Hope was only a name

The story of a girl lost in her society her journeys out to find a new life.

A lone girl walked along the streets,

Her long skirt wrapping in and around her legs as she walked.

She looked into the faces of the masses around her.

 

Three years ago it had not been like this.

 

Four years ago no one had to wear these grey masks.

 

It had happened so suddenly, no one had time to adapt.

The pollution had grown so thick gas masks were issued to ever person,

Suits to the young, elderly and weak.

 

Animals were rare, slowly becoming all but rumors.

House pets were the few that survived, as long as they never went outside.

 

When the rain came from the thick dark clouds that always hung foreboding great danger,

Exposed skin had to be quickly covered lest it be burned instantly by the acid rains.

 

People gave her strange looks as she walked with just an orange tank-top

A blue skirt and her gas mask,

She was the only colour in a crowd of grey and black.

She could see their judging glares behind the glass that covered their eyes.

She didn’t care,

They could stare all the wanted she was leaving anyways.

 

Her feet were bare,

But the streets were always kept clean,

Not even a hint of loose rock nor nature lived there now.

The streets were as gray as the sky,

And the homes black with soot.

Sometime your could see a hint of their original colour

Where someone had passed a hand over top.

 

Inside the homes,

Everything was white.

The air was clean in the houses,

The white was blinding and painful to her eyes.

Everyone had come to forget the past and live in their present accepting it as their future.

 

Many had perished in the change of the earth,

In only the course of three years the world was destroyed as they had once known it.

The humans had cast our colour from their lives; it reminded them to much of the world they had not respected.

 

It had been four years since the masks had been issued,

And no one dared to venture outside their communities.

Things out there had changed,

And they did not wish to know how.

The world had become secluded and lost from each other.

 

The girl held her head high,

A cloth covering her hair mask covering her face.

The mask held so tightly to her head it left red marks that she believed would never go away.

A haunting reminder of just what her world had become.

The people ignored her as she walked straight to the edge of town,

Where iron gates with warning signs hung carelessly unattended.

 

As she passed the gates she heard shouts,

People calling her crazy trying to keep her from leaving.

None of them knew her,

None of them would leave their sanctuary and safety to stop her.

She just kept moving forward,

Away from the town;

She too was afraid but her bare feet did not stop as she continued down the untended highways that lay barren of any life.

 

The time passed but she could not see the sun behind the deep grey clouds,

She had no idea when she left or why.

She simply followed her heart and her dreams,

They told her to keep going.

Though her feet ached and the pavement the cars had once raced over was now crumbling away she continued to walk.

 

A chill swept through the air as a breeze blew up the dead leaves around her,

Her skirt waved in the wind that blew to the east.

The sweat that ran over her skin cooled and felt nice.

 

As time passed and her body grew weak and weary her steps slowed and her legs shook,

But she dared not rest for the clouds above her rumbled deep with thunder and threatened a storm.

A storm brewed deep in her as well,

 As rain threatened to fall from her eyes from deep within,

But she knew she could not stop.

Though her steps had slowed,

And her vision had become blurred with sleep she continued on.

Exhausted, her visor covered in dust and soot;

Wiping it with her arm had only made it worse and tears clouding her vision,

She continued to struggle on.

Something told her to keep going and she knew she had to listen,

Something deep in her heart egged her on.

 

A sound of rushing filled her ears,

She turned and saw the rain coming.

The rain she knew so well that would burn her skin if it touched her.

She remember when she was young and the first time it rained acid,

She had been burned and the scars still showed white on her dirty skin.

She began to run,

There was no cover to run to but all she could think was to run.

 

The dull blue cloth that had covered her head flew off,

Her dark brown dirty tangled hair fell out behind her dancing in the wind

As the rain fell in sheets behind her slowly catching up.

The pounding of the rain reverberated through her feet as she stumbled over the crumbling concrete.

Suddenly a pressure fell away from her face,

The mask she had worn for so long bounced across the ground behind her now.

She collapsed gasping for breath,

Her hair fell around her.

Only her back shook as she gasped for breath,

For life.

Tears rolled down her cheeks as the rain that had taunted her for so long fell against her now.

 

For a moment everything was silent as steam rose softly from the hot concrete.

She threw her head back and cried out loudly as tears and rain ran down her cheeks,

There was no pain and she could breathe.

Her vision cleared and above her she could see a site she had now witnessed for many years,

Stars twinkled above her faintly as the sun rose over the horizon illuminating the sky in colour.

Deep in the cracks of the broken concrete green was growing,

And far ahead in the distance a small farm stood.

Stalks of corn grew high into the sky reaching for the beyond,

Life had begun to grow far past the city limits past the influence of the human population.

With weak legs she raised herself and walked past the rain,

Into the sunny dawn towards the farm ahead.

A strange familiar sound filled her ears as a smile broke across her sullen face.

Animals, alive and well.
Someone emerged from the old farm,

And met up with the girl.

 

Inside the house was a small group of people who had left all fear behind and followed their hearts to the freedom past the city and past society.

All greeted the weak girl with a warm smile and food and welcome her into the home.

Their home and soon to be hers.

While the world lived blind to the outside,

They lived happy and free knowing the world beautiful and amazing that they had left was still alive.

Only forgotten,

Abandoned and in need of a little tending.

 

She smiled to them,

“My name is hope.”