The Three Sisters
She walked along the broken road leaning on a worn out cane, favouring one leg and dragging the other behind her. Every once in awhile she would stop, to check a flipped over car or to rummage through a pile of trash. The road was dry, covered in dust and her awkward gait left marks in it, a footstep and a long line where her left foot dragged behind her. Spaced out between her uneven footsteps were drops of blood staining the ground red the bright color contrasting with the drab colors of the darkened world around it. The road she took curved and twisted abruptly, jetting out to the right, then quickly cutting back to the left, the old pavement switched consistency every few feet. She continued on, glaring at the tattered billboards, disapproving of the message, shaking her head at poor decisions of the drivers who left their cars behind. She stopped and looked at herself in a puddle of dirty water, it was the first time she had seen herself since before the incident. Her skin hung like wet clothes around her bones, and hair was wispy and thin barely enough left to blow in the heavy wind thats jarring cold chilled her to the core. She never expected to look like this, not at this age, she could blame it on it on the radiation maybe, or the five years of starvation she had lived through. Joints creaking, she forced her body to carry her on, step, drag, step, drag. After what seemed like miles she came upon another pile of remmanents. She shifted through the pile, tossing aside a horrendously yellow heavy coat, a glint of silver caught her eye. She recognized it, the glint of packaged food, something she had not seen or tasted in years, her stomach grumbled eager for its first food in days. She eagerly tossed aside another unfavorable piece of clothing and revealed a whole untouched package. Flipping it over she read the label, and frowning she tossed it aside. Groaning she forced herself on, mindlessly taking steps. She was not going in any particular direction just onward. Her stubbornness, her pure desire to continue on and only wanting to spite the world she lived in by not giving into it. She faded in and out of consciousness but kept walking. Each step she seemed to bring an old memory back to her mind. But none was more relentlessly pounding at the back of her conscience then her recent ordeals. Her foot sank into the ground, but all she heard was the thump of the handle of the knife stopping the momentum of a blade, against the soft flesh of a human body. The wind howled through the trees but all she could hear was the scream of a man facing death. When her foot hit solid ground all she could hear was the sound of a bunched fist swung with desperation connecting over and over and over again with a sickening crunch. Her limp leg dragging against the pavement only reminded her of how the last breath of a man is rattled and forced, almost as if he is not breathing in air but his soul is escaping from his body. Even the blue skies reminded her of young innocent eyes staring up at her as she breathed heavily. After leading the life she did never did she think she would do something she just did. Her whole life had been discipline, study, get good grades, graduate, win over the people keeping emotions out of her. Yet today she stood there triumphant, almost happy. She had looked down at her victory with pride one more death but this one personal, but now it felt empty, meaningless. Now each step brought a tear to her eye until there were no more to cry. After hours of walking, dragging herself along both body and mind numb she came to a point in the road with a rock overlooking field. The rock was high and regal, almost as if it was left there for an important person. She paused for the first time in what seemed like eternity to sit on the rock. As she lowered herself into it, memories flooded her brain. The rock reminded her of her old chair in her old office, demanding respect, everything in the room leading to her. And as she sat on the rock she felt as if the entire world was focused on her and in a way it was. Closing her eyes she rested, going to sleep fondly remembering her time in power but waking up haunted by her actions. As her eyes were forced open by the ghosts of her own decisions she noticed the field in front of her for the first time. It was a wide vast field spreading to the horizon, where she could just barely make out trees bringing a halt to the fields and reaching towards the skies as if they were trying to escape. The field was dry, and the wind blew up great clouds of dirt, blocking out the sun. It was the scene out of an old west movie, one would almost expect to see a bison skull lying in the wasteland. In the middle of the field lay a circle of decay. A wasted attempt at trying to cultivate the land. All around in a stretch for miles were plants of all kinds, planted as if someone planted them just hoping one thing would grow. Her body resisted, but she got up and started down the hill feeling a strange desire to walk towards the field. As she approached the first ring of decay she saw it was all flowers. Roses, dandelions, carnations, lilies, daffodils, almost every kind now turned grey by time and malnourishment. They all lay fallen, forgotten colorless and dead on the dry brown dirt. Next there was tomato plants all kinds of them, pear, cherry, yellow tomato plants laying dead alongside each other. Most of them seemed to never have budded but the ones that did the tomatoes were small and rotten. She continued on towards the center, drawn by something she did not understand. Everything she passed was dead, dry, crunching under feet sending up a horrendous smell. She passed dead pumpkin plants, zucchini, all types of melons, carrots, even some failed fruit trees. Everything died in the field that seemed to go on forever. The plants fell off for awhile and now she was walking on dead weeds. A last attempt it appeared to just find something, some source of life, something to live and thrive in the ground, not something to eat but just something to be there to live. But even that failed, and she could feel her spirits lowering it getting harder to walk, each step a burden. Then she saw it, one plant standing in the center field, very much alive. She almost cried tears of joy, she found herself rooting for it to be alive no matter what plant it was. After what seemed like hours she approached it, and saw it to be not one plant but three growing together. Startled by this, she fell to the ground. It was corn, squash and a bean plant all growing together. Three separate plants, all so different growing together surviving when nothing else could. She could not believe it, would not believe it, she did not believe that if all the other plants failed that three drastically plants all so different survived together. Angered by what seemed like a cruel joke she rose to her feet and tore out the plants and threw them to the ground adding to the wasteland surrounding her. And she yelled out in frustration, angered by the differences in the plants that led to their success. She got up and left the field, she did not remember taking the walk out, she only remembered feeling the hazy rage that set over her, recalling the differences in the world that she had left behind and the things she had tried to do get rid of them. Her actions cost her the world and yet the plants with many differences had won. The cold was almost stifling now, she felt as if her limbs were not working and her movements were slowed. She barely had the strength to get up and when she continued it was at a slow pace the steps closer together, the line left behind her second foot leaving a heavier indent and more blood drops peppered the ground. Step, drag, step, drag, her eyes began to cloud as the cold reached new depths within her. Her good leg stumbled and she pitched forward onto the ground, she could have given up now but she continued, using her hands to drag herself along, leaving a shiny red trail beyond her. She kept pulling, kept dragging but eventually she lost the strength, she could not move a single muscle in her body. She lay there on the twisting, different colored road shivering so hard it racked her body. Her head swam and she looked off in the distance at the city she had left behind, in shambles, halfway finished skyscrapers, peppered with different colors, others destroyed it looked by an untamed power. Among all the buildings one rose up, a tall rectangle coming to a point on top, a starch grey against the bright blue sky, she could not see the pool in front but she knew it was there. She remembered standing on the steps in front of it, feeling as if the everything was pointing to her, waiting for her to tell them what to do. She used to look out from her porch at the tall building, feeling hopeful for the future and accomplished with what she had done, she used to fly over it and look down at it with pride, but now it brought her only shame and a feeling she could not identify. Her breath was rickety now and she struggled to bring it in, the cold air barely satisfying her lungs. She focused more on breathing each breath getting harder and harder. She tried to take one last breath in, but it would not come and as she lay there eyes dimming, giving in to the coldness all she could do was regret. All she could do was regret that the world could not agree on leaders, regret that she was a part of the disagreement that led to the total devastation surrounding her, regret that she did not agree with the color of the coat and chose to freeze over wear it, regret she was so indulged in her own opinions and taste she did not eat, even when she was starving, regret that the world had come to place where no one could agree on anything, regret that she had not seen the power in differences, regret that she had not used her power given to her by the people for good, regret giving that order,...regret.
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