Everglade

Everglade

Margaret could not remember a time when her and the others had the freedom to think their own thoughts or choose their own plans for the day. Everglade had been overrun and ruled by alien beings for a very long time. She was known by Evergladewoman562903 now but every day she would remind herself that her parents had named her Margaret before the world had changed, lest she forget.

It had been a perfect day and she and her brother Amos had been flying kites in the field that long ago day. Suddenly things began falling from the sky that they did not understand. As they ran to their parents in the farmyard, they heard sirens far away in the distance. Nobody knew or understood what was happening. It did not take long at all for word of the invasions to reach their farm and the surrounding families. Everyone began hiding in their root cellars or basements in the hopes of avoiding detection. After 3 days they were discovered and nothing was ever the same again.

Now Margaret lives in what looks like storage units stacked on top of each other and divided into 2 what she calls cells. Every day at the crack of dawn the doors unlock automatically and each person is herded into the communal wash station where you are expected to shower and put on fresh clothes provided by the creatures on watch. You are then herded into the assembly line like cafeteria where each person is provided a tray of who knows what to eat. The food does not resemble anything that she is familiar with but is supposed to provide all the nutrients needed to survive. The people are then directed to their designated job for the day. Nobody is ever sick so there is no chance of remaining behind for a day of leisure.

The creatures on watch each day all look the same; like some science fiction nightmare of days gone by. They speak to each other and never to us- not that we would be able to understand their garbled communication any ways. Once a boy in the next tower of cells woke crying and he was taken away and never returned. Nobody knows what happened to him and are afraid to make any noise, avoiding being taken away too. We all live day to day in a complete bewildered silence.

Today I was brought to a work area resembling a junk yard and shown a picture of an item that I have no idea what it is. I am expected to dig and find similar items just to throw into a big vat of other similar items. I am expected to work from dawn until dusk with 2 rest periods consisting of an ingest and a void period. Life now is a repeat series of events that we have no control over. It is monotonous and lonely. We are not allowed the freedom of speech at any time.

Working through piles and piles of junk and becoming disheartened and desperate I began to think of ways to end my life so that I would not have to live under the confines of my daily life. All at once something shiny caught my eye deep inside the current pile that I was rummaging through. I could not quite reach it so I dug as hard as I could without drawing attention from the many eyes and satellites watching us. Finally, I was able to reach in and pull it out, along with a hunk of metal. I slowly flipped over the metal and perused it for usage while slipping the small shiny object in my sleeve for now. All at once the signal horns blew and made me jump in fright. Luckily it was the horns for rest void period.

Once I was enclosed into the void cell, I took the shiny object from my sleeve and was surprised to see a tiny heart shaped locket. It was very hard to open and looked like it had been buried for decades. I washed it the best I could and decided that I needed to hide it somehow before I too lost it. I wrapped it in waste paper and put it in my undergarment and then left the confines of my waste cell. I will try to open it at another time. Once back at work I felt better just thinking about my secret find. What will the little golden heart shaped locket have in store for me? I cannot wait to find out.