by Anthony Wade
I don’t know how long I was out. I wasn’t even sure I was waking up at first. My eyes felt open, but all I saw was pitch black. If I were alone, I would’ve thought everything was a dream. Marley’s heavy crying told me it was real.
I sat up and followed the crying until I found her. After remembering everything, I wanted to cry too. But somebody had to keep it together.
I held her, and she let me.
“I can’t do this, Carsyn.” She said, crying even louder. “We’ve lost. Momma’s dead, Edgar’s dead, Ashton’s dead. Everybody.” Her crying turned into screams.
I held her tighter. “I’ll help you,” I said. “We’re going to get out of here, and I’ll help you get through this.”
I didn’t know how we were going to get out because I didn’t even know where we were.
“I want to die,” she said. “Just kill me!” she screamed to nobody. “Come back and kill me!”
I said nothing. There was nothing to say. There was nothing I could do. Honestly, for a moment there, I wanted to die too. What was there to live for?
I soon figured out where we were, and I wasn’t too happy about it. We were locked in the same cells Cornelius had thrown us in. There was going to be no way to escape.
I don’t know how long we were in there. I didn’t sleep much, at least I don’t think I did. I know that I would grow incredibly hungry before two soldiers would bring us a sandwich to share. I tried letting Marley have my half, but she just wouldn’t allow it.
We never saw Belladonna. We never even heard of what was going on in the city, which wasn’t surprising since we were literally left in the dark, not having a TV or anything. All I could do was replay everything. Marley had said that she didn’t know if she would be able to make it. I said I’d help her get through this, but I wasn’t even sure if I could get through myself. I had grown to like Edgar. And who couldn’t like Mae. Ashton and I got along great. And now . . . now they were gone.
And the one I trusted the most . . . the one who understood me . . . betrayed me.
I kept expecting Belladonna to come in to tell me the safe had arrived. That was when she would need my eyes. I wouldn’t even be able to fight back.
And why hadn’t she killed Marley? I didn’t know, but I was glad. Marley was the only thing getting me through things.
It was over. She and I couldn’t build up a rebellion against Belladonna, especially if she was more powerful than Grandfather. No hope.
Finally, something interesting happened. At first, I thought the arrival meant I was needed to open the safe.
The lights came on, burning our eyes. I covered them until they were able to adjust. We stayed against the wall, listening to the keys rattle.
“Let’s go,” an unfamiliar man’s voice said once the doors were open. He didn’t sound violent, but we still didn’t move. “Hurry up,” he begged. “Or else we’re going to get caught.”
Marley squeeze my shoulder. Was it possible? I wasn’t going to wait around to see. We hurried out of the cell, and a hand push me toward the door. Marley and I left the room.
As soon as we exited, our eyes completely adjusted to the light, allowing us our first look at whoever had let us out.
It was a man who appeared to be in his late thirties. He was dressed just like any other soldier, which made me unsure if I could trust him or not. Yeah, he had saved us, but my mind wasn’t working right at that moment.
“Hurry up,” he said, leading us down the hall toward the elevator. I didn’t know what else to do, so I figured it was worth a shot. In the elevator, I looked out the glass. It was late at night. The city was dark. No lights shined through the building windows. Nobody roamed the streets below. The city was just as dead as before.
The elevator door opened on the first floor. Wow, there was nobody at the desk. There was nobody anywhere, not even security. What was going on? Luck?
We left the building through the front revolving doors, ran past the fountains, not asking this random guy any questions. On the street, a long black vehicle waited for us. The door swung opened by somebody inside before we even reached the vehicle. We jumped in and the driver sped away immediately.
I glanced back, expecting to see soldiers running after us.
There was none.
“You guys okay?” a man asked straight away. It was familiar. I focused on him and was thankful to see him.
Mr. Harrison had saved us again.
He wasn’t his usual self. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in days. His sobering eyes told me he was having a rough time.
“Seemed like the perfect time to rescue you two,” Mr. Harrison said. “Belladonna is meeting with all the soldiers. That and the curfew left the streets completely empty.”
That explained a lot.
I was about to ask questions when something outside the vehicle caught my attention. It was a huge hole in one of the buildings. A large pile of debris sat just feet away.
“There were multiple explosions for no reason the other night,” Mr. Harrison.
We knew exactly the reason for them.
“Hundreds have died,” he continued. “This Belladonna has taken control of everything. She controls the food supply. If you don’t follow her rules, you don’t get food. She . . . ” Mr. Harrison couldn’t even finish.
“It’s a mess out there,” the man who had saved us said. “I’m Ethan by the way.”
We thanked him for saving us.
“He’s one of my men,” Mr. Harrison said. “When we found out that the soldiers would be meeting with her in the arena, I knew it was our best chance getting you guys out.”
We thanked Mr. Harrison too. Then, he asked about Ashton, wondering why he wasn’t with us. It hurt too much to talk about it. I gave him one word.
“Dead.”
Mr. Harrison was silent.
“This is terrible,” Ethan said.
“And if anybody speaks against her, as many have, she has them arrested,” Mr. Harrison told us. “She controls the media so they have to pretend like nothing is happening.”
“It’s like this in every city in the nation,” Ethan added. “They’re much bigger than that Grandfather.”
“She’s worried about the lack of resources, especially the international food shortage. She keeps telling people that she will fix it, but the transition will be rough.” Mr. Harrison played with his beard as he kept his eyes on the ceiling. They started to water. When he looked at me, I turned away, not wanting to see him cry. I would’ve probably lost it.
As we left the city center, Mr. Harrison asked us more about what had happened, which I really didn’t want to answer. It was too painful, but I managed to do so.
“She was my momma,” Marley said quietly once we had told him the entire story.
I could tell that it was much worse than what Mr. Harrison was expecting to hear. “I’m sorry,” he told us, knowing that wasn’t going to help anything. But he tried. “These people will pay.”
“She calls herself Grandmother,” Ethan told us. “Ironic.”
I agreed. I knew why. They had the same ideas. But as she had said, they had different outcomes and goals.
Mr. Harrison’s driver drove us to a street bordering the wall. The buildings seemed pretty old and unused. That was odd because I didn’t think old buildings existed within the wall. Mr. Harrison explained that he owned them and used to ship furniture out of them when he was younger. The vehicle pulled into a huge parking garage and came to a stop.
Mr. Harrison told us that he, Mrs. Harrison, and even Olivia had been hiding out in the old building with everything going on. They were pretty confident that Belladonna or anybody would go searching his mansion.
Mrs. Harrison was very happy to see us. “Dears,” she said, hugging both of us. “We have an extra room, but you two will have to share.”
“That’s fine,” Marley said quietly.
Attached to the parking garage wa
s basically a decent sized apartment. At least Mr. Harrison had turned the old warehouse into a nice apartment. It consisted of a rather large living room with very nice furniture. Of course they would still have nice things. They could afford it. There was a dining room, a full kitchen, and a hall with four doors. Mrs. Harrison explained that three of them were rooms and one was a bathroom. “My husband and I are in that one,” she said, pointing at the door at the very end. “That one is Olivia’s.”
Mrs. Harrison led us to the one vacant room.
“You see, my husband knew that something was going to happen soon.”
I remembered him telling us that.
“Well, this is a part of his operation. We call it the safe house.” Mrs. Harrison was about to open the door to our room when the door next to us screeched open.
Olivia walked out in a robe, her hair wrapped in a towel. Her face brightened at the site of us. “There they are,” she said. “Once again, your story keeps writing itself.”
We didn’t really feel like replying. She was just too happy for us at that moment. But it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t know what we had just gone through. I think she could tell that something was wrong because her expression quickly changed.
“Stay here,” she said slowly, rushing back into her room. We only waited for a few seconds before she returned, carrying two notebooks and two pens. She handed us one of each. “Before, I said that writing things down can keep us sane. Most people use computers, but I find it more peaceful to do it the old-fashioned way. Perhaps you’ll give it a try.” She patted us on the shoulder.
“Thanks,” I told her.
“Not a problem. I’ll let you guys be alone now.” Olivia returned to her room. Before shutting the door, she looked at us. “I’m so sorry,” she said.
In our room, there was one huge bed, one brown leather sofa, a desk, and a nice recliner matching the sofa. The carpet was a royal red color, reminding me a lot of their mansion. I pointed at the bed. “You take the bed,” I told Marley. She looked as if she was about to argue, but decided not to. Without saying anything to me or Mrs. Harrison, she threw her notebook onto the desk and climbed into bed, facing away from us. I put my notebook down too.
“Are you guys hungry?” Mrs. Harrison asked.
I was hungry, but I don’t think I could have stomached anything. Mrs. Harrison didn’t argue when we refused.
I lied down on the couch, knowing that I wasn’t going to be able to sleep. I had too much on my mind. But I tried anyways. Two hours went by, and I still wasn’t asleep. I looked back at the bed. Marley’s eyes were closed. I stood up.
“Marley,” I whispered, seeing if she was actually sleeping. She didn’t budge. On the other end of the room, I noticed a familiar box with a small hole on the top of it. It was a TV, but I wasn’t about to turn that on even though I wanted to see what the news was saying. That would wake Marley up. My eyes landed on the notebook. Thinking of what Olivia had told us, I sat down at the desk and opened up the notebook to the first page. Things definitely didn’t feel too sane, so maybe I’d do what Olivia suggested.
I started writing.
And that’s what I’ve been doing for the past few days now. That and bugging Mr. Harrison about going to the mountain to see if anybody had managed to survive. I know that it’s unlikely anybody is alive, but I still have to see for myself.
He understands.
Mr. Harrison is working on something. He won’t tell me what it is yet. He says that we need to rest and mourn before jumping into something new. I’m kind of glad he’s doing that because I’ve definitely needed the time. And I know Marley does. She’s spent most of her time in bed. Occasionally she’ll come out and talk to us, but she doesn’t say much. I’m really worried about her. I’ve been trying to get her to laugh or something. I’ve not been successful.
I was eventually able to watch the news. Mr. Harrison was right, there was nothing bad about Belladonna on TV because reporters know they’ll be arrested. They keep talking about the shortages, especially the food shortage, reporting that Belladonna has a solution.
Nobody knows what’s going on.
Mr. Harrison did say that he plans on meeting up with somebody in secret so that he can learn more. Apparently, he has a contact that knows more about this stuff.
Another thing, Olivia is really happy that I’ve been writing in this journal. And you know what, she’s right. This notebook seems to be keeping me focused. But more importantly, I think that one day, I will let her write my story. Writing this makes sure I don’t forget all the details. I’m pretty sure I’ll never forget.
I still have a hard time falling asleep at night. I can’t quit thinking about Edgar and Mae . . . Belladonna and Robert betraying us. I can’t quit thinking about Ashton and all of the people that lost their life down there. I just don’t see how we can win, even though Mr. Harrison says there’s hope. He tells me that it’ll be easier to find people to go against Belladonna because nobody likes her. She’s not trying to hide what she does like Cornelius did. The only problem is how we’re going to get people. Everyone is afraid of her, so they do exactly what she demands. Even if we do find people, we don’t have a hidden place under a mountain like we did before. I guess that’s just something that Mr. Harrison will have to figure out.
Mr. Harrison talks to me a lot, afraid that I’m gonna lose it. He tells me that there have been several people like Belladonna, called dictators. Mr. Harrison told me that he heard that there was a man named Hilter or something like that. Mr. Harrison said that he controlled all of Germany, and that one day, he lost, like all dictators eventually do. I don’t know if this is true since all history books were burnt in the regions. Nobody knows the truth about our history. But it still gives me hope that Belladonna will lose just as this Hilter guy lost. And I’m determined to make it happen. I don’t know what somebody like me can do, but I will make sure it happens. Belladonna and Robert will pay for betraying us. Belladonna will pay for killing those I learned to care about. I will make sure that her power is destroyed as Grandfather’s was destroyed. I plan on writing it all down, because it really does help. Hopefully I live through whatever I’m about to go through. So whoever you are reading this, if anybody at all, wish us luck.
We’re going to need it.
. . . To Be Continued
Carsyn’s journey is just getting started. Flip to the next page for a sneak peak of…
The Grandmother Society
∞
Book two of the Infinity Trilogy
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Chapter One