State of the world

I believed my family when they had told me everything growing up, they were adults how could I not. My life was sheltered, how could it have not been, when I was told all my life that the outside world was wrong and evil and full of sin. I believed every world when I was told about the horrible war that disintegrated the entire world and made it inhabitable. I sat on my bed and cried, this wasn't the truth, or it was a half truth. How could I be so gullible, how could I allow myself to just believe everything that was told to me.

I cried until I didn't have any more tears, and in a fit of anger I got up and grabbed whatever I could fit in a bag. I looked out of my bedroom window and saw the sun getting ready to meet the earth. I went down to the dining room and saw my parents talking, my mother standing by the kitchen door and my father sitting at the head of the table. My mother had her arms crossed, worry filled her face as she looked at me. They quickly ended their conversation, obviously talking about me. My eyes met the floor and my lips pursed as I felt a huge lump in my throat.

“Noah….” My mother extended a hand as I walked past her. I moved my body, not letting her touch me. How dare she use her sympathy voice, she lied to me my entire life, about the world about me. I sat at the table and just stared at it. I didn’t know what to say, she wasn’t the woman I thought she was.

“Noah we need to talk.” My father’s booming voice filled the room. He was a very serious man and his voice told me he was about to have a very serious talk with me.

“I think we have had enough talks.” I said, voice on the verge of cracking. Even though I kept my head low, my eyes looked up at him. I didn’t want to be here but what choice do I have? If what they said was true, if the world did end then there is nothing out there. Yet I can’t help but wonder if it isn’t true. If not only the world didn’t end but if there were people. People like in books and the stories my mother told me about. If that was true then that would mean I could visit wonderful places like New York, or France. I could meet people by the name Anne or Emma or even by the name of Mason.

“I think we need to have one more.” The way he said it told me he wasn’t asking. I took a long breath, the air was so tense I thought I could cut it with a kitchen knife if I wanted to. “We were meaning to tell you the truth sooner but didn’t have the chance. We’re sorry.” I didn’t know if I believed that. They lied about so much, how could I believe anything they said after that.

“We don’t want you telling Laek.” My mother spoke. My head shot up.

“You want me to continue to lie to him?” My voice was a little raised.

“Keep your voice down!” My father harshly whispered. I was shocked, I was angry. How dare they ask me to lie to my brother, he had every right to know as I did about the world. About me. My sister walked into the room at that moment.

“There is no way we are lying to Laek about the world.” Kayla was a caring person, she loved her family more than anything. Lying to Laek about the world was something she couldn’t do no matter how hard she tried. “The only reason we know about it is because that man came!”

I had met that man coming up to our land. It was a big land, and we were isolated before then. He is the only reason why I believed that there indeed was an apocalypse, but humans? Still living? I thought that was impossible. They had told me that the apocalypse killed off the world after a war, which was  actually true.

The world was distraught, mangled for eons. The world was finally getting back to its feet, and they wanted us to join, their new civilization. My parents, my so-called parents were twenty-years old when they joined the new city. They met after a few years there, the city was new and upcoming. Riots and mess was everywhere and no one had any control. My mother just had my older brother, Kuzon, and with everything going on she began looking into leaving. My father wasn’t sure about it then, he was raised nearby and his family was near. He was loyal to her. It wasn’t until I was born that made him start considering moving away.

I wasn’t born to Haylee and Adem like I was brought up to believe. My parents- My birth parents were Jake and Kaibe, they’re neighbors who were killed by raiders. I was taken in by my up brought parents who were afraid to be next.

My father looked into how to bring his parents with him, they were so old. So fragile, all of this murder and raiding so rampant, he was really worried. He would never forgive himself, after a year of me being born his parents died. As sad as it was, it was natural causes, one right after the other. A month later my brother was kidnapped in the middle of the night. My mother was horrified, they searched for months and with no police established yet no one could help. They looked under every rock and when the option came to it, in the middle of the night they left and never went back.

They made us believe that the world was broken so we wouldn’t experience that horrible side of the world that they had experienced. They had no right to keep us from the world. To allow us to meet other people and be up brought with other children.

The topic of talking to our little brother about the world was eventually dropped when he walked into the room. The conversation had become so heated before then and all of our faces had been red with anger. All except my mother who was crying, and just standing by the door.

Dinner was completely quiet, it was dead silent. Laek understood that something was wrong but didn’t know how to mention it. We barely ate, until finally Kayla shot up from the table and walked away.

“Kayla!” My father called out. He was about to get up after her but my mother's hand laid on his hand calming him back down. I went after her, followed her into her room.

“K.” I knocked on her door, opening it slightly. She sat on her bed, just staring at the floor. If she had any more tears left to cry I’m more than positive she would have shed them. Completely and entirely.

“I don’t want to be here anymore.” She said softly. Refusing to look at me.

“I don’t either,” I admitted. “I already packed my bag. I’m leaving tonight. If there really is a civilization out there… If- If Kuzon is still alive out there…”

“I want to find him too.” She said finally looking at me. “If I’m being honest.. I know it’s a bit selfish but I want to see the world, meet other people.” I placed my hand on her knee hoping it would comfort her.

“Me too.” I admitted. “Our parents were selfish by not telling us the truth. We need to know whats out there. How people are. All we know is the civilization that we have here and have read in dusty old books. What kind of help is that to the world we live in today.”

Our conversation wasn’t a long one. We planned how it was going to be and we prepared quickly as not to cause suspicion. As night began to linger I walked into the sitting room where I expected my mother and father to be sitting reading an old book for the hundredth time.

“I’m sorry for the fight that occurred earlier, I didn’t mean it to get out of hand.” I wasn’t lying, even though I believed every word I said, I still regretted seeing how hard it affected my mother. I hope she will forgive me for that.

“Please understand why we did it.” My father said, his voice soft for the first time. I thought about not leaving for a second just from that voice change.

“I don’t.” I admitted. “I really don’t but that doesn’t change the fact that you are my parents and I love you more than anything. No matter what the outside world is that would never change.” I wanted them to hear that. To hear it from me. I didn’t want to leave knowing that their last memory of me- and mine of them- would be us fighting. I wanted them to remember the good times growing up in this farm. I wanted to remember me scraping my knee and having my mom kiss away my pain. I wanted them to know that they were my family through and through, and how grateful I was to have them as my parents.

My sister later that night did the same, although she was more angry than I was she still said her disguised goodbyes. We took what we could carry cloths, food, necessities and left.

Of course with our being gone we wondered what my parents would tell Laek about our disappearance. How it would be explained and would they tell him the truth. For now, however, I didn’t care too much about that. We were starting a new life, we would be each others rock. We would fight for each other, we would fight along side each other. What ever the world threw at us we could handle. From this point on, we were anew, we were best friends, we were everything the world needed. We were a brother and a sister willing to fight for the future of this world, not matter how barren. We would make a name for ourselves, mark my words.