Hope Falls

The sky lit with a bright yellow hue. The air was cold and the wind blew light waves throughout the district. From a third-floor window, Des’ree, at the age of fourteen was in the bay of her window. Watching the different people walk by to their destinations or no destinations as Holland Bay, renamed after the districts General Holland Bay Fager, who died valiantly during the war, was an island that dissidents were placed on to prevent resistance and uprising or influence to the mainlands and the people who were able to conform to the new government and laws. Over 6,000 people overpopulating Holland Bay. Jobs were nonexistent. The people were not permitted to leave the island. No one lived to say if they did and no one looked back if they made it.

But looking out the window gave Des’ree every hope that one day she would make it off the island and one day would be soon. Her parents died during the war. Governed by a gentlewoman who found her on the street and took her in. Des’ree looked to her new caretaker to get her through the occupation between her people and the new government. Schools were held three days a week and rations handed out twice in the week. Medical supplies even less. Limited to three doctors. Transportation against the law. All exits off the island guarded by the army. Everyone ID’d by a small chip that included GPS locators in the backs of their necks. Weapons were not allowed on the island. The streets were littered with trash, human waste, and the homeless. Those with shelter weren’t always safe. At any time someone could attempt to enter into a unit and take over leaving the former resident outside on the streets. There was no order on the island, only chaos, and desperation. Old laws that were once enforced weren’t enforced as much here. You either survived or you didn’t.

Des’ree mother was a nurse. Worked in a hospital before the war and occupation. Her father was a teacher, but after the occupation, he was the leader of the first resistance. After her parent’s death, the military placed Des’ree on the island. They wanted to know where the daughter of such parents was at all times. If there was a chance of another resistance they knew she would lead them to it. “It’s in her blood,” the soldier told her when her chip was being placed.

Small gangs of children surviving and banding together. This wasn’t the world the way she remembered it, but the world the way she knew it. It only hurt more to miss the past because then her parents would still be here, the war would never have happened, the occupation nonexistent. Everyone would be living without the rule of the land's dictator, E’lon Sabor. The war ended with E’lon in power after the government was overthrown and killed. Anyone who opposed the new dictator was murdered or an example made of them. He was the most powerful man now and commanded armies. America was no longer America.

Distracted from her thoughts as a large fight broke out down below. “Probably over food or clothes”, she thought. She stood up at the window to get a better view and the crowd continued to get louder and larger. A large helicopter flew overhead as the military filed out of their headquarters on the island to break up the fight. “If they were smart they would band together, not fight each other”, she thought. The soldiers abusively broke up the crowd. Using the butt of his gun a high-ranking soldier smashed a skel in the head as the crowd started to break up and walk away in different directions. The man laid on the grown battered and bloody. Des’ree felt compelled to help him. She grabbed her mother’s medical bag and ran out of her room. Her caretaker sleeping soundly on the couch awoke as she heard the door open and slam shut. Realizing the danger Des’ree had put herself in. The caretaker got up and immediately followed her out the door.

Des’ree ran down four flights of stairs, stepping over several skels, out the main door, and straight for the injured man. She started working on him as she had seen her mother work on many throughout the start of the war, she cleaned his wound, stitched his cut, and placed two large bandages over his wound. He came in and out of consciousness as she worked yelling out in pain. Her caretaker, Elizabeth, now standing at the door watching her.

“Come, child, it’s not safe here,” she said, waving her back. She looked up to see men across the street watching and whispering while pointing in their direction.

“It’s not safe anywhere,” Des’ree responded. She packed her bag up. She sat the man as best as she could.

“Why?” He asked, holding onto the back of his head.

“My mother was a nurse before the occupation. Doing nothing would be deleterious. You should be okay to get to the clinic. I did what I could, but you need a doctor. You could have a concussion or further injury. You got hit pretty hard and with a big gun.” Elizabeth was now grabbing Des’ree bag and ushering her to get inside. Lunch hours were more dangerous than dinner hours. There wasn’t enough food to get around. People were killed for less.

“Why did you do that?” Des’ree said following Elizabeth up the stairs.

“Your heart is big, but the risk you took was bigger.”

Later in the evening, the first of the ration pass out for the week was to commence at 7:00 PM. Des’ree sat on a chair and watched as a big, beautiful gold heart-shaped locket was being removed from Elizabeth’s neck. She placed it in a box.

“I’ve never seen that before. Can I see it?” Des’ree asked. Elizabeth nodded and removed the locket from the box and placed it into Des’ree hands.

“A gift from my own daughter. Just before the war. My 50th birthday present. She told me she worked days on end to buy it for me. I cherish it most. You remind me of her. She had a very big heart too.” Elizabeth took the locket back and put it in the box, “come child, we need to leave now.” Locking the door behind them they hurried safely down the stairs. Other families are leaving their domain as well. The halls filled with hungry people to get their rations. Once outside the streets littered with people shoving and grabbing. Children holding onto their parents. Everyone standing in line for their rations. Every four days. Every four days the government would pass out bags of rationed food that was to last until the next pass out. Every four days. Many used their rations to trade and many stole rations from others. The soldier scanned the back of Elizabeth’s neck and Elizabeth received her bag. The soldier scanned the back of Des’ree neck and Des’ree received hers. They both hurried as fast as they could to get back to their unit.

Like other families, they rushed up the stairs as fast as they could. Locking the door behind them Elizabeth took both bags and took them into the kitchen. Des’ree placed a chair on the door. Pass-out days weren’t safe for anybody. People were desperate. Des’ree joined Elizabeth in the kitchen to help prepare dinner, whilst in the middle of cutting onions, there were two hard knocks on their door. Elizabeth, who had returned the locket to her neck, ran to the back bedroom and came out with a long metal pipe. Neither said anything. Des’ree turned off the lights. As if in slow motion, Des’ree took a deep breath, quivering. Maybe if they were quiet and no one made a sound the unannounced guest would leave. He didn’t. Two knocks became three more. Two more voices joined him.

“We don’t want to hurt you. We just want the bag you patched my friend up with.” Said one of the voices. Des’ree looked to Elizabeth who was standing still. Fear lit every wrinkle on her face. The door handle started to jiggle. Des’ree ran to the kitchen and grabbed a large cutting knife. She stood next to Elizabeth. The first kick to the door didn’t budge it. Not even the chair moved. The second kick had more force, but the door stood in its place. The third kick...sounded more forceful. Two legs instead of one. The third kick moved the chair out of place.

Elizabeth moved herself and Des’ree into the room. Shut the door and lock it. Des’ree grabbed her mother’s bag and took the essentials out of it. Bandages, antibiotics, and her mother’s suture kit and placed them under the middle of the mattress. She zipped the bag up and placed it in a corner. Elizabeth hid in the closet. Des’ree under the bed. No one made a sound as the fourth kick was more powerful than the third. The front door broke open. The men were in the house now.

“Yoohoo...anybody home? Look, we don’t want to hurt anybody. We just want we came for...check the kitchen, you check that back room, I’ll check the bathroom and this one.” Des’ree took a very big deep breath as she knew from this point on she would have to be very quiet. Elizabeth held onto the pipe, her grip was so tight that her fingers started to turn red. The man entered Des’ree room. The smell that followed him was that of a skel. He was homeless and desperate. She quietly placed her fingers at her nose. She took it slow and still breathed through her mouth. The man found the bag. The second man came into the room with a bag in his hand.

“Food for days. I helped myself.” he laughed.

“I found the med bag. No drugs, still...make a good trade with what’s in here. See what else you can find.” The second man walked to the closet. Des'ree was so afraid that she took on the smell to cover her mouth. Not a peep. Tears welled in her eyes. “They got what they came for and then some. What more do they want?” she thought to herself. The second man opened the closet. Elizabeth swung the pipe and knocked the man back. He hit the floor. The bandages Des’ree had placed on his head identifying him as the injured man she had helped earlier in the day.

Elizabeth started screaming as the third man came into the room, “get out, get out of here. Leave me alone!” The third man noticed something around her neck.

“Give me the necklace. Give me the necklace and we’ll be on our way.” He edged toward her as she swung the pipe at him. He lunged at her and grabbed the pipe backing her into the door. Snatching the beautiful locket off her neck. Elizabeth screamed a pained scream so loud as she lunged forward to get her necklace back. The man pushed Elizabeth back and then swung the pipe knocking Elizabeth to the ground. Des’ree looked over her shoulder at Elizabeth as the man took a second blow to her head. Tears fell like a cascade from Des’ree as she watched a tear fall from Elizabeth’s eyes. The two men grabbed their friend, the bag of food, the bag of medical supplies, and Elizabeth’s golden heart-shaped locket and ran out of the room and out the house.

Des’ree ran to close the main door, but it was broken. She ran back into the room and shut the door behind her, but there was nothing else she could do. Elizabeth was gone. Des’ree let out the hardest sob as she cried over her caretaker and her trusted friend.