There's No Me Without Us

A community stood, thousands strong. We all stood, side by side. Waiting; watching. There was a ghostly silence that seemed to last forever. My hand clutched to my twin sisters as if my life depended on it; like I needed her to live. We stood in the centre of our town, facing a huge screen.

Last time we were here was about eight years ago. Cherry and I had stood just like we were standing now; hand in hand; side by side. The only thing that was different was that everyone that stood on this uneven, paved stone was under the age of twenty-three.

I played anxiously with my jet black hair. I hoped that it wouldn’t be the same as last time. I hope that it would be different. I could feel Cherry shaking beside me; her shoulder making mine vibrate slightly.

“Cherry,” I said softly, looking into her beautiful, emerald eyes. “It’ll be all right. Trust me, OK?”

She nodded slightly; a small, glittering tear rolling down her check. It broke my heart to see my sister cry, and I quickly pulled her into a hug; trying to comfort her as I rubbed small circles on her back with my hand.

“It’s OK, you’ll be fine; we’ll be fine,” I reassured her.

“How do you know, Abbey?” she choked out in no more than a whisper.

I paused for a moment. I could tell her the truth; that I didn’t know, that we could be taken away like mum and dad. Or I could lie to her; saying I knew we’d be fine as long as we were together; that nothing would hurt us. I kissed her on the head.

“Because I’m not going to let anyone or anything hurt you,” I said after a bit.

There was a loud, crackling sound and there was static on the huge screen. People gasped and we all turned to face it. The thing about our community was that, we weren’t all different faces; there was a pair of each face. Everyone had a twin.

I kept an arm around my sister as the static turned to an image of a middle aged man. He was balding with only a little bit of hair left, which he had combed over in small wisps. His face, blown up to twenty times its normal size; was the shape of a potato, and he had multiple chins. Below his bulbous nose, and above his lips, sat something that reminded me of a caterpillar.

“Hello,” said the man, making his chins wobble violently. “As most of you will know, my name is Mr Novoselic.” I shuttered slightly at the memory. “As you will remember, eight years ago, we called the same sort of... gathering. I’m sure I don’t have to go into detail.”

I felt my lip curl. How dare this man speak so casually about what had happened; about what he had made happen. I felt the blood pulsing through my veins and anger boiling up in me.

“It will be happening this year also,” he continued. “On January 5th, we will be launching rocketships to a newly discovered planet; Somnus. It is a lot more stable than Mars and we are positively sure that it shall be a suitable home for all of us. However, do not be too excited, for there is one catch.”

The excited mumble, that had spread through the crowd as siblings and spouses shared their happiness, died and all fell silent once more. I clutched my sister even closer to my side, not wanting a single speck of dust between us. I prepared myself as I saw Mr Novoselic’s wide mouth open again to talk.

“You and your twin shall be split up. The youngest shall go and the oldest shall stay. As you will have noticed, there are troops...”

I didn’t heard what he said next; I felt my body go rigid and still. Anger no longer boiled, but in its place, fear consumed. It took every inch of me not to burst out a chocked sob. I could now see the troops strayed at the ends of streets leading into the centre of town; they were standing in their black uniforms, guns in their hands. I knew that if I were to make the slightest noise of protest, I would be dragged away.

“You have two weeks to collect your things and say your goodbyes,” Mr Novoselic said as I focused again. “Good luck.”

And the screen was covered in static again; a crackling noise echoing from the speakers, of the buildings. Everyone was quite for a moment, before people started to calmly walking off; I knew that once they were passed the troops, they would panic.

I took Cherry’s hand again, and started leading her towards the street we had come here through. I caught a glance of her face, and saw an expression that mirrored mine; one of determination. We walked with purpose in our step passed the troops and down a nearly empty street.

Once we had turned the corner and there were no black uniforms in site, we sprinted. We ran flat out as fast as we could, our feet hitting the pavement at the same time, causing echoes off the walls of the tall, brick buildings.