Free A New World: Taken by John O'Brien Page A

fields.   No congregating or talking.   Any attempt to escape will not be a pleasant experience for you so you can get that out of your head right away.   If you have to use the bathroom, you’ll notify one of the guards and be escorted.   And, there will be no slacking.   Do you understand what I’ve told you?”
    She nods not trusting her voice.   Tears well up in her eyes thinking she might not get out of this or see her kids again.   The frustration she felt at not being able to find her son and daughters when she awoke builds along with the anxiety and a feeling of complete hopelessness.   She wishes she could remember anything prior to this morning.   She does remember the flu and some of the past but there is a blank gap between seeing her kids to bed at night and waking this morning.   It’s obvious something has happened and time has passed but she can’t remember any of it.
    “Show her to the women’s quarters and put her in with the other injured,” the man behind the desk says addressing the two men standing just behind her shoulder.
    The light isn’t as brilliant and blinding as she is taken outside and over to one of the classroom buildings.   Her headache dissipates to a degree but the knot in her stomach, her confusion, the worry, and hopeless feeling remain.
    She is guided to a classroom filled with other women and girls who are either sitting on cots or lying on them.   The desks have been removed and replaced with cots covering the linoleum of the classroom floor with small lanes between each row.   A guard with a gun leans back in a chair behind what once was a teacher’s desk in the far corner of the room.   She is given a cot and she lies down staring at the drop-down ceiling and hanging florescent lights.   Her mind is both numb and racing a hundred miles an hour.   The soft breathing of the others in the room, accompanied by an occasional moan, is the only sound.   Sunlight pours through the open windows and a slight breeze blows sporadically across her face.
    In the late afternoon, she is gathered with the rest of the women and taken outside to the fields just south of the gym building.   They are given some time to walk around.   She is still numb and merely wanders from place to place staring at the chain link fence in the distance.   Freedom lies just on the other side; so near and yet so far away.   The guards keep a close eye on the group and they aren’t allowed to venture far into the field.   Heartache fills her.   She sinks to her knees, starts to cry, and feels an arm wrap around her shoulder.   Through her blurred vision, she turns and sees an elderly lady.
    “It’ll be okay, hon.   You’ll get used to it and it won’t be so bad,” the elderly woman says quietly to her.
    “But I don’t know where my kids are,” she says with the tears streaming once again down her already wet cheeks.
    “There, there.   You just focus on staying alive for them,” the woman says.   “Keep the faith that you’ll see them again.   Hold onto that.”
    She hears vehicles approaching, turns, and watches a line of school buses drive along the street in front of the high school.   Her eyes stay on them as they enter through a gate and park along the entrance drive.   People emerge and she watches intently for any sign of her son and daughters.   Many people exit but none that even slightly resemble her kids.   The helpless feeling sinks even deeper.
    They are rounded up and taken into the cafeteria building where they sit quietly at tables after getting their food.   Several people next to her attempt to engage her in conversation but she feels too low to respond.   After their meal, they are taken to the gym and allowed to shower.   Fresh clothes are dumped in a pile and there is a scramble amongst those there for clothes that fit.   The posted guards chuckle at the frenzy.
    “I’ll never stop being amused by that,” she hears one of them say quietly to