The Sanctions

“Today I woke up, just like every day since day Zero! Sweating profusely from the same nightmare I've endured every night as well. Waking up has no longer been a blessing, rather it feels like a horrid taunt for my lack of success. I looked down at my daughter’s heart lock necklace, still clinched ever so tightly in my hand. So tight in fact that often my hand bruises and is left with an imprint, much like my ring finger. The sanction guards made sure to take my ring off first thing when I got there.

The door to my cell dissipated as the morning guard came in with my fresh hazmat suit. I wish I could see the faces of the cold-hearted, but they hide behind darkly tinted face masks when you are a part of the skyline. In case you didn't know, that sanction was preserved for “the most dangerous threats to the system.” I know… not much of a threat am I?

They expect you to put on your own suit, with or without limbs. So I grabbed it as any other day and managed to wiggle my legless body into my suit and hop onto my hoverchair. Ha, I remember when I was a kid thinking hover chairs and flying cars would represent a beautiful future, a dystopia for all mankind, with moving sidewalks and floating buildings to coincide. Too bad in reality a beautiful dystopia is for the free and powerful. I looked down at my daughter’s necklace again until my automated prison chair made it to the dock. The guard saw to it that I was mounted on board with the rest of the crew and then took off. Today however, was not the day. The ship dropped from its usual 3000 foot height and stopped with abrupt propulsion from below. Clearly an untested technique that often left my fellow inmates with fractured limbs or at the very least, a churning stomach and a lap full of puke. Since I barely eat though I simply spit from time to time and keep pushing. I know I should spare the details but please… bear with me.

The sound of the hazard alarms, prepping us to fasten our breathing tech, nearly burst my eardrums every day. The ship flew to its new location and the doors opened for us to begin our daily routine. However, today was different from the rest. Instead of us simply going around and spraying our nuclear base, a process I believe is a waste and will never clear the destruction done, we were ordered to collect anything or anyone we encountered. At this point I realized what was at hand, and there is nothing we can do about it. As we left off the ship, the reliability of our hazmat suits were tested on spot. Unfortunately two of my team members are exposed to the nuclear waste immediately. Thank God I made it another day, undoubtedly for this very moment.

We left our area after four hours and moved into your area, joining your team's exhibition to collect samples. From everything I have mentioned from just today, there is not that much difference between us. I may have even experienced more hardship. This doesn't take away from your pain, yet you believe I have no idea what pain and anguish are? When I say ‘We can not bring more pain and anguish on ourselves’ I mean what we can control should stay in our control. This is a moment you can control. Let's walk away and pretend we never saw her. The fact that she has lived in this hazardous state is testament that she has earned her living.

Free yourself from hate and don't continue a cycle.”

The Level 1 Inmate responded “Turning her in could bring me freedom, a place amongst the ‘free and powerful’. A chance to live in that dystopia…”

“ Maybe, or maybe you will just complete their work for them and return back to your cell. Why take a chance on someone else's life, especially a young innocent one. Let her go and handle your situation with no one else's life in your hands. A clean slate, an innocent conscious, is a sure way to keep a night's sleep. Be guiltless even though they deem us as enemies of the world. When in reality we fight for its freedom.”

Level 1 Inmate “ she is immune to the toxins... A sure prize.”

He thinks in silence for a while. Maybe even an hour goes by before he speaks.

“I see why you are a danger to the system. You tug at my heart, something I didn't think I still had” He walks away.

Once the level 1 inmate is fully out of ear reach, he speaks to me. “ Do you remember me?”

“Of course I do daddy” I run and hug him tightly as he shakes from the excitement of me in his arms again. He pulls back and opens his hand, revealing my necklace he never let go of.

My dad “I held on to this thinking I would never see you again, yet my God has done the impossible again. I love you, my Heart, never stop fighting for the Lord, cause He will never stop fighting for you.”

“Keep the necklace daddy, Ill see you again!”

“No no, it is yours, and I'm not sure that would be the case, I've held on this long in hopes of what I thought was impossible.”

“But daddy my prayers count too, I WILL see you again.”

My dad thought for a moment and smiled, “yes you will.”

He hugged me tighter, then he left to return to the approaching ship. I'll never forget any of his words that day, for they were the first I had heard from him in nearly 300 days, since day Zero.