The Overlords

THE OVERLORDS

The noises from above had driven her underground. The overlords were searching again. She was safe for the moment but, her narrow escape had not come without a cost. She would not see John again, her brother was gone. Just after she had made her way down into the darkness and just before John would do the same an Overlord had captured him in their vision. That was all it took. Just being spotted by an Overlord paralyzed you, left you in their control. There was no escape, no reprieve. Once you were caught you were theirs. The rest of your short agony filled life would be spent in the Sky Realm wasting away in the forced labor camps until there was nothing of you left.

Bringing her hands up she clutched a worn brass locket forged in the shape of a heart hanging around her neck. Her thoughts drifted to the picture inside. The image was the only comfort she had left, the Overlords had taken everything else. Opening the locket she knew she wouldn’t be able to see the picture in the pitch darkness of the underground. She didn’t need to see the image to know what was there it was permanently etched in her mind.

A family laughing, smiling at each other. A father, a mother, a brother and a sister. A family, her family, all of them taken from her by the Overlords. All she had left was the tiny picture inside of the locket. John was the last to be taken, but like the rest of her family he was gone. She was alone.

She closed the locket and clutched it once more against her chest. Looking out into the darkness surrounding her she wandered how she could go on. Should she just surrender and accept her fate at the hands of the Overlords?Was this broken world worth surviving in?

She thought of John and the last thing he said to her. In the last moment before the Overlord had taken him, he had said her name, “Jane”. She sighed knowing she would never hear her name spoken again. She was certain that she was the last of the free people. She would be the Overlords only focus now.

Turning her head in every direction she listened for any sound in the darkness that would indicate danger. Nothing but silence greeted her. Slowly taking care to stay quiet she inched forward knowing she could not stay in one place for long. The Overlords were thorough in their searches never ending them until they found their prey. She, Jane she reminded herself,was only twelve and too young to play this deadly game of hide and seek but they hadn’t given her a choice she had to run and hide to stay alive.

In the darkness above her a cry made its way through the dark air. Was it John? Was he calling her name? Her mind raced. She listened unsure of what she would do if she heard Jane dancing on the wind passed down from his lips somewhere on the surface. She couldn’t save him, no one could. There was no escape from the the Overlords grasp. Sweat broke out on her skin. She had to make a decision and go with it. Keeping still was a death sentence when the Overlords were hunting. Especially when they knew you were out there, nearby waiting to be captured.

Knowing she should pick a direction and go without looking back she remained frozen unable to move. A question burned inside of her mind. How could she exist in this space? Her hands clutched around the locket again seeking the comfort it held. Just a moments peace before she would force herself to run again. Still holding the locket she searched for any shred of hope left for her to cling to. There had been stories once of a place untouched by the Overlords hands. A haven where if you made it, life was still at peace.

She knew the stories were true. She had once been in the place before the world fell apart. Her family had been there. The picture inside the locket was taken there. The place the free people called paradise had been near her home. There were only rumors that it still existed after the Armageddon of the Overlords. But she knew that it was still there waiting for her. Her belief had never waivered. There was something inside her that knew it was true. It hadn’t waivered for John either. That was where they were headed when he had been taken. Now she would have to go alone.

The Overlords were slave holders forcing the ones they held to live lives of misery in bondage. They were merciless in their never-ending onslaught of forced labor. She knew what was facing her if she was captured. What John was facing. She couldn’t let that happen to both of them. She had to make it to paradise.

Silently Closing her eyes she thought of the day the picture had been taken. She felt the green blades of grass underneath the tips of her fingers as she ran her hand along their tops in arching half circles. She remembered the way the blades bent over when she touched them before springing back again. Pulling in a deep breath she again felt the warmth of the sun spread across her skin the way it had done on that day so long ago. She could hear her father’s bellowing laughter in the distance. She could feel her mother’s hand slip into hers before pulling her up away from the grass to gather with John and her father in front of the camera that had been set with a timer to take the picture at the right time.

Lifting the locket kissing it for luck she moved forward again. There would be a return corridor with ancient stairs leading back up to the surface not far from where she was. Straining to look into the darkness she could just make out the first beginning shapes of the stairs in the shadows that surrounded her.

The air around her felt like it was charged with crackling electricity. She was close to ending the journey she and John had set out on. The first traces of light cut down into the darkness ahead of her in glowing tendrils stretching down from the surface. A moment’s hesitation rose in her as she thought of the danger held in the world those tendrils came from.

Her heart throbbed inside her chest beating faster with every passing second. Her foot moved out to take a step. Then she froze. The unmistakable sound of an approaching Overlord was just above her. The sound of her heart was a thunderous drum beating in her ears. She begged for it to slow fearing the The Overlord would hear even that. Above her, her name was called out in the mechanical voice all of the Overlords shared. Jaaannee, the voice drawing out each vowel sound, each consonant.

She knew now, John was gone. They had tortured him to find her. Turning over her shoulder she looked back unsure of whether to scurry into the darkness behind or move forward to the tendrils of light. In front of her lay the promise of a forgotten paradise untouched by the trouble of this world. Behind her lay momentary safety from the Overlord above. She had to move in one way or the other. Her hands clinched into fist. Could she find a way back to her brother if she retraced her steps? Was there even the smallest possibility he was alive? Guilt raced through her. You abandoned him. The thought rang out amid the sirens of alarm ringing in her head. She turned taking a step back into the dark.

Before she could take a second step, she heard John’s voice telling her to let him go. She shook her head determined not to give up. His voice came again telling her to turn around, telling her that he was gone. Just like she would be gone if the Overlords took her. Her second step fell, a third. She wrestled with what she was doing. John wouldn’t want her to go back. He would want at least one of them to make it. He would want one of them to lay in the grass underneath a warm the sun in a paradise that held freedom.

She stopped again this time knowing she couldn’t go back. Turning once more to where she knew the stairs would be she moved toward them with the resolve that one of them had to survive. That her brother, her big bear would see that paradise too when she looked upon it the first time. That he would live in that place with her even if it would only be in her memory.

Fear gripped her body as she stood at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the lost world. The paradise she remembered wouldn’t be far if John had been right when he led them toward this set of stairs. They would bring her to the surface just a short distance from it. Reaching out with a slightly shaking hand she gripped the rail above the stairs and began moving. With each step, each approach upward the trepidation, the feeling that something was about to go wrong grew stronger inside her. Every moment she had survived to this point was at risk. Ahead of her the surface loomed closer as she climbed the stairs until she was standing just on the other side of the Overlords domain. All that separated her now was a closed door.

Bracing herself, she knew beyond the point of the door there would be no turning back. She steeled her thoughts. Every muscle inside of her body tensed in the anticipation of what was to come. Opening the door, her last refuge of safety, her last barrier against the doom looming on the surface, fell. Throwing herself forward she shot out of the darkness.

At first the light of the surface was blinded. Refusing to stop moving, knowing that her movement could be all that separated her from survival and death she moved blindly across the surface waiting for her eyes to adjust. Slowly her vision came back into focus as she glimpsed the path ahead of her. She could see the freedom John had promised her. It was there just in front of her. She could feel the sweet taste of it pour over her in waves as she approached it.

Then suddenly it was gone. Horror gripped her as she felt the Overlords gaze slide over her. Immediately she was paralyzed, frozen in place. In front of her just beyond her reach on the other side of a glass barrier was the paradise, the haven she and John had dreamed of with its green blades of thick grass and warm sun.

“Where do think you’re going, Jane?” Her shoulders slumped as she turned to face her fate. With the last of her courage, she summoned her strength to make one last defiant stand against the Overlord that had captured her.

“I was going to paradise, Overlord.” The Overlord frowned as she spoke. Jane lowered her head and waited for the Overlords wicked response.

“Jane, I’ve told you I’m your mother, not your overlord and if you want to go in the backyard, or paradise” The Overlords fingers made quotation marks in the air. “Then you’ll have to clean your room. John is already upstairs cleaning his. When you get done with that both of you can go outside and play.” Defeated her existence waning Jane moved away from the Overlord toward the forced labor camps of the Sky Realm. The Overlords voice followed her as she went.

“And Jane as I always I’m very impressed with your imagination.” Without stopping, without looking back Jane spoke her final words to the Overlord.

“Thanks, mom.”