Oh Rise Up!

There was a small quake to her fingers as she reached for the shiny piece of metal resting in the palm of her father’s hand. Her gaze sought him as she hesitated, fingers hovering over the piece of jewelry not quite daring to touch it just yet. Finally her father gave a nod of his head and she snatched it from his palm. The metal bit into her skin where she clenched it so tightly within her fist. From her earliest memories, she had been learning about the relevance of the heart-shaped locket. It meant wealth, food, and safety. As long as her family possessed it it meant life for them. No longer would they have to watch a sibling die from not being able to garner medical attention that only belonged to the privileged. No longer would they have to scrape by to clothe themselves after paying tithes to the Regime.

A year had already passed since the world was dropped into chaos and the Regime came to power. It had started simple enough, a few fleets of trucks carrying groceries across the nation going missing enroute. As the shortages became more abundant the panic of the nation’s citizens began to escalate. Next came the cyber attacks and before long nothing felt safe. Under the guise of protection and unity, the Regime removed all political parties and put everyone under their control. You either followed the Regime or you perished. The world was divided into the haves and the have nots. The haves consisted of the wealthiest 1% and the have nots were the rest of the population. Whichever class you were born into is where you stayed. You had no options. The uneducated remained uneducated while the fortunate remained fortunate. But the repressed will only remain repressed for so long until they rise up, and oh how they rose.

Thanks to the foresight of her grandfather Bill and other like-minded citizens, Kaitlyn and her family had the tools and knowledge to survive as have nots. Her education growing up was different from other girls her age. She learned from a young age about how her grandfather was mocked and laughed at for his conspiracy theories and beliefs. She learned about the fateful night that started it all, when a broken down car on a backcountry road led to her grandfather meeting another man by the name of Ted and how the two formed a new hidden society. She learned how they saw the signs coming and prepared for a future they feared. Bank accounts were combined and large plots of land were bought where a whole new community was constructed to accommodate their new society when shit hit the fan. These two founding fathers wanted their new society to avoid the same pitfalls they saw in the current world. And so, to ensure no one family held all of the wealth and power, special keys were made and distributed across prominent families from all levels of society. No preferential treatment was given when it came to social class and instead they selected families with the necessary skill sets to forge a new stronger society. These original families were electricians and engineers, healthcare workers and military personnel, but also artists and working class laborers.

As a nod to days past, the keys were crafted in the form of heart-shaped lockets similar to the friendship hearts they shared with their best friends growing up. These keys were split in two uniquely matched halves before being dispersed to their chosen compatible bloodlines. Secrecy was paramount as this new society grew and the founding fathers went to great lengths to ensure none of the families knew who held each half. The chosen only knew that the completed lockets held information that would ensure their survival for generations to come once the halves were reunited. These keys became treasured heirlooms passed on through the generations along with the necessary knowledge and history. The founding fathers opted to let fate guide them and decreed that if and only when the two carriers with matching halves found one another, would they be able to find and enter this new society as a pair. One half of the locket was programmed with the map and information about the new city while the other half served as a cipher. The lockets required a drop of blood from the carrier to activate them, once the correct bloodline was verified the locket would begin to transmit, letting off vibrations when it came in proximity to its other half.

At first, these lockets meant little to the world, nothing more than products of the paranoid with little to no consequence to the average person. But as the world changed and the Regime established itself, the existence of the lockets became a beacon to the oppressed. The more people that knew of the lockets, the less of a secret they were and the more coveted these treasured keys became. Being a carrier was now dangerous as people would kill for the power that even just a half of a locket would garner a person.

It was this thought that made Kaitlyn tremble. From the second she accepted the locket, her life would be irrevocably changed. The founding fathers had also added the caveat that not only did the two halves of the locket need to be joined to enter the new utopia, but so did the carriers. The founding fathers had made their original selection carefully, pairing the different families based on those they considered as compatible for looks and intelligence, bloodlines worthy to carry on the human race.

Kaitlyn felt the rough scrape of her father’s farmer's hands brush beneath her chin forcing her head back up to meet his unwavering gaze and interrupting her thoughts, “Tomorrow pumpkin,” Her father spoke, “You will begin your adventure. You know the task ahead of you. You have trained your whole life for it. Tonight we will feast and then you will sleep. Do not be afraid my dear child, you are ready for this.”

Her lower lip trembles before she draws in a deep breath and squares her shoulders as she meets his gaze and she nods, “Yes father. So it will be. Oh rise up!”

Finally his gaze softens as he takes in his young daughter before he roughly grips her shoulder and pulls her into his broad barrel chest for a bear hug and a quick brush of his lips to the top of her head in a father’s kiss. She barely gets an arm around him to squeeze him in return before he’s setting her away from him and there’s a new gruffness to his voice as he turns on his heel and bellows through the house, “Supper time! Everyone to the table!”

Kaitlyn watches his broad back as he walks away and she hears the thundering footsteps of her siblings as they race through the house to the dining room, their laughter filling the room as they gather. She stands there taking her time to drink in what could be her last meal with her family. She finds herself having to draw in several deep breaths before she raises the chain holding her half of the locket and slips it over her head. She tucks the chain beneath the fall of long dark curls cascading down her neck and lets the locket nestle into the valley of her breasts,safely tucked away beneath the sky blue fabric of her day dress. Making sure nothing looks out of place she brushes her fingertips beneath her eyes then pinches her cheeks to add some needed color to her face before moving to join her family at the supper table.

To any outsider that could have looked in through the sparkling window and into the dining room of the modest farmhouse, everything looked like a perfectly normal working class family enjoying a full harvest meal before the Regime. A large man sits at one end of the table dressed in typical farmer clothing, his large work roughened and scarred hands resting on the table as he watches his children act as children do, playfully poking and teasing at one another. A slim woman enters carrying another tray of food and sets it on the table with the rest of the food before stepping back. Her hands are just as worn from a lifetime of manual labor as she smoothes her dark hair back into a neat bun at the nape of her neck and then smoothes out the apron tied around her waist. She moves around the table patting each child on the shoulder and dropping a light kiss to the top of their heads, seeming to linger for a moment over one child in particular before her shoulders drop slightly and she moves to take her seat at the opposite end of the table from her husband. Once all are seated and settled in, hands are joined forming a circle around the table and in unison heads are bowed and the father's lips move, his deep voice filling the room with his prayer of thanks.

Once the prayer is concluded the room erupts with the sounds of family supper time. Voices fill the room along with the sounds of dishes and cutlery as the various foods are passed around the table along with stories of their day. There does not seem to be a moment of quiet as they make their way through the bounty of food, sharing stories and laughter with every bite until the man finally pushes back from the table and rubs a hand over his belly in satisfaction. That seems to mark the end of their dinner and a signal for everyone to rise from the table and begin to clear it and clean up. They all eventually settle back into the living room to watch the evening news together, just like every night before. The screen filled with ads from the Regime reminding them to be loyal and make their tithes to the Regime. With full bellies and the warmth of being together as a family, it does not take long before yawns are passing around the room and it is finally declared to be bedtime.

Just before dismissal is granted to the children the father stands and faces them all. His tone and demeanor is solemn as he tells them of their sister’s impending departure the following morning. Gasps and cries fill the room as sister jumps up to hug sister soon joined by a slightly smaller version of the older gentleman. He allows them all this moment before clapping his hands together and ushering them from the room. He turns back just in time to catch the slim form of his wife against his chest and hugs her to him. Her feet rest on top of his as he shuffles them about the room turning off the tv and lights until the whole house rests in darkness, all except for one light remaining. Brightness filters from the last room on the left where a young girl is wandering around her room packing a small bag of only the necessities and also taking the time to lovingly trail fingers across pictures, knickknacks and various stuffed toys that had seen better days. Still, even that light eventually falls to darkness as the young girl finally finds herself huddled beneath her blanket and clutching her pillow tight as she lays there and waits for morning.

Morning finds Kaitlyn being woken by a small little body barreling onto her bed and diving beneath the covers to cuddle. Kaitlyn can’t help her soft chuckle and embraces her little sister tightly to her, cherishing a last cuddle with her younger sibling. Even this moment is brought to an end all too quickly as a loud knock on the door makes the slim wood shake in its frame and a gruff voice calls out, “Pumpkin, it is time!”