Same Planet but Different Worlds

Chapter 8 Men's Opinions

Flynn's POV

So, after many conversations with the elders and leaders, including Octavious, of course. I found out from first-hand experience that every single one of those talks quickly evolved into many arguments, mostly on my side of things, because I don't feel like I am being taken seriously. My thoughts and ambitions ended up being thrown in my face in a way I never imagined possible. Since I talked enough to my friends, consistently involving my thoughts about the treatment the females received while being in our care, I was able to get a small number of friends that felt a little bit like I did. They decided after many quiet discussions with me, that they would be on my side when talking with Octavious.

As imagined, Octavious did not take this conversation well, acting as if it was an ambush on him, even though we clearly stated many times it was not. He then took it as an insult to him as a leader, which we couldn't defend either, since we didn't like the way he was doing things. So to my dismay, my friends who were trying to help me and the females in this compound were killed, and displayed for the other's to see, as they were told of only the fact that they went against the leader's decisions with my help. I was ostracized for this for a long time, but still kept the couple of loyal friends I had.

So the others who had thought about my words but had not stepped up just yet as they were considering it, instantly backed down, not wanting to die for this ideal that they didn't fully agree with. Mostly because the leader seemed to be a loose cannon that would explode on anyone if given the right reason to do so in his eyes. I think that the only reason I was beat to a pulp and wasn't killed in this matter was because of what I do for the compound.

I know for a fact that I am one of the hardest workers here and he knows it too. I think that's why he never killed me, no matter how badly I think he wanted to. So he continues to ignore that fact that he almost killed me for my thoughts and opinions as he keeps giving me task after task to keep me busy. Probably in hopes that I won't have any extra time to think about what he is doing that I don't agree with. That plan has not worked though. In fact, I'm sure it has helped power up those thoughts even more than they were happening before.

In all of this, I have figured out the hard way that Octavious won't hear about any of it whether there is evidence to back it up or not. He wants the world to be this way or his way as I should say, and he won't accept anything other than that. He has used me as an example for my thoughts many times since, punishing me multiple times by whip, and giving me the duties that no one else wants. I made it through those punishments with my head held high and my mind not swayed whatsoever.

I feel that since he is so mad about this idea of women being equals, that there must be some truth behind the markings that were once talked about. He is fighting so much against it, that I can't help but to feel like he has some personal vendetta against the women of this world. But I have no idea why he would, since we have never had women in this world that were remotely like the women I have been talking about. So I can't comprehend why he hates these ideas so much, but instead of fighting his ideals for now, since I am on my own. I decided to keep them to myself just so I wouldn't keep getting punished on a regular basis.

After the many times of being shut down for my opinion and beaten to a pulp, that was before my silence. He decided to put in a type of law not allowing the men to believe those words no matter who they were spewed by. So the old elders were put to the side and replaced by a pack of leaders that Octavious himself appointed to the board of men, and they are all men that see things from his point of view and only do as he asks and wants, so it is just him and a team of his minions. Because even if they don't agree, I can guarantee that they won't have the guts to say so because of his wrath that he will smite them with if they do.

He has made his changes abundantly clear to all of us, making sure that we know time and time again, but mostly that I know that they will refuse to talk about how the world used to be, just like Octavious does. They sadly even did a burning and got rid of every single marking they could find, which was disheartening for the world I dreamt to be apart of.. But what they don't know is that I have seen more items that were found a little while ago when I was out and about on my own time, checking out the abandoned structures that surround our compound. Some of the structures are buried so well that you would have no idea they were there, just that it must be a huge tree or hill.

I have been to these places many times on my own and even decided to bring one item back just to find out what it meant, since I can't read the markings written on the back of it, but I think the elders might be able to. But I made up a story saying I found it somewhere completely different just in case they decided to tell Octavious, who would be more than willing to burn something so beautiful. I'm glad I did lie about where it was found because that is exactly what they had done. They are always going to be right under Octavious' thumb no matter what evidence is found, and it is sad. But at least before they told him about it, they did tell me a thing or two.

Apparently, what I had found was what the elders called a picture. It looked as if it was painted with all of the colors of the plants around. In the picture there were many men and women who looked happy together. The picture was fading away, but there was still no denying the fact that every single person looked happy. They were holding one another, in an embrace I have never seen in my life. Oddly enough the women weren't on all four limbs like I have seen my entire life.

It was the strangest item I had ever seen. They were standing upright like we do and were even dressed in more than just rags and carcasses, their cloth covered them in all sorts of colors and patterns that kept my eyes glued to the picture for as long as I could stare. They smiled so big and beautifully that I found myself automatically smiling even though I didn't know any one of them, it just happened naturally as if their smiles were somehow contagious.

I have never seen such a thing ever in my life, at least not in person. The females we have in the pit have never smiled once, and I never thought that was a thing that would happen with them until I started to explore and found this picture, among some others. In this exploration I have seen some pictures on the sides of old structures that show mostly women looking strong, happy and vibrant even when fading overtime. They looked as if they ruled the world once. I know they never did, at least that's what I was told, but they were obviously influential for the old world, it was to a point that they were close to ruling it.

That thought alone is intriguing. Just the idea of ever having a conversation with a woman is something insane to imagine. I wonder what they sounded like.. I wonder if they ever sang? I bet they had beautiful singing voices if they did. The men sing around the camp, and it sounds nice, but I always find my mind wondering what it would be like if we had females that did the same little things that we do in our spare time.. Like joking and laughing, anything fun and relaxing like that. I bet this world would be nothing like this if we had the light that women like in that picture brought to the surrounding environment. But that is another one of those thoughts that I have to keep locked up within my mind and only for myself.

The leaders refuse to talk about those pasts as if they are lies, but obviously they are not complete lies because they have been the ones noted in history, and I would like to imagine there would be more of these markings all around if they would have won the war many years ago. But they didn't win that fight, and supposedly it was the fight that almost never seemed to end, but it was lucky for us that it did.

What we are told is that it was supposedly a dark time when men almost went extinct and we fought back against adversity and somehow survived.. but barely. We have spent the time after the devastating war, trying to evolve and bring civilization back to our compound by using the little bits of females we have to our advantage. But no matter what had happened in the past and how we think we should be creating the numbers for our compound again, I still don't think that the pit is the way I would have ever wanted to evolve within the world of men. But what other choice do I have in the matter?

I was born to one of the females in the pit, just like the rest of the men here. Without the pit that I hate so much, we wouldn't exist so I guess I can't despise it entirely. I just wish there was more to life than this place. It feels to me like a prison, and my life is not even half as bad as it is for the females that live here. This lack of humanity that I heard of for many years from the elders, makes me want to just leave and never come back to this place. There is the strongest urge within me to just go out and explore. But the world is supposedly huge and wild. So I know I am better off with the men, or at least that's what I am told.

So no matter how much my curiosity gets the best of me wanting to know as much as I can about the past to hopefully have a good future, I have to stick with what I know just for my survival. But like I said, that's easier said than done when there is not much to learn from the men except how to fight and hunt. I have been able to learn some words within the markings.. this was apart of the hunting aspect of life because we need to make sure to stay out of certain areas and learn to read the signs to make sure we can get back to the base in one piece or we could get lost.

I do see these markings every time we go out on patrol, but every time I ask someone about them no one knows what they mean. Supposedly the leaders do, but they refuse to teach anyone else. So I figure they either don't know how to translate the markings or they don't want us to know what is said within the markings. Which gets my mind running at what it could possibly say. But I don't know what the individual markings mean, I just know what some mean when they are put together. Which isn't much but enough to get my mind running every single time I leave the base and head out.