Reforming Society •• OneRepublic {2}

A Better Place

Anonymous orphan's P.O.V.

The boy held tight onto the girl's hand in front of him and the boy's hand behind him. The other boy was about three, much younger than him, and the girl was only a year older. He knew both of their names. Mandy and Jaylen.

All of the children of the foster home were being led outside, all fourteen of them connected by only their hands. There were two men, one in front and the other in the back, and they both scared the boy. They were dressed in all black, and had mysterious red patches at their chests and shoulders.

As the boy made it past the front door's threshold and into the fresh air that chilled his cheeks, he noticed four school buses. He'd only seen those at a distance since he was being home-schooled. He was very reminded of that since he was supposed to be finishing first grade in two months. But instead, Miss Mary taught them. Miss Mary was nice, but she wasn't a real teacher. She didn't have a classroom.

On the sides of each bus were also big characters in black, all numbers the boy recognized from what Miss Mary taught him last year. One was "0 - 4," the next was "5 - 7," then "8 - 12," and lastly, "13 - 17." He wondered what it was for.

As they were put in a straight line facing the buses, their feet just behind the edge of the sidewalk, everything was quiet. One of the scary men was pacing in front of them, a horrific machine the boy didn't recognize in his arms. He had a feeling this man wasn't kind at all.

The boy heard a conversation behind him. He turned his head to see that Miss Mary was talking to another scary man. Miss Mary was crying and the boy wanted to know what made her upset. He couldn't really understand what the two were saying, but heard it almost clearly.

"Don't take them, please. They're all I have, sir, pleas---"

"Ma'am, we have to. Government orders."

"Why?! What are you going to do to them?!"

"Our orders were to terminate all group homes, foster homes, and orphanages in our specific counties."

"Just in Oregon? And 'terminate'?! What does that mean?!"

"No, all counties over the United States are doing this. I cannot specify the federal order for you. Now we need to load them on the buses, if you'll excuse us."

Then the man talking to a sobbing Miss Mary, who was now shaking her head and trying to get him to pay attention, made a motion at the man pacing in front of the kids. They all started to let go of each other's hands and the boy didn't like it, but let go anyways.

Both of the men went to each of them, asking their name and age. After Mandy on his right told them she was seven and was led off to the second bus, the man was in front of him now.

The boy stared into his brown eyes, which were all he could see behind the mask covering the other part of his face. A helmet sheltered his hair, but the boy could see his hair was a dark blonde by a few strands, like his.

"Hey, kid, I'm Matty," He said as he knelt down. The boy nodded, "What's your name?"

The boy tried to find his voice to say his name. He saw the name tag on the man's chest. Deputy M. Davis.

"Um," The boy muttered, "I'm Jakey. It's what my friends call me."

The man, Matty, nodded.

"Can you tell me how old you are?" He asked.

"I just turned six." He held up six fingers. Matty nodded again, then he pointed to the second bus.

"Head over there. I'm taking that bus with you guys, alright?"