The Fall

I could hear the outside dogs barking as the visitors tripped the alarm that was attached to the numerous dog whistles. They were close and I knew that I didn’t have much time.

My heart thundered in fear as I lowered her body into the hole along with anything else that warned them of her presence. Remembering the heart shaped locket around my neck I removed it and placed it into her hand.

I knew if they found the space or anything signaling that she was there then all of our secrets would be revealed putting us all in danger.

It was the only thing that gave me the push I needed to close the latch and move the bed back over the tile.

I grabbed my huskies Beta and Omega’s collars just as the front door was opened. I couldn’t help the sweat that was now dripping down my back as three guards entered the living space. The guard in front had an orange patch on his sleeve revealing he was the leader. His hard angry glare told me that they weren’t on a friendly visit.

“There are rumors that you have been keeping a woman here,” he stated glancing around the living area with a scowl.

“A younger woman that survived the fall?” he clarified.

I shook my head before coughing, I pointed to my throat trying to let him know that I had a problem speaking clearly.

The dogs growled menacingly as he took a step towards me.

“Of course not. All the surviving young women live on the hill side,” I murmured quietly.

I tried to keep eye contact so as not to display my nerves. It was rare for the guard to visit the homes on the outskirts of town, especially ours, unless they had reason to. I knew that the rumor they spoke of was a lie because we stayed to ourselves, no one stayed close enough to hear or see anything, and we never visited town unless the hill ordered it.

“So just you?” asked another guard who stared at the bed that was in the middle of what was once a living room.

His counterparts began searching the home tossing aside anything that was in their way. They went to the open kitchen checking in the pantry, cabinets and even the refrigerator that hadn’t worked in years.

“I have 4 brothers. Three are out with the hunting party and one is upstairs,” I explained watching as the lead guard circled around the bed.

From the way his eyes bounced around the room and then focused back on me I knew that he didn’t believe a word I was saying.

“Ollie, you and Kyle check up stairs,” he ordered without stopping his slow perusal.

The guard, Kyle, who seemed to be the youngest of the three, bounded up the stairs excitedly and Ollie followed behind slowly still while watching as the leader stared at me intensely.

“Here let me let the dogs out. I don’t want anyone getting hurt,” I rasped as Beta lurched forward.

I knew that if he got any closer, I wouldn’t be strong enough to hold them back.

“The dogs getting hurt you mean?” The lead guard smirked menacingly. His threat was clear.

I knew that he was itching for violence by the way that his hand stayed glued to the gun at his waist.

Deciding not to answer I pulled the dogs collars towards the front door and pushed them out before closing it behind them.

They clawed at the door whimpering profusely and I relaxed as the sound carried around the living room like a soft echo.

“What is the meaning of this?” My youngest brother Jackson screamed as they dragged him down the stairs roughly by his arms

His eyes danced around the room quickly looking from the bed to the kitchen and then finally at me.

I kept my face neutral giving nothing away and hoped that he fixed his as well.

“How many of you are living in the home,” the lead guard asked again walking to where the other two held my brother at the bottom of the stairs.

“It’s me, and my older brothers. Kristoff, Kyrian, Kaleb, and the one in front of you is Kenzie. Would you like to know where we piss as well?” he barked gruffly.

“Jackson!” I admonished.

I knew that he was worried, but I didn’t want him getting into trouble and being taken up to the hill to work for the guard. Out of us all he was the hot head and had a problem with biting his tongue.

“Ah, the Colton boys” The guard Ollie chimed smiling.

His eyes passed over me quickly before focusing his attention on Jackson.

“I watched them in action when the fall first happened. They’re the reason we got the barricades and the Dam built in enough time to defend ourselves to the outsiders” he explained.

“That was your family?” The young guard, Kyle, piped up intrigued as he let go of my brothers arm in awe.

I kept quiet letting them go on about how my brothers then built water towers with hand-built filters and taught the town how to hunt outside the wall without having to stay out for too long. How my mother was the reason that not all of the women passed away during the great illness like other towns, and how my brothers and I were the ones in the front of the so-called guards when our town was attacked both times.

Our town being as small as it was, was what saved us from the aftermaths of what we’d donned the Fall.

I was 16 when the world went dark and anything electric refused to power on. No cars, no phones, no tv, no radios. The town sheriff sent a deputy to the next town over on horseback and learned quickly that the world as we knew it was falling apart. With no power, gas, or electricity everyone was grounded where they were and forced to survive. There was no longer a such thing as frozen meat and refrigerated meals. Getting food meant hunting daily, cooking was done over a fire and not a stove, and the simple life we had gotten accustomed to was over. For us, the first few months were easy.

Being that our town wasn’t as large as the cities that were falling into ruins, we were able to quickly assign jobs and responsibilities so that the town moved like a well-oiled machine. That was until the illness spread.

All the girls in our town over the age of 18 started falling sick and then passing away. There was no explanation. No men were coming down with the illness at all and it put the town in a panic. A town of two thousand people had quickly dropped to just under a thousand. The women who did survive young and old were taken up to the sheriff’s mansion on the hill where it was supposed to be for protection. However, as time passed on, everyone in the town realized that once the women went in, they never came back out.

When they had made the decision to move the girls to the hill my ma couldn’t hide. Everyone knew her as the town doctor and the guards wasted no time picking her up.

My heart clenched as I thought about ma and what she could have been going through.

My stomach tightened in fear as I thought about the possibility of never seeing her again.

I could see the lead guard’s annoyance and the moment he realized he wouldn’t win the fight he had come to pick.

“I don’t care who you are. You know the rules. All women of childbearing years that survived the fall needs to live on the hill until she has birthed at least 5 babies. After 5 she can return home”

“Understood. If I happen to see a woman, I'll make sure to let her know,” Jackson responded calmly.

I knew his thoughts went to the same place as mine, Ma had been there for longer than five years.

My heart started pounding in my chest as a whimper sounded through the spacious living area.

“Are the dogs outside!” Jackson asked quickly rushing to the door.

He opened it and the dogs came barreling through with my older brothers right behind them. They carried in rabbits and vegetables on rope and in satchels which meant that they had been in town trading their catch for fresh produce.

“What’s going on here?” Kristoff asked dropping everything on to the kitchen island. He was standing at his full six-foot four height with his chest puffed out in confidence.

“We were just doing a routine check is all. We’ll be on our way.” The lead guard spoke without taking his eyes off of me.

I felt sweat beading at my temple as he lingered for another moment before making his way out the door with the other two guards close behind. Before closing the door behind him Ollie looked at me with a small smile. Even as the door clicked behind him, I still couldn’t relax.

We all stood in silence as we waited for the dogs to run for the door letting us know that the guards tripped the makeshift alarms on the property line.

As soon as they ran to the door and started scratching it Kaleb locked it and then we all ran to the bed moving it out of the way to lift the latch.

“Do you think they noticed?” I asked no longer hiding my voice.

“They know something is up, but I don’t think they know what it is Mackenzie” Kristoff reassured before pulling the latch up.

There his wife Rachel lay with their newborn son feeding at her bosom. He lifted them out placing them on the queen-sized bed.

We were all still shocked and happy that the night before we had gotten through another birth without any casualties.

“Hey little one” Kaleb smiled pulling my four-year-old daughter Erin from the hidey hole.

She smiled happily before jumping from his arms and into mine. I hugged her tightly, happy that we’d practiced the hidey hole drill so many times before this day.

“Mama can I talk now?” she whispered in my ear while holding up my locket.

Grabbing the necklace, I laughed, nodding my head as she jumped out of my arms to go and play with Omega and Beta.

“You did great Mackenzie. The house is almost finished. Another couple of months and we’ll be able to relocate. We’ll be safe and free. Erin will have room to run, and Ollie will have located Ma up at the hill so that he could rescue her and retire from guard post,” Kyrian spoke happily.

“I heard daddy here and I kept quiet just like you taught me” Erin spoke from her spot on the floor.

I smiled taking a seat next to Rachel. We both had short cuts and wore boys clothing to hide from the guards. It would be harder to hide our children since the last live birth in the town was more than 5 years ago. We knew what would happen if anyone found out that the illness hadn’t affected us, and we knew that we had to get out of town as our family grew.

Ollie had warned us that the guard would be visiting soon, and I had to go through great lengths to make my voice as scratchy as possible to hide my usual high tone.

We all sat around and took turns holding the new addition to our family.

We weren’t in the clear yet, but I knew Ollie would find Ma and bring her home to us. I knew one day we'd all be free.