The First Legacies Of Zion: Omaye

The Daughters

ESTHER

Esther felt her heart skip a beat the moment she saw her brother, for a while she was worried he would not be able to make it here on time. She loved her brother, but she could never seem to agree on anything with him; chief among them was the manner in which she got to save their lives.

They were sacrificing a lot, especially in her own case as she had to sell her body to get her family a chance to survive. Nathaniel was a lot more flexible and compromising than she was, but the choices she had recently been forced to make had pushed even his own limits about the kind of things he would be able to accept.

But their survival was more important than their pride or a mortal body that would become irrelevant for them sometime soon. She was the eldest, and even though Nathaniel was the man of the family and the person expected to take care of both her and their younger sister, not to mention their parents, but she had to step up this time, only problem was that she had to pay a somewhat heavy price.

As soon as he successfully maneuvered his way past the crowd of people she hugged him. He was stiff and rigid, it was like hugging a board and she could feel absolutely no warmth from his body anymore.

She had hurt him, some might even say betrayed him to his enemy. It did not take a lot for her to know that he would find it very hard to forgive her if ever. She was sorry it had to be this way, but she did not regret it one bit. She saw a chance to save her family, even though they got the short end of the deal, she would never regret it, and she would never apologize for her decisions either. Such was life.

“I thought you were not coming?” The rumbling voice of their father asked. Their father was a giant of a man, he stood at almost six foot seven putting him a head or two above most men. The only person who could contest with his height was Nathaniel who was six foot two himself, but it was obvious he would never be able to match their dads stature.

Both her brother and her father had a rather complicated relationship, to the outside world and even sometimes to themselves it was obvious they all loved each other very much, but this was a family that was riddled with disagreements and as much betrayal as expected from a family that descended from royalty. They had hurt their selves a lot, and even if they were still together, they were very much broken as a family.

“I couldn’t let you guys go on your own, regardless of who gave us this spot. You’re my family, and family sticks together even when we disagree with each other.”

Esther was moved, and it was obvious her father was too. Nathaniel used to be the biggest believer in their family. But that was years ago, growing up let him see the dirty truth about their parents and the change their choices brought upon their children. He became detached and distant, but he never left. Which was weird because Esther felt it would have been better if he left, at least that way she wouldn’t be standing face to face with him and feel like he was standing a million miles from her.

Their parents’ choices had derailed their lives a lot, now it seems the choices of the children was about to do the same. Esther was happy they now had a chance to live, but she had this lingering fear that from today things would get a whole lot more complicated for their family and eventually they would end up completely torn apart. And no matter how hard or how much she fought, this seems to be the reality they were heading straight for.

She heard the sound of the city hall being opened up as a row of police mechs marched out of its interior. The black and metallic frame gleamed under the glare of the sun. It was time for them to leave, it was time for the world to change.

“ALL CITIZENS ARE EXPECTED TO FORM A LINE WITH YOUR VERIFICATION CARD AND TRANSCENDENT TICKET. PLEASE IF YOU FALL INTO THE ABOVE CATEGORY MOVE TO THE RIGHT. ALL SPECIAL ADMISSIONS MOVE TO THE LEFT…….”

FAITH

Faith did not have a lot expectations anymore, in fact it could be said she no longer had any. Marching through the white hall with her family and a hundred other people who had paid for their survival by practically selling themselves into slavery, with others like her sister paying much more than expected. Silent as they both were Faith knew there was a lot of unspoken tension and animosity between her brother and sister, and her parents had nothing to say about it either because they were also not saints themselves. She had lost hope in her family, and that was quite a feat for someone her age considering she was only fourteen. As together as they might seem, there was a bevy of cracks in the perfect image they portrayed, and they all knew it.

However, the question would be how was it possible that with all of the anger between them and numerous disappointment and heartbreak that has served as the foundation of this family, how?...... Were they still standing together.

That answer was quite simple, they were family. And even with all of their shortcomings, they acknowledged the fact that they had to look out for and love each other. Because if they can’t trust family, then who can they trust?

The procession of people finally came to a stop in a room filled with a few dozen pods of varying sizes and designs. All of this pods looked quite slick and futuristic with their silver coats and gleaming power cords connected to rather terrifying looking helmets.

This was the key to the survival, the so called gateway to a new world. For some reason Faith found it very hard to believe and accept the fact that they all had to substitute the real world for a virtual one, how was that real.

There was a host of questions she kept on asking herself, would the air be the same, would the sun be the same. Would her food still have the same taste or will everything be taste less and bland like the very many virtual reality games she has played in her fourteen years of life. The fear of the unknown……..she was not scared of the unknown, she was just scared of this change, of being forced to live a rather unreal and mundane existence in a world that was not real with people who were not real.

The horror she felt was palpable, but the choice was completely out of her hands. Names were being called and people were being distributed into different pods. Some of the pods were clustered in pairs of two’s, three’s, all up to pairs of ten’s. then the rest of them were single units only. Faith had no idea why the whole thing was distributed like that, but she at least hoped they would put her and her family together.

As more and more people were being called to occupy the pods she turned her head back to pristine white hallway they just came from. There was no one blocking her way, no obstacle and no guard. If she so chose she could just make a run for it, she could leave this fake life that was about to be her future and her dysfunctional family behind. They say it’s a second chance and that everything would be different but she knew better, living would never be the same, it would no longer be real.

“Hey baby, are you okay?” her mother’s voice jolted her out of thoughts of escape. She wanted to answer but tears rapidly pooled in her eyes as the unfairness of the whole situation got to her. Her eyes were quickly blurred by the tears as they rapidly slid down her cheeks. She felt her mother hug her, and soon enough she felt her entire family holding her. They all held each other as the words of an unspoken promise hung in the air. They may be dysfunctional, broken, and on the verge of total collapse. But they were family, and that was more than enough for them to get through the next day, because they would do it together.