Star

The young pair were filthy. The girl was perhaps ten or eleven and the boy a year or two younger but neither was certain how old they were.

They had been traveling together for the last four years in search of the girls parents.

The names given to them at birth had long ago been forgotten so the two had given each other names. The boy was Peanut and the girl was called Star.

Star carried with her a deeply ingrained memory of a time before the bunker. She remembered vividly the sound of the woman crying as the man had said, “Don’t stop looking for us!We will find each other again! We love you!”as the crowded yellow school bus packed with sobbing children had pulled away.

During the last four years, spent searching for her parents, Star and Peanut had learned what had separated Star’s family.

People were scarce. They had only seen six in the past four years. Those six had all told the same chilling tale.

Around seven years ago the United States government along with the governments of the leading countries around the world had put their plan for the New World order into action. They had broken into the radio and satellite signals and into computer systems over the entire world and run a message over and over.

They had advised the parents of children between the ages of two and five to bring their children to one of the various bus stations that had been set up around the globe. They were told nuclear annihilation was eminent and promised to protect this small age group deep in secret bunkers. In the bunkers they would teach them nature survival, hand to hand combat, martial arts, give them weapons training and teach them reading and writing and advanced mathematics. The children would be taught to survive any conceivable situation to ensure the survival of the human race.

As governments often do, they had lied! There had been no threat of nuclear war it had all been about population control. Once the government was satisfied with the number of children turned over to their care they had begun phase 2 of the New World order. This phase decimated the world population. The various military organizations had begun slaughtering people wherever they stood. Their homes, their jobs, in schools, in churches, synagogues and mosques. Even in the streets. There were skeletal remains everywhere the pair had traveled.

While above the ground, slaughtering of the masses was happening, below ground, in city sized bunkers around the world the two to five year old children were put through countless rounds of “phasing out”. The children were tested both physically and mentally and only the strongest and most intelligent were sent on to the next round. In order to desensitize them those who made it to the next round were forced to execute those that did not. During their years in the bunker Star and Peanut had been forced to execute large groups of what the adults called “inferior” children. Before each mass execution the adults in charge would tell the child executioners,” don’t feel bad it’s the law of nature, survival of the fittest.”

Those same adults didn’t seem to be too keen on the law of nature when the final group of children turned on them and as they begged for their lives, the children had chanted , “It’s the law of nature, survival of the fittest!” before silencing those adults forever.

Before the adults had been killed they had paired each child with one of the opposite sex to ensure optimal breeding results. Star and Peanut had no idea what those words meant but during their time in the bunker they had learned to count on each other and had spent every moment together. They had become everything to each other.

The adult leaders had given the little ones a rule they said must always be followed. They would tolerate no vanity. This meant the children were never to look at their reflections anywhere. Star and Peanut had been sitting across the table from a four-year-old boy and his two year old mate one morning having breakfast. The boy had been making funny faces at his reflection in his spoon. They witnessed the brutal beating that left his poor tiny back raw and skinless, the punishment was also given to his two year old mate but her small, frail body could not recover from this brutality. Upon drawing her last breath the boy’s throat had been cut. Reiterating for the children the importance of living as one with their assigned mates and of never breaking the rule.

Any time Star and Peanut came across any object with a reflective surface Star would scratch at it with a rock until the shine was gone and all danger of them seeing themselves was obliterated. The atrocities endured by the young children were unimaginable and numerous and had so deeply scarred Star and Peanut that this rule would be carried on by their descendants and it would be several generations before any of them saw their own image.

Peanut had come in on the orphan buses. He had no memories of a mom and dad who loved him. He told Star before he met her he had never known what it felt like to love or be loved. He was much happier now than he had been pre-bunker unlike Star who carried a deep loss and sadness with her even though she couldn’t remember exactly what it was she had lost.

As the young couple got closer to the top of the hill they saw something glinting in the sun. They discussed excitedly with each other the possibilities of what the shiny object might be.

“I bet it’s a tin can of peaches!” Peanut said hopefully . “ No, it’s probably a firearm or maybe even a machete,” responded Star.

Finally at the top they were disappointed by what the object actually was. There were two skeletons in tattered clothing, one appeared to be male and the other female. Around the female’s neck was a golden heart shaped locket.

Star reached down and grabbed the locket. She opened it and saw a small photo. In the photo were a man a woman and a small girl. The little girl had a tiny birthmark by her right temple. Star wondered what had happened to the little girl. She wondered if the girl has been “phased out” or if her parents had been one of the few that opted to keep their children with them for better or worse..

Aggravated by the disappointing find she threw the useless trinket down. Peanut, who had also seen the tiny photo, snatched it out of the dirt and shoved it deep into his pocket.

A cool breeze blew and rustled the leaves of the nearby trees. He glanced towards Star to see if she had seen him pick up the locket. He was relieved to see she was too busy smoothing her windblown hair back into place, once again covering the small, star shaped birthmark on her right temple.

The pair set out again, on what Peanut vowed never to tell Star, was a pointless endeavor, to find Star’s parents.