“Do you think that we could actually do it? Do you think that we could take down the whipipo?” asked Tyleah. “I mean even with our two groups combined we’re still a small group. And there are still so many of them compared to us.”
Dizzie looked over at her with his eyes narrowed. “Yes, our people have been enslaved and overpowered once. We won’t let that happen again. History is not about to repeat itself. It doesn’t matter how big or small our group is. We will be the change that’s needed.”
“So then I guess it’s time that we make a game plan,” I said.
“We already have one mapped out,” said Dezzie. “Trust me, we are a well prepared group.”
“Yeah, go to Africa but then what? What do we do between now and then? What do we do once we get there? And most importantly how are we getting to Africa?” I asked. I knew what their main goal was but they never went into detail of how they were going to accomplish things beforehand or after things were done.
“Between now and going to Africa we survive and gather all the information we can on the whipipo and what they are planning. We also gather supplies, food, and water because the journey to Africa won’t be a short one. It will be very long and we will need all the supplies that we can get,” said Tamoia. “And we are getting to Africa by boat. That’s why we need to stock up because we won’t be able to stop once on the ship. And when we get there, head towards where Egypt used to be and that’s where all of the answers will lie.”
“So basically just keep our heads down until then?” asked Breyrian. “And how do you know all of the answers will lie in Egypt? Why not anywhere else in Africa.”
“Yeah, we just lie low until then. But, we know the answers have to lie in Egypt because before they were invaded and everything was starting to be rewritten we were the most powerful there. We were kings and queens. We had kingdoms. We know some of our juice still has to be there. How do you think they were able to accomplish so much in a world without technology” said Dizzie.
I sighed. There was a lot wrong with this plan but as I looked over the horizon and saw the sun setting I decided not to fight it. At least not today because we needed to get under because at night was when the wild things came out. And they were worse than the whipipo. But, I knew that I would have to address the holes in their plan eventually. Especially if my crew was going to be following along with them. “Okay, so it’s getting dark. Isn't it time for us to go in the bunker?”
“Yes, we can go in now,” said Tamoia.
We all stood up and walked towards where the bunker was. They let Ahshay, Breyrian, Tyleah and I go down first and then they followed. Extreme darkness surrounded us and I could barely see my hand in front of my face. After a few moments, a few dim lights cut on and we could see once again. The bunker wasn’t as small as I thought. It could fit all of us and comfortably. They had an area set up for sleeping, an area for storage, and an area to I guess study because there were files spread out there to. I’ve heard a lot of stories about underground bunkers but this was the only one that we have managed to come across. Or if we had across some we didn’t really see them.
“Okay, even though we are safe down here because the door latches close we do still take shifts to study and keep watch just in case something tries to come in,” said Tamoia. “Since we have new people we will pair up one new person with one old person.”
“Okay, that sounds reasonable,” I said as I nodded my head.
“Okay so Dezzie and Tysim, Tyleah and Dizzie, Ahshay and Rahz, and then Breyrian, Clayahr, and I will take the last shift,” said Tamoia as she looked around the group.
“Okay,” I said. “Well then I guess we got first shift.”
“It’s not that bad,” said Dezzie. “It’s also when we get to eat and drink water. So it’s not that bad. We go to sleep fed and hydrated so that we won’t be too weak in the morning when we have to do stuff.”
“I didn’t think that it would be hard. Besides, I always got the first shift whenever I have to watch out for my crew. I liked just to get it out of the way. Breyrian and I used to switch off shifts. We used to just let Tyleah and Ahshay sleep through the night.”
“Same with me. I always liked the first shift because I hate being woken up out of my sleep,” said Dezzie “Let’s head over to the supplies and you can pick out what you want.”
We walked over to the supplies and I got two bottles of water and then I saw some interesting looking packets. “Is this freeze dried food packets?”
She smiled. “Yes they are and they aren’t all that bad either. Especially since we can’t get real food anymore. They really fill you up. You want to try one?”
I looked through a few of them and picked up one of the breakfast packets. Dezzie smiled and took it from me as she showed me what I needed to do to make it. When she was done she handed it to me and I tasted it. After getting pass the initial taste it wasn’t that bad and I finished it as I drank my water. For the first time in a very long time I actually felt full. There were so many nights that I went to sleep with hunger pangs in my stomach that this was such a great feeling.
“So how was it?” asked Dezzie.
“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” I said. “And on top of that it really filled me up. I haven’t felt full in ages.”
She nodded her head. “Yeah, this bunker came with a ton of these and water. We really lucked out because we haven’t had to find much food or anything since we found this place. But since we have to travel we know that we will probably need more food and water. That’s why we still go out and look for supplies.”
“It really does almost tastes like pancakes and I haven’t had any of those since my mom passed and all of this shit started,” I said.
“Yeah, it’s been a while since any of us had anything that relates to home life. This has just been overwhelming for all of us. These past couple of years have all just felt like a nightmare. I’ll be so glad when it gets better. I don’t like living like a wild animal.”
“So are the only ones left out of your family you and Dizzie? What happened to your parents?” I asked as I tried to get to know her a little better. If we were going to be around each other then we needed to learn more about each other and begin to trust each other.
She sighed and slid down to the ground beside me. “Dizzie and I were foster kids. Never really knew our parents. They gave us up when we were about six months old. I used to think that maybe they died but in one of the foster homes I heard a lady say that they were still living. The only thing we have of them is an old picture that Dezzie keeps on him on him at all times so that he can feel close with them. Me, I don’t really care about feeling close with them but he’s my twin,” she sighed. “When all of this happened we had just ran away from our foster home. Dizzie wanted to find our parents because the foster home we were at treated us like trash. They beat us...and...called us names and they just made us feel worthless. I just...I”
“You know you don’t have to keep going if you don’t want to,” I said sensing that she was uncomfortable reliving that part of her life. There was a lot of pain there and I didn’t want her to have to rehash it all out if she didn’t want to.
She shook her head. “No, it’s ok. If we’re going to be a team then we need to know a little bit about each other. I don’t mind opening up. But the foster home we were at, they beat us something bad and would starve us for days at a time. And when they did feed us, it was the bare minimum. They would give us bread, water, and if we were lucky a sandwich. They ate all of the good stuff while we were fed scraps. Sometimes we would sneak and get the good food though but it wasn’t that often that we could pull it off. They were an old white couple and racist. They said that they would show us niggers our place in the world. They took every chance the could to degrade us. I honestly don’t know why we stayed for as long as we did in the first place.”
“That’s messed up.”
“Believe me, I know but that was our life f
or three months. It became more unbearable near the end and we tried to get our social worker to move us but she just kept saying that she would get back to us. We knew that she was just jerking us around and wasn’t going to do anything so that’s when Dizzie got the idea to find our parents. And with the way the internet was set up, he knew we could probably find out everything that we needed to know and then some.”
“So, did you ever find out who your parents really were? Did you two find the answers you were looking for?”
“No, on the day we finally left that hell hole the world fell apart. We weren’t even that far from the house when the ground rumbled and split. Dizzie and I jumped to the left and watched as the crack spread to the house and split it in two. The old couple was still in the house but we didn’t save them. They wouldn’t have tried to save us if we were the ones in there. So we took what we had and ran. After a few weeks we ran into Tamoia and the rest is history. We’ve been with her ever since.”
“Rough backstory.”
“Yeah well everything can’t be happy go lucky. Some of us are really messed up. It was a cold world before and it’s a cold world now.”
“I know. Just never really knew anyone who went through anything like that. I’ve only ever seen things like that on TV or read about it in books.”
“Yeah, well it’s not a pretty world out there. Some of it’s really ugly. So what about you? You and Ahshay all that’s left of your family? Or did y’all have some type of fall out and ran away as well.”
I nodded my head. “Yes, but the apocalypse didn’t take them away from us though. The whipipo did. My mom was killed right in front of Ahshay. She was hiding in the closet. It’s why she will stop at anything to make sure that they go down. My dad, he was captured though. I’m not sure if he’s dead or alive. I always wanted to go look for him and see but he wanted me to protect my sister and I didn’t think that I could protect her if I went off to look for him. So I’ve just been honoring him by keeping my word to watch over my sister.”
“Wow, just wow. I couldn’t even imagine something like that happening. I didn’t care about them whipipo that we were with but had it been my real parents I don’t know how I would have acted. How does she cope? How do you cope? I mean to lose a parent right in front of your eyes has to mess with you doesn’t it?”
“To be honest, I don’t think that she does cope. I don’t think she knows how. I think that she brushes it off but I know that deep down she relives that hurt every single day. Me, I just make sure that my mom didn’t die in vain. That we are actually working towards making life easier. Even if all we’ve been doing is surviving.”
“That’s noble of you.”
“I guess.”
“So are you ready to study?”
I smirked. “Teach me what you know.”
Chapter 6
I watched as Dezzie walked over to where the files were but instead of picking up the files she picked up the notebook and came back to sit beside me. I watched as she flipped through it and stopped on a page that had a map drawn on it.
“What’s this?” I asked as my curiosity peaked as I looked at the paper some more.
“This, this is a map of whipipo headquarters. Or at least what we’ve explored of it,” said Dezzie as she handed it over to me.
I looked at the notebook and back at her. I never have been close to whipipo headquarters. I’ve seen it from a distance. We all have, but I’ve never been close to it. Getting close to it meant death, at least to us. But these guys seemed to have found ways to get in and explore. I was impressed but also a little disappointed in myself. I kept my crew living in fear while these guys were really doing everything that I talked about but never acted upon.
“See, look right there,” she said as she pointed to the red spots on the notebook. “These are the weak spots. The spots no one really guards. We go in through there and then carefully poke around. They’re so cocky that melanins won’t break in there that there’s no real security.”
“Well they have good reason not to be scared. All of the fear that they’ve instilled in us these past couple of years. Not to mention the fear most melanins felt from previous years before then. But, they know their power is mainly based in our fear. But, yet they’re fearful over us uniting and finding our superior power.”
“Yes, but the also know that we only ever unite briefly. And not all of us will ever stand together. There is always someone who goes against the collective. Always a crab in the barrell.”
“Yeah, unity has never been our strong suit as a race. It’s the one thing that we could never really pull off. We were always too focused on tearing one another down.”
“And that’s the very thing that they’re banking on to tear us apart. They’ve united and have no problem standing with one another. We just have to find a way to prove them wrong and do the same.”
I looked at her and down at the notebook. “I want to go with you all next time you go to whipipo headquarters.”
She looked at me shocked. “Are you sure that you’re ready? I get that you’re the leader of your crew but this is some serious work. Not to say that you can’t handle it but I promise you that some of the things that you see and find out. They never go away. They stick with you. They can haunt you for a long time and shake you to your core.”
I carefully thought about what she said and took it into full consideration. I knew exactly what I was getting into and I knew that I would have to face this situation sooner or later. I was the strongest mind out of my crew, next to Breyrian. But I knew that I had to be the one to go. I had to see what we were up against for myself and not just read about it or hear about it. “I’m sure that I’m ready. I know that I have to do this not for only myself but for my team. One of us needs full knowledge of what’s going on and that needs to be me.”
She nodded. “You know, when we first saw you guys on the most wanted list I wasn’t sure that you would fit in with us. You looked kind of soft to be honest, and I figured that you made the list by accident because you didn’t look like you could do what they say you did..”
I chuckled. Just because my team and I looked soft doesn’t mean that we were clueless to the goings on in the world right now. “Looks can be deceiving you know. We’re a lot more stronger than you think we are.”
“But, you all surprised me. You have more guts than I thought.”
“Yeah, we’ve grown to be pretty tight. We’re all each other has. Some of us are closer than most though.”
“Let me guess, Tyleah is the one that’s not as close as you other three.”
I smirked. “That obvious huh?”
“Not really. But, you can tell that you Ahshay, and Breyrian have probably known each other longer. Tyleah just seems quiet and meek. Like she’s just there to survive and not really be alone.”
“You’re shockingly right. Well sort of. We found Tyleah after her parents were killed. She was alone ad barely hanging on because she had not moved from that one spot since they were killed. We rescued her. She, she doesn’t always agree with what we do and has threatened to leave but she never left. Think it’s the fear of the world that’s kept her here.”
“I think it’s a little more than that. She loves you guys. She just doesn’t see where she belongs in your dynamic. You three were already sort of a family. She’s still considered an outsider.”
“Well, Breyrian and I were best friends since we were kids. He always used to pick on Ahshay but I know if push came to shove that he would protect her with no hesitation. I would trust him with my life as well as hers.”
“You and Breyrian seem to have a friendship that expands beyond just being friends. You’re more like brothers. But I know that there’s something there to and that’s why you keep him close.”
I raised my brow. “He’s been through some things in his life. Some stuff that no one should have to go through. But, it’s not my place to say anything. That’s his place to tell when he decides he wan
ts you to know.”
She nodded her head. “Yeah, I can relate to that. Well, at least he had you. Just like I had Dizzie.”
“World is just one fucked up pace huh?”
“Yeah, even more so now. But like I said, our goal is to change that.”
I reached over to squeeze her shoulder and a spark flew between us. I jumped in shock and so did she. “What was that?”
She looked at me and back at my hand. “I...I..I..don’t know. That honestly never happened before. I don’t know what that is.”
“Do you think that it’s a part of that superpower that they said that we would unlock? Why they don’t want us to join together.”
She still looked at me in disbelief and I could understand why. I was still kind of in shock myself. I mean electricity did just shoot out of my hand and what did it mean exactly?
“Do you think that we should wake Tamoia?” she asked. “I know that she would want to know about this. I know that I would want to. It’s not as if this is a small discovery. It could be huge.”
“Let’s wait a second. Let’s see if we touch again if it’ll happen. Maybe we were seeing things,” I said as I tried to get a little clarity in the situation, even though I knew that I wasn’t seeing things. I had a feeling we were all going to walking around out here like some comic book characters if all of us had secret powers like this.
She looked at me skeptically. “Seeing things? You know that I saw it to right? There’s no way that we could both imagine the same thing.”
I shrugged. “I know but let’s at least try and see if it happens again. It can’t hurt to be sure. And no need to wake everybody up if it doesn’t happen again.”
“Alright, but this time let me touch you to see if it comes out of my hand this time,” she said.
“Alright.”
She scooted over closer to me as she slowly reached her hand over to touch my shoulder. As soon as her palm touched me, blue electricity shot out of her hand shocking me.
Melanin Wars Page 5