The After Thanksgiving Blog

Hello Nerdheads and non nerdheads i hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Today I am posting one of my favorite stories that I have written....usaully i am my own ruthless critic. Alright here it is...it is a bit long. Sorry

Moon Children

The moon was shinning bright on my end of the compound. It was the first time that I had seen the moon shinning so bright since I first came into this place. The Moon had been my home since I was a child and now. I was stuck here on Earth, with the others. My brother was already fast asleep in his bed, probably didn’t understand what was going on anyway since he was only 6 years old. I on the other hand couldn’t find the time to fall asleep. My eyes were heavy, yet I felt no need for me to go to sleep. I kept thinking about my house on the Moon and my parents and my friends. One of the guards kept passing by without saying a word. Though we both spoke English it seemed to be a language gap between us, and he merely grunted as warning. The guards were dressed in heavy armor with red breastplates and a blue helmet as well as a white line draped down the leg over a black legging.

The cell that I was in was rather small, there was barley enough room for me to turn around and get into my bed, which was on top of my brothers. There was a small toilet in the corner of the corner of the room. Then there was the window that I was staring out of to see the moon. I didn’t understand why they had taken us to this compound and for that matter it would be hard to find out. I thought I would go to bed and see what happened in the morning. I crawled into bed and wrapped my self in the sheets and closed my eyes.

When I awoke in the morning my brother was sitting on the side of his bed crying. I got up and jumped off the bed and put my arm around him. “What’s wrong Kevin?” I asked. He had the deepest of blues eyes and his hair was a golden yellow. He looks up at me with his blue eyes. “I miss mom and dad” For some reason or another I knew that he was going to say that. As his big brother it was my job to cheer him up, unfourntetly I couldn’t do it. I missed my mom and dad as well and here we were in the middle of a compound for an unknown reason. What was I going to tell him? Everything was going to be all right. I wasn’t going to straight out lie to my little brother. Because the truth was everything wasn’t all right

“You two get up, we are going out to the field” one of the guards said. Kevin looked at me and I nodded to let him know that I was there for him. As we marched out of our cells I noticed other children walking out of theirs. I could feel the tip of the guard’s gun on my spine. Any sudden move I made was going to kill me. Another guard opened the metal doors and led us to a field. But this field wasn’t full of grass and plants and weeds to pluck. But it was a field full of fetuses growing from the ground. I was scared now. I had never seen this kind of thing before. Children being born from the ground? Were we slaves to whoever owned this compound? They separated Kevin and I into two separate rows. “Pluck the children and place them gently into the basket next to you, do not to talk to the other children, do not ask for water and do not laugh” a guard with rocky voice said. I started to pull one of the children from the ground. His foot was bleeding, I took my shirt and whipped it off and placed him in the basket. Then I plucked another child and placed her in the basket.

I looked over my shoulder and saw the girl next to me was struggling to take one of the children out of the ground. If the guards saw me helping her I would surely get shot in the back. But I took the risk. “Need help there” I said. She nodded. I pulled the child out of the ground and placed her in the basket. This was starting to bother me, but my questions weren’t going to be answered. Not so easily. All these innocent children being grown from the ground, what where they going to do with them? After many hours of plucking the children from the ground a loud buzzing sound started to ring. “Move” one of the guards grunted.

The other children must have known the routine because they started to grab their baskets and walk toward a gate that was opening. I followed blindly and I could see Kevin doing the same. We soon arrived at area with large steel pipes, where the other children grabbed a child and placed them inside the pipe and pressed a red button. I stared blankly as the children continued to do so. One of the guards must have spotted me because I could feel his gun against my back. “Why are we doing this?” I blurted out. The guard hit me in the stomach with a baton. I fell to the floor with anguish. “Never question the Moon Children Wisdom” he said. “Can’t you just tell me what’s going on you big grunt” The guard grabbed me by my wrist and placed and electrical bracelet on both hands. Which shocked me and launched me to the ground. “Take him to the Wisdom” I could hear the guard say before I started to black out.

“Take them off, I will make this child learn” I heard a aged voice say. I slowly started open my eyes. I saw an old man staring at me. He had thick white hair and was wearing a blue suit. “Ahh, you aren’t the first to make it to my office child” he said as he ran his hand down my cheek as though trying to make me feel better. “Who are you and why am I in this compound?” I asked screaming loudly. “I am the Wisdom and th e reason why you and the others are here is because you are now my slave, and you will be my slave for the rest of your life.” “Slave?” I said. “Yes, I own you and the other children, you were bought, your parents gave you up”

He now walked over to a water cooler and poured water into a cup. He handed me the cup I took it reluctantly. “My parents would never give me or my brother up, they love both of us” “Ah, child, that’s where you are wrong, no parent cares for the children, it is all a lie, a lie that we all live until we are adults and realize our parents hate us” “But why enslave us, and why are you planting children?” The Wisdom started to laugh, and then he instantaneously grabbed the cup of water out of my hand and backhanded me causing my lip to bleed. “You are a pest, there is a place for pesky little children like you in this compound”

I was starting to feel as though this man didn’t like children. He was merely enslaving us to do his dirty work. That the US Government praobley didn’t approve us which is why we were in the middle of no-where. The Guard’s red white and blue attire was simply a disguise in case any government officials would come upon the compound. This compound that we were so wrongfully taken too was bigger than it appeared to us. We only knew the garden, launching pad and the cells. But wherever the Wisdom was taking me was some place new. “Come boy, lets see if you will be questioning the Wisdom of the Moon Children now”

He grabbed a hold of my wrist and led me into a dark hallway. The lights were beginning to dim, and then flash bright, than dim again. The hall way smelled like a thousand year worth of sweat. The wisdom than opened a door that had a broken handle. I could see a chair that was draped in old bloodstains. Than I realized what he was going to do. I started to tug, but his grip was too tight. Than I tugged again, still his grip didn’t loosen. My heart started to beat faster and faster. I could feel it as though it was right in the palm of my hand. He placed me hard on the chair then connected me to the chair with two metal rings. I started to worry about my little brother Kevin and how he could along without me. The wisdom than walked over to a string and pulled it down. Releasing a projection screen. “Watch and listen boy” the wisdom said. The old technology of the years before was all around this room. The years leading up to 2020 were hard for us all, which were the years that the moon was colonized. It was an amazement that the old technology was still working. Now in the year 2030, everything on the moon was in ruins and everything on Earth was in chaos, which leads to the Compound.

Suddenly a deep and enchanting voice came on the screen. “Parents, we don’t need them, life is about work, and life is about making the world go round” the voice said. The wisdom than slap me across the face and caused my check to swell up. “Pay attention boy” he said with distain. I tried to keep my eyes glued on the screen but the pictures that kept rolling on it were too much. Dogs were getting kicked, Deer getting shot, and children being thrown across the room. I was getting sick to my stomach like I ate something rotten. Than from nowhere I threw up on the floor, from the sight of all the projection. “Make it stop,” I said screaming loudly. “You see now boy, working for me isn’t so bad” the wisdom said in a kind voice but a slight hint of anger. He stopped the projection and punched me in the stomach. Making me throw up on my self. I could barely stand up much less walk on my own. I grabbed a hold of the Wisdoms arm as a relief, but he threw me off. “Crawl, you Scrowling” he said. The pain in my stomach was too much to bare, but I had prove that I was no longer was a child since the next phase in my life was that of a Guard. I started to get up and ignored the grinding pain in my stomach breathing heavily. I walked with my hand against my stomach as an aide to the pain. I could feel blood boiling up in my mouth so I spit it out onto the floor. I followed the Wisdom back through the dimmed hall, and into the room where we were before. “Now, get back to work Scrowling” I walked out the door and back into the fields, were the other children were still loading the babies.

One of the Guards pushed me and I fell over scrapping my knee on the ground. I than got up and walked over to where I saw Kevin. He looked at me and I could see the pain in his eyes. There was so much pain, that words weren’t needed. Soon on my 18^th birthday I would no longer be able to see him and that pained me. Every ticking moment was another moment away from him. Although I was in pain both mentally and physically I kept loading the plant children in metal cylinders and pressing the red button. “Back to the cells with the lot of you” one of the guards said in a thick British accent. I recognized the voice, as a fellow schoolmate from my schooling on the moon it was Nigel Smith. But something had changed since now and then, he was no longer the boy I used to play laser tag with, he was a strict guard with no sentimental feelings towards that of the kids. Trying to uphold his guard status he shoved me along the line making me run into one of the smaller kids.

As we continued to walk back to our cells, I walked with my head down so that the other children couldn’t see my swollen lip. Even though it was pretty obvious I had sustained injury. When both Kevin and I reached our cell, we were each handed a plate with slop. The slop look like it was boiled bird crap. I shoved it away. Ignoring the hunger pains in my stomach. “Dustin, are we ever going to mom and dad again” Kevin said as he sniffed the slop on his spoon. “I don’t know Kevin, but I am going to find a way out of here, not just for us, but for the others” I said. In the past I would have not cared about my brother’s feelings. But this was different, his life was on the line here, nobody could survive this long living on that slop. “Lights out you Scrowlings” the guard said as he turned out our lights.

I made my way to the window and stared at the moon, I had high hopes that I would make it back there one day. Back to my parents home, back to where I grew up, instead of living a life under the Compound, under the rules of the Wisdom. Tomorrow was my birthday and the day I am instantiated as a Guard. I looked over at Kevin who was now sound asleep, with a smile on his face. I thought to myself, he must be dreaming of life on the Moon and how life used to be before the Wisdom, took us to the Compound, before the Moon Children came into existence.

Yes I lived on the moon, but I was not a Moon Child, I was born here on earth, naturally out of my mothers womb, then when I was about 14 when, earth was being forced to colonize on the moon. This Wisdom had so much money and so power, that everybody started to believe he was god, including my parents.

My eyes were beginning to get heavy, so I slowly walked over to my bunk; I patted Kevin on the head. I wrapped myself in the dirty sheets and fell asleep. Not too long after I had drifted off. I heard a loud screaming, a shrill scream. I woke up immediately like the others to see what the ruckus was. I saw from the moon light that The Wisdom was grabbing a boy by his wrist dragging him along on the floor. The boy couldn’t be that much younger than me. But I could tell by his dreary eyes that he was in anguish. I bit my lip and attempted the impossible. “Leave that boy alone” I cried. “What? What? Didn’t you learn, you don’t disobey the Wisdom” he said as he dropped the boy to the ground and kicked him in the stomach. The boy started to spit up blood spitting it out little by little. Then puked all over the Wisdoms shoe. The Wisdom grabbed the boy by the throat and started to choke him. He gagged and gagged; his face began to turn pale. Then the Wisdom released him dropping him to the floor. He rubbed his neck to relive the pain but before he could the wisdom grabbed him by the wrist. He pointed towards me.

My stomach began to turn just seeing the boy in pain. The Guards than opened my cell door, I kissed Kevin on the forehead, letting him know that I was going to be all right. The Guard grabbed me, I knew exactly where I was going. Or at least I thought I did. When we arrived at the hallway, they turned left instead of right opening a door, which was left open a crack. When they opened it more, the smell of rotten bodies could be smelled. The guard threw me in the room. I looked to left of me and there was a dead body, most likely ripe. I could feel my hear beating faster and faster. I ran over to the door but it was locked. I gulped hard. I felt as if the dead body was watching my every move. Every moment I was locked in this room I began to feel as though I had no breathe. I fucked up my chances of getting to become a Guard and freeing all the enslaved children. Then just as I felt like I was grabbing my last breathe of air, the door opened. “Are you alive?” the voice said from behind. I recognized the voice. It was Nigel Smith, had he come to save me I wondered. “I can’t stay long, but I know you want out, tomorrow, if the Wisdom lets you in, I will show you my plan of escaping.” Then I heard his boots scurrying off. He had left the door open. I started to place my hand on the handle of the door. But was suddenly jerked away and thrown on my back. The Wisdom walked in, his hands drenched in spots of blood. I assumed he had done something bad to the kid. He just looked at me with angered eyes and clenched his fists. “My oh my you still havn’t learned your lesson have you boy, maybe a good ol beating to the head will teach you a thing or two” He swung at me hitting me right in the face. Causing a tooth to break, I spit my tooth out at him along with a bit of blood. He whipped it off his face and grabbed me by my collar. “You know, if I decide to let you live, you might become a pretty good Guard” he said. I tried to keep silent, but he then dropped me to the ground. “I am your God, you do no disobey me, do you understand?” he said. “You are god?” I said distastefully. “Yes, you are my slave, and will be until the day you hit 40” This man is insane I thought. He pulled out a small knife and brought it up against my neck. I could smell a distinct cigar smell on his breath. Now I was breathing hard again. Were these my last moments? I thought myself. Then just when he was about to cut my throat he stopped. “Come with me boy, your Guard training starts now” he said. He seemed to be a tad bit friendly now. I followed him reluctantly through the dimmed hallway into another hallway that seemed a lot cleaner. On the walls of this hall way was a picture of the Wisdom holding a child, the ones that we picked out of the ground. He then walked through a metal door, which slide open.

On either side of me were weapons, small and big. Some that I recognized from the Guards uniforms, others I had yet noticed. The ones that the guards had carried were in the center of them. Across the room was a table, in which there was some food. For the first time, I had seen the Wisdom smile reveling his rotting green teeth. “Why did you let me live?” I said hesitantly. The Wisdom placed his hand on my shoulder. “I let you live boy, because you could be a good Guard in this compound, you have potential to be stronger than any other Guard here” He winked puncicating his sentence. The Wisdom said. Right there and then I wanted to punch him. I wanted to make him suffer. But I didn’t act on those thoughts, because he finally had respect for me. With his gained respect as my advantage Nigel and me could plot out a way to get out of the compound and let the government know of the happenings.

The Wisdom lead me to a room with nice soft beds. I could see the other guards were sound asleep. There was an empty bed at the end of itwas a metal container. I opened the metal container to revel the Guards attire. He rubbed my head and said. “Welcome Aboard, in the morning you will learn” he said. I smiled but with uncertainty. I laid on my bed with my hands up against my head as the Wisdom walked out. The window of the room was a lot larger than that of the cell that Kevin and I shared. I could see the moon with a full view. “You miss it don’t you?” a voice whispered. I looked over and saw a guard with a cigarette in his mouth. He had thick black hair was wearing a white under shirt. He held the cigarette on the edge of his mouth. “Yeah, I miss my parents” I said. “Me too” he said. “My names Dustin” I said putting out my hand for a firm handshake. “Names Tony, good luck tomorrow” he said. “Thanks” I laid back and started to drift off.

I woke up abruptly the sound of clanging, and then I realized that it was time for the Guards to get the children ready for picking. So I quickly got up and changed into the uniform. Tony nodded at me as he placed his helmet on. I walked out into the corridor and for the first time I saw the cells from a guard’s point of view. “Lets go you Scrowling” I hear Nigel yell. As I opened the cells, I saw nothing but dread in their eyes. I opened the cell for Kevin he looked at me then started to hug me. “Go to the Garden Scrowling” I said loudly pushing him off softly trying to keep my cover. “Dustin, keep your back Scrowlings away from trouble” I heard the Wisdom say inside my helmet. I keep pushing the children that were behind closer to the door of the Garden. I keep pacing around watching as the children struggled and struggled sweating and I remember I used to be one of those children not even a day ago. They needed freedom from the grips of the Wisdom and quickly. “During Lunching Hour, I will talk to you about the plan” Nigel talked through his teeth. As I walked through the Garden I noticed that one of the children was injured. He was on his knees crying holding his left arm. My first instinct was to help the child and get him a bandage but of course that was impossible in the compound because everybody is told to ignore pain, because pain is a sign of Unfaithfulness. “Scrowling, you know, you should ignore that pain and get back to work” I said. But of course it pained me to say that. I could tell that the blood was seeping through the Childs clothes and that he was going to die if he didn’t receive medical attention quickly. This was something I wasn’t going to let happened, not under my watch I thought. I looked over at Nigel and motioned for him to come towards me. “This Child is injured, he is Unfaithful” I said loudly. The child kicked and screamed and wanted no more pain to be acquired. “Nigel, take the boy and get him stitched up please, I trust you” I said. “Okay” he walked away.

Not too soon after the buzzing sound went off which meant that it was time for the Lunching Hour. I grabbed the children who started to run off toward the electric fence that covered the area between the dessert and the compound’s Garden. After all the children were placed in their cell it was my job to feed them, but of course I had to sneak in the real food, rather than the boiled bird crap. So on each tray I placed a piece of bread lodged inside the gap of the tray. “Dustin, I need you to hurry with the lunch, we have a Unfaithful on our hands” I quickly handed the children their lunches and ran into the dimmed hallway and to the left, entering a door where the Unfaithful child sat alone. He was shaking and smelled as though he had soiled himself, which wasn’t surprising since he was about to be tortured. He looked at me with his bluish green eyes filled with despair and pain. I looked over my shoulder, to make sure nobody was coming, then I un-locked him out the chair. “Do you know who he is?” the child asked, as if I had any insight. “No” I said shamefully. I could hear the foot steps of The Wisdom down the hall. I motioned for the boy to hide behind a table that was at the far left corner of the room. I decided there was no time to waste and I would confront him. I could meet with Tony and Nigel later I thought. “Well, Now, you may leave Dustin…” he paused looked around the room. “Where is the Unfaithful” “Sir?” “You know the child who disobeyed, questioned” I looked over to one side and saw a metal pipe lying on the floor. The only problem was it was out of my reach.

He inched closer and closer to me as I backed up; I felt the pipe behind my heel. But how was I going to distract him, I thought to myself. Then my eyes got a glimpse of the Unfaithful child who was shaking and shivering. “Dustin, why have you portrayed me, don’t you want to live, is your life not important to you, does the life of your brother matter?” he asked with insensitively. “Well sir, the truth of the matter is” his eyes widen as sweat rolled down my face seemingly in slow motion. “I fucking hate you” I said. I went to swing a punch at him, hoping he wouldn’t expect but he grabbed my fist and clenched in his palm, his grip was so hard, I was weezing and coughing as not to show the pain. He let go smiled a green rotten smile, and then punched me in my stomach. I grabbed the pipe and went to swing at his legs but he resisted by grabbing the pipe out of my hands. Then suspiciously I heard gunshots fired and he fell to the floor as the pipe fell out and he screamed out in anguish. Then I looked and saw that Nigel was holding a blue pistol, which was not deadly just used to stun somebody. “Set him in the chair, Dustin, we are going to have fun, Tony is getting the others, so they can watch” Nigel said laughing.

I grabbed the Wisdoms body and placed him in the torture chair. He was slowly gaining consciousness, as the Blue Pistol was not meant for long-term pain. He looked around in a slight daze, and then realized where he was and started to move around, but by this time I had already connected him with the cuff links and the ankle links. I could hear children laughing and singing happily, this was of course the first time in a very long time I heard laughter. “Come on kids, we are going to watch him get tortured, he is now a Scrowling and a Unfaithful” I heard Tony say. Somehow this felt good to me, but on the other hand what effects, would the torture we put him through have on the children. I grabbed Nigel. “I don’t think the kids should watch, maybe Tony should get them ready to go” I whispered, he nodded his head approvingly. He whispered something similar in Tony’s heard, although I had only assumed because it was in audible. Tony lead the children back down the hall. The Wisdom was now panicing , still un-able to speak from his numbness. “Ah, here we are, the tables have turned” I said clenching my fists. Nigel lit up a cigarette and offered it to be I accpected although it wasn’t because I smoked. I lit the cigarette and got close to the Wisdoms face. “How you feeling buddy” I said. Then I placed the cigarette right between his upper lip and nose area. He started to scream and panic, and then I took it off. There was a clear burn mark there now. I than raised my fist and punched him as hard as I could. “S…top…please…I’m” the Wisdom was finally able to speak but with short breathes. His entire mouth was bleeding almost black deep blood. I guess I had punched him hard enough to knock out some of his green rotten teeth. The blood squirted and dripped from his broken nose and cracked lip. His face was almost complexly red.

I looked at Nigel and pantomimed if he wanted a shot, he shook his head. I then grabbed one of his hands and the pipe and bashed his fingers, making them swell, crack and bleed. I looked at his face he had tears rolling down. “Ohh, should I feel sorry for poor Wisdom, and his pain” I said looking at Nigel. He had stood quiet without saying anything or doing anything for that matter. So I was hoping for a response. “Nah, mate, don’t feel bad for him, I thing he enjoys pain” he said cheerfully. I smiled. He then finally decided to join in, he punched the Wisdom’s stomach, making him nearly puke up blood. “That’s for the torture you put me through as a kid, you bloody scumbag.” His British heritage was more obvious now than ever. I had guess he was prevented from using any British slang, as the Wisdom was a bigot, and preferred Americans to work him.

I felt like I had life again, my world was no longer in shambles, beating this man, and torturing him nearly to death had in turn giving me life. I felt happier, now Kevin and me could go back home. The Wisdom was now breathing even heavier, probably trying to breathe. “Leave him, lets go” I said.

Then I heard curious footsteps running down the hall, slowly than faster and faster. It stopped at the door. “Dustin Young, you are under arrest” I heard a deep and gravely voice said. I looked over at Nigel he shrugged his shoulders. “Nigel Smith you are free to go” the voice said. Nigel was as shocked as I was. I heard whispers from behind the door, but of course couldn’t hear them. “I’ll go carefully” I said. I opened the door, and mean in military looking outfits were pointing rifles at my head. I got down on my knees and put my hands over my head. I saw some of the men walking with Nigel and talking. “On behalf of the United States of America and the United Kingdom, Dustin Young, you are under arrest for the torture of children and the torture of elders” and that was the last thing I remember hearing. After all I had done, I was in another cell, without the view of the moon.