***
I press my face between the two metal bars of the cell, watching the nurse grow smaller the further down the hall she goes. Mr. Stevens, the man in the cell next to mine, has finally stopped his hysterical crying and the prison returns to its chilling quiet self. I’m not sure why Mr. Stevens had been screaming, but it was enough reason to have them send medical down to the prison.
We were brought here because my mother didn’t pay her dues to the King. My father left my mother to raise Titus and me on her own, but it just wasn’t possible. Most of us are in here for simply not paying the King’s dues. Some are here for worse reasons, but in the end, it doesn’t matter. In the end, we are just collected to be held down here until it’s our time to be killed. They take a group once a week to the coliseum and murder us in front of the people of Garth. We are made into a symbol of what happens when the laws are broken.
I wonder if there’s something wrong with Mr. Stevens. Not because I’m worried about him, but because I know being sick just gives them a reason to pick you next. Better him than me. Most people down here have just accepted their fate, but not me. I’m going to get my mother and brother out of here. I turn and check the carved lines on the wall. Today is day 1,966 in the cell. You’d think being here for nearly six years would have given me plenty of time to think of a way to get out, but I haven’t been that successful. Now that we have some peace and quiet down here I may get somewhere on my newest plan.
“Sister,” Titus’s childish voice whispers. I turn and see his cheeks look shallower than normal. His brown hair is matted to his forehead and his grey eyes peek out at me. He hates silence so I should have known it was too good to be true. “Can we learn history today? I want to hear the rock story again.” I take in a deep breath and glance up in the cell across from mine. Cindy Sewer meets my eyes and I give an apologetic nod. She’s nearly 60 years old and Titus and I have taken to calling her our grandmother. She sits on her mattress with her back pressed against the concrete wall. She looks weaker than normal, probably as exhausted as I am after listening to Mr. Stevens screech all morning.
“I’ll make it quick,” I whisper across the cell. Granny gives a huff of a laugh and waves me off like she doesn’t mind. I only agree to tell Titus the story because I know he’ll drift to sleep about halfway through and then we can return to our quiet afternoon.
I move and join Titus on the mattress and hand him one of the few treasures we have down here; a book. I got it for him a couple of months ago. I had a pretty decent relationship with the servant who brought us our meals and I had begged her for books I could use to teach Titus about anything. He’s nearly seven years old and I’m the only hope he has at learning our country’s history, math, or how to read. Some days my mother helps, but usually she stays fixed in her trance. Today is one of those days. I glance over at her, curled up in the corner of the cell just staring into the wall. She does that a lot. It’s like her body’s here, but her mind is elsewhere. I don’t blame her though, most people down here are like that.
“What’s the point?” The servant girl had asked me.
“It’ll help pass the time,” I had lied. In reality, I knew I was getting us out of here, and I needed to make sure Titus would be ready when I did. So, she brought me one book a week for about a month, but then she was swapped out for a different servant who I haven’t quite warmed up to yet.
I open the old book and begin to read the story to Titus. “The year is 4912, and it is early May.”
“It is late spring in the state of Colorado,” Titus’s voice layers over my own. I laugh a little as he stumbles over the word Colorado.
“Better that time,” I try and encourage him. “On the television, a news story plays where they are talking about the asteroid shower again.” Titus lifts his finger and points to the illustration in the book. The furniture is so much more luxurious than any we ever had.
“I want a television one day,” Titus says, imagining a future where we could somehow be given a television in this cell.
“Televisions don’t exist anymore,” I gently remind Titus. Nothing in this book exists anymore. Before our civilization, the population on this planet was much greater and people lived in places called North and South America, Africa, Australia, Europe, and Asia. Now, these places no longer exist because of the asteroid shower.
The shower happened just over 100 years ago, and it is the reason the world I know even exists. The asteroid shower was predicted to happen years before it did, but no one had thought that it could be so extreme. When the shower started it was too late for most people. The asteroids, as we learned later on, were full of atomic energy. Some say radiation, but the true chemicals
