The Valley of Plastic

The Valley of Plastic Part 3

"Mam, I'm home!" I yell as I get through the door. She usually responds immediately, and her lack of response was deafening to me today. "MAM?" I yell louder. I listen, hard, but still nothing. I drop my bag on the floor and walk into the sitting room: nothing. I check the kitchen: still nothing. I walk past the front door and head to the stairs, still listening for any kind of movement. I still don't hear anything. I can feel my heart starting to race, and thoughts of panic swirl aggressively through my head. 

I approach the top of the stairs and see my bedroom door is open - which is odd because I absolutely always close it. I slowly open the door. To my surprise I see my mam holding a photo frame, off of my bedside table, holding it close to her chest and uncontrollably, silently sobbing.

"Mam..." I approach her carefully. This is not like my mam she never cries, she is known for being the life and soul of the party and has an extremely level head meaning she can see the positive side to almost any situation. She sniffled and looked up at me through teary eyes watching me as I sat on the bed beside her. "What's wrong? What's happened?" I try to hide the panic in my voice but concealing my emotions has never been a strong point. 

"Amia, something bad has happened. And it's going to mean a lot of changes." She sniffled again, trying to regain her composure. 

"What is it? Is it dad?" I assumed that she and my dad had suddenly broken up, or maybe we were loosing the house. 

"No, sweety dad is fine. Have you seen the news lately? About the plastic? About the effects on the environment and the planet?" 

I nodded, silently, urging her to carry on talking. 

"Well, its been put as a red alert, meaning the world has to take action now." I sit waiting patiently waiting for her to explain what is so bad about that- I assumed it would mean upping recycling and cutting down on plastic. 

"Amia, everyone under the age of fourty-five is being recruited. Compulsory."

"Recruited? recruited for what?" Non of this is making any sense. 

"Recruited for the clean-up. Amia, there will be buses that go into every single town, village and city in the country and anyone under the age of fourty-five, deemed fit to work will board them and be taken to the middle of no-where to start the clean up."

"What?" non of what she is saying is making any sense at all, "What about babies? Mam, are you sure? This sounds insane!" 

Her eyes snap to my face, and her hands rest on either side of it, cupping my cheeks. 

"Amia, they are taking everyone. I don't know what they plan to do afterwards, but they are taking everyone and they will be used to clean up the planet." Her blood shot eyes look full off terror as she speaks.

"Mam, you and dad are over fourty-five?" The realisation hits me like a tonne of bricks, she nods silently. "Where will you two be going?" 

"Er.. probably somewhere to do the paper work or something that is deemed more age appropriate," She rounded her sentence off in a higher tone, as though she is asking me a question. 

"So, how long will this last? When will we be coming home?" Tears start to fill my eyes as a lump forms in my throat. I didn't understand fully what she was saying, but I knew it wasn't a joke and she was scared - that made me scared. 

Tears ran like wild rivers from her eyes at the question. 

"Anyone who refuses will be executed." 

She didn't have all of the answers and that was extremely hard for me, at such a young age to comprehend. 

She stood up and shuffled, in her unicorn slippers, out of the door, still trying to control her breathing. I sit on my bed, almost frozen to the spot - what is happening? I don't understand. I pull my laptop out and start searching for answers. I did not expect or prepare myself for what I found. This was a worldwide decision, not just England. Countries all over the world were shipping people to other parts of the country for, what they called, The Big Clean, making it sound like the seasonal deep clean people give their houses or like that show where people with OCD cleaning go into hoarders houses and clean them up. I stumbled across an article on one of the biggest news websites in the country that said it was contained mature content and was only to be read by people over the age of 21. Hesitantly, I lied about my age and ticked the little box that asked me if I was over the age it required. Looking back, I wish I hadn't, I wish I'd just closed my laptop and went into this whole thing ignorant. 

The website gave all of the details of the intended plan - everyone under the age of 45 would be taken on buses into a Secure location and that included infants and toddlers. 

"If the parents of the children are over the age of fourty-five they will be placed into secure communal care, which will cater to their needs and ensure they are looked after in the best possible way. Any parent or persons over the age of fourty-five will be taken to a different secluded location where they will be expected to give their lives in the fight to preserve the planet. Population growth has only added dramatically to the planets struggles and put huge strain on a number of the resources we now need to protect so desperately. 

This expectation will be extended to anyone who is under the age of fourty-five who is not deemed capable to carry out the tasks that will be expected of persons going to secure locations.

Anyone who refuses puts themselves and their families at great risk.

Your country and planet thanks you for your cooperation."

My heart sank, in fact it stopped, my stomach churned and my head felt like it was going to explode. They're going to kill everyone, my mam, my dad, my gran, my nana, my grandad and my pops. They're going to murder everyone. Murder. 

I hear yelling downstairs - Andrea is home.

Hi, hope you like this part. It is supposed to feel very intense and dramatic (justified under the circumstances I think). If you have any tips or advice on how to make this feel more intense please let me know. 

If you want to read more about Amia and Andrea's story, please comment, vote and follow! 

Thank you! x