A Revolution

I take a step forward.

I look at my feet, covered in dirt, and bruises I can’t feel anymore. It’s been a long time since I could feel anything thanks to the serum I was given, however many months ago. The concept of time is gone, but so is pain. I clutch the bottom of the long white shirt I wear, my fingers unable to appreciate the soft fabric I’m holding. The air is warm, judging by the sweat dripping down my face into my eyes, but I can’t feel heat, nor the wetness of perspiration. I know it didn’t used to be normal, not feeling anything, but things aren’t normal anymore. Maybe some pain wouldn’t be so bad right now, if it meant feeling anything.

There is one thing I can feel. They tried to get rid of our sensations, but nothing can stop a heart from beating. I take another step forward and reach up to place my hand over my chest. I can’t feel them exactly, but I can tell my hand is catching on the stitches where my heart once was. It was taken out. All of ours were taken out. It makes it easier for them to control us. ‘Them’ being the ‘Lords’ as they want to be called. I don’t know why they want names like that, but they are tall and intimidating, so I and everyone else do whatever they say. Even if we know our doom is coming by their hands.

A sudden “Hey,” from behind me interrupts my thoughts, and I turn to see a boy, maybe a year older than me, with worried eyes plastered on his face. I gasp and spin back around and take a quick step forward, almost running into a younger girl in front of me. She didn’t seem to notice. I must have lost track of time and where I was. I don’t know how I can forget that all of us kids line up every day for our meals, served to us by our guards. I also don’t know how I could forget what happens when anybody disobeys. I gotta stop spacing out.

I lean sideways and look ahead to see a good hundred or so kids in a long line in front of me. I guess my turn is almost here. My turn to eat until I’m overflowing. We are well fed, so I guess that counts for something, but that seems to be all the Lords want us to do. They make us eat all the time, and there is no time for anything else. I can’t complain though. The facilities they built are clean and well regulated. The cafeteria has comfy chairs and clean tables neatly arranged in the center of the massive room so the Lords can stand as sentries around us as we gorge ourselves, and after we eat, we each have a room of our own to go to, all of them lined up like our own gleaming apartments covering a massive square area. There are probably more of them out there on the planet, but no one here could confirm that except the Lords, and they’re not known to take questions.

The Lords keep a close eye on us, always patrolling, making sure every one of their subjects is submitting. No one knows what their goals are, and some have theorized, but I try not to think about them, or even look at them at all. The penetrating gaze of that one blood red eye atop that nine foot tall behemoth demands you look away--to look at them is to invite death. I still see that first Lord that entered the Companions Home, and how quickly it stopped our mom from moving. She tried to save us, but the thing was too large, too fast. We didn’t even see it move. The bitter memories cause my breath to become rapid and shallow, more sweat drips into my eyes and my hands shake violently.

No.

No…

Not again.

The ground trembles, threatening to shatter my remaining balance. A Lord is coming to check their subject for defects. I can’t go there again. I need to calm down. I rub my stitches faster with one hand and with the other I grasp the scarlet, glowing, heart-shaped object dangling around my neck. I hold my breath and shut my eyes.

Thump. Thump.

Thump. Thump.

Thump. Thump.

...Thump...thump...

I exhale deeply. I open my eyes to see the sky darkened. Or rather, it had been eclipsed by a Lord, towering over me, hopefully reassessing my condition and determining that I am okay, but I can’t look up to tell either way. Hopefully. Please be okay.

The Lord grunts loudly in its alien-like way, almost making my legs buckle. One kid a few ahead of me falls to the side, but just as quickly, he scrambles back to his feet. And with that, the Lord pivots his midsection away from us and stomps off, almost sounding angry, but who could know? I’ve never looked at one long enough to see any emotion if there could be any in those automaton nightmares. I can only look up ahead of me and see the girl in front of me...staring at the Lord.

She doesn’t look scared at all. Now that I think about it, when the Lord was here, I don’t think she looked away from it even once. This girl, who may be an inch or two shorter than me, a little thinner too, has more bravery than any other kid I’ve met. And that look she is giving the Lord is so intriguing. I would have expected anger, or maybe disgust, but what her expression shows is more like something I haven’t seen on a face since our mother: hope.

She holds her chin high, and scans the open field with calculating eyes. Her hands are shaking, but not uncontrollably, more in anticipation. Is she going to try something? So she’s crazy. All of the kids here have seen at least one, if not more, brave souls dare to run from, attack, trick, or otherwise divert the Lords only to have their hearts taken and crushed mercilessly. That all started and ended in the first month or so of being in this place. We learned that escape was unattainable, and we accepted that. All of us that is, except this girl in front of me, looking like she could take on the world. And for some reason, I believe she could.

I peek ahead of her and notice the line lurch forward, but the girl stays planted where she is. I don’t know what to do, and the frog in my throat keeps me from protesting her actions. I clear my throat and try again to speak, but before a sound can pass my lips, the girl darts out of line and runs straight away from me and the other kids who ignore the now bigger gap in our queue and stare slack jawed at this fool hardy girl. My words, forgotten, I can only watch this girl speed headlong into no man’s land and anticipate the eventual climax, but for whatever reason, this time, I feel a glimmer of hope that she might succeed where others have failed.

As expected, the Lords notice the irregularity in inhuman speed and three of them move to intercept her. They take up positions around her, blocking her well enough that if she moves, she will be caught. However, the girl meets the eyes of the three giants and as she bounces from one foot to the other, she smiles at them all, almost enjoying this fatal dance she started. The first of the Lords levels one arm at her and a loud buzzing can be heard, and my necklace, as well as all of the other kids’ heart lockets are pulled by invisible strings towards that hand. My heart sinks, because I know it’s over before it begins. And yet, it’s not.

No locket flies from the girl’s neck towards the Lord’s deadly vice, and the girl starts laughing now. She must have hidden it, most likely in her room. A few kids tried that before. The Lord makes a sound and the other two Lords are suddenly half way to our apartments to search out and find this girl’s hidden treasure, while this Lord moves to grab the trickster. The girl surprisingly dodges the Lord and weaves in and out of its legs, narrowly avoiding each swing of the powerful arms that would spell her doom if caught, and all the while she is laughing. I chuckle briefly, and it shocks me. I haven’t laughed in ages, and I don’t know where it came from. I only know that it felt good. Slowly but surely, her dodging is actually taking her further and further away. She’s doing it. She’s escaping. But more than that, she’s living.

As the Lord tries to grab her again, she makes a dash past the behemoth and runs straight away from here. I can hear another sound I haven’t heard in a while. Clapping. A few kids begin to cheer as she grows smaller and smaller on the horizon, but right as I’m about to let out a yell I feel building inside my chest, we can just see her fall flat on her face. The clapping stops, and the Lord picks up an unmoving prisoner and heads back towards us. Not long after that, the other two Lords return, one of them with a shattered locket gripped tight in one of its hands, and they take it away to wherever they discard old hearts. The Lord with the girl brings her just close enough to us that I can still see a satisfied smile on her dirtied lips. She looks peaceful. Fulfilled. Still full of hope.

One of the Lords turns to me and blares, snapping me out of my stupor and I close the gap in front of me. Then I look at the Lord. Satisfied, it turns and leaves, and only when it is out of sight do I look forward again. The edges of my mouth can’t be controlled and a grin appears. It feels foreign, but right. My hands don’t shake, my mind isn’t filled with the images of past horrors. For however long, I had been taken over by my fears, but that girl changed all of that. She changed me, and I can only think of one way to thank her.

I watch the kid in front of me take a step forward.

I don’t.