is what we were told."

"What do you mean?"

"In reality, the King entered into a treaty with the Axelian kingdom promising never to invade Ordin. Axel was still a growing nation and could easily surpass Ordin. The King was not willing to risk Ordin potentially losing a war in the future so he signed the treaty. When the rest of the country found out we immediately got rid of him. Unfortunately, the relationship between the two countries has been strained ever since.

"Why has no one in Riviera heard about this?"

"It is a stain in our history. It is not written in any books. The only thing that is known is that shortly after the War of 2220 Ordin expelled its king for bringing great shame to the country. We do not explain how. We do not need to.

"So you would rather be hated by a nation that you were once close to rather than tell the truth?"

"That's the pride of an Ordinian. For Ordin, For All."

We sat quietly for a moment. I think Jackson was taking it all in.

"I can't believe I told a Riverite all of this," I said with a chuckle to break the silence. "But you need to know all of us aren't that bad. Not like some of the men and women you met in that camp."

"Same goes for us. Our entire country is not made of people like the Uprisers who tried to kill your Queen. I guess Riviera is like the scorned ex-friend who feels like Ordin has moved on and now we have all this built up hatred. But secretly all we want is just to be friends again."

"You know when you put it that way, I think Ordin is the same way. But we feel like we screwed up so horribly there is no way back so we've given up on reconciling."

"I guess we aren't so different then," he said smiling.

"I guess so," I smiled back.

We spent the rest of the night talking as little Wilson played with his toys.