What's Left of My World: A Story of a Family's Survival

by C. A. Rudolph

  “You’re home,” Karen said.

  The four disembarked the Polaris and walked up to the front entrance of the old elementary school. Faith could immediately smell smoke in the air, but it wasn’t like any other smell of smoke she had experienced before. It has a sweet smell to it, almost like smoke that came from a grill at a cookout, but not quite. Looking over the roofline of the school in front of her, she could see that something was smoldering a few hundred yards behind the building. One of the guards grabbed a fairly large duffel bag from the back of the ATV and slung it over his shoulder.

  “Is something burning?” she asked. No one replied. In fact, no one even looked in her direction.

  As they approached the front of the building, two members of DHS Security opened the steel doors in front of them which led to the lobby and the administration office. One was very tall and skinny, the other was a few inches shorter, but very stout and muscular. The skinny officer’s name badge said Brown and the other’s said Davis. The one named Brown looked at Officer Mitchell curiously. She handed him a sheet of paper from her clipboard and he took it, examining it.

  “Morning, Karen. What do you got for us?” Officer Brown said.

  “A transfer,” Karen said.

  “Oh, boy,” the other Security Officer said, “from Women’s Detention?”

  “This is starting to become an everyday thing,” Officer Brown said with a smirk.

  “I’m just following orders, Mike,” she said.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said, switching his gaze to Faith. “Are we going to have problems out of you—” he looked at the paperwork again and continued, “—Mrs. Gallo?”

  Faith shook her head and smiled. Karen held up her hand in a motion for Faith to not reply, which she didn’t.

  “Mike, I want you to make sure she’s well taken care of. She’s been no problem the whole time she’s been in detention, and I don’t expect that to change,” Karen said assuredly. “She’s not what you’d consider dangerous.”

  “Not dangerous? Then why were you in detention?” he asked, directing his question to Faith, still looking at her.

  “Hoarding,” Faith replied with a straight face and no expression. “And possession of firearms.” She looked at the man and said nothing else.

  Officer Brown smirked. “You had guns?”

  “Yes. Quite a few of them,” Faith responded.

  “Ok, well—those days are over. Come on inside,” Officer Brown said. “Welcome to Senior Quarters.”

  Officers Brown and Davis turned and walked back inside, holding the door open for Faith and Officer Mitchell to walk inside. The guard who carried the duffel bag pulled it off of his shoulder and handed it to Karen, who took it and slung it over her shoulder. Both guards from Women’s Detention remained outside, and began jawing back and forth as Karen and Faith walked inside. The doors closed behind them and they walked to the front desk where a somewhat overweight young woman, wearing the signature black DHS uniform seen all over the camp, was sitting. Her name badge said Hewlett.

  “Transfer,” Officer Brown said as he handed the sheet of paper Karen had given him to the woman behind the desk. The woman took it and looked it over, and then handed a clipboard to him with several sheets of paper clipped to it.

  “Have her fill these out,” Officer Hewlett said. “That’s like the fourth one today.”

  Officer Brown handed the clipboard to Faith and motioned for her to take a seat in the lobby. Faith did and sat down in one of the hard plastic chairs that had most likely came from a classroom as it felt a bit too small for her.

  “Mike, she has some property here,” Karen said, taking the duffle bag off and handing it to him.

  “We’ll take care of it,” he said. Looking back toward Faith, he said, “After you get this filled out, we’ll take you to a private room to get changed, if you like. Then, we can take you to your new bunkroom and you can meet your roommates.”

  “I assume you’ll want to burn that jumpsuit?” Officer Davis said sarcastically, finally speaking up. Karen gave him an evil glance and Faith looked up with a smile.

  The sound of the words “bunkroom” and “roommates” made Faith shudder. She began looking through the paperwork on the clipboard as Karen began small-talking with Brown and Davis, overhearing the occasional bellow from Officer Hewlett. The first page looked similar to any document that had to be filled out when going to a doctor’s office. The further she read, the more suspect it looked to her. Beyond the typical name, date of birth, previous address, known relatives, and social security number fields, were places that asked things like skills and hobbies, health considerations, and then a spot to fill in your religion and political affiliation. The thought of having to mandatorily offer this information, which used to be considered private was not an easy thing for her to swallow. This type of information, especially the latter two, she couldn’t imagine would be used for anything other than to further classify and segregate her and others, and as well help identify potential troublemakers. Furthermore, she was a devout Pentecostal Christian and a Conservative Libertarian, both of which would most likely classify her as a dissident to the DHS and FEMA staff.

  Casting her feelings aside, Faith decided not to jot down fabrications. She was proud of her faith in God and had been a Church-going Protestant her entire life, just like her mother before her. She had followed in the footsteps of her own father and had always voted Republican, even though she had little confidence in and detested standard politics. She filled in the religion block with “Christian” and the political block with “conservative.” Neither were lies in her book. If they served to punish her in some way for her beliefs, she would simply accept the punishment. No one was going to tell her what to believe and she was used to turning the other cheek.

  After completing her paperwork and turning it in to Officer Hewlett, Officer Brown did as he said and escorted her to a room near the front desk to allow her to change.

  “Knock when you’re done and we’ll get you set up,” Officer Brown said as he set the duffle bag on the floor near her. “Oh. I’m Officer Brown, by the way. Mr. talkative back there is Officer Davis.”

  “Thank you,” Faith said gratefully “and it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  He smiled and nodded to her. The door shut and Faith immediately took a seat on the floor and began going through what appeared to be all of her belongings she’d had with her on the day that she and Sam had arrived at the camp, up to and including her Crocs. She picked them up and eyeballed them closely to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. She then pulled out a pair of pants and a sweater and proceeded to change out of the jumpsuit that she was more than happy to get rid of.

  Once finished, she zipped the duffle back up and then knocked on the door as instructed. It opened and Officer Brown peered in.

  “All set?”

  “Yes. I believe so,” Faith replied.

  “Let’s go then.”

  Faith followed him down the hallway. As she passed what used to be classrooms, she looked into the open doors to see that they had all become bunkrooms with what appeared to be at least a dozen occupants, depending on the size of the classroom. After passing a few of the open doors, they turned right into one of the bunkrooms with a sign just outside that read ‘B6’. Several of the room’s occupants who were milling about, immediately looked in her direction. She noticed that there were some women who appeared in her age group, but there were a few younger women there too. The younger women seemed segregated from the older women, and she wasn’t sure if it was by choice or if they had been instructed to do so.

  Officer Brown walked Faith to an open bottom bunk in the rear of the room, the top bunk of which sat a younger woman who sported a haircut that was shaved on the sides and long in the back. She was a bit overweight and was smacking her gum. Faith did her best to not make eye contact with anyone in the room. She could feel their eyes on her however, and it made her very nervous.

  “You’ll be bun
king here,” Officer Brown said. “Get to know your roommates. You’ll be housed together and you’ll eat together every day.” He pointed to a large plastic bin at the foot of the bed. “That’s your footlocker. We keep them unlocked at all times and we haven’t had a problem yet. Anyone caught stealing gets sent to detention.”

  “Ok,” Faith said. “Thank you for your hospitality.”

  Officer Brown nodded, then turned and exited the room. Faith set her duffle bag down and then took a seat on her bed.

  “Hospitality?” a young, short-haired woman who sat on the top bunk said. “Where in the fuck are you from, woman?”

  Faith said nothing. She began emptying the contents of her duffle bag onto her bed and was sorting through them nervously. The woman jumped down off of the bed and knelt down beside where Faith sat. She smacked her gum even more loudly than she had been.

  “I’m a lesbian,” she said suddenly, as if trying to invoke a response. Faith ignored her. The woman giggled a bit, then stood up and said, “You know, if we’re going to be bunkmates, you could at least introduce yourself. I’m Kat—short for Katherine.”

  Faith looked up at her and gave her a thin smile. Kat held out her hand for Faith to shake it, but Faith didn’t.

  “Pleasure to meet you, Katherine,” she said. “I’m Faith.”

  Kat giggled as she pulled her hand back, realizing her gesture wasn’t reciprocated. “Call me Kat,” she said. “Everyone else does. Well, I take that back. Some people call me kitty-kat. Some people call me butch or butchie. I guess that’s because I’m a lesbian.”

  Faith considered asking her why she had been housed with the seniors, but decided not to perpetuate the conversation. She turned away and continued going through her things. She picked up a makeup case and a smile extended across her face when she noticed it.

  Kat looked her up and down. “Where’d you come from?” she asked.

  “Detention,” Faith asserted. “I’ve been in detention.”

  “OH, for real? For what?” Kat asked loudly.

  “For a while,” Faith said with her head turned.

  Kat merely laughed and snorted. “You’re funny, lady. I’ll let you be for a little bit, I know you got shit going on.” Kat then strutted away. She walked past a couple of the other women in the room and smacked a very distinguished-looking one on the butt. The lady turned to her and then turned back, with a somewhat annoyed look on her face, to continue the conversation she’d been having.

  Faith sighed. This was what she was most worried about. At this point in time, being here made life in detention favorable to this. She lifted up her Bible and opened it back to where she had left off earlier this morning. Just as she began to read, she heard a familiar voice.

  “Faith?” the voice said.

  Faith immediately looked up to see a familiar face to match the voice.

  “Debbie?”

  “Oh my gosh!” Debbie said as she advanced quickly to Faith. Faith put her Bible down and stood up as the two embraced. “It is so good to see you!” Debbie continued. “How have you been? How’s your health? How’s Sam?”

  Faith pulled away from the embrace to see Debbie’s immense smile. Faith was smiling too, almost ear to ear. She was elated to find someone she knew here, even more so that it had ended up being a close friend.

  “I’ve been fine. Health’s been ok. Sam is still in detention,” Faith said.

  Debbie pulled away as well and a sympathetic look covered her face.

  “What do you mean detention?” she asked.

  “We were brought here by DHS,” Faith said. “They kicked in our door, gave us five minutes to gather some things, and took us. They searched our house and found our guns and food, and then charged us with hoarding and firearm possession. Then, they brought us here. We’ve been in detention ever since. I was released today. Sammie is still there.”

  Debbie’s look turned into sudden dismay.

  “Oh, dear heart, I’m so sorry to hear that,” she said. “I’m sure Sam is fine. God is taking good care of him.”

  “I pray that to be true,” Faith said with a worried look.

  “How did they treat you in detention?”

  Faith went on and explained to her friend all that had happened since she had been incarcerated, including how bad the rooms were when she had first arrived and how she had been moved to much nicer accommodations due to her behavior. She told her about Officer Mitchell and how she had been exceptionally nice to her, despite the situation and the charges against her. Then, she went on to tell her about the noises she would hear at night and how it made it more than difficult for her to sleep through them. Although she had no proof of the cause of the noises, her imagination assumed the worst.

  “Oh, my dear Lord,” Debbie said.

  “It really made me feel helpless,” Faith said, “hearing that and being able to do nothing about it.”

  Debbie reached out and hugged Faith again.

  “Well, you’re here now and that is a blessing. Praise God,” Debbie said.

  “So, how did you get here?” Faith asked.

  “Oh, Ben and I came here willingly,” Debbie replied. “We were out of food and Ben was getting sick. When we came here, we found there was plenty of food and they gave Ben medicine. We’ve been here ever since.”

  “Is Ben here?” Faith asked. “In this building?”

  “Oh yes. They keep the men on the A wing. We’re on B wing.”

  “I see. Well, it’s great to know you’re here. Maybe you can help me get acclimated to all this,” Faith said.

  “It’s pretty simple,” Debbie began, “we get three squares a day and we work six days a week most times. It’s better than starving to death. What did you put down for your skills?”

  “Cooking, gardening, and sewing,” Faith said. “I figured I couldn’t go wrong with either of those.”

  “Perfect. So right after breakfast, you work until lunchtime. Then you eat and go back to work for a few hours. We get a few hours before dinner is called, so we have a bit of free time in the evenings. We’re also off every Sunday and there’s a church sermon in the common area.”

  “That is fantastic,” Faith said sounding and feeling a bit more relieved. She paused for a moment, then asked, “Has anyone been allowed to leave?” Several other women in the room overheard her question and looked at her briefly.

  “We keep hearing that once security is established outside the camp, we can all go home,” Debbie said. “So in the meantime, we stay here where it’s safe. People on the other side of the fence are dangerous---killing each other over the last morsel of food and sip of clean water and what not. There’s been rumors of an epidemic of typhoid and cholera, due to the unclean conditions out there. Trust me, it’s safer for us to be here.”

  “Sorry, I can’t see the allure,” Faith said. “I’d rather be free to live my life as I please.”

  Debbie stepped closer to her and put her mouth to Faith’s ear. “Faith, you can’t say those types of things out loud. Don’t let people know you feel that way. I’ve seen people taken from here because of the things they’ve said.”

  “Taken? What do you mean taken? Taken where?” Faith inquired with a whisper that matched Debbie’s tone.

  Debbie paused. She didn’t know how to gently say what she needed to say. “People who are deemed to be subversive are taken and interrogated,” she said. “And as much as it pains me to say this, there have been rumors of worse things.”

  “Such as?”

  “There have been—executions,” Debbie said quietly.

  Chapter 9

  “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”

  ― Mahatma Gandhi

  Tuscarora Trail

  George Washington National Forest

  Shenandoah County Virginia

  Present day

  Lauren could feel someone shaking her. She could see nothi
ng but blackness all around her. Nothing was visible to her and she could almost hear a voice calling her name. It sounded extremely subdued and was at times even completely inaudible. It came and went and then suddenly got louder. The fog in her head slowly lifted. Lauren opened her eyes and saw a bearded man with his hands on her shoulders, shaking her. She realized in her grogginess that she had just woken up, although she had no recollection of falling asleep. The man’s voice was detectable now, and she kept hearing him saying her name and telling her to wake up. Lauren took a deep breath and pulled her left hand out of her sleeping bag, which was still grasping her Glock handgun. She placed the muzzle directly on the man’s chin, pushing it into his lower jaw. The man immediately stopped shaking her and pulled his hands back and into the air, backing away. Lauren began to hear dogs barking in the distance.

  “Easy—easy there,” Christian said in a long, drawn-out tone. “It’s me. It’s Christian.”

  “What? What in the hell are you doing?” Lauren requested in a whisper, sounding more than very annoyed with him. She was noticing that the darkness around her was gone and the sky was starting to show signs that it was morning.

  “Do you hear that?” Christian said urgently. “They’re coming. We have to go. We have to go right now!”

  “Oh shit—you’ve got to be kidding me,” Lauren said as she turned her head from one side to the next, still hearing the dogs barking in the distance. Panic began to overtake her. She pulled her gun away from Christian’s chin and he put his hands down and stood up. Lauren unzipped her sleeping bag. She placed her feet into her boots and laced them quickly. Standing up, she began stuffing her sleeping bag into the stuff sack, immediately noticing her rifle on the ground and remembering why she had put it there. She opened the top of her pack and shoved the stuff sack into it, seeing that her cook set and other items used for dinner last night had already been placed into it. Looking over to where the campfire had been, she saw that it had been filled in with dirt. She looked at Christian as she began cinching down her pack. “You’ve been busy,” she said.