She stood on top of the craggy cleft for a long time screaming her lungs dry, calling her sister’s name over and over again until her voice broke in lamentable despair.
Where had the time gone since she had left the windswept crags of her family home?
three years had passed since they had taken her sister from her mother's arms. Her mother had screamed at them that she would rather be dead then let them take her child away. They, the men in the long grey coats had shoved my mother to her knees while the one who held my sister in his arms had spat on our mother.
My father had not resisted them taking my sister as they had broken him a long time ago when they had taken Josef. I can still her the thuds of their batons on my father's body as they laughed at him for his defiance. My father has not spoken since my mother and I drug him back into our container and wrapped his broken limbs in the swaddling in which it would take months before he could stand again.
She looked down at the digital recording device in her hands. She had walked from where the container town had been placed above the mud pit where everyone worked becuase they had told them to work there. No one had come after her, she was not the first child to walk out into the wastes, she would not be the last. It was a good thing that they allowed procreation among the people, otherwise the children would run out between the outcasting and the culling. Josef and now Mirand had been taking in the cullings while she had apparently walked out into the wastes thus outcasting herself to the elements and from the people.
She had seen no one. She had looked for days, then weeks, then months, now it was years. Her only track of time she had was the recorder she kept with her. She had snatched it from the back of the container where her family had lived ever since the town had been dropped there by the others. No one she knew could say where they had come from though some swore that it was from a different pit. Those fools also swore that things had been better at the last pit.
She gazed down at her hands and knew that she had been right to leave. Her hands had finally healed, the callouses had finally healed. Her hands were whole. She had learned- thanks to other peoples recordings how to forage and eat. How to collect things to wear, where the purified water ran and where the radioactive pools were likely to be. She had learned other things along the way. Things like where to hide from the predators unamable and horrifying. What to listen for before the wind storms swept in the sand and grit that drowned out everything in their beckoning howls.
She had found only a few others from the people out here. Some were like her, fast, furtive and hard to catch. The others were easy to catch, dominate and possess- this repulsed her more since they were willing to do anything to live another day. The rest had been in some stage of dying from exposure or bad water or rotted food. She had felt pity for them since their was no saving them and they had passed on to another place in the nights she had remained with those she had found.
Lately there had only been skeletons and the remains of skeletons.
She could not find Miirand- what had she expected though? to walk down into some valley and find her sister waiting for her?
There were still times when she felt like screaming like she had that first night when they had taken her twin from her.
Where had the time gone since she had left the windswept crags of her family home?
three years had passed since they had taken her sister from her mother's arms. Her mother had screamed at them that she would rather be dead then let them take her child away. They, the men in the long grey coats had shoved my mother to her knees while the one who held my sister in his arms had spat on our mother.
My father had not resisted them taking my sister as they had broken him a long time ago when they had taken Josef. I can still her the thuds of their batons on my father's body as they laughed at him for his defiance. My father has not spoken since my mother and I drug him back into our container and wrapped his broken limbs in the swaddling in which it would take months before he could stand again.
She looked down at the digital recording device in her hands. She had walked from where the container town had been placed above the mud pit where everyone worked becuase they had told them to work there. No one had come after her, she was not the first child to walk out into the wastes, she would not be the last. It was a good thing that they allowed procreation among the people, otherwise the children would run out between the outcasting and the culling. Josef and now Mirand had been taking in the cullings while she had apparently walked out into the wastes thus outcasting herself to the elements and from the people.
She had seen no one. She had looked for days, then weeks, then months, now it was years. Her only track of time she had was the recorder she kept with her. She had snatched it from the back of the container where her family had lived ever since the town had been dropped there by the others. No one she knew could say where they had come from though some swore that it was from a different pit. Those fools also swore that things had been better at the last pit.
She gazed down at her hands and knew that she had been right to leave. Her hands had finally healed, the callouses had finally healed. Her hands were whole. She had learned- thanks to other peoples recordings how to forage and eat. How to collect things to wear, where the purified water ran and where the radioactive pools were likely to be. She had learned other things along the way. Things like where to hide from the predators unamable and horrifying. What to listen for before the wind storms swept in the sand and grit that drowned out everything in their beckoning howls.
She had found only a few others from the people out here. Some were like her, fast, furtive and hard to catch. The others were easy to catch, dominate and possess- this repulsed her more since they were willing to do anything to live another day. The rest had been in some stage of dying from exposure or bad water or rotted food. She had felt pity for them since their was no saving them and they had passed on to another place in the nights she had remained with those she had found.
Lately there had only been skeletons and the remains of skeletons.
She could not find Miirand- what had she expected though? to walk down into some valley and find her sister waiting for her?
There were still times when she felt like screaming like she had that first night when they had taken her twin from her.
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