Day 1011

“Mommy, my throat hurts.” Mia pushed Heather’s shoulder and tried to get her to wake up. She coughed hard and winced in pain.

It had been 1005 days since the lockdown began and the fires started. Everyone always felt a little off with the thick smoke in the air but Mia’s cough had picked up significantly over the last few days. Heather turned around to face Mia. She knew it would be a hassle to bring her outside of the fences to visit the doctor. Chicago had been isolated since the last major revolution push. Each neighborhood has been sectioned off by 6 ft fences and guarded 24/7. The government told everyone it was to protect them from the revolutionaries. They called them terrorists though.

A doctor’s appointment for Mia meant that Heather would need to apply for a day pass to exit the neighborhood and visit the doctor. She would need an appointment. She began planning her day in her head as she got up with Mia.

Breakfast was simmering on the stove when Heather’s mother walked in, knocking as she passed the door’s threshold. She was there to babysit Mia. Heather told her mom about Mia’s cough and the upcoming doctor appointment that would be needed. They discussed the logistics of leaving the neighborhood and venturing to the city. There were buses still, but they ran less frequently and only from neighborhoods directly to the city so you couldn’t meet people on the bus. They did their best to make sure the people didn’t pass information between neighborhoods. The revolution was being beaten down.

Heather went about her day, getting ready and heading to work. Things were fairly normal. At least, as normal as they could be given the circumstances. Everyone is sharing resources the best they can. The work that Heather does includes organizing the finite amount of rations that are delivered each week. They need to be equally distributed to the families. Everything is scarce and surviving is the only goal. Life seemed crazy and out of sorts when all of this started. People would talk about how weird everything is and why no one ever thought it would come to something like this. Now, consoling crying mothers is an every day part of Heather’s job. To say nothing remarkable happened throughout her day was to say that nothing seems remarkable anymore. Life goes on.

Heather went to the Papers Office in her neighborhood on the way home from work to begin the process of getting Mia an appointment. She provided all of her identification to the woman at the desk and explained the symptoms.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 begin life threatening, how important is this appointment.” The woman asked.

“Well, I am not really sure” Heather began, “She has been coughing for about a week but now her throat hurts and the cough is getting worse.”

“We need to prioritize appointments. Any fever?”

Heather had forgotten to take Mia’s temperature before heading out the door but she had felt warm at least.

“Yes.” Heather lied. “She was at 101 when I left for work but I gave her some acetaminophen.”

“Okay, we can get her in next Thursday at 3pm. You’ll need to go to the west gate and present this form. Then board the bus to section A of the city. Here is the address of the pediatrician you’ll see.” The woman paused briefly. “Are you Sandra’s daughter?”

Heather was taken aback by the question. Her mother was Sandra but only very close friends and specific people called her that. Heather hesitated to answer the question but nodded slowly. “Yes, why do you ask?”

“Oh you just look so much like her!” The woman looked around the office and brushed off the conversation, handing the documents to Heather. It was a weird interaction. She tried not to think much of it and went on her way home. It was Friday and she didn’t really give the appointment much thought over the weekend. Mia seemed to feel a bit better but the cough was still continuing.

On Monday, Heather’s mother came over again to watch Mia for the day. Heather was rushing around trying to get ready and didn’t have much time to sit and chat with her mom. They briefly exchanged greetings while Heather skipped into the bathroom to do her hair before leaving.

“I heard you ran into a friend of mine at the Papers Office.” Sandra was suddenly standing in the doorway of the bathroom, looking at heather through the mirror. Heather was confused for a moment before remembering the awkward exchange the week before.

“Oh yeah, someone asked if I was your daughter and said she saw the resemblance.” Heather explained. Who was that?

“She is from a friend group.”

“What group?”

Sandra’s tone changed and she dropped into a whisper.

“Five Seven”

Heather was shocked. She never thought that her mother would be part of the revolution. Her mind was underwater with questions. How did she not realize it? How did her mother get involved? She couldn’t speak and just stared at her mother, her eyes darting to the windows to make sure no one was standing too close to the house. She felt like her walls had ears.

Heather was very scared of the current political climate and just wanted to fall in line to keep her daughter safe. She understood why people were angry and why the revolution was taking place but didn’t feel that she was strongly aligned either way. Sandra reached into her pocket and heald out a necklace to Heather. It was a heart shaped locked with intricate wire designs along the outside. Popping it open revealed a sweet picture of Mia and Sandra. The other side said Gramma loves you! in poorly etched cursive.

“What is this?” Heather could obviously see what it was but did not want to process what she knew her mother was telling her.

“Mia will wear it to her doctors appointment. The doctor’s office has changed.” Sandra started to explain as she handed the locket and new paperwork to Heather.

“Mom, I can’t use forged paperwork. Mia is sick. I have to take her to the doctor they said at the Papers Office.”

“The paperwork isn’t forged. It is updated. The appointment was updated in the system and this will match what the coordinator has for you on the bus. You will have to use these papers or you won’t be able to travel outside the fences.”

Heather was hurt. Her mother had went behind her back and used Mia as collateral in her own revolutionary freedom fighting. She tried to wrap her head around the fact that Sandra was part of Five Seven and now she was being asked to take part in some sort of plot?

Sandra continued explaining that once Heather arrived at the doctor, they would be taken to an exam room. Due to privacy, these rooms are not monitored by cameras and microphones the way the other rooms in most government held buildings were these days. Once in the room, the doctor would unlock a secret compartment in the back of the locket and place a note that Sandra would need to provide to the leaders.

If caught, everyone involved would certainly be executed. This would include Mia as there would be no other caretaker to take her in. Heather picked up the phone to call her manager and let them know she would need to be out for the day but would be in early tomorrow. She took the locket and new paperwork and sat down on the couch.

“I have so many questions.” Heather stared at her mom waiting for answers.

“You can’t ask them right now. All things come to an end. Soon.”

Heather did what she could to keep her mind off of it over the next 3 days as she prepared for her trip to the city. After the day off, she was able to push everything to the back of her mind and focus on work to keep her busy. The cough that Mia had would come and go as the smoke rolled in from the fires on the far side of the neighborhood. There were more and more outbursts in the streets those days. It seemed liked everything was getting worse and they didn’t know what would happen next.

Wednesday night was bad. There were fires on every side of the neighborhood. Distant sirens and alarms told everyone that the other neighborhoods were experiencing similar activities. Five Seven was shouting from the rooftops and then subsequently silenced. The fight felt like it was growing and shrinking at the same time. Heather used to tune out the violence but now she felt like she was part of it.

On Thursday morning at 10am, Mia and Heather arrived at the processing office. Heather presented the forms that her mother had provided and they were verified on the computer. The barcode was scanned and then both Mia and Heather boarded the bus.

“What a beautiful necklace!” the paper processor looked at Mia’s locket and then gave Heather a knowing glance and half smile. She couldn’t tell if they were Five Seven or if the government was on to her already.

Mia smiled with all of her teeth and thanked the woman. She did her best to appear calm and collected. Inside she was an absolute mess. The next 2 hours were a blur. They arrived at the Section A bus stop and deboarded. From there, they followed the directions provided on the paperwork and found the New Castle District Medical office. The wait was short and they were ushered into an exam room. The doctor focused on Mia’s cough first. The cough didn’t seem bad and the doctor was able to prescribe an inhaler to help out.

“What a beautiful necklace!” the doctor looked at Heather and back to Mia’s locket.

“Thank you!” Mia beamed. “My gramma gave it to me.”

The doctor smiled big at Mia and said, “I know and she wanted me to put a secret note into the necklace. You can’t tell anyone it’s there, okay? Only gramma.”

The doctor turned his attention to Heather. “Tonight is the night. Everything ends. Soon.” He pulled a small key out of his pocket and opened the back of the locket. The note fit perfectly and was completely undetectable or accessible without knowing it was there.

They left the office with the inhaler and traveled back to the neighborhood on the bus without issue. At home, Sandra hurriedly opened the locket to retrieve the message. It would happen tonight at 10pm. The call needed to go out immediately. Sandra left but not before telling heather to go to the basement and hide in the safe room at 9:45pm. Heather was directed not to leave the room until her mother or someone from Five Seven came back for her.

The streets were loud with violence at 10pm sharp. Heather could hear the troops roll in. Heather consoled Mia and sang to her softly, brushing the hair from her face. It continued for hours.

Around 3am, there was more commotion. Shouts from military were coming from her front and back door as both were kicked in. The whole house was searched and she could hear them outside the safe room. The door was never disturbed. Then 4 hours of silence.

At 8am, she heard Five Seven chants in the streets. She waited until 10am when her mother opened the door to the safe room.

"We need to go. Now." Sandra reached for her daughter's hand. Heather nodded, grabbed Mia and the backpack they had stored. Outside, the streets were filled with people packing cars.

"We won't have long before they are back. We need to move somewhere safer."

They loaded into an SUV that was waiting and left the fences for the last time.