The Visionaries

13

I woke up with my arm on Six's chest and his arm around me. I quickly moved and jolted up, feeling dizzy right after. Bad idea, bad idea. I heard people walking and the sounds of nearby.

I walked out, realizing I had never finished braiding my hair. It was a tangled wavy mess. I saw the ILM loading people into. And I saw her, handing out care packages.

No. She turned to face me. She looked shocked.

"Lana?"

I felt like throwing up. Or screaming. I froze as someone called out to me.

"Alma?" It was Bree. I turn to see her, Six, and Norrin out. My mother walks towards me.

"Alma?" Lana said.

"So you finally show up after sixteen years?" I ask.

"It's a long story, Alma. I only did what I thought would protect you." She said.

"Protect me? You know what happened to me after you fucking abandoned me? I was thrown around by CPS to everyone and their mothers' house. Some of them beat me, some didn't feed me and one guy tried to trade me out for two twelve packs and a bag of chips. You took me away from the only two people that loved me!" People start looking around. I honestly don't care. "Taati passed away without ever seeing us again."

"What?" Lana's face went pale. "How do you know?"

"We met in the ancestral lands. He died wondering what happened to his girls. You let him die without his daughter by his side." I sigh and turn away. I walk away into my tent and lay on the ground. I didn't want to see her. Now I'm feeling all drained and angry. Bree comes back with coffee and eggs on toast.

"We can leave if you want, one of the bases isn't too far from here." Bree said.

"I would like that." I say. She sets the food in front of everyone. Dany puts cactus fruit in front of us. This is something that I haven't seen in ages.

"Taati! Taati!" I was about three or four. Probably four. I ran to my taati with a pair of tongs in my hand. My nanita was checking on the vegetables in the milapa, or a bunch of corn, squash, and beans growing together.

"There you are, it took you long enough." he said jokingly. He cut the nopal or tender cactus leaf off the older tougher one. We always did this early in the morning when the spines of the cactus were soft from morning dew. Nanita used to say it was because they were still sleeping.

"Taati! I want fruit!" I say, reaching my arms out and jumping.

"Hold on, Alma." he hands it to me and I take a bite.

I return to reality and realize I'm crying. A stupid fruit made me cry. A fruit. I'm fucking losing it. I take a bite from it. The sweetness and slight sour taste bring more tears to my eyes. I just want to go home. That's all I ever wanted since I left my town. I should have never left. I should have cried and screamed more. Maybe Lana would have left me there. What would my life have been like? Would I have continued school in Mexico? Would I have had a quince? Met a guy, married, had kids? Left my town to go travel? Gone to college? I will never know. She took that from me. The only people I loved and my hometown. I feel two hands on my shoulders. It's Dany and Six.

I turn and hug both. I'm sobbing, a hot mess of the person I normally am.

"She doesn't want to see you, lady! Get lost!" Norrin's voice said outside the tent.

"She's my daughter, what's your claim?"

"We're her fucking friends, now get lost." Aaron yelled.

I heard a huff. Norrin walks in.

"You heard that, didn't you?" they asked.

"I did." I wipe my face. "We should finish breakfast and go. I don't want to breathe the same air as her."

We finished eating and boarded a different hovercraft than Lana. I watch as the former camp gets smaller and smaller. We left the ATVs behind to make more room for people. I turn to see Aaron talking to Abigail and Norrin joking around with Bree and another person. Six is joking around with a group of people.

"Are you feeling better?" Dany asked. I shrug. "As good as I'll get. Has Madeleine gotten back with us?"

"She was the one who sent them off to find us after she heard about the recent massacre." Dany said. "She also didn't know Lana was your egg donor."

"Is she a high up or some shit?" I ask.

"Apparently." Dany said. "And you have a stepfather."

"Or maybe it's my biological dad and she hasn't got the spine to tell him or me about each other." I watch the canyons and desert get smaller.

"I don't know. Maybe you should take a breather." Dany said. "These last couple of days have sucked, massively."

"That's an understatement." I say.

"Attention everyone, we will arrive at the camp for dropoff in a few minutes." someone said through the intercoms. We reunite as a group again and sit on the ground.

"I'll be glad when we're back at HQ." Aaron said. "I'm overdue for a shower."

"Same." Norrin grabbed a piece of their hair and let it go. "My hair is tangled as hell."

"I could just use the hot water." Bree said. "This weather really isn't for me."

"Same." Dany said. "And I lived in North Carolina for years."

"We have lived in North Carolina for years." I say.

"Do you miss home?" Dany asked.

"Sometimes. But there's nothing to go back to." I say. "Do you wonder what Thomas and Jace would of been like?"

Dany's face wilts like a flower that had too much sun.

"I do all the time. I know they're in the ancestral land now and they're safe. They'll never suffer again." she said. I rub her back. "I'm glad they won't. I really am."