Passage to Freedom

I awoke with a start, my eyes adjusting in the darkness. I looked around hearing the bombs in the distance. I was in a room with twelve other children; it was the norm to hear the bombs going off and bullets springing from the canisters of military-grade weapons. We lived in hell; all of our families sent us here, ordered by the government to send children off. I was nearly 13 when I was sent here. Now I am 16 and still too young to go. I have dreamed for years to be back with my mom, on our small farm where the mountains met, and with my old cow, Granny Bertha. I awoke to my bunkmate, a 5-year-old kid with the longest nose, crying on the edge of the bed, hanging over my head.

I slowly crawled out of bed, climbing up the creaky steps to his bed. He put his thumb in his mouth sobbing about something. I slowly crawled to him, leaning over the edge as I wrapped my arms around him, as he smiled taking out his thumb from his mouth.

“What’s the matter, Luca?” I asked as he snuggled into me.

“I had a nightmare again.” He said finally as he jumped a bit at the sounds of the next bomb. He was the only young one in our cabin.

Luca and I met when he was 2. I took him under his wing as I taught him what I knew. I was from the mountains that seemed like a distant place a long time ago. He didn’t remember where he was.

“You know you need sleep, Luca.” I cooed to him as he nodded, still sucking his thumb, grabbing for my hand.

“Artemis Phoenix, can you tell the story again.” He asked slowly yawning into his hands.

“Okay, and you promise to go to bed,” I said pointing to his pillow.

“Cross my heart, hope to fly.” He said giggling a bit.

I smiled tucking him back in as I slowly snuggled into him, covering him with the ratty quilt that needed to be washed. I would do it in the morning for him. I smiled as I leaned next to him on the pillow pointing up to the ceiling above us. I wiped his face with my nightgown, which faded from use. He smiled as he grabbed his stuffed bear; he named it Leo, after the Greek god from the story, after telling him I was named after a Greek goddess.

He slowly leaned on his side, facing me as I went into the story.

“Okay, well a long time ago, before this war. There lived a girl named Artemis, and she was like every single teenager at the time, didn’t think it would happen to her. She had a phone, a secret Facebook, and a secret boyfriend. Her mother was a farmer and she would help her mother every day on the farm from 4 in the morning till she had to go to school. And then after school, it would be back to work, shucking the fields of corn, picking the tomatoes, feeding the pigs, the goats, the cows, and starting to make the cheese.

“She loved this life. She loved life itself. It was easy and she would swoon every boy there was in her small town. Well one day, it came to play that there was unrest. People were spooked in the town; people were frightened and afraid for us children. We were being killed off one by one for no reason by a philanthropist group, called the damned. They wanted all of us dead; the government decided that all children from 0 to 19 years of age must go to this place called Eternia to be safe and to be free. But in my eyes, it was a nightmare.

“We were told to pack one suitcase and one backpack and head to city hall to be sent to Eternia on a rotten old school bus. Well, I was scared but my mom told me it would be okay. It will be okay; this war will blow over soon. I smiled and remembering my mother, holding her, and kissing her cheek. She wrote me a note; I still have it and a locket, with a picture of me and her in it that I wear every day. My father was gone in my life way before I was born so I don’t know who he is. But when I walked onto the bus; that was the last day I saw my mom. I remember her golden blonde hair, her bright wide smile, and piercing blue eyes. She had pearly white glasses that always cast a shadow on her face.

“My mother was my life and I lost her that day. I miss her every day but I guess you miss your momma too. Eternia has been horrible to us, but we will get out. We will be free one day and when we are free we will go back to my cabin. I know it is standing and you will see the cows, the goats, and even the chickens. And we will be free from this place, no more manual labor, no more strict uniforms, cold restless nights or so many secrets. It will be me and you Luca, till the end.” I murmured kissing his cheek and putting Leo next to him softly, to make sure I didn’t wake him again.

There was a pause between us as he slowly shut his eyes. He started to mumble but his final words were; will we ever be free. I smiled at him, kissing his cheeks, whispering that one day we will look forward to running away from Eternia. He smiled as he went back to sleep. I slowly hopped down from the top bunk and went back into mine.

I tossed and turned for the rest of the morning till we had to be up at 6 in the morning for roll call. I yawned getting up to frantic kids running around pulling on socks, brushing their teeth, and pulling on their uniforms, dresses in long leggings and black flats or long-sleeved shirts with brown khaki pants.

I woke up Luca, helping him get dressed, brush his hair and help him brush his teeth as we got ready. We both were dead tired but happy as we walked into the cold world around us. We didn’t have a sense of time around here. But I could feel it was roughly October, my birthday was Halloween coincidentally.

I smiled as Luca grabbed my hand slowly walking to where we had to stand for roll call. The sergeant, Angry Eyes as I called him, Luca agreed with that. Once our names were read, our first names only; we had to scan the barcode tattoos that fixated to our wrists to get into the mess hall.

We nodded as we walked to the scanner, scanning our wrists in and walking into line. I had Luca get his food which was on these green trays that each kid grabbed as she or he went by, grabbing milk or water and a snack for the class. This was our only meal till dinner so we had to eat our trays to completion.

Today’s menu was pancakes, eggs, and hash browns. We couldn’t complain too much, as usual, the mess hall had some good food. I and Luca waited for morning announcements. Today there were none thankfully. I smiled as Luca and I walked to his classroom. I always walked with him making sure he got to class.

We finished up, and I helped clean him up, making sure he did his homework the night before and had all the right things. We scanned out and walked to the auditorium where we all waited for our classmates to arrive standing in our respective lines. I was in the 16-year-olds class, so I had to stand in the 16th line. Luca was in the 1st grade so he was in the 1st line. This was his first year of school.

Our teachers came in with the rest of the student body taking the students to their respective classes. I followed my peers to our English class. I daydreamed in all of my classes, my grades being subpar so the teachers never really got on my handle for taking a quick nap or two. I just can’t do this when Angry Eyes or the Dean comes in.

Today was an easy day; I turned in my assignment, read the short story about McCarthyism, and wrote my paper within about half an hour. I spent the rest of the hour sleeping. I started to look towards my future and I wanted out of this hell hole. I wanted to be free and wanted to see my mom again. I missed her so much that I could remember our farm, to the road we lived on, and every time she made me homemade tomato basil sandwiches, with the crusts cut off, grown on our farm.

I was awoken to screaming. Angry eyes were banging my desk so loud that the teacher was screaming at him. I got up immediately and bowed to him, his eyes scanning my pale uniform shirt that was frayed and faded at the ends.

“What is this? What is this?” He screamed in my ear as I stood tall, staring straight ahead.

“I was taking a nap, sir,” I said thinking of ways to escape.

“Taking a nap, your teacher, lets you take a nap.” He barked as I shook my head slowly.

“No, he doesn’t sir. I said staring straight ahead at Mr. Bug bean, the 16’s teacher.

“Then you are insubordination girl.” He growled in my ear.

“It is Artemis sir,” I whispered.  

“I don’t care if you are the queen of England. You are not going to sleep in class. I want to see you in my office after the bell rang. She is excused from the rest of her duties for the rest of the day, Mr. Bag bean.” He said throwing my bag away from him.

“It is bug bean, sir.” The teacher whispered.

“Whatever.” Angry eyes screamed, walking towards the door.

I nodded as he banged my desk again, walking out. Mr. Bug bean took a minute to collect him and told us to write another paper on our short story. I slowly wrote mine, my hands shaking as this were the first time Angry eyes has given me an infraction. And I was scared, some kids never came back after his infractions, some were so messed up they moved us to a different facility.

At that moment, I knew I was never going to be free. I knew I wasn’t free and that I was going to run away, with Luca. I slowly stood up, wiping my tears on my sleeve, as I slowly slipped out of the room unnoticed.

It didn’t matter if I walked or talked, he was about to kill me. I just felt it. I walked towards the living quarters and slipped in quietly, packing mine and Luca’s stuff. I had only a few possessions but it was easy to pack up our stuff. I then ran to the 1st’s classrooms, bowing to his teacher, Ms. Apple.

She looked up from reading a story to them and smiled the second bell reading. I was holding a backpack for Luca behind my back.

“This is a surprise, we have a visitor everyone. How are you Miss Artemis, what do you need?” Ms. Apple asked sweetly.

“I am doing well, uhm I need to talk to Luca real quick,” I said kind of quickly.

“Okay, make it only a minute Ms. Artemis.” Ms. Apple said turning back to the book.

“Will do, come on Luca,” I said as he stood up smiling at me.

Luca got up from coloring a picture and walked towards me as I grabbed his hand a little too firmly and walked out of the room, slowly walking off to the side.

“What’s up?” He asked softly.

“We are going to be free, going to escape,” I whispered, just out of the camera shot that was in the hallway.

“We are going to be free, for real.” He said ecstatically.

“Yes, now we need to go to the fence that is behind our cabin and we need to scale it and run as we have never run before.

I grabbed his hand, securing his bag to him, my bag to me and we started to run, the combat boots and flats clipping the sides of the ground as we ran out of the auditorium doors to the outside world with the bright cloudy sky.

We smiled as I stopped and slowly picked him up running towards the fence. We were alone thankfully. I slowly put him down as I put him above my head forcing him to climb the 12-foot fence. I heard people screaming at us as I told him to climb fast and quick and that I was just underneath him. His breath was catching fast.

I heard angry eyes yelling at us, shaking the fence, and calling for backup. I didn’t look back down as we climbed to freedom. Once we were on the other side, I flipped him off and grabbed Luca, putting him on my hip as I knew he would be a slow runner as we ran to our new lives, feeling a bit guilty for leaving the rest but happier to be free from Eternia and that hell hole.