Founders of Utopia

That night was one of the worst of my life. And the cremation of my good friend was not the end of the upset.

Sarah had seen enough to have know something was horribly wrong. And she had a cell phone. The last working phone on the island. She called some supreme authority, they responded as though she were insane and hung up.

She called again, providing coordinates and said she was lost.

This was received better and immediate responce was promised.

Immediate took a little longer than we'd have prefered. But in that time, Sarah gathered a multitude of other "Utopians". The entered the room, grabbing at Teofilo and Crackhead, who just burned the last bodies. A tall boy with hair to match pounced at Crackhead, pushing him to the floor.

A teenage girl with frizzy hair lunged at Romanov, holding her wrists and shaking them to force her to drop the lethal syringes to the floor.

Two girls and a boy were holding Teofilo, and Aurora was too shocked to fight a boy/girl holding her. I couldn't see them well. Or perhaps I don't remember.

Ivy sat, rubbing one of her legs around the metal rods and grimacing. No one attacked Ivy.

I'm curious as to why. Maybe they thought she was no threat. Maybe they understood she meant no harm.

But later they would testify for her.

After the Founders were bound in some way, the hardly human people in the cages were being let out, and their wounds were beginning to be tended to.

I found Emmett and sat by his side.

"Cerel..." He weakly smiled. Ivy was helping the cleaning because she knew what happened and what could be done. I smiled down at him, slipping my iPod from my pocket. He leaned into me and requested that we listened to "Here in Your Arms".

Our eyes closed and our heads together we listened intently. Teresa was making rounds and getting supplies for the people who were working medically, and she stopped to help a tall boy bandage a gaping wound on Emmett's left leg.

The authorities showed up not so promptly. But they were there, which was what counted. Sarah was waiting outside for them and lead them to where we were.

The man looked astonished and he muttered something into a large black walk-talkie.

Within the next three hours, a couple airplanes showed up to transport us all to a hospital in the United States. Our actual locations would be sorted out later. The injured were brought in by friends and officials, tiredly stumbling and often having to be carried to their beds.

Our good friends, the Founders, were all going to be given hearings. But Teresa and I were testifying against them. And Hayley, if she got well.

The doctors said they didn't know if she'd make it, what with the level of poison in her system. But we were helping prove their guilt by writing it all down. Everything from beginning to end.

All of us witnesses agreed that the Crackhead and Aurora were not quite as accountable as Teofilo and Romanov, however they were guily. We did decide Ivy was not a member of the guilty party. She was actually trying to help us.

And we weren't going to stab her over being involved when she was the one trying to stop the others.

Apparently, Teofilo was a fake name. He was really one Walden G.V. Quinn. And the stuff on the internet we'd found about "Professor Teofilo?" They were all planted there by the Founders.

Romanov was not on best terms with government as it was... she was labeled a radical for being so profoundly obsessed with the rights of animals, getting carried away like a hormonal teenager with a passion.

Aurora was as unqualified as she'd seemed. The only school she'd been to outside of required education was beauty school.

Crackhead was a recovering addict. So I'd been right about the reason for his behavior being like someone coming back to reality after a high.

Everything about Ivy was true. Only a little more censored and glossed over because of her image which had needed to be maintained. She was in more ways like me than I'd assumed.

Her mother was a psychopath who believe their child was nothing but a failure. We were both kicked out of our homes as soon as it was legal. We both had problems which we were finding ways to get though. And we would both eventually work our ways past them.

I relayed the information to Emmett who was only in enough power to smile.

His hair was looking normalish and his skin was growing back. He was still heavily bandaged and would still be needing a lot more treatment. He was improving.

I spent all the time I could with him. We were being allow time to get back on our feet before we would be out of luck as far as food and shelter. By that point I had a pretty stable job working at a well-paying restaurant. I would basically sleep at the hospital with Emmett.

Teresa said she would be back in America soon enough but she was going to be trying to find her sisters before she would stay here. To ensure her safety and ability to come and go back without trouble, she was going with a friend who she was pretending to be married to. And she would be finding her sister's friend who brought her here in the first place.

I felt good about myself and my friends. Particularly after Hayley's recovery, I felt especially optimistic about Emmett's recovery.

I returned to the hospital as I did every evening to see Emmett.

The nurse leaving the room told me not to go in.

"Why?" I asked.

The nurse raised her reddish right eyebrow. "Hon, I'm sorry they didn-"

Another nurse came pushing the wheeling bed out into the hallway. And the white sheet was used like a makeshift pall over it's inhabitant.

I felt little. Just numbness. I didn't understand. His recovery was so much more promising than Hayley's. He didn't get semi-lethal poison injected into him. He didn't...

But then again, since I was falling in love, of course he died.

The funeral came and went.

I couldn't accept it.

I felt like I was gone too.

I still feel for him. And that all occured nearly fifteen years ago. I'm married with two beatiful children. Carrie Ivy, and of course Emmett. A cliche` to give them those names, I know. But it didn't seem right any other way.

I remain the same,
Cerelia Hupprecht