“No, sweetie, she isn’t dead, but some bad men took her, and some friends of mine and I are going to save her.”
“Otay,” she says matter-of-factly. “I trust you, Elizabeth.”
“Liz, baby girl, can you call me Liz?”
“I like it,” she smiles. “Liz,” she whispers, trying it out for the first time.
We both stand up, happy that we have got to see each other again.
“Take me to Jake,” I say to the guards firmly.
The guard that appears to be the one in charge nods in the direction of a room marked Mess Hall. I begin the walk towards the cafeteria, knowing my mom and little sister will follow.
I see my group right away. Eli sees me first because he jumps up and begins running towards me, but as he comes my way, his pace turns into a sluggish walk, to a complete stop. He stares in awe of our mother and little sister standing behind me.
After a moment of being stunned, he continues his run in our direction. He collides with me, hugging me with a tightness.
“Is this a good thing?” he whispers in my ear.
“I don’t know yet,” I respond.
“Mom, Lydia,” he says, leaving my embrace, going to theirs.
I look over to see Mar and Zac coming our direction with smiles on their faces. They both give me a hug but shortly move on to my mom and Lydia.
Jake, Leah, Magi, and Shawn stand up but don’t come towards us. Instead, I walk towards my family. When I get to them, Jake grabs me, pulling me in close.
He leans down, kissing me hard and long.
“I love you, Liz,” Jake says in his deep voice and kisses me again. “I didn’t know if they were going to let me see you or not. I was going to come looking for you.”
When we pull apart, I notice my mom walking our way.
“Mom, this is Shawn,” I say, pointing at each person as I come to them. “He is from the R9,”
“Really? Who were your parents?” she asks.
“Yeah!” I say, changing the subject. “And this is Leah, she is my age, and Magi, she was the nurse at The Force, she helped take care of all of us when we were sick.”
“Thank you,” my mom smiles.
“And this is?”
“Jake?” My mom interrupts.
“Yes,” I say, blushing again.
“My daughter speaks highly of you.”
“This is your mom?” Jake looks at me is surprise.
“Yes!” I smile back. “It’s a long story, but yes this is my mom and my youngest sister, Lydia.”
Jake crouches down eye to eye with Lydia
“Hi Lydia, my name is Jake, I am Liz’s friend.”
“Hi Jake, you’re not Lizzie’s friend, you her boyfriend.” Her nose crinkles when she laughs.
“Yes, that I am,” he says with a smile.
“Call me Dia, otay.” Her chubby lips curl.
“Why Dia?” Eli asks.
“Well brudder, you get to be Eli and Elizabeth gets to be Liz, so I’m Dia now.”
“Okay, Dia, I’m Jake. It is nice to meet you. And yes, I am Lizzie’s boyfriend.”
Dia smiles from ear to ear with her newfound acceptance and name.
It is so crazy how in a moment, a five-year-old could be so changed. Being introduced as Dia to a group of strangers means she has chosen to be someone new, a new form of the person she used to be.
After all, this child has gone from her father dying, her sisters and brother being taken by The Force, her dead father showing up, to coming to this place just to find out Shae is in danger. If any of us get to change, she does.
“I like it a lot,” I say as I ruffle her hair.
She smiles at me with the most genuine smile I have ever seen.
Together, we sit down at the dinner table. It is amazing to see all the food they have for us. Back at the R9 we were starving, and at The Force, we were on rations. Here, they seem to not care how much you eat.
The room is huge, but like the room before, it is bright white. There are at least thirty large tables in this room. They are all different shapes and sizes, but they are all painted white. That seems like an odd choice for a place where food is eaten, but it must have a purpose.
I begin to look around at all the people in the room. Everyone, I mean each person in this room apart from me, is wearing white. The cups and plates are white, the chairs, forks, knives, spoons, all of it… White.
“It’s something else, isn’t it?” Jake whispers in my ear.
“It sure is.”
“They will make you go to the Bath House and change your clothes,” he begins. “They expect us to be cleansed.”
“From what?”
“Any impurities.” He grimaces. “And let me tell you that it was not fun in the least.”
I sit for a moment thinking about what all this could mean. Each of my friends and family are wearing white, but for some reason, their complexions look off. Almost too pale.
“They call all the members here souls,” Magi chimes in a hushed tone.
“Yeah,” Zac says, “and they talk about something called The Cleansing which we have done, and The Purifying which, we don’t know what that is yet.
I look at each member individually.
“This place supports The Elected,” I say. “And, the man in the suit says his name is R. J. Timothy III.”
They all look at me in shock.
“We haven’t seen him since the stadium,” Leah says. She
