Eugenia part 45

Read part 44 here!

During our many planning sessions, I hadn’t even considered what an issue it would be to transport all the necessary people to the stadium. There wasn’t a good explanation for ten large vans full of random people leaving from my parent’s house to a “medical conference” at the stadium. So we went in waves.

I was a part of the first wave at two am, since it wasn’t like I needed the extra sleep. Along with me were Julie, Decklan, Luke, Andy, and a cranky Emma, plus two Outliers and a random contact of my parents. The random contact’s name was Edgar, and he was our technical expert. He and Luke would be working to set up the lighting for the musical performances and getting the projectors my parents had purchased to display our pictures and stories on every wall of the arena. You wouldn’t be able to turn away from the images of the tortured children or the gas chambers. It would be exceedingly unpleasant, especially for those of us who had to see it first hand, but it was necessary. We couldn’t expect change if no one knew what had to be changed.

The next wave of people arrived at five am, then at seven am, ten am, and noon, until everyone involved in setting up was present.

It took two burnt out bulbs and four hours for all the projectors to start working, but once they did, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Those pictures were the real reason we were here.

At three in the afternoon, Jon was set to announce the locations for the rallies in all the cities participating, so once two thirty hit, everyone started to get antsy. I glanced at my program for the fiftieth time that hour.

We had four musical acts, the final of which would include Emma’s original piano compositions. In between those sets, we had three slam poetry readings. There were tables lining every edge of the stadium piled high with art and writing anthologies and mix tapes. Today, everything was free.

Three entire rows of seats up from the ground level were covered with drawings and names. All the Outliers had written and had the resident artists draw pictures of every person they’d ever known to perish under the FF system. If possible, we also included stories. Throughout the day, I found myself staring at Zia and Gruber’s seats, next to one another. This is for you. I told them silently.

At exactly three o’clock, our first musical act, Daniel Shauf from our Tulsa stop took the stage, poised for our first curious visitors.

To everyone’s immense surprise, Jon’s announcement brought in hundreds of people, mostly college age students. Within minutes, the doors were jammed with people flowing in as if a dam had burst somewhere. Daniel was an instant success amongst them, even though many looked openly uncomfortable with the pictures on the walls.

Police officers followed soon after, but there were just too many people to try and shoot. I even saw some drop their weapons off with Luke and join the dancing students.

Decklan and I stayed off to the side of the craziness; I tucked myself into his side for comfort. The scene before us was overwhelming, more than I’d ever hoped for. Someone started a petition that was being passed around the dancing mob, and by the end of our first hour, we’d filled ten pages with signatures.

It wasn’t until far into our second hour that Bluff himself made an appearance. At first, the dancing mob had been too preoccupied to notice him, but eventually his large police posse became evident. He strode right up to the stage, and with the help of the two most forward officers, lifted his bulk onto the stage. By now, everyone had seen what was going on and had fallen silent. The current musician stopped playing his ukelele and stepped back from the microphone with a sarcastic bow.

Bluff cleared his throat. I held tight to Decklan’s hand as I listened to the silence that followed. It actually hurt my hears, having grown used to the pounding of hundreds of feet and chest vibrating bass speakers.

“Have you been enjoying yourself?” Bluff asked cynically, his gaze penetrating the crowd. They swept back and forth across the room, and I got the idea that he was looking for me. I shrank against Decklan.

“That’s nice. I’m glad the students of New Diego have had a good day.” He paused again. No one uttered a sound. I caught sight of a few people trying to inconspicuously leave, afraid of punishment. “But I’m afraid that it’s time to return to reality.” Bluff gestured towards a graphic image of one of the children medical experiments. “Are you all so blind that you can’t comprehend simple photo manipulation? Do you really believe your government would do something as heinous as experimenting on your less intelligent offspring?” I watched as the audience shifted uncomfortably. “It isn’t hard to make a child’s skin look green with a computer program. Stage makeup is more convincing than this bile.”

Decklan gripped my shoulders firmly, as I was shaking. “Don’t, Meg. Don’t provoke him. Not yet.”

“There’s one picture that we didn’t include in the slide show. Because I wouldn’t let them.” I told him through gritted teeth, not taking my eyes off the Senator.

“What are you talking about?”

“The girls. The little girls.” I said. And that was enough. I took one glance back at Decklan and saw the information click inside his head. Then he nodded at me.

Staying low, I ran to find Luke, frozen at his position behind the laptop broadcasting the projections. “I need to change the display for a second.” I told him.

“The pictures you’re looking for are in a folder labeled ‘filth’.” Luke muttered, staring at Bluff, who was feebly pointing out “proof” of photo manipulation.

Nodding, I started to exit out of the slideshow, but stopped and turned back to Luke. “Luke… I’m so sorry.”

He shook his head with a thin smile. “Don’t be. It’s been a weird couple of months for everyone.”

“I just… I don’t know how this is going to end. And I wanted you to know that I am sorry, just in case…”

Decklan would have cut me off and told me not to think like that, but Luke just nodded. “You’re amazing, Meg. I really hope you don’t die.”

I chuckled softly, pressing “escape” on the keyboard. “Me, too.”

Concluded in part 46!