I'll Be Back

The Freedom Of Weary Hearts

Lisa is awoken once more at dawn with her metal slate being opened. There, sits her daily rice ball with maggots and dixie cup of water. She sits up and stands shakily. She's starting to feel unsure if she is going to make it much longer. Her breathing has become shallow. She's coughing all the time now. The dirt from the coal making her cough up black gunk. Sargent Ross passed in his sleep two days ago. Lisa was grateful for that. He had been groaning for most of the night and then he just grew quiet. They found him peacefully with his eyes shut and facing up at the ceiling. Arms folded perfectly, like he knew it was happening. Lisa hopes that if she does have to go, it'll be when she's asleep. Not when she's fallen over and can't get up and they just decide to shoot her. She picks up the rice ball with shaky hands and eats it. The bug crawling around in her mouth is just second nature now. She reaches out for her dixie cup of water and sips it gingerly. Once she's finished she sets the cup back on the lip outside the slate and makes her way to sit until the guards unlock the doors. She always listens around for Cooper. Once she hears him shuffling about, she sighs in relief. Mengenala doesn't know, but if Cooper were to die, that would be the thing that would break her completely.

Soon they unlock the doors. Lisa stands and makes her way out. They of course shove them out the door and into the dark morning. They go to the square and stand stick straight until Mengenala comes out and goes on his psychotic rant about Weather being the greatest country in the world and the Americans being scum and should all die. He of course lies about battles and lies about Reapers invading America and saying they killed all their families. That they own it now. Lisa just tunes him out, knowing the real truth that one of his own guards sneaks in. Once he's finished he makes them sing the Weather National Anthem and then dismisses them. They make their way up the mountain flanked by guards. Cooper stands next to Lisa and gives her hand signals with his closed and open fists. Asking her if she's alright as he heard her coughing all night. She just smiles at him and nods, not wanting to alarm him. She doesn't need him worrying about her, he needs to worry about getting his work done and himself. She can't have him looking out for her. But she's also learned over the years it's just his nature. He's extremely caring about others. It's another thing about him that reminds her of an older Aden.

They work as the morning sunrise comes. It's absolutely stunning view from the top of the mountain, with the ocean. It's little moments like those that makes her believe that there is still good in this world. There has to still be beauty somewhere in this hell. And if she finds it in a simple sunrise she sees all the time, she'll take it.

She shovels the coal into her burlap sack. Filling it to the brim, alongside the other soldiers. She then hoists it up on her bony back, her arms reaching around to cradle it by the bottom and joins the line of other men and women walking down the mountain trail to the boats. There's no trees or anything like that, so you can see everything. The camp, the boats, the valleys in the distance. She coughs and watches as more black gunk flies out of her mouth. She doesn't at all falter in her steps though as she makes it down the mountain. She makes it finally to the docks where the boats are and maneuvers the bag in front of her as she dumps it on a growing pile of coal. The coal is then shoveled onto the boats by other POW's. She remembers a few years ago when some of the POW's wanted to start an uprising. One of the guards left out some tools by the boats. Some of them stole the tools and were able to smuggle them back into the camp. They were all found naked and hanging in the square the next morning. No one has talked about an uprising of sorts since.

Once she's finished dumping her bag, she makes the trek back up, coughing more as she makes the descent. She's back to shoveling coal into the bags and watches from the corner of her eye a young soldier falter and fall to the ground. He spills all his coal over the ground. No one dares to try and help him up. They've learned trying to help someone noticeably will just get you killed along with them. Best case scenario, a vicious beating. She watches as guards start yelling at him in Trigdesleng to get up. He groans in pain and that's when Lisa notices, he broke his ankle. It's all twisted and mangled. One guard moves over to him and kicks him and yells at him to get up once more. He doesn't. Finally the guard draws his gun and shoots him in the back of the head without blinking an eye. Lisa closes her eyes briefly and lets out a deep breath. She watches as the guard order two POW's to carry the body away. His brain matter is everywhere. When they pick him up, Lisa sees his face has a hole in it. She clenches her jaw and turns back to her task. It's all she can really do at this point.