On my way back towards home, I could hear the screams of people from nearby the centre of town. I paused my steps and looked to glance at the mass of people who were walking towards the council hall.
In front, leading the charge was none other than the sister of Ophelia who had taken care of her daughter. She wore a pink ribbon on her arms, and held a sign that I couldn't make out properly. But if I could guess it was possible it was related to the death of Cecilia.
I could see her crying though, and it was devastating. I held my breath and thought to myself 'I hope they know that it isn't Leo's fault for all of this.' Even though he had power over the village, he didn't have enough to authorise the patrol unit.
We had talked over and over about what could be done to change the climate of the village and how things could improve, but they had always been shot down by the head government official.
It didn't take long before I was back home. I looked around and noticed that Thompson wasn't around. My nerves began to rise. Eyeballs darting everywhere. I slowly moved around and tried to keep calm before jumping to conclusions.
I looked up at the top of the staircase, low and behold. It was him. He was frail. More and more thinner than yesterday. I had to hold back my worry about him. If I did, I'd fear I would make a bad mother for not alleviating his fear.
"Thompson." I said in a hushed voice. I clasped my hands together with a smile. "Are you ready for school?"
There was a brief nod. The shape around his eyes became more and more hollow as the days went on. The veins on his arms were less oxygenated, green but very faintly. I wanted to hold him tight. To tell him everything would be okay. But I didn't know if that would be true or not. I have to get supplies.
"Mom," Thompson spoke now. He walked down the stairs still looking at me. "Is it true? Cecelia." Here it comes. "Is she dead? I saw it on the news and I don't want it to be true mom." His voice broke into something fragile. Now that he was closer, I noticed his eyes were a little more redder than usual. I heaved my chest and a moment between us settled before I spoke.
"Thompson. I'm so sorry." My voice came out softer than I wanted it to. Upon my words he began sniffling. The flood gates were already loose, and now they were ready to break open.
"Wuh-wuh… Why did they do that to her mom?"
I had to give him an honest response or he'd lose trust in me. "I don't know." And now my eyes were starting to tear up. "I simply don't know." I had always carried a veil of certainty, a face of security and promise and hopefully something that could give comfort.
But now it was crumbling in front of my only child. Thompson then stepped down and walked towards my arm for an embrace that lasted for a while. So long that I worried that if we had let go, one of us may die.
After that moment had passed, I went into the kitchen to make Thompson a bowl of cereal. We were 3 days left of food supplies that had meant to last for 3 months. It had only been 4 weeks. This had happened before in the past and we had nearly begged for more supplies back when the ranger would show up. He had said the same thing to me and to everyone else, we gotta ration the food.
Technology was moving at a rapid pace compared to previous generations. I don't believe for a second that agriculture is behind at all. With all the Growth Pools that the government had implemented around areas within the region and overseas I doubt that there was a lack of food needed for people. I had also thought to myself about the dire situation we found ourselves in.
What if they are trying to kill us so that they could increase the budget so that the AG-Tech could pass through to the technical checks and be approved of. It was likely.
When I wasn't growing crops or even showing up to help other village people I would read recent articles on the low budget for the approval of AG-TECH.
AG-TECH or Angalarian Technology was robots. Large robots that could do many many jobs that humans were not capable of doing. By using these mechs, they could easily generate materials, food, supplies and resources. But less jobs as well. Cutting the cost of hiring people by nearly 80 percent. It worried me a lot.
Artificial Intelligence had been integrated into our society and it ruined many parts of the world already. People had no other choice than to begin fights with the government, but alas they had a lot of money. And instead attacked its own people forcing them to stand down. Many lives were lost with non stop progress and it decided to invest into the AG-TECH sector. And by prediction, it might work well for them which is the scary part.
I paused my train of thought and remembered the challenges of today. And not tomorrow. I looked at Thompson eating his cereal like he is supposed to be. Sitting in this somewhat warm house in a moderately safe place far from harm.
"Mom. Can I ask a question?"
"Yes?"
Thompson shifted in his seat. "Well, you know when I finish school will I be able to go to the city? I want to learn how to become an engineer and work on robots and stuff."
"When the time comes, we can talk about it." I said.
"Okay, because it looks really really cool." He smiled. It was as if the cereal had made him forget about the horrors of what happened recently. His curiosity of the world was growing bigger and bigger.
"Thompson, I forgot to tell you something." I was preparing myself to tell him about how I would be leaving to get the supplies myself, but deep down something about this wasn't right. I hesitated. He looked at me with his glassy eyes, curious. "We can go to the city when you graduate." That is what came out of my mouth instead. He cheered and I cheered, but it wasn't realistic. The amount of money to live in the city was so impossibly high that no villager would be able to live there for even a 2 days without becoming dirt poor.
"I'm so excited mom, me and you will live in a big big mansion and we'll become rich and famous!" Thompson exclaimed. The boy dreamt big. Maybe too big. But I shouldn't crush his spirit. You rarely see anything like it nowadays.
"Eat up fast. You don't want to be late."
"Okay!" His mouth was full of food.
I went back into the bedroom and sat there for a moment. What had really caused the border unit to shoot Cecelia? And who could have done it? I wasn't a detective or a police officer or anyone important, but the village needed answers. And if the answers weren't coming, we might retaliate. Which might cost our lives in the end. A ringing bell within my head warned me not to go to the border unit today due to holistic approaches from recent events.
The 72V project was a plan to move all the low and mid income people to situated villages so that the government could extract materials from down under them or wherever that might be. Cost effective really. They had taken weapons, machinery, minerals, ores and many other things that the people had used for their survival and instead repurposed it to create the Low Gate. The Low Gate or called the LG-1 was a simulation that allowed people to live their wildest dreams or their happiest memories for as long as they wanted. This was created with artificial intelligence which required large and large amounts of materials in order to generate digital worlds that could easily be passed off as reality.
The cost of the LG-prototype was devastating. Almost 13 percent of the water had been used to cool down the tanks for the LG heat pass to avoid it from exploding or causing a large-scale fire.
I closed my eyes for a moment to think back to a time when everything was okay. I guess it was okay at the moment, but what did that mean? No one's dead yet inside this house. Better than nothing. I heaved my chest and let out a whoosh of air. For a moment in time, I felt something. I felt… Okay.
I stretched taking in the air that was ventilating through the window. I went back into the kitchen.
"Mom, can I ask you something else?" Thompson spoke.
"Mmm?"
"Well, I have this thing that I was scared of asking you."
"Don't be, ask away."
"It's just that, at school sometimes my friends like to play this game. Called heaven or hell. It's where we sit on the corner of the street and try to guess whether people go to heaven or hell based on what they look like."
"So ridiculous. Judging people based off their looks? Is that so productive in school nowadays?"
"No, but like it's fun. Because people are weird."
"People are weird, and if this conversation keeps going it's going to get weirder."
"Do you think Cecelia is going to heaven mom?" Thompson spoke. I paused to look at him. The playfulness had stopped my tracks, forcing me to encounter this question. "Of course she is. She was a great girl."
"But you're an atheist? How does that work?" He retorted back. And honestly, he has a point there.
"I don't really know what happens in the afterlife, and I probably won't in a long time. I need to go live in that new mansion you said you wanted to buy first before I meet God!!" I laughed off at the end. He smiled and I ruffled his hair around as he finished his bowl of cereal and made his way out of the door to school.
I smiled at his figure moving away into the distance and even if things were a bit crazy right now, I was glad to have a son like him in my life.
Upon his departure I made my way upstairs to collect baskets, gear, and my papers to talk to the patrol unit. I had a lot to do, and I hoped that they'd understand my situation. I took a deep breath, before walking out the door again. Looking at my house for what felt like the last time. Fear crawled all over my back.
I won't be gone for long. Is what I'd hope for anyway.