We all knew it.
What was going to happen to us.
No one told us we just... Knew.
Some of us were scared.
Some of us were prepared.
Some of us were even excited.
We had bags packed already, but we weren't allowed to take them. We were given five minutes to choose one item and one item alone.
We were only children, we didn't know what to take. We knew we'd never come back, so what was there to take?
A necklace?
A teddy bear?
A sketchbook?
It didn't matter.
Not to all those men in black suits or to those scientists in white coats.
All that mattered...
Was order.
"No! Mum!!! Please don't let them take me away!"
"Help!! Someone help me!!"
"You're hurting me!!"
"No what about mum?! Daddy please!"
"DONT TOUCH HER!!!"
"I won't let them hurt us.."
"Finally... I've got it, I can get in on my own."
"Don't touch me.."
"Don't hurt me..."
"Please just leave us alone.."
It still chills me to my bone even today so many years later, hearing all those cries for help, hearing them tell their siblings it'll be alright. Or begging the men in black not to hurt them. But what hurts the most is when they aren't even afraid. When they are excited to leave their awful homes.
The neighbours didn't bat an eye when all those 8 year old boys and girls were dragged into the black vans. Nor did the sailers when the children were thrown into those shipment containers. Nobody did anything.
"Did they even see what was going on around them?"
Is what the children thought for many years, they wandered if humanity could really be so cruel as to let this happen to them. They wandered if god really existed then why is he punishing them?
"I'm scared Isaac..." Poor, young Riley mumbled to her twin brother, holding each other closely as the endless oceans rocked them back and forth, "I know... I won't let them hurt us." Isaac was the strongest of the bunch, he was seen as a leader and the one to trust, a roll model of sorts.
"Wishful thinking." Soren scoffed, ah yes, the tough guy. There's one in every story.
The one negative thinker, the one willing to let everyone else die or get captured by the evil villain as long as he survives. 'Soren the eyesore' is what the children would name him, 'Soren the selfish' even.
"Oh shut up, Soren, we know already do you have to make it even worse?" His twin brother, Simon, scolded his younger brother.
Sibling rivalry, you can see it quite often in this story and any other. Their aren't so many siblings in the story of The 61 as every child on that cargo ship was turning or already had turned eight that year. The only siblings were step siblings, or twins.
"It's called being realistic," Soren spat back, feeling a small boy climb into his lap, "Jamie, what the hell are you doing?" Soren nearly gasped, grabbing the sides of Jamaica's arms, soon loosening his grip hearing soft sniffling, "I'm scared..." The boy whispered, holding tightly onto Sorens torso.
Soren thought for a moment, listening to his friends soft and tiny sobs he realized that maybe it was best to shut up. He wrapped his arms around Jamaica's small body and comforted him quietly.
I'm sorry to have to tell you this but that's how they stayed in that dark, hot shipment container for the next five days. No food, no water in hot and humid climate already, being locked in a metal cage for that long.. are you even surprised when I tell you that The 61, started out as 70?
70 children got onto those boats, but only 65 got off.
As the children were gathered onto the docks their bodies were frail and skinny, weak and damaged. It was obvious to see as they were forced to go threw all those extra securities until they were thrown into the helicopter landing dock to wait for further instructions.
"Name." The gaurd demanded, not even looking up at the child, "Elaina..." The little girl spoke softly and with a scared tone as the gaurd used scary looking equipment to print out a name tag.
"Left handed or right." The gaurd asked, Elaina brought her right hand towards the gaurd who quickly grabbed it, pasting the wrist band onto her.
"5 12 1 9 14 1." Was what had been printed, she hesitated before leaving to the landing dock, causing her to be shoved forward by the guards.
This process was repeated 65 times, and each child had gotten their names printed out in the form of number and been put into a system.
"Akashi."
"1 11 1 19 8 9."
"Raven."
"18 1 22 5 14."
"Dante."
"1 7 5 12"
"Angel."
"22 1 12 5 18 25."
It was a scary experience, and went on for what felt like hours until finally it all seemed to have ended. That's what they thought at least, what they didn't know is they had to go threw it all over again as they were sorted into their respective groups.
"If you all would take a look at your arms there are a series of numbers ranging from 1 to 26, I'm going to call out those numbers. Pay attention carefully and come up to the front when you hear your number."
As everyone sat impatiently in the night sky air they wandered how much longer they'd need to go threw this. They were tired and hungry, but it still wasn't over?
"1 18 1 19 1 11 1, damn that's a lot of ones." The children have soon learned this man as 'Captain', the captain is strict, but he still is kind and fun hearted, though he's scary a joke won't kill him here and there.
"5 12 9 15."
"1 21 7 21 19 20."
"4 9 1 14 1."
"13 9 12 15."
"And finally, 18 8 25 19, please stand up and make your way to the helicopter on your left."
This process continued for 12 cycles until the last, five were called on and taken away, then as the helicopters came back the next five were taken away until the last five remained, "Now, I'm sure by now you know the drill, let's skip over the numbers and just get into your helicopter." Captain said, the children got up and went, getting into the helicopter and holding each other closely as they flew to their next destination.
They were taken into labs full of equipment and had countless tests done on them, they were stripped of their clothes and put into dull, white uniforms, their blood was drown, they were hooked into these machines and shown pictures of their brains and organs.
After hours they were finally taken into a large, white room surrounded by everyone else. Friends and siblings that were separated jumped into each others arms and refused to let go. Even Soren who presumably hated his twin brother was looking endlessly threw the crowd of kids until Sandiego helped him and brought him to his brother.
And after the last of the children had gathered in this large white room, the room felt emptier. Though no one seemed to notice they were lacking four more of their friends.
No one seemed to notice that some of them didn't come out of those labs.
The 61 children were finally fed and sent to sleep in communal buildings, they were separated by gender and placed in even more white rooms.
26 girls and 35 boys.
At least, that's what the beds said.
Because at the end of the day there were more girls then initially expected, so Mia was simply thrown into the extra bed by the boys.
"It's okey, Mia, it'll be sorted out by morning I'm sure." Saint spoke softly to the scared little girl hiding in her covers as her three triplets step siblings sat by her bed to comfort her. Chicago, Saint and Adrian were Mia's new husband's children, however, that new husband didn't seem to matter anymore. They were all scared out of their wits end but they knew she needed them at that moment. And they tried their best to show up.
"Saint, Adrian, Chicago... I hate to interrupt, but we don't know if they will punish us if we're not in our beds." Kai warned them, Adrian quickly ran back to his bed while Chicago switched with Adam so he'd be right next to Mia. Saint went back to his bed as well not seeing any use in further staying with her. He thought she had gone asleep already.
The next morning they all gathered back into what they'd soon learn to be the cafeteria, they got their food and sat down obediently as the captain did a head count that seemed to last for hours.
"10 15 9 15."
"Here."
"9 19 1 11 5."
"Here."
So on and so forth, however hearing the 9 empty numbers that no one seemed to answer scared them, not many knew the nine who died, but that didn't matter.
They stayed in that cafeteria all day with nothing to do, until 6 pm when they were moved back into the dorm buildings.
This continued for days until they were finally introduced to the bathrooms, until then they only had two they could use in the back of the kitchen. The children got clean clothes, it had the material of a drying clothe and was all white, baggy and a simple pant and t-shirt. They were not provided with underwear nor were they provided with shampoo or conditioner, all they had was a bar of soup, a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste each.
For years that's how they lived, 26 girls in one room, 34 boys and one girl in another with 32 bathrooms, every month the children would receive a care package of sorts, of which included; toothpaste, a bar of soap, lipbalm crayons and a colouring book.
On the year of their tenths birthdays, the package changed.
The girls received a pack of menstrual products, a red lipstick, a highlighter and an eyeshadow palette.
The boys received pens and pencils, along with the crayons, a deck of cards and a diary.
"Umm, well- we didn't really know what anyone's interests are, I guess play amongst yourself and decide if you want something the others have." The captain said, he's never had children of his own, but he assumed that's what they'd like right?
Well, he was unbelievably underestimating how much the children enjoyed their new 'gifts'.
"Diana! Can I try that thing?!" Adam exclaimed pointing at the red lipstick, he couldn't quite remember what it was called, but he remembered his mother using it. And that made him like it right away.
After so many years of complete isolation from any kind of outside world, genderized 'you have to like this' and 'youre a boy you can't wear makeup' or 'girls aren't supposed to like cars' completely flew out the window. They accepted who they were and no one bothered them about it, if Adam wanted to try on makeup, no other boys teased him that it was too girly. If Aisha wanted to play with the cards it wasn't considered weird. It was complete peace between the two genders, as they forgot what their parents had taught them to like and not to like.
"It's lipstick!" Diana exclaimed excitedly, reaching over the table to show him how to use it, "Oh! Sophia, wanna switch?" Dante asked, pointing at the highlighter stick, he wanted to switch for the pencils, Sophia's eyes lid up, "Are you sure?!" She asked and Dante happily nodded, "It looks so cool!"
"Raphael, Raphael! Maeve and I switched, look how pretty these colours are!"
"What is it?"
"It's makeup! My mum used to let me play with hers, you put it on your eyes."
"What are those though?" Noah asked, pointing at the menstrual pads, Hazel looked down momentarily as she was looking into the mirror of the eyeshadow palette, she shrugged, "Wash clothes?" Cesare offered, "Ye cause girrrrlllllsssss are cleaner then usss." Kai laughed teasing his twin sister, Daisake, "Yesssss we are!" She retarded with a bright smile, quickly getting up noticing her brother running after her.
They laughed and giggled like normal children for the first time in years, however seeing 61 ten year old running around with menstrual products in their hands was a bit discouraging.
"Maybe we should've explained it to the girls first.. they probably don't know anything about their periods yet." Miss Betty chuckled, "Yes, I think we need to have the sex ed soon.." captain laughed along with her watching over the happy children.
'Happy children.'