THE GIFT

After decades of wars and famines, the Earth’s population had significantly declined. Unfortunately, the significant population that had perished were not the soldiers themselves, but mostly women and female children. Boys were taken from their families as soon as they were old enough to walk, to be trained by other elite forces by the GGE – the Greater Government of Earth.

This significant decline meant that any woman in her childbearing years were highly sought after. The GGE wanted women who were going to give them strong, healthy babies. All women had several days of testing done on them to determine their ability to produce these children. Any woman unable to produce acceptable children were sent to the camps & factories to work.

Maya was 18. Her mom had been sent out to the factories since she had been unable to produce children after Maya was born. She didn’t know who her father had been or if he even knew she existed. Maya was in her room, which was really a carefully designed cell, sitting at her desk. She often wondered about the other women in the Pod. Where were they from? Did they know their parents? How had they been found or caught?

There were women 20 and up on the second floor and girls 11 – 19 on the first floor. Each room had a bed, a desk, and a small room with a sink, toilet and stand-up shower. Maya would, when she knew she wouldn’t be caught, search her room for any flaws she might be able to expose to possibly escape. Since the camera’s that monitored them were not in the bathrooms, she often dug and pulled up tile and wall corners there.

It was one of these times, after her shower, she began to peel up some linoleum tiles in her bathroom. As she pulled one from behind the toilet, she saw underneath the tile was a small space just a little bit bigger than her hand. She tried to crawl back to see what was in the hole, but she couldn’t fit behind there. So instead, dreading that it could be a trap, she gently reached into the hole, all she felt was paper. It seemed wadded up. She pulled it out and left the tile sticking up in case she needed to hide it again.

Indeed, she had a crumpled piece of paper in her hands. She noticed there was writing on it, but she was more interested in the fact that something had to be in it because it weighed more that just a plain piece of paper. As she unfolded the paper, a beautiful, dark amethyst, heart shaped locket fell out onto the floor. She quickly picked it up and examined it. It was on a thin gold chain and was a gold heart with the amethyst in the center. It was the most beautiful necklace she had ever seen. As she examined it, she saw a slot in it. She had to work with it and it finally popped open. Inside, was a picture of a woman and baby on one side and a soldier on the other. She gently pulled the pictures out and on the one side were two names – Julia and Cindy – and on the other was a man’s name – Cliff. She wondered how long the locket had been there and the woman who would have hid it there. She put it all back together and closed the locket, and dropped it into her bathrobe pocket. She’d have to figure out what to do with it later. She took the letter and hid it in the bathroom where she would find it but nobody else would see it.

The next day after returning home after her studies and classes, she quickly donned her bathrobe with the locket hidden in a tear in her pocket and walked to the bathroom. She turned on the shower, even though she had no intention of getting in yet, and pulled out the letter from where she had hidden it. She carefully unfolded it and smoothed out the paper and she began to read.

“If you are reading this letter, then you have found my locket. My name is Julia and this is my beautiful baby girl Cynthia – Cindy for short. My mate and I had been together for six months while trying to conceive a child. He was a soldier as all mates are but we actually started to fall in love when I finally conceived. We tried to keep it a secret so we could continue to see each other, but there was twice monthly bloodwork and we were soon found out. He was removed from my room and reassigned so as to never see me or his child again. After the baby was born, he showed up in the middle of the night one fateful evening. He said he had some people smuggle out pictures of us and he gave me this beautiful locket as a symbol of his love and said one day he would make sure we were together again. As the alarms went off and I heard the soldiers running to my room, I ran to the bathroom to conceal my locket knowing that if it was found it would be taken. I was able to hook it into the drain in the shower but I knew that wouldn’t be long term as the delicate chain would surely break and I would lose it forever down the drain. My mate was arrested on the spot and the search began. They tore my room apart looking to see what he had brought. They flushed the toilet in case I had hidden something in there and ran the sink and shower. Thankfully my chain stayed hidden and didn’t break. I never knew what happened to my love, but I heard stories from others that men who do this are usually tortured to death, as to them, this was an act of treason. After a while, I was able to retrieve my locket. I would come to the bath every evening and stare at my beautiful baby girls and my loves face. Oh, how I missed them. So you see, I could never wear the locket in general population as they would know where it came from and take it. I couldn’t bear to think about losing him again. Once my beautiful girl is a year old, she will be taken from me and sent to the children’s wards. This will be all I have to forever remember my first born and her handsome father. After they take her away, I will be mated again with another soldier. I have leaned now to steel my heart and not fall for any other man….

…Today would have been my Cindy’s second birthday. I have mated with two other soldiers and born two sons but she is my first and my first love. I do not know how women do this, have babies only to have them taken away. I cannot do this anymore. I am determined to find a way out or die trying. This is not a life. This is no better than a prison sentence. Please take my locket and wear it. You can tell them it is a photo of your parents and you can keep it. Maybe, someday, you will find my daughter and can give it to her. The only thing I can tell you is that her birthmark is a dark red strawberry on her right shoulder. “

That was it. No signature, no date, no identifying information. How would she ever know if this child had even survived? She could spend the rest of her life looking for that birthmark and this person could have died 20 years ago. Maya affixed the locket around her neck, took a quick shower and went to bed.

A few weeks later Maya was ordered to stay in her room as the other girls went to their classes. A doctor and several soldiers entered her room. Two of the soldiers left right after meeting her and talking to her. The others remained. The doctor ordered her to disrobe so the soldiers could determine if she was worthy to breed with them. She was deeply ashamed and tried to hide her intimate parts only to be told to either relax or she could go in the shackles and everybody could see her. As the remaining soldiers examined her, a few more of them left. There were only two soldiers left. She was allowed to put her clothes back on and then was ordered to sit.

The next fifteen minutes were questions and answers and then they all left. Several days later, after her period had ended, her new mate came to her room after evening chow. He ordered her to the bathroom where they would shower together before they began their mating. He stopped her and said, “I remember that locket.” This terrified her but he continued. “That was my mothers, she showed it to all her children over the years before she was executed for trying to escape. We wondered what had happened to it.” He told her not to fear that he would not turn her in. He said it was actually quite ironic since his sister, the beautiful baby in the photo, had become a soldier in the Female Infantry Squadron. He said it took several years of paying off people to help him discover who his siblings were. He then asked if he could have the locket as he would make sure it got to his sister. He said that there is nothing worse than losing you identity forever as so many children had done. That night, Maya quietly slipped off her locket and put it in this man’s uniform pants pocket. That night, she prayed that little, grown Cynthia would finally get to see and hold her mother and father.

Over the next thirty-five years, Maya saw many women come and go. She had many babies with many different soldiers and once menopause set in, she was sent to the “Retired Mothers Pod”. These were the women who became the teachers, secretaries, cooks, janitors and midwives in the compound after successfully birthing many children. Maya never saw the man she gave the locket to or heard from his sister. She often wondered if it was all real or just a way for them to finally take the only thing that linked people together. After all, she would never know the children she birthed as all children are moved to other areas of the compound once they are taken from their birth mother and put into the children’s pods. As she picked up her books and brought them to the desk, she called her class to attention. She would teach these children like they were her own and would always be there for them as a mother would have been.