okay,two stories in one day!woo!anyways, i orginally posted this on my da account (i have the same username on their as i do on this site), i cant really explain the story, so just read it and tell me what you think.
Not that it mattered in me and my brother’s case. Mom had died in the first enemy invasion attempt and Dad was out on the battle field. We had no other family. The Adults called us orphans but we children had another name. Alones. You were either a family’s kid or an Alone, no in between.
By the second enemy invasion attempt, our Leader decided the children of the capital needed to be moved to somewhere safe. Like there was any place safe anymore. The first group of kids they sent out got ten miles out of the city before the enemy killed them all. Our Leader decided on a change of tactics. That was how we got stuck with Salvation’s Road.
Salvation’s Road is a tunnel built underground and it had been built long before our parent’s time. We figured our Leaders always knew they would get us into hot water.
“If they had put as much effort in solving the problem as they did avoiding it, we wouldn’t be in this stupid war in the first place.” One of the Alones in our group had said
when the Adults told us what was going to happen.
Some of the Adults had agreed with her. Needless to say, they weren’t any of the adults coming now.
So that’s where you find us now, on the path to salvation.
“If this is the path to salvation, I’d hate to see the road to ruin.” I heard an Alone whisper. Not like the Adults could hear him, they were either in the front or in the back, but it didn’t hurt to be careful. Most of the Adults here weren’t to nice to the Alones, especially if they talk bad about the leader or anything he does.
Not that I blame him for saying it. There were eighty of us kids and about fifty Adults, twenty five in the front and twenty five in the back, and this wasn’t big of a tunnel. Also, there were only a few dim lights and kids were frequently tripping, causing all of us to stop until they picked themselves up. And did I mention the little chunks of rocks that fell on our heads that was a constant reminder of how old the tunnel was?
It didn’t really surprise me when my brother tugged on my sleeve and said “Big sister, are we going to die?”.
I had long since stopped being optimistic, but I wasn’t to the point yet where I would just bluntly say yes.
“I don’t know.”
That was only the second day. The trip would take eight days, possibly more with the way we were moving.
On the third day the little kids, who were big enough to walk but small enough to still be carried, were to tired to continue before it was even in the middle of the day. So the bigger kids had to carry them. I heard that the Adults at the front and the back were refusing to carry any of them, even the ones that were related to them. We created a system, if you got tired ask someone who didn’t look tired to carry for awhile and if you saw someone who looked tired carrying a child, ask if they would like you to take them.
It wasn’t a perfect system, but it was all we could do.
Most older siblings would take turns carrying or keep the younger siblings as close to them as possible with this system. Others didn’t care, they just let them get passed around as far as the other children would take them. Then there were the Alones with no other siblings, who were passed along like the children who’s siblings didn’t care. I’m glad my little brother was big enough to walk on his own. I’m afraid that I might’ve passed him along and said “do what you want with him”.
I carried three children that day. The first was a small boy who was very quiet and had hollow looking eyes. The second was also a boy, he was quiet too but his eyes were red and puffy. I learned from the Alone who gave him to me that his older sister had given him up. I didn’t want anybody else to take him after that.
I wanted him to know that some one would watch over him, and I wanted to redeem myself for even thinking I might give up my little brother. But then his sister came, crying and begging for forgiveness. When the little boy said he wanted to go with her, I let him go. I held my little brothers hand until the third child came. This child was different from the rest.
She came into my arms smiling, her eyes bright. She talked happily, laughed, and even sang a few songs. Despite my best efforts I couldn’t help but ask a question.
“Why are you so happy?”
“I have a family now.” She had said.
The Alone who had given her to me had said that she wasn’t a family’s kid. When I asked her what she meant, her reply was “the other kids call me an Alone, but they also call themselves Alones. So if we have the same name, doesn’t that make us family?”.
This question confused me. Had we created something like a family by naming ourselves the Alones, or was this little girl jumping to conclusions to get something she didn’t have anymore?
“Perhaps.” I said and let the little Alone in my arms talk for the both of us for the rest of the time I had her.
On the fourth day some of the Alones started fighting with each other so a few Adults started walking in between us, one of them kept saying “To get to heaven we must go through hell”. Probably something the leader thought up in case something the leader thought up in case things started to go bad. Unfortunately, that’s what caused the incident on the fifth day.
As the man came near, a boy close to me yelled, “Shut up! We were in hell back in the city, we’re in hell here, and we’ll probably still be in hell when we get out of this damned tunnel.”
If he had been a family’s kid, the man might have ignored him, but he was an Alone .
The man came up to the boy, grabbing him by his collar, and said “ the Leader has created this so you can survive. You should be grate-”.
That was all he got out before the Alone screamed “to hell with the leader!” and punched him. The Alone didn’t stop there. If the Adult hadn’t been so short and the Alone so strong, maybe things would have been different. The Alone continued to hit the Adult, even while he was down.
We didn’t try to stop him, but we didn’t go on either. We just stood there staring. For some, it was out of shock, but for most, they were probably imagining themselves in the Alones position. He had been brave enough to do what all the Alones had wanted to do.
Soon though, the other Adults had figured out something was going on and sent some of their number to investigate. Two boys grabbed the Alone by both arms and flung him into the crowd. In seconds he had disappeared.
“What happened here?” One Adult asked when they arrived.
“He tripped” One Alone said.
“Tripping wouldn’t do this. What did you do to him?” Another Adult asked.
“Some of us accidentally stepped on him when he tripped” I said.
“No… it was…that boy” The man stuttered as he got up.
“What boy?” Another Alone asked.
“Where is he?” The man shouted at us.
“What are you talking about? There was no boy” A different Alone said.
It went on like this for awhile, until the Adults decided it was useless and told us to move on.
Surprisingly, the man was back the next day, spreading the same message. He must have been looking for the Alone who had attacked him. Not that he would ever find him if we had anything to say about it. He was our hero now and we were going to protect the one person we considered good.
By the sixth day, most of the little kids and even a few of the older kids were crying a lot. I had cried too, but then I remembered the little Alone I had helped carry and tried to find her in the crowd. I didn’t see her, but I prayed that she was alright.
Funny. I hadn’t prayed since before the war, not even when the enemy was trying to invade. But here I was, praying for a little girl I would probably never see again. Maybe she was right about the whole family thing.
Right then, I heard her voice over all the tears, singing an old lullaby. It wasn’t just her voice. Little kids and bigger kids, Alones and family kids, were singing along too. I joined to and so did my little brother. Pretty soon I think all the kids were singing.
This was the first time I had felt true happiness since this awful war had begun. It would have been nice if the rest of the journey had been like that.
On the seventh day we were all talking about what we were going to do once we got back onto the surface.
“I’m going to run so I can feel the wind in my hair.”
“If there’s water nearby, I’m going swimming.”
“I’m going to find a tree and climb it to the very top.”
“If its night when we get up there I’m going to count the stars.”
But by the end of the eighth day we still had not reached the exit.
The Adults were saying that it was going to take longer then planned. Us kids didn’t like that. We had already been down here for eight days. No sunshine, no fresh air, no open spaces, this was driving us mad. A few of us might have already past the point of no return.
Then it dawned on me. The first kids to be sent out were killed by the enemy, probably quickly. Here, our Leader trying to save us, was slowly driving us insane. Was being safe really worth this much?
Then I heard a scream, followed by someone yelling “he’s dead, he’s dead”.
The Adult who had been beaten had found the Alone who had hurt him. He surprised the Alone, but when they were struggling on the ground, the Alone grabbed a rock and hit the Adult in the head with it. He had died instantly.
The Adults told us to go on. Some had refused, but me and my little brother was part of the rest who went. I didn’t want anymore to do with that and I defiantly didn’t want my little brother around that.
“Sister, why did that happen? Why did he have to die?” My little brother asked me.
I thought about it until I thought I had found the answer.
“Adults are idiots, or at least they are when their pride gets in the way. Adults won’t forgive and forget when their pride gets hurt. They’ll try to hurt the ones who hurt them, and they will do the same in return. It will become a never ending cycle until either, one is dead, one has surrendered, or they reach an agreement. It’s usually one of the first two and hardly ever the third.”
“The worst thing is, they don’t care about what happens to the people stuck in the middle. The Leader says he has our best interests in mind; but if it hadn’t been for this war, the Alones would have never been born. And what about the enemy? How many innocent people, like kids, have our soldiers killed? The truth is hate, anger, fear, and all the other negative emotions rule over our lives.”
My brother thought long and hard over this, then told me, “I don’t quiet agree with you.”
“What do you think then?”
“Negative emotions do play a big part in our lives, but they don’t control us. Didn’t we already prove that?”
I thought about it and realized he was right.
First it was the carrying system. Sure: some used it badly, but we worked together and helped each other, and one Alone had even came back for her brother. I had even proven somewhat good when I didn’t want to be passed around to the point where he would feel unwanted. Then there was the little girl who had found something truly good in being an Alone. Also, had we not wanted to protect the boy who had stood up for all the Alones?
I had even proven good when I prayed for the little girl and she in return was able to get us all happy again, even if it was only for a short amount of time. We may never live in total peace, but we would never live in total chaos either.
“Yes, little brother.” I finally said, “You’re right.”
It wasn’t too long before we saw a bright light. We had finally reached the exist.
Little brother took my hand and asked, “Are we going to die?”.
I didn’t know if he was asking me because he was scared the enemy might be out there or if he just wanted to know my answer. I would never be able to say no, not even after the war had ended, but I had more hope for the future now then I did at the beggaining of this journey.
“Probably not.” I said as we walked through the blinding light of a new day.
ALONES
We were sent away. Some of us had parents, Aunts, Uncles, or other relatives going with us, but most of us were Alones. Me and my brother were some of those Alones. Our Leader had said all children must be evacuated. There would be some Adults going but not all, or in most cases, no relatives of us children.Not that it mattered in me and my brother’s case. Mom had died in the first enemy invasion attempt and Dad was out on the battle field. We had no other family. The Adults called us orphans but we children had another name. Alones. You were either a family’s kid or an Alone, no in between.
By the second enemy invasion attempt, our Leader decided the children of the capital needed to be moved to somewhere safe. Like there was any place safe anymore. The first group of kids they sent out got ten miles out of the city before the enemy killed them all. Our Leader decided on a change of tactics. That was how we got stuck with Salvation’s Road.
Salvation’s Road is a tunnel built underground and it had been built long before our parent’s time. We figured our Leaders always knew they would get us into hot water.
“If they had put as much effort in solving the problem as they did avoiding it, we wouldn’t be in this stupid war in the first place.” One of the Alones in our group had said
when the Adults told us what was going to happen.
Some of the Adults had agreed with her. Needless to say, they weren’t any of the adults coming now.
So that’s where you find us now, on the path to salvation.
“If this is the path to salvation, I’d hate to see the road to ruin.” I heard an Alone whisper. Not like the Adults could hear him, they were either in the front or in the back, but it didn’t hurt to be careful. Most of the Adults here weren’t to nice to the Alones, especially if they talk bad about the leader or anything he does.
Not that I blame him for saying it. There were eighty of us kids and about fifty Adults, twenty five in the front and twenty five in the back, and this wasn’t big of a tunnel. Also, there were only a few dim lights and kids were frequently tripping, causing all of us to stop until they picked themselves up. And did I mention the little chunks of rocks that fell on our heads that was a constant reminder of how old the tunnel was?
It didn’t really surprise me when my brother tugged on my sleeve and said “Big sister, are we going to die?”.
I had long since stopped being optimistic, but I wasn’t to the point yet where I would just bluntly say yes.
“I don’t know.”
That was only the second day. The trip would take eight days, possibly more with the way we were moving.
On the third day the little kids, who were big enough to walk but small enough to still be carried, were to tired to continue before it was even in the middle of the day. So the bigger kids had to carry them. I heard that the Adults at the front and the back were refusing to carry any of them, even the ones that were related to them. We created a system, if you got tired ask someone who didn’t look tired to carry for awhile and if you saw someone who looked tired carrying a child, ask if they would like you to take them.
It wasn’t a perfect system, but it was all we could do.
Most older siblings would take turns carrying or keep the younger siblings as close to them as possible with this system. Others didn’t care, they just let them get passed around as far as the other children would take them. Then there were the Alones with no other siblings, who were passed along like the children who’s siblings didn’t care. I’m glad my little brother was big enough to walk on his own. I’m afraid that I might’ve passed him along and said “do what you want with him”.
I carried three children that day. The first was a small boy who was very quiet and had hollow looking eyes. The second was also a boy, he was quiet too but his eyes were red and puffy. I learned from the Alone who gave him to me that his older sister had given him up. I didn’t want anybody else to take him after that.
I wanted him to know that some one would watch over him, and I wanted to redeem myself for even thinking I might give up my little brother. But then his sister came, crying and begging for forgiveness. When the little boy said he wanted to go with her, I let him go. I held my little brothers hand until the third child came. This child was different from the rest.
She came into my arms smiling, her eyes bright. She talked happily, laughed, and even sang a few songs. Despite my best efforts I couldn’t help but ask a question.
“Why are you so happy?”
“I have a family now.” She had said.
The Alone who had given her to me had said that she wasn’t a family’s kid. When I asked her what she meant, her reply was “the other kids call me an Alone, but they also call themselves Alones. So if we have the same name, doesn’t that make us family?”.
This question confused me. Had we created something like a family by naming ourselves the Alones, or was this little girl jumping to conclusions to get something she didn’t have anymore?
“Perhaps.” I said and let the little Alone in my arms talk for the both of us for the rest of the time I had her.
On the fourth day some of the Alones started fighting with each other so a few Adults started walking in between us, one of them kept saying “To get to heaven we must go through hell”. Probably something the leader thought up in case something the leader thought up in case things started to go bad. Unfortunately, that’s what caused the incident on the fifth day.
As the man came near, a boy close to me yelled, “Shut up! We were in hell back in the city, we’re in hell here, and we’ll probably still be in hell when we get out of this damned tunnel.”
If he had been a family’s kid, the man might have ignored him, but he was an Alone .
The man came up to the boy, grabbing him by his collar, and said “ the Leader has created this so you can survive. You should be grate-”.
That was all he got out before the Alone screamed “to hell with the leader!” and punched him. The Alone didn’t stop there. If the Adult hadn’t been so short and the Alone so strong, maybe things would have been different. The Alone continued to hit the Adult, even while he was down.
We didn’t try to stop him, but we didn’t go on either. We just stood there staring. For some, it was out of shock, but for most, they were probably imagining themselves in the Alones position. He had been brave enough to do what all the Alones had wanted to do.
Soon though, the other Adults had figured out something was going on and sent some of their number to investigate. Two boys grabbed the Alone by both arms and flung him into the crowd. In seconds he had disappeared.
“What happened here?” One Adult asked when they arrived.
“He tripped” One Alone said.
“Tripping wouldn’t do this. What did you do to him?” Another Adult asked.
“Some of us accidentally stepped on him when he tripped” I said.
“No… it was…that boy” The man stuttered as he got up.
“What boy?” Another Alone asked.
“Where is he?” The man shouted at us.
“What are you talking about? There was no boy” A different Alone said.
It went on like this for awhile, until the Adults decided it was useless and told us to move on.
Surprisingly, the man was back the next day, spreading the same message. He must have been looking for the Alone who had attacked him. Not that he would ever find him if we had anything to say about it. He was our hero now and we were going to protect the one person we considered good.
By the sixth day, most of the little kids and even a few of the older kids were crying a lot. I had cried too, but then I remembered the little Alone I had helped carry and tried to find her in the crowd. I didn’t see her, but I prayed that she was alright.
Funny. I hadn’t prayed since before the war, not even when the enemy was trying to invade. But here I was, praying for a little girl I would probably never see again. Maybe she was right about the whole family thing.
Right then, I heard her voice over all the tears, singing an old lullaby. It wasn’t just her voice. Little kids and bigger kids, Alones and family kids, were singing along too. I joined to and so did my little brother. Pretty soon I think all the kids were singing.
This was the first time I had felt true happiness since this awful war had begun. It would have been nice if the rest of the journey had been like that.
On the seventh day we were all talking about what we were going to do once we got back onto the surface.
“I’m going to run so I can feel the wind in my hair.”
“If there’s water nearby, I’m going swimming.”
“I’m going to find a tree and climb it to the very top.”
“If its night when we get up there I’m going to count the stars.”
But by the end of the eighth day we still had not reached the exit.
The Adults were saying that it was going to take longer then planned. Us kids didn’t like that. We had already been down here for eight days. No sunshine, no fresh air, no open spaces, this was driving us mad. A few of us might have already past the point of no return.
Then it dawned on me. The first kids to be sent out were killed by the enemy, probably quickly. Here, our Leader trying to save us, was slowly driving us insane. Was being safe really worth this much?
Then I heard a scream, followed by someone yelling “he’s dead, he’s dead”.
The Adult who had been beaten had found the Alone who had hurt him. He surprised the Alone, but when they were struggling on the ground, the Alone grabbed a rock and hit the Adult in the head with it. He had died instantly.
The Adults told us to go on. Some had refused, but me and my little brother was part of the rest who went. I didn’t want anymore to do with that and I defiantly didn’t want my little brother around that.
“Sister, why did that happen? Why did he have to die?” My little brother asked me.
I thought about it until I thought I had found the answer.
“Adults are idiots, or at least they are when their pride gets in the way. Adults won’t forgive and forget when their pride gets hurt. They’ll try to hurt the ones who hurt them, and they will do the same in return. It will become a never ending cycle until either, one is dead, one has surrendered, or they reach an agreement. It’s usually one of the first two and hardly ever the third.”
“The worst thing is, they don’t care about what happens to the people stuck in the middle. The Leader says he has our best interests in mind; but if it hadn’t been for this war, the Alones would have never been born. And what about the enemy? How many innocent people, like kids, have our soldiers killed? The truth is hate, anger, fear, and all the other negative emotions rule over our lives.”
My brother thought long and hard over this, then told me, “I don’t quiet agree with you.”
“What do you think then?”
“Negative emotions do play a big part in our lives, but they don’t control us. Didn’t we already prove that?”
I thought about it and realized he was right.
First it was the carrying system. Sure: some used it badly, but we worked together and helped each other, and one Alone had even came back for her brother. I had even proven somewhat good when I didn’t want to be passed around to the point where he would feel unwanted. Then there was the little girl who had found something truly good in being an Alone. Also, had we not wanted to protect the boy who had stood up for all the Alones?
I had even proven good when I prayed for the little girl and she in return was able to get us all happy again, even if it was only for a short amount of time. We may never live in total peace, but we would never live in total chaos either.
“Yes, little brother.” I finally said, “You’re right.”
It wasn’t too long before we saw a bright light. We had finally reached the exist.
Little brother took my hand and asked, “Are we going to die?”.
I didn’t know if he was asking me because he was scared the enemy might be out there or if he just wanted to know my answer. I would never be able to say no, not even after the war had ended, but I had more hope for the future now then I did at the beggaining of this journey.
“Probably not.” I said as we walked through the blinding light of a new day.
