Chapter 1.11: District 0

I looked out through my window and saw the grey concrete world I had come to be used to. Not happy or comfortable with, just used to. There wasn’t a single feeling of positive vibes of it. It was where we lived, but it didn’t feel like home. In truth, it felt more like the prison it was.

It was exactly five years since the day they brought us here. My kids had spent their entire childhood surrounded by high concrete walls that secluded us from the rest of Fondant Fields. Within District 0 everything was colorless, even the berries. I knew it was colorful on the outside and I would never forget about the town that was real home, even though it had kicked me out its door.

The anniversaries was always the hardest days. I missed Fondant Fields. I missed my colorful friends. I missed my job.

I woke up several times during the anniversary nights, always drenched in sweat and tears. Always the same dream:

I’m sleeping peacefully in my own bedroom, next to my big love Drover.

My children are laying in their cribs in the adjacent rooms, having fallen asleep many hours ago.

The sound of wood breaking as my front door gets kicked in suddenly wakes me up. A deep, angry voice, “We’re here to get you, vanilla freaks” sends shivers through my body.

Both me and Drover hurries out of bed to find our children in the arm’s of strangers in uniforms. Them. The antagonists.

They beat us up and tie our hands behind our backs and pushes us out of our home, in to a car and drives off.

I open my eyes and see the high concrete walls, realizing there is no way to get out of here since the gates are locked with sturdy locks.

This is were I wake up. The dream is an exact projection of the last minutes of our old life. And the place I was taken to, is where I now live and have lived for the past five years. It’s a prison, a ghetto. It’s their way of getting rid of us and making sure we won’t mix our colorless genes with the “real berries”. District 0.

Maybe we should have seen it coming. Mayor Bloom openly and officially built the ghetto to house berries ill in epidemics during his first election period (as far as I know, there was never any epidemic). He also fueled the grudge against colorless in all ways he could think of. And he was mighty successful.

I didn’t see it back then because I was too busy worrying about the colorless children I had given birth to. And Flax did what he could, but bringing Sundance to the live broadcasted TV show backfired. When our neighbours found out that Sundance was white because his genes had been passed on he was immediately classified as a freak, along with his mother – me.

After that, all we could do was to fight as best as we could, even though it felt like we had our hands tied to our backs.

When Mayor Bloom was re-elected the real terror begun. First, I lost my job. Then Drover lost his because he sympathized with me. I suppose several minor steps was taken to finally come to the point where we were waken up in the middle of the night and forced to move inside the concrete walls.

I can’t believe it’s been five years already. The kids go to school during the days and even though their education is beneath contempt, I’m glad they get to leave the house and just be with people of their own age. Drover works within the district, his nursing skills is high in demand and he trades his services for food and books. I have not much use of my work experiences but I help where I can.

We are allowed to go freely outside the walls, as long as we are back before they lock the gates at 9pm. Curfew, can you believe it? The worst part is that Fondant Fields seems happy with this solution. They are finally free of the colorless plague.

“Mooom, we are home!” Quince opens our front door and rushes in to tackle me with a hug. I suppose the love and bonds within our family are one of the few positive things about this whole, stupid situation. We wouldn’t survive this if we didn’t stand up for each other, so we did.

“How was school?” I asked, trying to sound happy and interested. I wanted them to think they had a decent childhood, even if I also made sure to let them know they deserved better than this.

“Same as always” they all replied in unison.

“Can we go outside the district today?” Quince asked. I often wondered if he remembered anything from before we moved here or if it was just a matter of jealousy for the life Bluebell could live. Pixie and Bluebell still lived on the outside and that little girl had a much better life than my kids. No wonder my son was jealous, really.

We went to the park, where we met up with Pixie and Bluebell. While it was lovely to come outside, it also hurt to think of all the things we missed. Pixie had the same troublesome, sad look in her eyes that she had sported ever since my family were transferred to District 0. “How are you?” she wondered and hugged me tight. I shrugged, it was as it was.

The kids ran off to play and me and Pixie sat down on a bench in the park. Some people took detours around me and the kids in fear of being polluted with some strange diseases they imagined lived within our bodies. It all hurt so much.

“I walked by your house yesterday” Pixie said and I could see tears forming in her eyes. “It’s still empty and dusty and no one has even bothered putting the furniture back in place. It’s a mess!”

I teared up by the thought of my lovely little home left as it was when we were forced away from it. We still had clothes in the wardrobes and there was probably still food rotting in the fridge. It was surrealistic in a way.

“Oh sorry, I shouldn’t have mentioned it. I just… I don’t know. This is so stupid!”

“It’ll change eventually. It won’t be forever.” I said it more to comfort myself than Pixie. I had to believe it would change or there was no way I would be able to keep fighting.

“Mom, look at me!” Sweet Corn yelled and swung higher and higher on the colorful swing. She was dressed in yellow. We did what colorless berries had done in all time, we dressed her up in color to try and hide the truth. Didn’t matter much where we lived, but it still felt a bit better. She was still happy, always so satisfied with life and everything. She seemed so fragile and I dreaded the day she would break.

“Be careful Sweets!” Quince called out after her before I had time to say anything. He was such a good big brother, always looking after his siblings and making sure they were alright. I think it was because he was colorful and they were not. He had proudly stated three years ago that no one was ever going to harm them if he was around. Until this day, he had lived by that word.

Sundance was watching the others play from a distance. I knew he looked up to his elder brother and he was never as happy as when they allowed him to join their games. Just watching kept him happy, though. He was more the quiet kind. Probably the one of my kids I should really be worrying about because he didn’t seem to have the confidence that Quince and Sweet Corn had. At least he had that yellow hair to keep him somewhat safe, though.

“Look, this is what it could be” Pixie complained and threw her hands out in front of her. I nodded silently.

“Mom?” Sundance was suddenly standing right in front of me.

“Mhm?”

“What time is it. It’s getting dark…” He pointed towards the sky and I looked at my watch only to see that we had about fifteen minutes to get back home. I didn’t even dare to think about what would happen if we missed it. My father didn’t need any new neighbours anytime soon.

“Kids, we better run!” I shouted and they all understood at once and started running with me. We had to get back home in time.

“I was starting to worry for you” Drover said as we reached our barrack. He kissed me and gave each of the kids a hug each. It was very, very important for us to stick together as a real family in these times.

Posted by FruHurricane on October 11, 2012

https://twistedcolor.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/chapter-1-11-district-0/