The Visionaries

12

After the hug ended, they all got silent.  Eventually, they made it to the valley. There were people in tents with varying degrees of injuries. There was sobbing sounds and singing.

Aaron looked at the group.

"I'm going to go do something." He said. Alma and the others nodded. He started to walk away.

"Wait, where is he-?" Six asked.

"Probably going to do some burial rites with the things he got." Norrin said.

"Oh." Six said.

"We should probably find a spot to sleep in tonight. If we could get any sleep tonight." Bree said. The others agreed.

"Maybe we should go with him." Six suggested.

"I know you're new to this but I think he might need some time alone. It's gonna be a lot to process once it hits him." Alma said. Six nodded.

The elderly woman introduced herself as Abigail. She was an elder from Aaron's tribe.

"After they left, we were able to get out of our hiding spots. We looked around to see if there had been any survivors. We found a few and dragged them here." Abigail started a fire in an empty spot near a setup tent. "We went back for supplies. They dragged bodies away but I don't know where. The survivors hid in closets, basements, anywhere the officers wouldn't bother to look."

"That's horrible." Six said.

"Do you know what happened to Aaron's family?" Bree asked.

"They were killed as well. Everyone but his mother. She was sent away to a labor camp months ago but we have not heard a word about her since. They took our young people away first and left all the children and elders." Abigail said. "That poor, poor young man...."

"Those monsters....can't even bury our own now." Norrin crumpled their fists.

"We have always been victims of this. Yet, we have survived. And we will survive." Abigail said. "I'll let you rest. I know you must be exhausted. There's food and blankets in the tent."

"Thank you." They all said.

Everyone sat by the campfire. They were all silent. Aaron eventually came back, eyes red and swollen. He sat down in between Norrin and Daenaera.

"Do you ever feel like giving up?" Aaron said.

"Sometimes." Alma was staring at the dirt. "I wonder what I'm fighting for at this point. It seems like every time we get somewhere, we get thrown all the way back."

"I wish I could go back home but there's nothing to go back to." Daenaera's eyes were watery.

"Same." Bree pursed her lips.

"Yeah. They did it to get back at us." Norrin said. "Aaron's family just happened to be the closest ones they could harm."

"What about you guys?" Six asked.

"My parents got separated during the first phase of the New State. Dad chose penance over staying with my mother. He's dead to me. Mom committed suicide right after. " Norrin said.

"What's penance?" Six asked.

"If you were white and married to someone who wasn't, you could either join them in the camps for miscegenation or sign your rights to your kids away and have your marriage annulled." Bree said. "My family was sent away. I don't know if they're alive or not."

"Our parents died in a flood. Dany and I's. My egg donor abandoned me and my sperm donor was never in the picture." Alma said.

"Oh. I'm sorry you all had to live through that." Six said.

"It gets easier, eventually. You'll never forget it, though." Alma said.

"I'm hitting the hay." Norrin said. "Night."

"Night night." Bree said. "I'm heading off too."

"Goodnight." Dany said. "I'm joining them."

Aaron went to the tent wordlessly.

"Are you tired yet?" Six asked Alma.

"No. I think I'm too shocked to sleep." Alma said.

"Same." Six said. He watched her undo her ponytail. Suddenly, his mind snapped to the screaming little girl he'd seen in his dream.

"Do I...know you?" He asked.

"Know me?" She started to braid her hair. "Besides our first encounter, I don't think so."

"No, it's just you look like someone I saw in a dream." he said.

"What was the dream?" Alma said.

"I was trying to run after someone. He was carrying a little girl away. She looked a lot like you."

Alma paused on her braiding.

"No way." she said. "I do remember what you're talking about though."

"What happened?" he asked.

"It was when the government was trying to figure out where to throw kids in the system since they refused to provide for us. They took everyone who was fourteen and older and sent them to labor camps. If they weren't white, that is. They got sent to special schools and married off if they were girls, sent to the army if they were boys." Alma said. "Everyone younger got "adopted" out to families of the same race as them."

"So do you remember me?"

"I do but I can't remember your name. All I know is we used to play on the playground together. I can't even remember which foster family I was with, but I know they were white."

"That sucks. Anyway, I'm going to go to sleep." Six said.

"Same." Alma said. They walked to the tent. They grabbed the blankets and headed out to the corner. Alma laid down between him and Bree. Aaron and Dany were cuddled up together. Norrin was spawned out near the back corner. Six eventually drifted off, too tired to keep looking around.

Around midnight, he heard sobbing. It was Aaron, with Dany smoothing his hair. They were probably a couple. He saw that Alma was staring at the tent, eyes wide open.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I miss my home." she turned her head to face him. "I just-I don't know what I'm grieving for. I don't even think my nanita remembers me. I don't have a home and I don't even know what happened to my mother."

"What about your dad?"

"Fuck that guy. He didn't care enough to show up."

"I kind of know how you feel." Six said. "I get kind of sad, thinking the same thing about my family. I don't even know if they're alive or not. Or if they are bothering to look for me."

Alma extended her hand to him. He took it and she gave it a tight squeeze.

"Don't worry, we'll find out."