*Gaia King's POV:*

My eyes shot open after the back of my head hit against the wall of the van. It was shaking vigorously, going over unkempt road that seemly hasn't been fixed for years.

A sharp pain formed in my neck as I moved it upward, slowly lifting my head from Beval's shoulder. He was asleep, but still in pain.

The only ones up was Celosia, Isabella and Katie. Katie and Isabella huddled together. Isabella grabbed Katie's hand as she prayed in Spanish. I couldn't understand what was being said, but I just knew she was praying over us.

Even though I considered myself Christian, I didn't care for prayer anymore. God didn't matter at that moment. Nothing did.

I stared out into the darkness as the whooshing sound of cars passed by, their light shining into the van, but only for so long. I didn't bother to look to see where we were. Like I said, I didn't care.

But there was one thing I did care for at that moment: the people I loved.

I thought about my family and where they were. I haven't seen Thomas or our parents but I just knew they were in the vans. Whether they left before we arrived or not is a mystery.

More anxiety kicked in as I thought about what will become of them, if they will die like us, or be imprisoned for the rest of their lives. What if they were taken to another facility, and I'll never see them again?

How could we have been so stupid? How could we have been so trusting?!!

Betrayal has happened to us before and now it's happening again. This time, the set up was with someone who we considered an acquaintance, not necessarily a "friend".

"I swear, if I ever see Alex again I will tear him to bits", I thought to myself.

He basically sentenced us to death and I'm sure he won't tell Shimizu or Danny what has become of us. That I know. But with no way of telling Shimizu or Danny, how could they help us?

I truly hope that Danny gets a vision, and soon. Our lives depended on it.

Memories filled by head as I sat there, tears slowly streaming down my cheeks.

"Wow! Check this out!", Shimizu said with excitement as he looked into an abandoned jail cell. "The toilets are all destroyed!"

"This place is kind of scary. Don't you think Robin? I mean, serial killers were once here", I asked, hanging onto her arm tightly.

"I think it's pretty cool. If you're so scared, you can wait for us outside and let us know when the boat comes", Celosia sneered, knowing what my answer will be.

It was a memory of my parents taking us on a trip to Alcatraz. This was December 2018, six years ago. We were fourteen. We just met Shimizu a few months prior.

I remembered staring back at Mina and Beval. They were holding hands as they read a historical poster about Al Capone, ten feet away from us. I remembered the fire that formed in the pit of my stomach seeing that.

"Jug! Jug! Jug! Jug!", Thomas shouted, challenging me to drink an entire carton of milk. I threw up everywhere on the floor shortly after. We used mom's good towels to clean it up before they found out, but wasn't successful. Me and Thomas almost got the belt for that.

That was a memory of a summer where we were on vacation. I was seven.

"Yesss! Work it Gaia!", I heard Celosia cheer.

"Yeah Gaia!", Shimizu clapped.

I remembered hearing a loud "woohoo"  from Beval as well.

This is a memory from the first time I dance battled in public, on stage. It was at an event in Mission District, San Francisco. January of 2019. That day was my birthday. Five years ago. I turned fifteen. Time moved so fast, yet so slow. It was now late December of 2024.

Dancing and singing was the only things I was good at. But all of this bullshit, all of these events throughout these five years took it away. It took away our dreams. Our talents. Our passion. We couldn't even graduate high school because we spent the rest of our teen years into our young adulthood in a fucking shelter, trying to survive. Come to think of it, we probably wouldn't have survived UF-37 anyway. The virus killed four billion within a span of what?....Four-ish years?

"Gaia", I heard Celosia's voice call out. "You know I love you right?"

"Yes, I know. I love you too girl. Always had even when we had our falling out. It never changed."

"Let's all stay together until the end", I heard her whimper, beginning to cry. "You, me, Beval and Kimberly."

"QUIET BACK THERE!", An officer yelled as he pounded the glass, it scared us, but it also awakened everyone who was still asleep.

"Why are you guys giving up?", Katie asked moments later, scooting over, whispering to us. "We still have a chance."

"They took our powers", Beval explained to her, awakened from the banging . "What chance? It's over. Without Shimizu or Danny, it's over. They are the masterminds. We aren't."

"No. That's not true", Katie argued back.

We always followed Danny, but Shimizu was the one who looked up to him the most, which is why he was second command to him in a way. Even now.

I just went along with what he said, Kimberly and Celosia were a bit skeptical of him. Beval bickered with him. But Shimizu, Shimizu saw him as a big brother.

"It's not true, because, well...", she sighed, defeated. "Nevermind. I just don't want you guys to blame yourselves. You were coming to help us right?"

"Yes, but at first the plan was to come with Shimizu and Da-"

The van made a sharp turn causing us to lose our balance, some people bumping onto each other.

Getting back from laying to sitting, I stretched my body upward, glancing out the window. We were on a bridge, but it was so dark I couldn't make out where exactly we were, but it looked pretty isolated.

For the next ten minutes there was a loud silence between us. Beval quietly sung a song. A song he loved since middle school. Isabella's contractions lessened. Kimberly went back to sleep as did everyone else. We were in this van for what felt like a total of four hours. 

The longest four hours of my life finally comes to an end when we eventually reach our destination. The van made a left turn then came to a slow stop.

The sounds of fearful whimpering were formed by other people in here with us, I couldn't tell who because it was so dark. They were scared of the unknown and what was to come. The officers got out of the van, slamming the door behind them and abruptly opened the back doors.

Cold air rushed in. I shivered, goosebumps formed in my arms, legs and neck.

"GET UP! LET'S GO!", one of them yelled, several other FEMA officers arrived from behind to help them.

They began dragging and grabbing us from the warmth of the vehicle into the chilly cold night. I was one of the first people to be dragged out.

"Don't grab her like that!", Beval shouted at him, trying to protect me in anyway he could.

Keeping my balance, I stepped out of the vehicle, taking in my surroundings.

We were at a prison. It looked like it was built recently. Barbed electrical wires were surrounding the top of a wall surrounding the prison, keeping what was out, in. German Sheppards on a lease growled and barked at us as we came out of the vans.

News Reporters, a few of them from various National news stations reported on the scene, live.

Looking around, it hit me. We were on an island. But this island had one overwater bridge to get to it and off of it.

Walking pass a News Reporter, I turned my head away, so she or the millions of other people watching wouldn't see my face. Celosia on the other hand, not too far behind me rolled her eyes at the sight of another news reporter.

All of us we're pulled, pushed and yanked from the vans and grouped together to form a long line leading into the entrance of the prison. Even though it was a straight line, it was still cluttered with people. Not a single file.

Some were cuffed while some weren't. Only the potentially violent ones were cuffed.

There were hundreds of us, and I recognized every single face belonging to our home shelter. Hundreds of armed FEMA officers were there too, watching us with no remorse or empathy on their faces. Every dog we passed barked aggressively, wanting to bite the very flesh off of our skin.

Looking through the crowd my eyes stayed on one particular face.

"THOMAS!", I cried out.

It was him. My older brother was okay and here with me. He was at least thirty feet in front of me.

He turned his head back to where I called out. But it wasn't long before his eyes met my face. A brief smile of relief formed, but was cut short by a officer yelling at him to keep moving.

I stared at the officer, wanting to call upon all of the animals of the forest to rip the muscles and tissues from his bones.

We were in line for an hour and a half, slowly but surely getting closer. My legs were feeling heavier each step I took. I was cold, tired, hungry and defeated. We were still handcuffed. Celosia and Beval were about five feet behind me. Kimberly was around ten feet behind us. Katie was next to Isabella behind Beval and Celosia.

Now twenty feet away from the entrance. I
came to the conclusion they were probably pairing people up who were close to each other to share cells together.

Keeping eyes on my brother, whom was right near the entrance of the wall gate of the prison, an officer took a picture of Thomas while another officer wrapped what looked to be a steel bracelet on his wrist. They directed him inside.

"That steel bracelet must be for tracking purposes", I thought to myself.

I turned my head to my friends behind me. I was happy most of them were near to me, but Kimberly was the farthest.

My friends caught my glance.

"Come close to me. They might pair us together!", I yelled loud enough for even Kimberly to hear, but not loud enough to draw too much attention.

My people, the people of the shelter who heard me shout complied. They allowed Kimberly, Isabella, Beval, Celosia and Katie to bump their way through to come near me. I wasn't absolutely sure the officers would partner all of us together but it's better safe than sorry. As long as my friends were close, my sanity would be okay.

Eventually after what seemed like forever, I was next.

"Name?", a female FEMA officer asked with such intimidation, it shook me to the core.

"Gaia King", I gulped.

"Age?", she said, typing into a business iPad made simply for information about prisoners. I guessed it was for if we ever ran off, they would have the information to identify and find us.

"Twenty", I sighed.

"Birth date?"

"January 8th, 2004".

"Race and ethnicity?" She asked, not even looking up at me.

"I thought it was obvious", I said with a nervous chuckle, with a hint of sarcasm.

She stared blankly into my soul, not wanting to joke around or deal with any smart ass comments. She meant business.

I felt a knot in my throat as I answered.

"Black, Black Caribbean, from the Virgin Islands."

She begin happily typing into the iPad. She went back to her stern facial expression.

"Thank you. Now look here, your picture will be taken. Another guard will give you a steel bracelet.

I looked to where the woman said to look. The same guard that took Thomas's picture took mine. I didn't smile. I didn't frown. My face was blank as the flash practically blinded me.

That's when I felt something cold and hard around my wrist, just above my handcuffs. It was the steel bracelet. It clicked when coming together, tight but not too tight around my wrist.

It was like the extermination camp all over again. But less painful, yet just as distressing. I still had the burn mark they gave us the first day we arrived to the extermination camp. We all did. But sometimes I can still feel the burn.

Right after getting the bracelet I wasn't sure whether to cry, to fight, to scream. I wasn't so sure what to do, but I knew one thing. I was numb. Blank. Too many emotions mixed in one gave me that.

If this was going to be my last moments left on this earth, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go through it fighting, crying, joking and laughing or panicking and screaming for my life. I just knew one thing....the news those reporters were reporting better be worldwide.