Not All is Lost

I had been standing in line for the past hour, waiting to get my monthly rations. The heat was oppressive, I swiped away beads of sweat and wished the line would move a few feet forward so that I could at least be beneath the shade of the tent. I sighed and toyed with my necklace, the small gold locket that I never took off. It was shaped like a heart and held the only photo I had left from life before. It's been 5 years since the world ended. Well, the world didn't end in the sense that Earth didn't exist any longer, but the Earth that we knew before? That was gone.

I remember it so clearly. It seemed like overnight our world was turned upside down although the take over had lasted months. Sometimes, when I close my eyes, I still see the endless darkness, feel that helplessness, hear the cries, experience the loss all over again ... I shook my head and snapped out of it, my hand falling from the locket. There was no point in holding on to those memories, but after 5 years of trying to push them aside, maybe the memories were holding on to me. This was life now, though. Instead of school, children were sent to initiation camps and began learning their roles in life. Instead of a democracy, we had the New Government Coalition that controlled every moment of our lives. And, instead of going to a regular grocery store, we stood in this long line. Where we were placed in line was based on our spot in the New Society. I looked down at my dark blue clothing, a sign that I worked for the new government. I stood behind the rich in their purple clothing and the army families swathed in red but well ahead of the poor people who received the scraps of what was left. When I turned around, I could hardly see them at all; they were so far away, and their brown clothing blended in with the dusty horizon. There near invisibility shouldn’t surprise me though because that’s exactly how they were treated: invisible. I cringed, thinking how horrible it must be to stand in their worn-down shoes and heavy dark clothes, especially in this heat. Society had changed a lot in the past 5 years, but one thing is everlasting: if you are poor, you are not a priority. Not even the world shifting on its axis, meteors, and a complete revamping of the Earth could change that. The New Coalition liked to preach about how much better things were for us now, they tried to convince us that the tracker that we carried within us was for our own good. I looked at the flashing screen, our New Leaders grinned back at me and I shivered. Their eyes were dead and cold, and although I didn’t get the brunt of their evil; I still witnessed it each day.

The line moved forward, and I stepped into the shade, the relief I felt from the sun was overshadowed by thoughts of those at the end of the line. How many of them wouldn’t eat tonight because the food would “run out” by the time they got to my spot in line? My fingers found the locket again, I opened it and looked down at me and my mother's face. Her last words to me were, "Remember the plan, my love. Not all is lost." before placing this locket in my hand. She was right, not all had been lost and soon I would carry out her plan. Soon, the poor girl that infiltrated the new government would move her people up in line.