Rebirth

Chapter 1

It’s been 20 years since the day of ‘rebirth’.  I am Lucy, I am only 12 but Mom tells me about before the ‘rebirth’.  She says that everyone had food and no one worried about getting killed.  I dream of such a place, but when I wake up I know it was just that, a dream.

                The cold air brushes against my face, it smells musty and like death.  Carefully I pull on my         T-shirt, my only T-shirt.  With one last heave I push out of bed and pull on my jeans and my favorite boots.  Carefully I put a small knife in my sock and, in my belt a shard sword.  I decide to put on my sweatshirt, mine as well, it helps me blend in.  The only way to survive here is to blend in.  On the wall beside my bed is a small reflective piece, Mom calls it a mirror, I wish I looked more like my Mom.  Her hair is brown, a nice dark brown that blends in, and simple loving dark green eyes.  Not me, she says I look like my father, he was killed, I don’t mind, he was an idiot.  I have his blond hair; it stands out so grime dirt into it to dull it, but there will always be the issue of my eyes.  There the same color as my mother but they are to light, to hopeful, to challenging, best to always keep your head down.

                As I go over to my mother’s corner I see her curled up but, clearly a wake simply staring, staring at the blank T.V.  She never stops staring at it since dad died she says that if she watches long enough ‘it’ will come back.  I’m not quite sure what ‘it’ is but, I am sure it is pre-rebirth so ‘it’ isn’t coming back.  “Mom, Mom, ware’s Danny” I ask

“Went outside for some fresh air, don’t worry, Fred.”  She said sounding out of it and far away. 

“MOM!  You let Danny go out alone! How could you he’s too young to go out there!  Mom it’s me Lucy, your daughter, snap out of it.”  Rage fills me, how could she be so stupid as to let Danny, her own son to go out there.  But I knew she would be less use than usual, she was lost in her past, I would have to find Danny.

“I’m sorry” she says but I’m already gone.  I scurry over to the door, it is in the celling and is supposed to be locked from the inside by a latch that Danny would lock behind me, but Mom will have to care for herself for once.  I push up the door it’s not supposed to be unlocked, Danny must have figured out how to unlock it from all those times of locking it.  I can’t help wondering how Danny got out, it’s too high for him to just crawl up like me, and then again Danny excels at getting into trouble. 

As soon as I’m out I know something’s off, I lie low and pull the knife out of my boot, the sword is mostly for show and I need to be stealth.  Slowly I make my way forward hidden by the grass. I reach the spot were Danny’s hole with sand is, he’s there, but he’s not alone.  Two men from the street have him and are beating him with their clubs.  “Tells us weres it is” says the man with several tattoos. 

“Wes know you’ll tells us” said the other one.  There both strong but, I’ve met people like this before often they can be reasoned with.  In my sweatshirt pocket I pull out a couple of pieces of dried rat meat and a couple of bullets with a decent amount of powder left and one or two of common ‘rolls’.   I stand up slowly so they don’t notice. 

“Let go of my brother please.”   They both turn and stare at me they have blood red eyes, Jillis addicts that’s one of the ‘rolls’ I have. 

“Tells us were it is or we’ll kill yourses brother” slurs the tattooed one.  Why did I say he was brother now they’re going to drive a hard bargain. 

“Listen guys, I don’t know what you’re talking about but, I have a couple of ‘rolls’ on me” I even pull a sweet little girl smile. 

“Wes not needin your rolls wes’ll get lot an lot ‘en we find were yur little house be.”  Says the second one says.

 Suddenly out of the longer grass closer to The Street comes a third man,

“Grab her, I want her to watch as I burn her house” he says giving me a smile, a dark, evil smile.  The tattooed man grabs me and pushes me after the third man, the clear leader.  The other, the slightly smaller one grabs onto Danny.  Danny doesn’t seem to be moving but the Tattooed man doesn’t let me stare for long before yanking me in the direction of home.

I’ve never seen a group this big, usually they work in pairs sometimes alone but, never in threes because then there would have to be a leader.  That means this is a family, there’s no other way they would stick together.  We reach the door I stare in, it is dark.  The leader man pulls out a thin stick with a little red at the end.  He rubs it fast on the side of his pants and fire lights the stick.  He smiles when he sees me staring at him, a dark smile of a mad man.  He then lights a larger stick and as the stick begins to glow, he throws it down the door once the fire takes up the entire top of the stick.  I have never seen a fire get so big so fast, the fire roars and light fills the dark hole. The evil man then takes the small stick and, puts it closer to my face the man holding me holds me tighter like he expects me to run.  I’m not afraid though, not of him, not of anything any more.

“Fire my dear, it is the end and the beginning.  Such a beautiful face you have, so much like your fathers.  You could only hide so long my dear before the fire caught you” He moves the match closer and closer to my face till it touches and it burns, but only for a second before it goes out.  It is nothing compared to what it must be like for my mother.  Maybe she doesn’t know though, maybe she is so gone that she doesn’t even notice the burning.  Maybe this will be better for her now she can be with Dad.

 I fall to my knees I can’t go on.  That house despite being small and smelly was the only home I had ever known.  It is, was, full of all the memories of my life.  Sure it wasn’t a great life, but I had Mom and I had Danny and we were together and as safe as a couple of survivors could be.  Sure we were usually hungry and Mom was crazy, but it was home.  The fire was burning bright now, I could feel the heat on my face.  My body felt so heavy, too heavy to move, certainty too heavy to try and run.  I looked at the fire and thought about how easy it would be to just escape into it.  The weight would go away and I could join my family. But I couldn’t do that, that would be selfish.  Danny was still here, I had to keep going for Danny.  The Tattooed man holding me kicks me in the legs and pulls me to my feet.  He drags me to a wagon pulled by a mule.  He throws me in harshly, the other one pushed in Danny.  Then they tie our legs and arms and tie us to the side of the wagon.  They leave us and go to the front.

“Lucy, I’m scared” He cries.  He is slumped against me, he is covered in welts and bruses, both his eyes are black, but it doesn’t look like anything is broken.

“I know Danny, I know.  So am I.” I say, Maneuvering my hands in the ropes so I can hug him, I am only able to awkwardly pat his head

“What happened to Mommy” he asks, his innocence killing me, he is looking at me with his dark eyes pleading for me to give him good news

“She’s with daddy now Danny” I say, each word cutting a little bit of my soul

“Why did she leave?  Was she mad that I went outside?  Please don’t be mad Lucy that I went outside” he pleads.  His words a jabbing knives into my heart, but I can’t cry now, not in front of him

“No Danny.  Mommy didn’t leave because of you.   No she was mad at me.  And I’m not mad at you Dan, now I need you to be brave. Okay can you be brave for me?”

“Ya Lucy, I’ll be brave.  But where are they taking us Lucy?”

“I don’t know Danny, I don’t know.”

He looks at me for a while, then asks “Lucy, what did they do to your cheek.”  He asks looking at my cheek.

“It’s okay Danny, it’s only a little burn” I say forcing a smile onto my face.  He seems satisfied by that and leans against me and promptly falls asleep.  It is only when I’m sure he’s asleep that I let the tears out.  They are silent tears, but they are tears of pain and loss and they drip down my face.  I can’t wipe them off, but I don’t mind.  I cry and cry and cry until I fall into an uneasy sleep.