Resistance

Resistance

By: Danette Gaughan

“Ant, I’m hungry.”

Antoinette raised a dirty finger and pressed it to her lips, “Shhhh.” Then she signed, “Remember Ban, we are using the quiet words from the Silent Game we play.”

“But I’m hungry”, Ban gestured with his dirty little hands, a look of dejection on his face.

As Antoinette’s stomach growled and hunger gnawed at her, she wondered if she had done the right thing by bringing her little brother along in her desperate attempt to flee from the oppressive hold of the Leaders. After all, she was still a child herself at 15, but wise beyond her years.

She thought back to when it all started and the Leaders began their new reign after the obliteration of the freedom uprising. The life of love, laughter, and freedom was gone. In its place was a hollow existence of being controlled by the Leaders and void of human emotion.

This was the beginning of the end. The Leaders had people rounded up and put into their new “family pods”. These pods were housed in barracks surrounding the center of the “Womb”. The Womb was a gigantic structure where the people were gathered to partake of “Mother’s Milk”, the food they used to control us. We were told this was for our own good because mankind cannot be entrusted with their own care. They began feeding us Mother’s Milk which contained “binders” that would monitor each person’s every move. The “Milk” also allowed the Leaders to control each individual’s behavior. No longer was there joy, love, free thought, only the will of those in charge… The Leaders.

The Leaders named themselves “Hope”, as if that would help us look to them for our needs.

Antoinette promised her parents that if they ever got separated she would always take care of Ban.

“I’m hungry too, Ban, I’m hungry too.” She signed with dismay.

Ban, on the verge of tears, signed “Why can’t we go back to the “Womb”? We can have Mother’s milk.”

Ban was just a toddler during the roundup. I often wondered if he remembered anything at all before entering the Womb.

“Not much longer sweetie. Today is the third day and the binders from Mother’s milk are almost out of our system and we can be free.” It was hard for Antoinette to explain to six-year-old Ban how Hope controlled everyone through the very sustenance that allowed them to live.

Just then, the deteriorated walls of the once-popular nightclub trembled as the Trackers sent out by the leaders flew low in the streets. They were looking for those that dared to escape. The robotic trackers had sensors that could pick up the quietest whisper of the human voice.

Ban was trembling and began to cry. Antoinette clutched him to her chest, stroked his hair, and thought, “If the trackers find us there would be no reprogramming, only the evaporation of life by the cold, heartless machines.”

She sent up a silent prayer, “Please don’t let them find us!”

The low hum of the trackers was getting closer as they slowly hovered down the now ruined and desolate streets of what once was a thriving city. The air vibrated as the tracker's engines swirled dirt through the broken windows and open doorways. Antoinette and Ban froze in fear. Hot tears made trails as they ran down Ban’s dirt-streaked face.

Antoinette rapidly signed, “NO sound! Hold my hand we are going into the basement to look for the tunnel.”

Ban wiped his face with his dirty hands, grabbed tight to Ant’s hand, then ran through the rubble of the hollowed-out club. They could still hear the hum of the trackers getting closer as they scrambled over the jagged pieces of concrete scraping at their flesh.

As they approached the mangled door to the basement, their hearts sank and panic slowly twisted up Antoinette’s being like a snake through the boughs of a tree. How were they going to open the door?

Antoinette motioned for Ban to crawl through the slight gap at the top of the door. She made a foothold with her hands for Ban and hoisted him up to the opening. Ban clawed himself up and over the contorted door. Antoinette heard the soft thud as he landed on the other side. She quickly tapped at the tiny opening at the bottom of the door and saw Ban’s face peek through. She quickly told Ban to look for the tunnel and follow it as far as it went. She would try to catch up, but if not, there would be people to help him.

They held hands and squeezed tight. This time the hot tears were those of Antoinette. She let go and signed, “I love you.” Then she was gone. Ban started down the steps to the basement in search of the tunnel.

Meanwhile, Antoinette searched franticly for another entrance to the basement. She wasn’t finding any and calculated her chances of making it to the end of the tunnel by going through the devastation that was once her hometown. She crept out of the club trying her best to stay low and close to the crumbled walls of buildings.

Antoinette froze plastered against the ground under a slab of leaning concrete. The hum from the overhead tracker was so loud that she felt it through every fiber of her being. The dirt churning like a tornado from the force of the tracker’s engines stung her flesh like a thousand tiny needles. She huddled up in a ball with her arms protecting her face from the onslaught. It seemed like hours but had only been a minute before the tracker slowly moved on continuing its search.

When she could finally move, her arms and legs were raw from the assault of dirt. She even bled in some spots. However, the only thing on her mind was reuniting with Ban.

She looked out from her hiding spot to check if there were trackers close by. Seeing that the area was clear, she made her way into what used to be McNaulty’s Market. Antoinette smiled thinking of how she used to shop there with her mom.

“Can’t walk down memory lane now, girl.” She thought. “I have to find the tunnel and Ban!”

Antoinette screamed inside her head. The door to the basement was intact and locked! She turned her back to the door and slid down, beaten. Her tears made little puffs as they hit the dusty floor. Would she ever see Ban again? She let Ban and her parents down. What was going to happen to her little brother now? The idea that he would be alone or worse yet evaporated brought on a tidal wave of guilt. “What was I thinking bringing him along?!”

Was that scratching she heard from the other side of the door? Breaking her silence, she whispered “Hello?”

She heard the lock being turned and the door slowly opened. The woman standing there wrote on a tablet, “I’m with the resistance, come with me.”

Antoinette hesitated only a moment and entered the basement. There were others there, some with the resistance and others who had escaped the Womb.

Antoinette used her hands to ask if anyone could “sign”?

A middle-aged man raised his hand and signed, “My name is Saxon.”

Antoinette asked if he had seen a young boy with red curls in the tunnel explaining it was her brother. Saxon sadly shook his head no.

The woman, Pearl, signaled for everyone to follow her. They ran through the aisles in the basement and were soon in the tunnel.

Traveling quickly, they came to a wider section where others had gathered. Antoinette quickly scanned the faces for her brother. She couldn’t control herself and cried out, “Ban!”

Ban had been traveling with the others, scared but hopeful that he would find his sister. They ran to each other and hugged as tight as they could. “I will never let you go again!” Antoinette said. Ban signed with enthusiasm, “Ant, you talked!”

“I had to” she replied with a smile. “I thought I would never see you again.”

“Use your quiet words!” Ban playfully signed. For a fleeting minute, it was almost as if things were like before and they were playing at home.

Pearl flashed her light signaling for the group to move on. They moved through the tunnel with nothing more than a few flashlights to illuminate their way along the cold, damp, musty tunnel.

After a few hours Ban’s legs began to buckle. Antoinette positioned him on her back and carried him for several hours more. Just when she thought that she couldn’t go any farther Pearl signaled to stop.

The end of the tunnel and freedom lay just ahead. The exit was approximately ten yards from the perimeter of The Hope’s domain. This area was not only surveilled by the trackers but by those loyal to The Hope’s governance… the Brethren.

The ragged, exhausted group of freedom seekers had to wait in the mustiness of the tunnel till nightfall in hopes that the blanket of night would keep them from being detected and the promise of freedom would be had.

In what seemed like forever to Antoinette and Ban, Pearl signaled it was time to run to freedom. Pearl stood stoically just inside the opening of the tunnel keeping watch for the Trackers and the Brethren. She had their routine timed to the second and would signal for the next group of seven to flee past the perimeter.

Ten yards doesn’t sound like much, but when your life depends on it’s a vast expanse.

Antoinette volunteered to be in one of the last groups to give Ban more time to rest. Now it was their turn to gamble for freedom.

As they stood at the tunnel's mouth, Antoinette felt the weight of the past week lift from her. She and her brother were going to be FREE! She felt giddy at the prospect and found energy anew to carry herself and Ban the last ten yards.

Pearl raised a grimy hand to ready the group of seven. Seeing no Tracker lights or hearing their hum and seeing no lights from the Brethren’s torches she swung her hand down and the group began their sprint to a new life.

Running at breakneck speed Antoinette could see the others just past the perimeter. “Halfway there,” she thought. A new life of allowing love, not having your thoughts given to you, not being forced to eat one thing day in and day out. She marveled at how rapidly the thoughts ran through her head in that short slice of time.

Then from the veil of darkness, a body hurled against her and she jarringly hit the ground. She tried to break the hold of the Brethren on top of her. “RUN Ban!” she screamed. Ban’s small hand left hers as he dodged the Brethren that tried to ensnare him.

A shriek like a banshee left her throat as she knew the fate that awaited her, yet she couldn’t help feeling that she kept her word to her parents and took care of Ban as she watched him cross the perimeter into the waiting arms of freedom.

“Antoinette?” The gentle touch on her shoulder and the soft voice broke into her silence as she sat on the back porch of the family’s farmhouse. It was an idyllic setting of lush green fields and farm animals. Antoinette could smell the peach pie her mom had cooling on the window sill and it smelled like heaven. “Are you okay, punkin” her mom asked.

“I’m okay, just daydreaming” Antoinette lied.

Her mom wondered if that was the truth. Everyone knows Antoinette had the gift of sight.

As Antoinette fiddled with the heart-shaped locket hanging around her neck, an heirloom handed down for generations, she knew that she couldn’t tell her mom what was coming.