The Visionaries

11

I trust and love Dany with all of my heart. No, not that way, she's my foster sister for crying out loud.

"Are you sure?" Aaron asked her.

"Yep." Dany said.

"Alright, what do we do now?" Norrin said.

I walk up to an incinerated soldier and grab the gun beside him.

"Let's take their shit and run." I say.

"Not bad." Dany grabs the rifle next to the guy who had given us the Star Wars villain speech. "What's your name by the way?" she asked the soldier.

"Six. I can't remember my actual name though."

"Oh. Okay." Dany grabbed the taser that somehow survived the fire.

We take their weapons and notice the helicopter is still there along with the ATVs. After a thorough inspection and ripping out the GPS system, we were ready to use them. We got on and drove through the desert.

"Where are we going?" Six yelled.

"You'll see when we get there!" Aaron yelled back.

I noticed Six eyeing me and rolled my eyes. We continue as Aaron does a right turn.

"Where are we going?" Bree said.

"It's a place they don't know exists." Aaron said. "We used to hang out there when they started the raids."

"The raids?" Six asked.

"How much do you remember?" Norrin asked Six.

"Nothing. Just bits and pieces of my old life."

"Oof, we got a lot of explaining to do. But what do you know so far?" Norrin looked back at the desert.

"I know they're racist. And when I was in the hospital, a lady said something about not wanting to live in a world like this."

"Alright, long story short, the government is now run by horrible people who took everyone's rights away and want to kill anyone who doesn't fit their standards aka white, healthy, attractive, and rich." Norrin said. "There's plenty of resistance cells but we don't work with most of them."

"Why not? Wouldn't it be better if you all worked together?" Six raised his brow.

" Well, all of us have different goals. Some of us want everything to go back to the way it was before. Some people want to set up a completely different government. Some want to start over and of course there's always the ones that don't want a government at all." Norrin said. "Also some groups don't like us because we'll just tell them how it is. Some don't really want to work with us anyway."

I sighed as we took another right turn. We continued on our merry way to the secret location. I was falling asleep but we had to stay up. Eventually the ATVs ran out of gas and switched to electric. Finally we stopped at a ghost town. There were signs that this place had been raided. There were broken windows, doors had been left open, and the smell of rotten food that lingered in the air.

"Was it a rez at some point?" Bree asked.

Aaron's head slumped and his fists clumped.

"It's my rez." he said. "My entire family lived here and so did a few other people from the ILM." We followed him as he walked past houses, a gas station and a school. There were dead dogs on the side of the road and a few wandering around. He arrived at a house with a red tin roof. He tried to open the door.

"Fuck, it's locked." he said.

Six said, "Maybe I can help."

Aaron moved aside and Six slammed into it, the door falling. They had been here. There were shattered plates and knocked over chairs. It was obvious what had happened.

"Mom? Auntie Clara? Grandma?" Aaron called out. He walked around the house. We walked into the kitchen. There was rotting food, a knocked over table and a beaded earring. Aaron looked at it, his eyes widening for a bit. He looked horrified. He picked up the earring and cradled it in his hand. Dany had entered a bedroom. She screamed all of a sudden. We ran into the bedroom. It was like the set of a horror movie. There was blood everywhere on the walls. Bullet casings were all over the floor. There were body shaped blood spots on the floor. Aaron fell to his knees on the floor in tears. Dany covered her mouth and started to cry. Norrin accidentally touched the knocked down lamp with their foot and screamed, crying as well. Bree was too shocked to make a noise but tears ran through her face. Six looked spaced out, his face going pale. I made my way to Dany and hugged her. Norrin walked over to Aaron, who was clenching the earring in his hand, his knuckles almost white. They put their

"Those pieces of shit...." I muttered.

"I'm so sorry." Bree said.

"We...can't....even...bury....their bodies." Aaron said in between clenched teeth.

Six stared at the bullet casings.

"That's what your bosses do to us." I say, feeling my chest tighten and my breaths get heavier. "This isn't their first time doing this either."

Aaron finally got up and wiped his face off.

"Let's get out of here." We don't protest. He grabs the earring and puts it in his pocket. He grabs some other small things. We get back in the ATVs and continue our way. The whole ride is silent. Finally, we reached the place Aaron was talking about. It was a valley between canyons. I noticed something else. There's people here. We stop as one approaches us. It's a Native woman. She's got gray hair and has her face badly beaten.

"Aaron?" she asked. Aaron collapses with her grabbing him. He starts to sob, louder than any of us have ever heard him cry. She sobs with him and I start to tear up.

"I'm glad you're alive." he said. "I just-"

The old woman rubs his back ."I know, sweetheart. I know." Dany joins in and then Norrin. Bree hugs them and I join in. Why, Creator, why?