It's the day. The day we're supposed to stand up to the mining company, to the government, to everyone who opposes us. I woke up four hours before dawn and made the walk to where the parallel lines of the road and the train line went to the village. I wasn't the only one. There were scores of people coming out to meet us. One third of the village, everyone who didn't have to do work or go gathering. Bucketfuls of people from the city, people who I have never met before or only met briefly. We are all gathered together on the road and train tracks, numbering perhaps two thousand all together. We are all together. 

I feel more fear than I have ever felt in my life. I think, perhaps we all feel such fear. But there is also this strange sort of amazement. There is this strange sort of hope. Energy I could never be able to describe flows through all of us. I feel as if all of us, here together, are exactly where we are meant to be.

We form many thick rows, rows upon rows of tightly-packed bodies. And we all hold each other. We hold each other as tightly as we possibly can, linking arms in an intricate pattern. And we wait. We simply wait. 

"Who would like to hear a traditional song?" Oakley asks the crowd. There is cheering all around. The medicine teacher starts to sing the song of winter nights, which is a calming melody. All of us who know the song join in. And we sing. And we keep singing until there are support workers from the village coming to us with our breakfast. 

We all thank each other, and thank the Creator for giving us this good food. We eat quickly, trying to get our physical needs met as efficiently as possible so that we may all link arms again and form a long, unbroken matrix with each other. 

"I hope we can win," the young man beside me speaks, eyes as blue as the morning sky. He's from the city, and a stranger to me. Still, despite the brief time we've known each other he feels like a brother to me. 

"Even if we can't win, we will have tried," I tell him. And I hope it's enough. I really hope it's enough. "Our love and our energy can help the rainforest, even if it can't save it."

"I've never been in the rainforest," he admits. 

"Oh, it's beautiful. You should totally go one day. I'll take you." 

"You will? Thank you so much!"

"Don't even mention it. Everyone deserves to witness the rainforest. It's really awesome."

"You're so sweet."

"Aww, you are too."

We keep talking until I can see the trucks full of construction equipment lumbering their way up the road. I guess this is the moment of truth. I guess this is when everything starts. I breathe deeply and look straight ahead, ready for anything and everything that comes. 

The trucks slow to a stop, towering in front of us with their metallic flares. They're driverless, so nobody comes out to greet us. It will be a while yet before the authorities come. We have time. Not much time but we have time. 

I am fed water and food by the people behind me. It's an incredibly awkward process but we need to all stay in formation. We need to all stay linked to each other. I can barely gulp it down though as my anxiety grows and grows. 

"Let's sing a warrior song," Sarah suggests from her place in the line. We tried to keep her home but she absolutely insisted that she'd come with us. She'd come with us or else she'd go on hunger strike. She's too spirited, that girl.

We teach the outsiders the song of the dancing warrior. And it's a simple song. Simple yet powerful. We all sing together. Voices that can speak the words properly and voices that are trying their best. All here, together. All warriors, ready for whatever battles come ahead. And it is this song that we are singing when finally representatives from the company, from Baltstone, come up to us. 

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" the middle-aged man in a dress shirt demands at us, fuming. He has three men flanking him on either side, all wearing dress shirts, all enraged. 

"We won't let you build this mine," a rainforester youth named Mani declares clearly and without fear. 

"Get out of the way if you know what's good for you! You have been told to leave!"

"We won't," Laya speaks clearly and surely. 

The men stride up to her and grab her by the shoulders. They shake her, trying to wrest her apart from the hold of those on either side of her. But Laya holds on with everything she has. She holds on with everything she has, and the two outsiders on either side of her hold on with everything that they have. 

All seven of the men attack her at once, grabbing and pulling on whatever parts of her body that they can. But still, she stays strong. Still, she stays unbowed. And they can't wrest her apart from the line. They can't separate her from our ranks. 

They eventually give up and start attacking other people in the front row, trying to find a weak link. But they can't find a weak link. We are, all of us, infinitely strong. And we are, all of us, holding each other. And they can't tear us apart. 

"We will be back," the man who spoke earlier threatens. But they leave. They all leave. We won this very first round. 

Cheers echo throughout, as blockers and the support people alike, rainforesters and outsiders alike, all express their intense joy at this glorious, victorious moment. 

———

They do come back. They come back with more men. With scores of men to aid them at breaking us apart. But we don't let them. We don't let them do anything. 

We stand there in the cold, chilly nights and the hot, burning days, letting the weather wash over us. We endure their goons for hours and hours on end. Until our minds and bodies are exhausted. But still we do not give up. Still we do not lessen our effort, our focus, our force. We keep holding on to each other with all the strength imaginable, all the strength possible, no matter how tired we get. 

We keep going. For the rainforest. For each other. For humanity. For the future. 

I don't think I have ever been as deeply in love as I am now, enduring the unrelenting attacks of the mining men. They grab and grope my arms and my chest and my stomach and my shoulders and my sides. They pull me and pull me and pull me. Until I am aching and hurting absolutely everywhere. Still, with Darren on one side and the outsider, Ray, on the other, I stand strong. We cling to each other for dear life. No matter what happens we cling to each other.

"Another round won," Ray exclaims into the dark night once the men are backing away. Backing away to rest and to regroup. 

"Hell yes," I agree. 

"It's only been two days," Darren reminds us, older and more serious than the two of us are. "What will happen when we need to sleep? What will happen when we need to rest?"

"Then we'll be replaced by the new wave of rainforest defenders," I tell him. "Just like we planned."

"I just hope we can keep this up," Darren sighs. 

"I hope so too," Ray echoes. 

I take a break to go to the washroom. And when I'm back to my place in the line, the men are coming again. I hold my body tense and keep my mind as focused as possible on the mission at hand. I'm a warrior. I'm a warrior. I'm a warrior. I'm a warrior and I will fight. I will win. 

Rough hands grab my forearms and my wrists. Me and the men on either side of me draw closer together, tense up our muscles. Hands grab my shoulders. And they pull. They all pull at once. But I pull back. I pull on the arms interlinking to my own and I pull them tight close to me, and they pull me tight close to them. We are one. We are one. We are one. Nothing can break us for we are one. 

My arms are burning. They are in so much pressure. They are in so much pain. But still, I keep them as strong as rock and as flowing with life force as a tree. I ignore the burning, the aching, the pressure. I ignore the burning and I keep holding on. Holding on so tight that I hurt myself. Holding on so tight that I'm sure I've used up all my strength. 

I've used up all my strength but somehow I still have more. Somehow I still have an infinite supply. I know why. It's because all of us fighting here are drawing strength from each other. It's because we are all drawing strength from that rainforest. And these forces will give us infinite strength. 

The hands on my body are rough and groping. They are devoid of any kindness, of any mercy, of any peace. They pull me as if they want to pull my very essence itself away from me. They pull me like they want to grab me and capture me and own me. They pull me as if they are trying to catch me and capture me and own me. But I do not let them win. I do not let them win and I keep holding onto myself for as long as I possibly can. 

They change tactics. Instead of grabbing my arms, they grab my legs. They try to pull my legs out from under me. But I lean back and I stay strong and I do not let them. I do not let them at all. It's hard. Unbelievably, unbearably hard. But I keep my feet planted on the ground. Through everything, through the constant barrage of violence and violation, I keep my feet planted on the ground. 

Darren grunts above me and Ray lets out a scream. All around me people are groaning and crying out. Not just from the ranks of the rainforest defenders but from the ranks of the miners as well. There is so much chaos and sound around me. But I do not focus on it. I focus only, instead, on staying strong. On maintaining the integrity of our formation. I don't think I have ever been this focused in my life. This focus is more than the focus of gathering, more than the focus of healing. It's more than the focus of my job. More than the focus of telling stories. And it's great and terrible and incredibly beautiful all at the same time. 

I cannot tell how much time has passed, I can only tell that my body feels like it's on fire, feels like it's being crushed under rocks, feels like it is bleeding everywhere, in all my muscles and my bones. I think probably I am becoming bruised. But still, I make all my muscles work. I make them work and I make them work and I make everything that is inside me work. 

The sky turns lighter, the first electric blue of the morning. And finally, finally the attackers leave us. They go to the many camping trailers they have set up all around the road and they go to sleep. It's time to change our ranks. It's time to give those who haven't stood in the lines a chance to. 

Of course we are very very careful to not disrupt or decrease the strength and integrity of our lines as we replace them. We let ourselves out only once the new people behind us have formed their own line. For a moment we join both lines together in an especially crowded line. And then we melt away into the background, ready to provide our warriors with the support that they need to keep fighting. 

I sigh in relief once I am safely out of the crowd. I did it. We did it. We held out. We're still holding out. 

I need to sleep.