Rebel Kids

They’re gone. Everything I’ve ever known is gone. My parents, my entire world, gone in a mere few seconds.
I saw the explosion myself. And I saw the carriage come and take their bodies away. I didn’t let the people see me. In my nightmares I’d always imagined them in a Focus. Thats what all the other dead people I’d seen were taken away in. But that was always on the Murphey. I should’ve known better. Fords can’t make it down my road. But thats why I love dreams, there are none of the restrictions of our society. Sorry The Society.

My name is Lybra. Lib for short. I am 16 years old. My parent worked for The Society. Well I guess everyone works for The Society. Anyways, my parents are, I mean were, scientists for the Department of the Past Rehabilitation. Basically they are given things from America and try to figure out what they are, what they were used for, and how they worked. America is a society from our past that was ended when North Korea (another past society) finally figured out how to build an atomic missile. For thousands of years the few people of the American Society left lived in large underground facilities. Finally due to something once called Global Warming, Antarctica melted and revealed nutritious land. And ever since we’ve lived there. I live miles away from the nearest town with my parents. Or at least I used to. I love it out here. Its the only place the laws of our society are overlooked and unenforced and you can actually be an individual. But now that my parents are…. dead, I will be forced to live under the guidance of my promiscuous Aunt Ares, in the city. That means rules, but more importantly, that means no freedom. My life is officially over.
Its all packed now. Everything. Its amazing to me how everything we owned, an entire lifetime, fit into just a few boxes. Most of our belongings went back to The Society. Everything my parents had been working on was technically the property of The Society and therefore had to be returned to them. But that was almost everything and I would have been left with nothing to remember my parents with. There was no way I could survive being stripped of my identity without a part of them to remember who I was. So I took it. The Society was not aware they were working on it because my parents had received it secretly. Someone, they wouldn’t tell me who, had brought the device to them past The Society’s curfew. Past my new curfew. They were on the verge of discovering its use right before they were killed by the explosion. How close they came I’m not totally sure of. Their journal couldn’t be found in what objects remained in the ashes. But The Society would have probably taken it anyways so its better gone and out of their reach. How great it be to be out of The Society’s grasp once more.

Some men came to my house today. I assumed to pick up our belongings and take me to my aunts. They came to our house in a carriage again and I walked outside to meet them. I had only been outside a few times and it was always at night. The sun is unbelievable. Its so warm and so unlike the simulated suns we have in our house. I almost didn’t notice they look the men gave me because I was too distracted by the mens radiance. Wow that word makes so much more sense now. The men’s faces began in utter surprise but quickly faded to awkward embarrassment and landed with a stern yet unknowing expression. I was confused. I approached them to ask what was the matter but they backed away from me as if I was some kind of beast. They slowly backed into the carriage. I could tell by their mood detectors that they were just as confused as I was. I did not have a mood detector of my own. People in the city got them when they were twenty one. The men stayed in their carriage and began talking into some kind of device. I had seen something similar to it in my parents workshop but I didn’t know what it did.


I could hear the men saying “Theres a child… Well, what should we do with it?... Is it safe to touch?... You’re sure?... Okay we will be there soon.” Then he closed the device.

I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Hadn’t they seen children before? Was I safe to touch? With everything that had happened I couldn’t process what was enfolding in front of me. So I didn’t. I just laid down and enjoyed the sun.
*****

When I woke I didn’t know where I was. I was on a table in what looked like some kind of laboratory. There were all kinds of monitors and different wires attached to me. When I tried to pull them off a man walked in. He was wearing a white coat and a weird necklace but his eyes held kindness and I felt as though I could trust him. He approached me and began speaking to me in a voice that told me everything was going to be okay.

“Why hello there. Its good to see you’re finally awake. If you don’t mind, could you leave those attached? We are still running some tests. Do you have any idea where you are?”

I was lost and scared and so I did the only thing that I felt I could…

I told him everything.
I shared what I knew, what my parents had told me, and what I had come to think of The Society. I told him all I knew of the place I had lived throughout my entirety. And I told him what happened to my parents. The only people I knew. The only people I had ever met and how they were gone. I found myself reflected on my entire life and telling a man I didn’t know every single detail about me. And in turn he did the same for me. He filled me in on the world I lived in, of The Society I thought I knew like the back of my hand. I was in shock. My parents had lied to me. My whole life was a lie. So I clung to knowledge, or at least what I thought was knowledge, and I trusted a man I barely knew because what else could I do.

The man told me that The Society had gotten rid of children during the transition from underground to our new location. People were now created at the age of 21. They were born with implanted memories and the ability to talk and the basics of human life. People hadn’t seen a child in hundreds of years which explained a lot. I was in horrible and utter shock at everything I had just learned. If I thought I was alone before what was I now. I began asking questions. I could tell the scientist was hiding something from me but he had given me so much already so what could I do? I took what I got and made a note to ask more later. For now I would have to focus on the most important question: WHAT WERE THEY GOING TO DO WITH ME??? I was still in what seemed like a white box. But my little experience with what I thought I knew had me terribly confused and at this point I wasn’t sure what I knew anymore. A man walked in. I didn’t recognize him as one of the men from before. Him and the man seemed to be friends because the moment he walked in the man’s eyes brightened even more if that was even possible. The immediately began talking but yet it seemed more like arguing the more it progressed. They started looking at me and then arguing more. The man finally walked over and messed with some of the wires attached to me. Almost instantly I felt dizzy and th…
*****
I woke up in an even stranger place… Man I have got to stop doing that. I was surrounded by people. Was I in a box again. It seemed like I was some how seperated from them. Surrounded by a cloudy substance. Who were these people? What am I in? Are those kids? Where am I? Oh no they started looking at me. One of them walked in and pushed a button on some machine. Wai….
*****
I woke with a start. I am in a chair. I think its a chair. I can’t really tell or remember. To be honest I was starting to get used to waking up in strange places. That was the one thing I knew was true. There is a Murphey playing something I’m not really familiar with. Or am I? Oh good! Theres the man! I lunged forward with the excitement of finally recognizing someone or something. The moment I did I regretted my decision. My head pounded and the world started spinning so fast I was afraid I might fall. I leaned back to find support from the chair I woke up in. A sank into it blushing full of the embarrassment of my actions. Gaining the courage to speak I looked up finding the man staring at me. before I got the chance to he spoke.
“How are you feeling? Sorry for all the drug induced naps but I just felt it was better for you to recover fully before you were brought into all this. You’ll have to move a little slower at first. As you can see you aren’t 100 percent quite yet but you’ve been responding quite well to the trauma treatment we’ve put into place.”
“My head kinda hurts but I’m fine. What exactly are you bringing me into?”

Suddenly, with absolute certainty I knew I had been right about him. I knew could trust him and I knew he would help me. He began unfolding everything he had been hiding. There was a revolution he explained. They had been developing for a few decades now and were planning a total uprising on The Society. Their cause was the reestablishment of children. And they were going to help me. The Society had sentenced me to death with the hopes of secrecy for they too knew of the revolution that was planning to tear apart the basis of their society. However word had leaked. They could not stop the people from knowing their plans for me and incidentally they had raised utmost awareness for the revolution itself. A war was coming. The Society was divided: those in support of my existence and those against it. They wanted me to lead the movement. Inspire people to fight a war. A war over me. How could I say no?
We were taking things slow. They had waited this long so they were okay with waiting a little longer. I had recieved statistics, facts, an overwhelming amount of information that couldn’t even begin to process. There was a run down town. Close to where I lived before where all the children had lived. My parents were a part of the movement and I soon learned that they had planned this life choice for me. I didn’t know what to think about that. But it made it easier to miss them.
I was almost fully recovered. It had dawned on me that I didn’t really know I had a disease but whatever they were doing was working! They were planning something but I wasn’t sure what yet. I knew something big was coming and I was sure I was ready for it. This is what I was born to do and even if I didn’t think I could I had to try if not for the rebels that looked up to me then for my parents who risked their lives and jobs for this very thing.
I was right. They were planning the first battle `which was to begin with me. I was to address the crowd. and inspire them for their journey to battle. I had been filled in I was being prepped to address the entire rebel cause and the rest of The Society as well. What did I know about public speaking…. But if it meant saving lives I had give it a shot. All I needed to accomplish was making them willing to fight. To fight for me. For the children. They handed me a speech and out I walked trembling with every step but optimism surging through me. I saw a crowd and the flippers and then I heard a scream. I turned toward the sound and fell to the ground pain searing through me. Screams roared and the slowly died down as the image before me slowly clouded int...