I left my house late the next morning. As usual, I followed the same daily routine, until I found a myself before a deviation as I arrived to my school. A big one. A multitude stood outside, cursing outloud, accusing the principal, who wasn't even present, of treason, as they waved fiercely holographic banners with protest messages such as "Stop supporting the government! Kids must not be deceived anymore!", "Where there's money, there's also liars and opportunistics", "Treacherous teachers have no right to educate!", "Free our children from the government's lies!" and more. They covered the entrance doors, like an impenetrable wall, not allowing any student or adult to get closer. I wasn't sure if any of them was an actual parent of any of the children standing outside.
The group of protestors was integrated by adults, all of whom seemed above the age of twenty-seven; besides, they were all armed. My heart sank at the thought of a shooting happening in front of my school with so many children on the spot, I could probably find my friends between the crowd if I tried. Those protestors were ready to defend themselves to death in case the authorities tried to stop them, and I clenched my fists as I saw them giving harsh looks to the kids that tried to get close to the gates. I noticed that many of them, specially those who seemed to be below the age of eight, were scared and bursting into tears, some ran towards the middle schoolers looking for protection. I saw a boy with dark ginger hair, whose face was distorted by fear, ran towards the arms of Jollibeth and start crying. It was her younger brother, Rodrigo.
I headed towards her, passing through the students, and put my hand on her shoulder. It wasn't until the third time I called her that she took her eyes off the rebels.
"What's going on?" I pointed briefly at the outraged adults, "Since when are these idiots here?"
"Half and hour" she answered, annoyance in her voice, "We were already inside and they took us out, I think they waited until there were no parents around, but I don't know what they want or where the hell do they pulled out that our school 'supports' the government. They're getting crazier."
"They already were," I corrected, "but they've been keeping it quiet."
She let out a heavy sigh, comforting the little boy who was still sticking to her. Why do rebels had to include children in their conflict? Why bringing guns and threaten them when they were supposedly trying to protect them?
"Where are the teachers?"
"Inside, cornered, they dragged them back and blocked all the exits so that no one could get in or get out."
Momentarily, I thought about Mariel and her tough words from the day before. The screams from the protesters got louder and wrathful, but ceased for a moment when a small girl cautiously headed towards them. Both hands interwined in front of her in a humble manner, a fragile face, kind and rosy, adorned by two dark low ponytails that swirled around her neck. She couldn't be more than seven and, for me, looked like a tiny forest nymph with her thin and innocent figure getting closer to the armed giants. When she spoke, I was barely able to hear her voice.
"Excuse me, miss," she said to a women who seemed to be in her forties, "Could I get to my class? My mom will get mad at me if I don't."
"No one is passing through," she answered, harshly, hardly giving her a look, "Go on, get away from here or I'll get mad. Tell your parents to come and pick you up."
Again, she started chanting along her companions with those cries full of hate, ignoring the little girl. Glumy and without taking her eyes off of her, the kid gave a couple steps back. At that moment, I was engulfed by a profound sense of anguish for that little creature, whose spirit had been discouraged due to the indifference shown by the woman. The soul of a child could be so easily marked, hurt. Such iniquitous answer should have never been given to a kid, it was beyond rude, I stopped thinking that these lady and her companions were actually worried for the wellbeing of the young they 'tried to protect'. Once again, the acts of the rebels were incongruent.
Unexpectedly, I saw the little girl take a huge breath and throw herself back to the lady, to whom she grabbed by her clothes to get her attention. She insisted that it was very important to let her in, that her mom worked really hard everyday to pay for her school and that she'd be saddened if she missed it. Her words made me feel even worse, a part of me started to take her statement as my own. The woman pushed her away fiercely, suddenly offended.
"We just said that no one is goint through, kid," she argued, raising her holographic banner in the air, "We will not allow them to contaminate the young! Even if we must use brute force."
"By whom?"
"The government! Now leave! No one can go inside."
"Excuse me, ma'am," the girl tried once more, confused, "If you're so mad with the government, why are you yelling at me? If you're really mad with the government, why are you taking my school? What have I done to you?"
I felt moved by her wise words. Protests weren't bad, in fact, they were a magnificent tool for the people to speak their mind. Nevertheless, trying to get the attention of the public by attacking the innocent was, without a doubt, messed up. The girl wasn't at fault so, why deprive her of her education? Why were they pointing their guns towards children and threatening teachers if their hate was aimed at the government? Why did they believed that they had the right to mess other people's lifes when they were only mad at the government? What was their deal?
Maybe it was the veracity or the persistence from the questions made by the kid that caused an outrage on the group of rebels, since another man stepped forward and stood menacingly before the girl.
"Did you not heard us?" he shouted, "STAY BEHIND."
He shoved her with such brutality that he immediately left her on the floor, making the little one scream. She hit the ground heavily and I was able to hear something that rang over and over inside my head: the little girl's whimper. She was crying. This time, the one engulfed in rage was me. Without realizing, my legs started moving towards the man that had commited such atrocity, my fists so clenched that I could feel my nails digging into my skin, my jaw tightening the closer I got. There was only one thing in my mind: that men would pay for what he had done.
Or at least, that's what I was hoping to do, until someone got in my way and took me by the shoulders to stop me. I didn't even want to look at her.
"Move, Abril." I told her.
"I'm not letting you go like that," she stated, glaring at me, "I know you, I know what you're going to do and I like you more when you're outside a mental hospital. I get that you're mad, I am too, but thank God I can control myself because I know that you won't. I'll let you go once you've calmed down."
I took a few breaths, pretending to calm down, although my fury kept growing inside me, like a fire on a rampage. I made sure that most of the tension on my shoulders disappeared, and glanced at Abril to corroborate if she had bought my little act. She inspected me for an instant, but at the end decided to concentrate on the little girl instead, who was still crying in silence on the floor. I hoped that she would forgive me one day, and I also hoped that what I was about to do wouldn't result in more psychiatrists. Or worst, that it got me killed. I escaped from her grip and headed towards the girl, then took her in my arms as softly as possible and got her on her feet. She looked at me, dazzled, and I smiled at her. After giving the girl a few pats on her back for her courage, I went towards the crowd of insurgents, in complete seriousness.
"Excuse me," I called the protesters again. Some stopped screaming to pay attention to me, but there was nothing but harsh looks, "Can you let me pass? I'm late for my class."
"Have you not understand? You're not passing through us!" the man shouted at me, tired, "It's for your own good, do you want them to keep brainwashing you?"
I let my rage come out and took him by his collar, snatching the holographic banner from his hands, then pulled him closer to me. He was stunned.
"Don't you dare say that you're acting for someone else's wellbeing when you humilliate them and hurt them with such cruelty!" I muttered, furious.
And, without a second thought, I punched him in the face with the banner using all of my strength. That was enough to knock him to the floor, he put a hand over his bruised cheek and then proceeded to spit blood. The disbelief on his face spread across the entire group for a couple of seconds, everybody stayed in complete silence, without knowing how to react, their own protest banners were not being raised anymore, nor were they screaming. It was clear that they didn't expect to be attacked by the very group of people they were, supposedly, defending. Eventually, even their incapacity to process what had just happened wasn't enough to keep them static, they showed an insulted expression, as if they thought that I had commited something outrageous, and then turned themselves against us. The man on the floor clenched his jaw, blood-stained teeth showing on his mouth.
"Bitch!" he shouted at me, rising to his feet, "If you want to defend the government that much, then leave our city!"
He pointed his gun at me, a white and gray artefact shining with the few rays of light that came from the morning sun. I didn't recognize it the brand or type, I didn't think I have ever seen one like it, but I knew that a single bullet was enough to take my life in the blink of an eye. Despite knowing this, my rage persisted.
"You want to fight me?" I challenged him, with a smug expression, "Go on! Taint the name of the rebels even more!"
I was about to ran towards him again when Abril quickly passed her arms below my armpits and almost lifted me up to stop me.
"Do you want him to kill you!?" she yelled at me, trying to make me come back to my senses. Even when I started to drag her, she refused to let go, "Going this far... It's not worth it!"
Behind us, I spotted Jolly carrying her little brother on her arms and covering the girl with her body. Several feet behind, Anna, María Andrea, and Diana began to make their way towards us, the rest of the students were letting them pass. At the moment, I could control myself without problem, I wasn't so out of myself but I needed to protect me, I was being pointed at with a gun!
"Disappear, traitors!" the stranger howled, consumed by anger, and then pulled the trigger.
The bullet, a thunder so loud that hurt my ears, cut the air above our heads, because both he and us staggered uncontrollably; no, everyone was staggering. The earth was trembling. When I raised my head, I noticed weird patches soaring through the sky. Small, irregular and evasive, they flew like unleashed crows at a speed I could barely follow.
Oh, crap!
Ever since the sudden appearance of the wormholes, sometimes a phenomenon called "Remnants shower" occurred. Apparently, they were some sort of 'breaches'; the energy keeping the portal open destabilized and grew rapidly, and when one of the entrances of the wormhole increased too much in size, it expelled the energy as 'remnants'. These were small portals, with varying destinations and, what was worst, they moved arbitrarily. Fortunately, these remnants were very rare and disappeared after a couple of seconds of straying from its source, since the energy that kept them open was rapidly consumed. I wasn't so sure how these 'breaches' worked, I only knew that the stability of the artificial portals was altered from time to time due to the constant and almost imperceptible movement of the planet's poles, so the path followed by the remnants was... a sort of polar lines. Junior high school physics didn't teach the full deal. Nevertheless, the inherent danger of some civilians ending up at other planets existed, and was the fault of these scaled 'wormholes'. It was very uncommon, since they usually didn't transported you too far from your location so, if you ended up falling inside one that left you at a distant place, then you were, for sure, unlucky.
And I'm the queen of misfortune I thought, both worried and upset.
The rest of the students scattered, people falling and rolling on the ground. Protesters were grumbling, they tried to recover their balance and made sure to hold their weapons close. Jolly ended up staggering closer to us, still with her little brother on her arms. The three of us were barely able to glimpse a small shining portal at our left, heading towards us at full speed. There was only time enough for Jollibeth to cast Rodrigo aside, away from the reach of the portal, and for a surprised swear word. I couldn't believe that this was happening to me on my last days of junior high.
Or, was that supposed to be my main concern?
Before I could answer this question to myself, I was vanished from the Earth, swallowed by a small wormhole to an unknown destination. My seven-year tribulation period was just getting started.
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