The Valley of Plastic

The Valley of Plastic Part 10

Everyday for the next three months went exactly the same, sirens signalled what we were doing and where we were expected to be and when. Andrea slowly became friends with the soldier who brings us our breakfast, who we found out actually has a name; it's Matthew. Max started calling us his family, and had become quite the story-teller, telling Olivia stories every night before bed. Olivia has started sitting up on her own now, and she has baby porridge for breakfast. It wont be long before she is on proper food, but we're taking it slowly, as Andrea and I don't really know what we are doing and Andrea is getting all of her knowledge from other people who work with her at the daycare. I'd be lying if I said we were happy, but we aren't miserable and that is something I suppose. 

I have not heard anything off my mam and dad since the day we left, there is no where here to charge any devices, my phone battery went flat when we were on the bus here from home and my laptop battery went flat on the second night after we watched the only movie I had downloaded - Harry Potter, of course. I don't know if my parents have been taken to the secluded location yet. I have been spending some time with Alex though, he is here alone, no siblings or parents so he spends a lot of time with us, and Max really likes him. 

The siren rings to indicate it is time to make our way to a new pile of plastic. We learned fairly quickly that the mountains we started with where only the beginning, plastic from the entire country was being dispersed across the districts and sorted by the people living in them. Once the plastic in the country is cleared and disposed of properly - it gets taken to a different site for that and a different group of people are responsible for disposal- more is brought in. It is a never ending circle of something as durable as plastic being used once and discarded and forgotten about. I make my way to the queue, where I am quickly greeted by Alex. We wait for the order, collect our material bags and head into the heaps. I decide to focus on plastic bottles today - I never thought about how much damage a single use bottle of water would cause. 

The familiar sirens go to indicate a short break - ten minutes, twice a day- and lunch time, which is a mere thirty minutes, and then at the end of the day. That is the only siren I really like, home time. I empty my material bag in the skip and head back to my section, I collect bottle after bottle taking the caps of squeezing them down and re-affixing the cap before jamming it into the bag. Alex and I whisper conversation to each other, trying to be subtle because conversation is prohibited whilst working. 

"I wonder what is for lunch today," Alex whispers, 

"No idea," I respond, a little bluntly.

"Are you ok?" I can hear the concern in his whisper,

"Um, yeah, sorry. I'm just worried about my mam and dad, that's all." I avoid eye contact because I know he is loosing a lot more than me, at least I have my sister.

"I try not to think about it, and hope for the best," he says with a sad tone, although when I look up at him, I can see he is forcing a smile. This reminds me of my mams forced smile the day we were taken away. In a weird way it warms my heart, thinking about her little quirks that made her so incredible. My heart aches. I pick up, squash and jam more bottles into the bag. 

The bag fills up quickly and I am headed back to the skip again, being careful not to fall on the plastic mountain I am walking over. Matthew is one of the soldiers on duty at the skips today, he greets me with a smile and offers to dump the contents of my bag into the skip for me. My arms ache, so I agree. 

"Matty, you're not a worker bee! She can do it herself," Another soldier yells from the next skip over, "Can't you, princess?" My stomach churns at the pure vileness of the boy. 

"Yeah she can, but everyone could use a little help from time to time, Andy!" Matthew retorts quickly, causing the boy, who I now know is called Andy to huff and cross his arms in the similar way a toddler would if they can't have the chocolate bar they want.