Teen Ink

Chapter Two

At last, there came the sound we had been waiting for. The horns blared, sirens resounded, and clamors of the people deafened as if it was the end of the world. This was the day my world had come crumbling down like an avalanche, strong and powerful but suddenly, its foundation became weak and unsteady. Babies were abandoned in the streets, animals wandered about the vicinity as the owners, mothers, fathers, and workers begged for one more chance at the gates. Many were shouting my surname, but the words slurred as I glowered down by the gateway.
“Help us!” They’d shout.
I don't care what happens anymore. It doesn't matter how much they hate my father. I didn't do anything. After all, this isn’t my dilemma, it is my father’s.
“Annaliese, it's time.”
Oh, like I've never heard that before. Time for what? I'd shriek in my head. No, stop telling me it's time; I know what I have to do.
I was raised to believe that an old world is coming to pass, and a new world will undertake common man by replacing farmland with furnaces and judging humans as nothing more than animals. Perhaps this wasn’t so.