by Willow Rose
"There is nothing but disease inside those buildings," he continued. "Soon, they will all be dead. It has started. They're getting rid of us." He nodded toward the guards at the entrance. Soldiers marched outside in the streets, making sure no one tried to escape. Jetta had seen more than a dozen try. They were all shot dead. No one got out.
"They knew it would happen. When you put this many people in a small area with no AC or proper plumbing, diseases start to spread. They're gonna leave us here to die. I stay out here," he said. "You should too. The old will go first, then the children."
Jetta looked up at the guy. He nodded towards another group of bigger guys at the other end of the courtyard. There wasn't much sunlight let inside the yard from the tall buildings and walls surrounding it.
"Those guys control the food. They're the strongest here and take first. I stay close to them to make sure I get enough. You should too. If you want to survive, that is."
Jetta nodded and bit her lip. She didn't really feel as weak or famished as the rest of them, but she was hungry. She wondered about her grandmother and looked up at the tall building in front of them. Someone had told her there were about forty more of them just like that one. It had taken her all day to do just one. It would take more than a month to search the entire ghetto. And, by then, it might be too late.
Jetta put her back up against the wall of the building and slid to the ground, pulling her legs close, resting her chin on her knees.
The guy was about to leave, when he hesitated, biting his lip. He shifted his weight a few times like he was making a big decision, then approached her again.
"I'm Tyler, by the way."
He reached out his hand. Jetta took it, using her black hand, making sure she only looked at him sideways.
"I'm Jetta."
"Little J," he said with half a smile. "Nice to meet you."
He sank down next to her on the hard concrete ground. He looked towards the wall.
"I used to have my own shop inside the town walls. Cars."
He looked at his hands and turned them in the light. "I could fix anything with these. It was a dream of mine, since childhood. To have my own shop. At fifteen, I was thrown out of my school because of the new rules of segregation. I didn't believe they were bad. Just fearful, I told my mother. I serviced so many of them in my shop. Guess it kept me alive. I helped them with all their problems, big or small, finding pleasure in helping them. My mom used to tell me I was their slave. Soon, they would call me boy, she said. 'You're nothing but a nigger serving his master,' she would say. 'They don't care about you. To them, you're just another black kid looking for trouble.' And it would hurt me so bad when she said stuff like that, you know? ‘Cause I was proud of myself. I had built a business. I kept my family alive and protected this way. And I made money. Not much, but enough to eat, you know? I thought I was just like them, that we could be equal. They came to me for help. Me. But then, one day, I was out driving and I was pulled over. They took me down, beat me half to death, and made me realize I wasn't. Knocked me right back where I belonged. I was nothing in their eyes. Just another black boy. That was when I knew. One day, they would come for us. One day, they would decide to just get rid of us all. It all started when they came to my shop and closed it down. They took it from me, handing me a letter telling me it now belonged to the government. I didn't even know they could do that. Guess I was the fool there, huh? A week or so later, I ended up here. My mom caught a fever and died three days ago and now I’m alone. I should have left while I could. Should have gone with my brother. I stayed to protect my mother, who couldn't travel. Meanwhile, my brother is out there fighting. He and his buddies escaped before they came for us. Joined Black Liberty's armed forces. I heard they bombed the subway in New York recently. Someone in building 4D told me."
Jetta looked up at Tyler. "How's that supposed to help?"
Tyler chuckled. "You're just a kid. You stick with Tyler and he will help you survive. You stick with Tyler, you hear, Little J?"
So, she did. After all, he was the first person there to actually want her to stick around. Covering the blonde side of her face and keeping her left hand inside the shirt, so he wouldn't see the white skin, she stayed right there by his side, ate what he brought her, what he fought the crowd to get, slept leaning against his shoulder, and listened to his stories all day long, making time go faster as people fell like flies around them.
Chapter 10
"I think I may have found a way out."
Tyler sat down next to Jetta. He was sweating heavily and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. He had been gone for an hour or so, like he usually was around noon. Jetta didn't know what he did, but she often saw him walking around among people, talking to them, and sometimes he would come back with a package of cigarettes or maybe even—and that was very rare—a candy cane for her.
She never asked questions, just took it and enjoyed it.
Tyler was speaking with nothing but a whisper, looking anxiously around him.
"You listen closely to me, Little J. There's a lady," he said, breathing heavily. He paused.
A group of women walked past them. The courtyard had become more and more crowded since people had realized they were getting sick from staying inside with all the diseased people. Just breathing the air in there could kill you.
Tyler waited till they had passed before he continued:
"A white one. She comes here once a week. She's an undertaker and helps remove the dead ones. She has been known to help some folks get out. But you gotta be well. She'll check you for symptoms. You don't have any, do ya?"
Jetta thought about what symptoms were and what they looked like, then shook her head. She had never been sick a day in her life.
"No throwing up?"
She shook her head again.
"Rashes?"
"No."
"Headaches?"
"No."
Jetta realized she didn't even know what a headache was. She had felt the pain when Sam and his family had beaten her, but that didn't last long. Other than that, she didn't remember ever feeling pain.
"Now, me, I never get sick," Tyler said. "I’m as strong as an ox. Let me feel your forehead."
Before she could react, Tyler had reached inside her hoodie.
Jetta pulled back and, as she did, the hoodie slipped and revealed a little of the white part of her face. Jetta pulled it back in place as quickly as she could, hoping Tyler didn't see it.
Tyler paused and removed his hand. He stared at her for a very long time, not saying a word, and she felt anxious.
Would he tell on her? If people knew, they might want to kill her for being half white.
Tyler bit his lip like he was thinking very thoroughly about something.
"Nah, you're probably fine." He handed her a piece of bread. "Here. Eat. You have to be strong. The lady comes tomorrow, and I’ve put a word in for us with the people that arrange who goes. I think we might have a chance. Especially since you're a child. Now, I’m eighteen, so I can't go for being a child no more, but you can. How old are ya?"
"Fourteen," Jetta said, remembering she had spent her birthday in the apartment with a bunch of people she didn't know, not telling anyone.
"Well, you're small. You could easily be eleven. Or ten. If she asks, then that's what you are, all right? They mostly take the children. But you've gotta say you need me with you, you hear me? I’ve been good to you, now it's your turn to pay me back. Tell them I'm your brother."
"But what about my grandmother?"
Tyler sighed and ate some bread too. "I told ya, kid. She's probably dead by now. Old folks go first. Now, eat."
Chapter 11
Tyler held Jetta's hand tightly in his as he led her into the building where they were going to meet the woman. Tyler had pulled her hoodie tight again and again as they crossed the courtyard and she had noticed his hands were shaking. Two men bigger than Tyler approached them as soon as they were inside.
>
"This is the girl," he said.
Jetta looked down at her feet like Tyler had told her to, making sure her face was fully covered. Tyler handed them a small bundle. Jetta looked up just enough to see it shift hands.
"It's all there. Enough for the both of us."
One of the men nodded. "Follow me," he said.
Tyler pulled Jetta's hand and they followed the man inside an apartment where someone who looked like a space man to Jetta was bent over the body of an old man in a bed.
A voice from inside the space suit said to the man next to her, while shaking her head, "This one is dead too."
The space suit then turned, and Jetta now saw a face behind the glass. The face of a white woman. She looked tired, torn, and hurt. When she saw Jetta, she smiled. She had a nice smile.
"A child. How wonderful," she said.
She knelt in front of Jetta, who only looked at her by turning her black side toward her.
"We will have to get you out of here," she said. "I told them to bring me all the children they could find that weren't sick. You aren't sick, are you?"
"She's not," Tyler said.
The lady looked at Jetta, scrutinizing her. "I need to check you myself."
"I already checked her," Tyler said. "She's fine."
"Let me just…" she brought out a thermometer. "I need to get this in your mouth, sweetie," she said and reached it inside the hoodie.
Jetta recoiled.
"She's a little shy," Tyler said. "Scared."
"Don't be afraid, sweetheart. I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m just gonna put this thing in your mouth real quick and get your temperature…" The lady reached the stick inside. "Just open your mouth for me."
Jetta opened the one side and let the stick in under her tongue. It beeped and the lady looked happy.
"No fever. That's good. That's really good. Now, can you stick out your tongue for me?"
Jetta shook her head.
"She's been through a lot," Tyler said.
Jetta could hear he was nervous.
The lady sighed. "I just need to make sure she's not sick. I can get some antibiotics but not enough for everyone I bring out. It will raise suspicions. I’m risking my life doing this. Anyone who helps your kind is executed. I have to check her for a rash too on her back and stomach. The lady looked at Jetta. "Would you let me do that? Otherwise, I will have to take someone else. I can only take two today. The inspections are getting stricter. There are other children waiting. I can take you two if you let me check the both of you. But she's got to let me. Otherwise, your spot goes to someone else. I am sorry, but those are the rules."
Tyler nudged Jetta and she finally turned her face to look at the woman. The lady froze as she looked inside the hoodie.
"Dan?" she said to the man in a space suit behind her, her voice shivering slightly.
"Ma'am?"
"Could you leave for a second? This girl needs a little privacy."
"Sure."
The white man left and the lady looked at Jetta. She lifted her shirt and looked at her stomach and back, gently touching the stripe going down the middle of her body. She sighed and let the shirt come back down.
"I see no rash. I can take her. And you with her," she said addressed to Tyler. "But how do you expect a girl like that to survive in a world like this? If one side won't kill her, the other will." She pointed a finger at Tyler. "I'll get her out of here and to a safe place. But you never leave her side, you hear me? You promise me that? I am not taking you if you don't make me that promise. You're not just using her to get out of here, you hear me? You stay by her side no matter what."
Tyler nodded. "All right. All right."
Chapter 12
They had to wait for two hours inside the apartment, along with several dead bodies. Jetta pulled her knees up against her chin and hugged her legs, rocking back and forth and looking down.
Tyler coughed. "That smell!"
Jetta looked up at him, then sniffed the air. "I don't smell anything," she said.
He scoffed. "You're kidding me, right? You're telling me you can't smell the stench of decay? My eyes are literally watering."
Jetta thought it smelled good and felt embarrassed, so she didn't tell him. To her, it smelled like it had just rained. She liked it.
"There is something seriously wrong with you if you can't smell that," Tyler said and pinched his nose. He looked at her with a wry smile. "But, I guess we’ve already established that, haven't we?" He poked her teasingly and she laughed. "You're a little weirdo, aren't you?"
It felt good to laugh again. Jetta couldn't remember when she had laughed the last time.
The door opened and the two white people entered in their yellow space suits, carrying another stretcher.
"This is the last one…for today," the lady said and put the stretcher down. Then they left again.
Jetta stared at the body on the stretcher, then let out a small sound that might have sounded like a whimper.
"What?" Tyler asked.
Jetta rose to her feet, forgetting everything around her, and stormed to the stretcher, yelling out:
"Nanna!"
Tyler was right behind her. "Little J!"
Jetta threw herself on top of her grandmother, clinging to her dead body as Tyler grabbed her and pulled her away.
"Nanna! Tyler, that's my Nanna," she said, agitated and strangely excited, staring at him with both eyes. She knew she was supposed to feel something, a sadness, or even hopelessness, but she didn't.
"I know," he said. "I know."
Jetta stared at her grandmother with deep fascination, as only seeing a dead person could make her stare. Tyler misunderstood her and thought she was about to cry. He grabbed her, wrapping himself around her. He held her close and rocked her for a few minutes while the two white people came back, carrying coffins inside the room.
"Is everything all right?" the lady asked when she spotted Tyler and Jetta in a close embrace.
Tyler nodded. "We're fine," he said.
Jetta knew he was lying. She could hear his heartbeat through his shirt and instantly she knew he was scared that the white people wouldn't take them if Jetta acted out. He needed her to be calm and collected. How were they going to go through a checkpoint if she could be heard crying? The white people wouldn't take such a risk. He had to shut her up, to make her stop crying.
But how could she tell him she didn't feel any need to cry? What she did need was to get out of this place just as much as he did. She looked at him and smiled. Tyler's heartbeat came down and he relaxed.
"Good girl. Good girl."
The lady approached them and spoke to Jetta. "Here, sweetheart, you're going in this one."
She grabbed Jetta's hand in hers and guided her to a big white coffin where they both looked inside.
"There's a false bottom," the white lady said. "You'll be underneath and this old lady on top. All you have to promise me is to be very quiet, okay? Don’t make a sound or the guards might hear you. This is very important. Not a single sound. No giggling and no crying. Do you understand? These guards are not human. They might look like it, but they're not. They're cleverly engineered robots and they have ten times the hearing we humans have."
Jetta watched while they prepared the coffin for her. She looked at her grandmother, who was lying on the worn-out stretcher next to the coffin, remembering the many hours they used to play cards at the apartment back home. How they used to laugh together. For some reason, she began to think about how her grandmother would teach her about the spirits and gods, how to make sure not to anger them, how to please them and make sure they would give you success in life. And, more than anything, she taught her how to be careful of the god of storms, to not anger him, and always make sure you had food for him to eat.
"Okra," she would say. "Always have okra in the house for him." For that reason, Nanna always had an entire cabinet full of okra, just in case.
Jetta found the memory enchanting a
nd wondered if her Nanna was with her gods right now.
Chapter 13
It was dark inside the coffin. Dark and hot as the minivan with the five coffins in it bumped forward toward the checkpoint leading to the great outside. Jetta was sweating and she felt like she was being crushed. There was no room to move at all, and she knew she wasn't allowed to.
Jetta closed her eyes and pictured herself back at the apartment with her grandmother and not having her dead body on top of her, going towards what could be the death of her.
The van stopped and there were muffled voices outside.
You've got to be quiet. Just be quiet.
Jetta thought about her grandmother and wondered how she was supposed to go on, what would be on the other side of all this—if she made it out—when her grandmother wasn't there to take care of her. After her parents died, her grandmother had always been there. Always.
The voices outside grew louder and it sounded like a door was opened. Jetta held her breath as she heard the voices come closer and someone climb inside the back of the van. There was someone there.
A robot soldier. It'll hear me. It'll hear my heartbeat. Or it will hear Tyler and then me.
Jetta felt like crying. The last thing she wanted was to go back to that place. She would rather die than go back.
"Can you lift the lid off that one?" the soldier said. If he was, in fact, a robot, he sounded exactly like a human, but Jetta had heard they did that…that people couldn't tell the difference anymore. It was what had given the whites the big advantage in the war.
"That one? Why?"
Jetta recognized the voice of the white lady. She sounded upset, agitated even. Jetta was certain she could hear the woman's ragged breathing. Could the soldiers hear it too? Could they hear how scared she was?