Her World

Chapter One "Her Beginning"

   It's a beautiful summer morning, smelling the fresh crisp air whilst waking up by the meadowlarks singing. I love watching the sunrise and the sunset but I couldn't sleep all night, something just felt different about the air. I'm not sure when I drifted off to sleep so I ended up missing the sunrise from my view on the hill.

"Are you awake?" Mother asked from outside, she's probably coming back from the morning handouts.

"Yeah, I'm awake now", I tell her through the window. I can't go to the handouts because the village leaders don't care much for me. Although they care for my mother and help her any way that they can, maybe it's the fact that mother is carrying one of the leaders baby. I don't know who's though but I will be the greatest big sister he or she can have.

Mother cares for me but I get the feeling she's kind of scared of me for some odd reason, like she never hugged me, or gave me kisses. Unfortunately she never even given me a name, she just refers to me as "hey you", or "child", I respond to her by her voice so I always listen carefully.

"Here, eat as much as you can because tomorrow is the harvest and the leaders will be in bad moods"

"Okay I will also scavenge the hills for something to eat tonight too so you can have something to eat too"

"Thank you but don't worry about me, remember the leader will help me with food."

"Oh okay, but I will look anyway." With that my mind is made up, but let me you to about the handouts, those are tricky because the leaders only give them to people they care about in the community first. Others are left with what remains which from what I seen as very little to sometimes none, the handouts come from them in the sky, they control everything we do. Every six months there is a harvest that they come and take the people they choose as mature and ready, we have a big community since fifty years ago, I was told that people from everywhere fled here during the invasion as this community was the last one that was found yet. The last harvest the population count for the community was ten thousand, five hundred and seventy two people, that's a lot but we were hidden between a lot of hills in middle of nowhere.

They're coming tomorrow so everybody is on edge today, spending what might be their last day with their families. I'm standing at our doorway looking at the people walking by, I wonder where I should look for food? Will there be any especially knowing what tomorrow is? The only way to find out is to go look, so off I go!

The people usually ignore me but when they notice me it's usually just a glare, then they turn to face their backs at me. I'm only a kid, my birthday is still a few months away, i'm only six years old yet I can go anywhere by myself! Mother doesn't really worry about me, I don't really want her to since she's so skittish around me and she always wants to go see that leader. The best way I can describe myself is I have short, black, wavy hair, and I have brown light brown skin, I don't have much for clothes so I mostly wear the white dress that was given to me for my fifth birthday, I don't know who gave it to me but it was on our doorstep so it's the only good fabric left that isn't torn and too dirty. I try to take care of myself by bathing in the cold creek before the sunrises and everyone is still sleeping, and also was my dress, that reminds me i'm almost out of my bar of soap.

As i'm walking around i'm thinking about tomorrow, who will be chosen next? Will mother's loved one be in that chosen group? Is it bad for me to hope he is since he's not a very humble man? A lot of these play through my head as I think about how these people treat themselves a month before the harvest, they starve and they hurt themselves as to appear not good enough for selection. We are their livestock, but I also heard they keep some humans as pets, "hmm, what made them choose humans?" I say as I pass a group of people. "It's really nothing for something like you to worry about since you won't ever look human to them."

I didn't realize they heard me, all I could do in that moment was to turn away and run up one of the hills. Their words stung a little, I just want my village to like me and I want at least a friend to talk with. Whether it be dreams or reality to talk about I don't care so long as someone would look at me with love and protection as I would look at them too. As I climb the hill and see the land just going on forever in the distance, I think what did I ever do to anybody to make them not like me, to not see me as a equal. I don't like being alone but I don't mind it either, well a random memory; I once said hi to another kid but they just looked at me and ran towards their friends, she said something to them so they looked at me and started run towards me with angry expressions. I ran home with them right behind me, I quickly took a sharp turn inside and slammed the door as I blocked it with my body, they laughed and said things like, "Wait until you come outside again."

I cautiously look for those group of kids to avoid them, it's hard to believe that i'm not scared of the beings in the sky but the beings i'm surrounded by everyday.

Well I found some wild turnips, that'll be good for us if the leaders hoard the food rations again. I pick them and head back home to store them and wait for mother to return also, but I take one last look back at the horizon just to see the setting sun. I see them hovering far away like they wait for tomorrow too, so hopefully it goes better then it did last time. It was quite hectic six months ago mostly because the leaders forgot to add me when they did the child count and because of that mistake fifty of the healthiest men were taken with the chosen for harvesting.

After the town was discovered by other people, it was becoming harder and harder to manage food supplies for that many, there were too many people to keep track of so there was murder, thievery, homes burned down by people who lost their minds from the stress. By then they above found the town in the hills because of the fires spreading, they cornered anyone who tried to flee into the hills, many were taken and the town became a free-for-all for them. The burned homes were replaced with small huts made out of the clay found near the hills. doors made out of trees from the nearby forest which are our communities hunting grounds, so eventually the towns remaining populous made it work and now that is what we got from that moment in time. The hunting grounds are controlled by the sky beings, they allow hunting every three months but only three people to go hunt for the communities meat, sometime people from the hunt bring back kills as big as elk to as small as squirrels, or weasels they also watch the hunts like it's some type of entertainment to them. I never tasted meat all my life, I usually looked for wild plant life to feed myself since the ration my mother brings home is usually for her but she gives it to me since the leaders refuse to give me any rations. Sometimes I eat but depending on food I find or any other circumstance I don't have an opportunity to eat at all for a couple days here and there. Probably how my dress from a year and a half ago still fits, so mostly I just drink water when I feel hungry, I get my water from the creek and boil it in the pot at home. I can say i'm pretty smart for my age but that's just me trying to find something good about myself- "chuckle".

They who hover in the sky are very mysterious, they wear grey metal-type suits and are very tall. I once heard some of the leaders say they are over eight feet tall, and they have weapons they look similar to rifles but bulkier and I once seen them shoot at a man fleeing harvest selection but I don't recall seeing the projectile leaving the weapon. it's not a laser nor a physical object, it's technology only they can wield since there hasn't been a successful uprising, or even an attempt to take back control in fifty years. Us humans are at their mercy and disposal whenever they choose, who they choose as food or pets, you'd think because we're so pitiful that we'd be nicer to each other but that isn't the case for humanity when after all this time we still hold onto clicks and groupings, not being as a whole working together.

I ponder this history and my thoughts as I wait for my mother to return, it's late but she still out there. Hopefully nothing bad has happened in her fragile state, I'll stay up a little longer and see if she will come back or not. Tiredness won me over and I drifted off to sleep thinking about them in the sky wondering why they were hovering out there today, what will happen tomorrow?

As I toss and turn throughout the night....

I hear mother coming into the house, I don't know what time it is but it's still dark outside. the cool breeze feels nice through my window, yeah we don't have shudders for our windows. As soon as it gets dark everyone gets inside their homes as they believe they above do night hunting on humans, I never heard anything so I think people are making up tales to scare people, to control them, what ever little control they can have over each other.

I'm awake since mother came home, maybe I should get ready to go to the hill and watch the sunrise. That sounds nice so why not, I tie my sandals on and walk towards the door, opening it and walking out quietly closing the door so I don't disturb mother, she probably had a stressful night. Walking down the pathway I hear some voices discussing the harvest, apparently some have seen the beings hovering off in the distance and panicked everyone and making them all think this is the end for this community. Maybe that is the case, who knows maybe we'll be okay, maybe not.

I get to the base of the hill and start climbing, it is quite steep and very little to hold grip on. No wonder they couldn't find this town, though normally the tops of the hills are fenced off to keep people from escaping, there's some kind of invisible layer covering the town, one time a man tried escaping thinking it wasn't guarded so he climbed the hill and touched the fence only to be electrocuted, he died because the current was that strong it killed him in a second just by touching it. After that everyone just accepted defeat and lived like the livestock they were labeled, some women were deemed as breeders, which I believe mother is one. The breeder women are left out of the selecting option during harvest, everyone is given basically tags inside our skin somewhere. We can't see them but they are there because they above know the count of the town, how many children, how many women, how many men, so during harvesting all the categories are sectioned off into groups. Children and breeders are sectioned together, other women and men are sectioned by themselves, then they sort through them to see who is healthier than the other.

I stay at the back of the group so those kids that hate me won't see me, plus that's usually where I end up regardless. "Ahh, the air is nice up here." The sun is just beyond the horizon beginning to be light out, the slow breeze is refreshing and makes my hair flutter around with it. Sitting here looking at the village puts into perspective how the leaders act the way they do, I still don't see why there needs to be twenty leaders to be there for the people especially since they pick and choose who gets food and who doesn't, or who has the privilege of speaking to them. I wonder if they do hoard food rations and other supplies that the forgotten people need.

The sunrise, such a beautiful sentiment to this day. So warm and welcoming spreading my arms wide and closing my eyes as I look up and imagine i'm floating in the sky in complete bliss.

All of a sudden I hear people arguing down below snapping me out of my daydream, "We can't run away during the harvest!" What are they thinking to come up with that! Nobody can get away especially when they are here by the thousands watching over every single person at harvesting time. "We have to attempt something or we'll all die today!" The other person shouting back, "What do you expect! They're guarding everything, even the entry gate."

I hear their shouts hoping they don't excite others who are trying to sleep, or trying to continue this day without the added stress. Too late now, people start coming out of their huts confused and scared looking, well I might as well go down and wash my hands and face for the day. As I head towards the creek I hear the bustle of women hurrying down to the creek as well but why are they in such a hurry this early or at all? Usually they want to look as filthy as possible to not be selected for harvest. I join them but at a further away area at the creek so I don't get mixed up in whatever frenzy they're in.

I look down the creek and see them washing up also, and washing their kids faces too, i'm done now so I better get home to see if mother is getting ready too. As i'm walking up the pathway to the hut I see one of the leaders coming out, is he the baby's father? I hide out of instinct behind another hut for that man to leave, I hear him saying to my mother, "You must abandon her, I will only save you and our baby but not her."

Well that hurts, though it pretty much describes him as a person. My mother didn't say anything but her action said it all to me, she nodded her head in agreement to his words, I felt my chest tighten as tears welled up in my eyes knowing how mother sees me just like they do. I don't see any emotion on her face as she leaves with that man, all I can do is fall to the ground and stop myself from breaking down. She's the only person I know in this world, Yeah we're like strangers but she was still something important in my life, what little I did have with her is now gone. I didn't try to stop her and plead her to be there for me, I just let her go because I care too much for others' happiness, a sad fate. I've always been alone in this world, like the more I wanted someone to see me as important in their world, the more I disappear in someone else's.

I get up and move my way back to the hut to see if those turnips are still there where I hid them, might as well get something to eat and move on from here. Sitting on my bed eating, I notice that everyone is out and about now walking around, talking among each other. I like to observe people so that I know who to avoid out there, i'm smaller than them so I can't defend myself. Well I'm done eating now so I might as well go out and join everyone else getting ready for the event, I still don't understand why everyone is getting ready like it's a formal event. Honestly I just want the rest of the day to be over with, now I continue walking down the pathway again to the center of the village where everybody else is heading towards for the beginning of the selection.

The way the beings above work are similar to how history showed how military held themselves before the invasion, they have a hierarchy of superiors and subordinates. There are millions of soldiers as people refer to them, than there are captains, than higher until you reach the commander. The commander they refer to him as is the one the rest follow, basically worship. I have never seen the commander but one person described him to the village as a very scary, very big; bigger than the rest of them, he controls their world, and ours. Pretty terrifying trying to imagine this commander but other than that scary thought, It'll probably be a typical harvest, which usually consists of a captain overseeing the soldiers gather the livestock. Each captain has learned every language the world has, so which ever community they go to, they can communicate to the people and give orders when needed. Usually it goes smoothly, you know other than the screams and cries of people who watch their loved ones being taken away in the ships, I guess that's one upside to being alone, but I would still like to miss someone, be that someone's rock.

It is high noon now, and I hear them approaching from afar. The leaders are gathering all the community members, making sure to include me this time whilst staring daggers at me as I pass by everyone to go to the center and be placed in our specified sections. I get pushed back behind everyone in the section again and end up in the back where I can't be seen, I see a glimpse of mother, and she locks eyes with me but she immediately looks away and moves further into her section where I can't see her. The way she's acting hurts, like she's siding with all the others in segregating me from this community, does every community have one person where they treat them with hatred? Is everyone's fault placed on me, am I that weak? I want to scream until the air leaves my lungs completely but for some reason I want to keep fighting this pressure, fight their judgments, fight this ever growing black hole of loneliness.

The leaders have got all of us in the center, now we wait for them to come. Uh oh, those kids see me; they're in the front of the section but a gap opened and we see each other. Why today of all days do they need to torment me? Please someone, anybody help me fend them off so I can roam the streets peacefully.

I hear them opening the gate, their marching echoes in the hills all around us. People start panicking, crying, praying to be spared this time, watching them makes me feel bad because they have families, and friends that need them. I'm broken from my gaze as I feel a presence behind me, I turn around and look up to see soldiers lining up behind the sections to keep control of who is where. Gosh they are huge, to me it's like staring at towers, shiny, standing completely still, reaching into the sky. I can't stop staring at the one behind me, so I just snap myself out of it and focus on where the captain is, I'm jumping and peeking through the gaps in the crowd to see the captain approaching, but behind him there is more following him but in the center of that crowd. Before I can think someone says, "Who is that?"

I'm trying to get a better look but other kids keep blocking my view, then one pushes me down, "Gross, don't touch me!" she says glaring as she turns back to see the center, I guess I won't get to see who is with the captain. I take a look back at the soldier behind me but he's kneeling as if in a bow, I just stand there watching him, or is it a her?

I don't quite know, but then a loud voice rings in the village causing me to cover my ears, "What on earth did that?"