The Lost Foundations by Gabrielle BG (inspiring books for teens TXT) 📕

to eat the fruit as a test. It was a test of human strength! The strength to know the importance of the self outweighs sacrifice of the self for something false. The fruit was our creation, and the fruit was our initiation.

Remember that all our greatest wars were fought because we knew that our right to freedom outweighed everything else. We knew that if we could win against Satan, as we all know it is the enemy of progress, that we would get our peaceful home back. Well, my friends, where does all my babble fit in? Well, today marks our first step towards our New Foundation’s goal of equal opportunity.

It has been a very long time that men have forgotten to share the fruit of our knowledge with the female kind. We declare that from this day onward, all women will have all the rights of men! Every single law shall be amended for girls and boys. No longer will a man be forced to leave his wife for battle or leave his mom or sisters at birth. Together we will march, side by side, men and woman, sons and daughters armed with love and passion. Our sisters beside us will join in our great victory. When the evil has died, our bonds will not be broken. United we are one. We are one! Now I invite our sisters and mothers to come taste of the fruit and rejoice in salvation.”

* For most of the night we were guided by the moon and stars, but when the moon went down we were forced to stop and sleep awhile. We woke up early and got out two pieces of crusty bread each. The hard bread was meant to last.
We both took small bites, and then off we went. There was no sun yet. The coolness was comforting and we didn’t cry the night before, but somehow waking up like that left us feeling so empty, lost, and gone. We were like abandoned sea shells. Where was that creature inside of us? Had it been swept off in the storm?

We were so afraid that we started running again. We ran a mile, then walked three, and then finally made it to the beginning of the highway. They could not find us here. You had to be crazy traveling without a license, but where else would we go? We wanted to make it out as far as we could from where they would find us.

The Wasteland was the place to go. By now they had torn down most of the forest. Soldiers destroyed the whole land and in vain search finding nothing, they had left it to the remains of the outcasts and rebels.

That was where we were going: To the last free settlement. There, we would be safe. Or at least we hoped. Back then we didn’t know all of this, of course. We had a map and the words, flee or die, still fresh in our minds.

“How much further do we have to go to get to the nearest gas station?” Molly asked.

“We have seven miles to go.”

There were many more gas station cities then. Molly, being my younger sister, had never heard of such a thing. She was afraid, but determined to survive.

“When are we going to ever see mommy again?” Molly had asked between sobs.

“Soon,” I would say, “As soon as we can get out of this place.”

But I knew inside, and she knew deep down, that there was barely a chance of ever seeing her again. No one caught us from the time we left till we made it to the gas station.

The trucks were lined up and men were unpacking. Molly and I were to try and get into one going south. But Molly insisted on going to the bathroom. I admit, my bladder was about to burst. Molly did well going in and out without being noticed, but my features were easily caught and a man behind the counter took me back for questioning.

This is it, I thought, there is no way I can make it out of this one. I told him I was lost. “Why, a girl so young away from home?”
“Who is your mother so I can report you?”
“No! I don’t have a mother,” I lied.
He said he would let me go, for a price.
“Work for me for a few days, and I’ll forget this ever happened…” Then he smiled a big yellow smile.

I had to go along and I felt sick. I secretly hoped Molly would wait for me. But every time I kept trying to go out he wouldn’t let me leave. I had to work if I was to escape ever. Because if I didn’t, he would make one call and they would send me, mom, and the whole of Meridia to prison. I became a slave to him. I had to work all day and half a night. No one else had to work as much as I did, for I had “special privileges.”

I would cry at first, every night, thinking of my sister, Molly. She was my sister. She was the only person I had left. She was my family. She was gone.

I was scared and alone. I spent my days toiling away like some slave girl. I mixed and poured chemicals and substances into the water. I began operating their new highly technological machines. In this daily routine I supplied my lonely days with smells from the sea substituting the smell of chemicals, gasoline, and smoke.
When I stocked the shelves, I secretly held the seashore freshener close to my nose. It smelled artificial and made me nauseous, but I craved the smell so much.

Soon, I had a full time job as a gas station girl. When the boss was out, I would pull out the air freshener from under the cash register and silently daydream of the sea.

I had gotten so used to the patterns of work and the shifts, but most of all I think the fumes really got to my head. I began to forget nearly everything about my home and my past life. Time simply slipped away. I just knew that I really like that smell. I longed for it and craved it.

Then one day I woke up and the smell was gone. I searched in vain for anything recognizable. I had lost my sense of taste and smell! My mind felt empty all the sudden. I had to get out. The fear of losing my senses had woke me up. I hadn’t known how long I had been there but I knew I had to get out.

I walked out the door of my bedroom, out of the office, and stood for awhile in the middle of lot 58 until I finally remembered. Inside the doors, all my answers were inside those truck doors. I was about to try to find out how to get in when a car full of teenagers spotted me.

They told me to get in the car. I figured that maybe I should, if only to find Molly. So I climbed into the back seat. I was cramped with two young women and in the front were two young men. The women were much older than I was and kept asking me questions.

“Who are you,” they asked and then, “Where did you come from?”

I didn’t remember. They were a little unsure about my honesty. At first they didn’t trust me and thought I was odd. But, when the guy in the front asked me how long I had been at that place and I said, "As long as yesterday and tomorrow and forever," they realized that I had been a prisoner. So they gave me some magical candy.

“It’s good for you,” they said.

I got really happy and soon we were laughing and talking together. We were all high, I guess. I fell asleep for a good while and when we stopped again I was awake and feeling nauseous again. I was truly better, they told me, and sure enough I could remember everything.

“It’s the laughter,” they said. “It’s really good for the soul.”

I had never heard of a soul before. Mother never told me of a soul.

"What is a soul?" I asked.

"Oh. Well… it is your will, your freedom, your…you. It's you and yourself and… nothing can stop you.” The driver, Hal, said this with such uncanny certainty.

“You mean like the ocean?” I asked him.

“The ocean, well, kind of like the ocean…I guess.” Hal got quiet then and I didn’t feel like asking any more questions.

I had had enough of the candy after that, and when I had a drink of that special water, my sister was all that came into the forefront. "Where is my sister? Does my sister also have a soul? Maybe she escaped. Could she have been caught? Where is my sister?"

After awhile, I got up my courage to ask if they could help me find her. “Please. Will you help me find her?” They agreed. It took some arguing. Yet, finally they agreed that we would have to find my little sister.

“She could be anywhere, though, and the chances of finding her are slim,” said the other man, Tim.

We spent two weeks looking for her, but by Monday our spirits were getting soar. If only I hadn’t been captured, I thought. The one thing that did make us stop was when we reached an unexpected checking area and this is what I remember hearing Oh, no. Do you see that ahead? Crap! We’re in this together alright! Do you think we’ll be able to make it through there? I dunno. Just be still….

They said that all of their cards were counterfeits and that they had mapped their route perfectly. Well, up until looking for Molly, they had been certain there was no new tracking booth along here. We slowly approached the end.

“You have to get out, Sarah!”

They said to run or the men would catch me. I didn’t know where to go, and I knew the officers wouldn’t let me escape. They approached on either side of the doors. Hal locked the doors to delay the officers.

"Get out!" He yelled. I finally figured out what he meant.

Climb out through the window; is that what he meant? The window was small, but I was able to fit right through. I slid out then with just enough time to sneak away and I ran and ran in the opposite direction.

I was running as far as I could get from the hundreds of booths, booths with men, men who would find me. They were men without souls but who were armed with guns. They were men who were officers, yet just who were they protecting?

“Toll booths have to be more efficient,” so instead of having them spread apart, they decided to make hundreds upon thousands of toll booth rows. In the rows upon rows, people would stare blankly ahead, waiting for hours at times. When would it be their turn? That’s all they ever worried about or cared about anymore.

But so many chemicals and so many entertaining delusions were made to keep them happy. It was the way the system worked. They all chose, of course, to buy these tools that created their personalized bliss. There were no warnings. There were no dangers. There were no labels.

It