Genocide. A cleansing. Both words no one was using to describe this massacre. A genocide can be described as the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. This is what was happening to me and my people.

The darkness was deafening, I pray my heart isn't actually as loud as it is in my head.  I stop and listen. I hear the muffled cries of the young children whimpering under their mother’s skirts. I wished they would just sleep, so many times I had said that we should just give them medication to shut them up, but sadly I was out voted. I didn't want their inability to shut the f*** up to be the reason I get raped and murdered. It was day 18 in this tiny little 28 x 36 basement. It’s was gross and mundane. Every breath I inhaled seeped with a smell of rotting flesh filling my lungs. That odor was courtesy of the dumbass that didn’t listen and find a hiding place when the broadcasts started which had gotten him killed right outside the one window that this tiny room had. Being of my people, a Mendushi, now was the lowest thing you could be, this last month I sometimes even wished I was a c***roach. C***roaches are treated with more respect than me and the Mendushi. We’re called “Keerbs” and a rough translation is “scum of the Earth”. 
Once upon a time the Mendushi people, were world renowned for our art, scientific achievement, and beauty. That very beauty could be the reason for this entire conflict, our beautiful nation was colonized by the Uglies. The way the Uglies took over in the olden days was to divide and concur creating castes systems like the ones in Kenya, for example there were the whites, then the Indians and other Asian groups, and finally the native majority. In our land people were categorized as being: Mendushi like me, Ashwak like the majority, and of course the Uglies. First of course the Uglies were at the top, and they decided what group people belonged to based on their outward appearance, jobs, and families ability to pay them.  So the Mendushi were treated better and given small positions in the Uglies government, resulting with  Ashwak  people being  second class citizens in their own country, a country in which they did all the work. Creating this drift between the nations is how the Uglies have kept their power for over 75 years but that was a 45 years ago. People still categorize themselves by their caste but they have little standing… at least that’s what we thought.

This upper hand made it harder for Ashwak to lift themselves up in this country Mendushi’s are bankers and business owners, even the president is Mendushi! There has never once been an Ashwak president.
Two weeks this massacre started, two weeks ago was the first time I had witnessed death.  I was forced to recall the history of the entire country that started this conflict, the history that made me an orphan, the massacre that made me the sole guardian of my younger sister.

I had started to review the major events over the last week that had made my life the living hell that it is today. The murder of the president, check. The import of thousands of machetes, check. The radio spilling Ashwak manifesto that is read like a hit list, check. The murder of my friends and family, check. The one thing on my list that had yet to be checked off is if I would ever survive this hell hole

I came across this band of leftover’s from my neighborhood we had gradually lost all the men on the supply runs, but in all honesty we only started with three of them. Today was the last day we would all have food for a while.  It was enough food to feed everyone barely just for today, 10 people are a lot of mouths to feed. We portioned the food depending on each person's size. The children got smaller portions, and by being an adult I would get more food. I was the most able bodied female at the age of 17. By having a tall athletic build I would be the next to go on a run because I would have the best opportunity to survive and return to save the others, but because of all my attributes I would get the most food.
During the meal I heard a mousy sound “Sasha…” my head whipped around shock to see my baby sister Marie holding up her plate clean. It disturbed me that she had finished within minutes. Even though my plate was the most full it wasn’t going to fill me up, but if I wanted anyone to survive this I wanted it to be her.
I scanned the room making sure no one else was watching and scooped up a fourth of my plate on to hers.
I leaned in closer to her ear so no one else would hear “grow big and strong so one day you can take care of me.” Marie was one about 7, she is a skinny short girl compared to her classmates, but she has the most beautiful brown eyes. They were so big with the longest eyelashes I had ever seen, she would definitely get all the boys in the next few years, if she survived. I pushed those thoughts out of my head. "She will survive" I whisper under my breath, not loud enough for her to hear.

Suddenly my whispers could be heard.  At the last hour of light, the clamorous sounds of constant screaming subsided and the streets filled with an eerie silence. It was time. The riveting, staccato beat of my heart was pounding by the minute. I felt the sweat seep through my pale knuckled fist as I clenched the bat. Get it together. You still have a thing to check off your list. You got this. Mentally I thought I was prepared, but then her innocent brown eyes flooded my thoughts. Do it for her, survive. If you're gone who will take care of her? And I was off, determined as ever to return for her.