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The Lips of Sleepers
Text: Olivia Ehrle
Their country lost the war on the day Atticus told Meredith he loved her. He quietly muttered those three simple words and Meredith’s lips curled into a smile. Just before she could breathlessly tell him just how many years she had been waiting to hear his mouth form those words, the sirens began to wail.
Atticus paled and quickly rolled up his sleeves, and despite the fact that their families were still out in the city, began to shove furniture against the front door as a barricade. Meredith was so taken aback by the sound of the sirens, a sound she had hoped she wouldn’t hear in her lifetime, that all she could do was fall to her knees and watch Atticus work in a panicked frenzy.
As Atticus leaned down, and began to unlock his father’s weapons safe, Meredith began to sob. “It’s happened, hasn’t it? They’ve won, haven’t they?” Atticus hung his head down, and then picked it back up to look into her eyes.
“Yes, our army must have finally surrendered. Which means, the enemy is probably going to invade soon. I’m hoping your mother and sister found a bomb shelter. I know that’s where my parents were headed anyways, to stock up on our provisions. Meredith, I’m going to have to turn the lights off now, it might make them think no one is here. But I’m guessing they’ll find us in a good seven hours or so.” He shuddered, “Defend yourself with whatever you can find. Do you understand?”
Meredith nodded, choking back the sobs that kept creeping up. He turned off the lights, and sunk down to the floor. Meredith crawled over to where Atticus was kneeling and nestled in between his arms. She wiped away the beads of sweat rolling down his forehead with her bare hands. Atticus laughed silently and whispered, “Doesn’t that disgust you? That’s not exactly sanitary.” She breathed in shakily, and wiped some sweat from her own forehead, and smeared it onto his. He just stare d at her through the silent darkness. “We’ve shared our laughter, why not our sweat? Sweat is just as important.”
After a few minutes of quiet laughter, they settled back into the silence. She sank deeper into his arms, and waited for the enemy to come. They broke the barricade down easily. Two men in uniform tackled Atticus before he could fire a single shot, and one grabbed and gagged Meredith just as she was about to sink a knife through the surface of his skin.
They were thrown into the back of a moving truck filled with bleeding people. Meredith didn’t see her mother or sister anywhere, just Atticus struggling beside her in chains, as the soldiers sneered and waved them goodbye, shutting the door to the truck with a resounding slam. Babies cried, mothers shushed, and men looked at their families like it was the first time they had ever seen them, and the last time they ever would. Meredith could hear Atticus attempting to speak through his gag. “It…gonna…be….okay…” he repeated over and over, looking at her intensely, and then glancing down at his chains in shame.
After four hours of driving, the prisoners were lead out to an empty parking lot, where a lieutenant general was standing on a podium, a satisfied look gleaming in his eyes. Meredith and Atticus, along with nine-hundred trucks full of people the enemy found, were pushed down next to eachother onto the hard gravel, as the soldiers removed their gags roughly.
The lieutenant on the podium cleared his throat, “Stop your sniveling, scum. I hope you enjoy the ground, because we do not intend to let you rise up again. Your country belongs to us now. YOU belong to us now. You are nothing more than our slaves, but luckily for you, we are compassionate masters. Due to laws beyond our control, we are not permitted to murder any of you. But we are permitted to torture you any way we please, and we intend to. But…” he laughed nonchalantly as if her were telling a knock-knock joke to a kindergartner, “We’re letting you choose your torture. Each of you will be given one last individual choice, before we take complete control of your lives. You have two prisons to choose from. In one prison, we will shave your heads and assign you numbers, but we will let you choose who you are surrounded by. In this prison, we will let you have plenty of conversation time with them each day. You will be allowed absolutely no sleep, we will provide you with daily energy shots to keep you alive, but your eyes will never close. You will be weak, but you will still be living your life with others.”
The lieutenant continued, “In the other prison, we will let you stay just as you are now. We will let you stay strong, and young, and beautiful. You’ll be known by your names, and not a hair will be taken from your head. You will be given sleeping shots, and will remain asleep at all times, with not even a dream to keep you company. We will keep you in a warm bed, and you will be fed good nutrients through an IV. You will suffer nothing there, but you will not be awake with the ones you love.”
So the soldiers came, and asked them down the rows one by one, what prison they had decided to choose. Meredith was horrified, but felt safe knowing that Atticus would be with her. “At least I’ll be awake with you.” She whispered to him. But he didn’t look at her, he simply stared at his feet, his face expressionless.
Meredith’s eyebrows raised, and her heart began to feel heavy. “Atti, you are going to stay awake with me, right?” His eyes still stared straight down. The soldiers were inching closer and closer to them. Tears began to roll down her face, and her safety began to shrink away. “Atti… answer me. ATTICUS!” He stared at her, a mixture of guilt and pride washing over his face. “I want you to remember me as strong, Meredith, I don’t want to be weak that way. I don’t want to hurt like that.” Desperation rushed over her. “No, don’t say that. We’d both be weak, we’d hurt together. That would keep both of us strong. Don’t you think?” He didn’t answer, he just stared straight through her, as if he had never known her.
A soldier took Meredith firmly by the shoulder, “CHOOSE.” He commanded. Meredith swallowed, and chose. “Awake.” She said simply. The soldier scratched something down on a piece of paper, a number. She looked at Atticus, awaiting his words, bracing herself. “CHOOSE.” The soldier said, to Atticus this time. “Asleep.” He said tonelessly. Meredith began to cry like a child, erupting into screams, as soldiers pulled them in opposite directions. She turned her head, and what she saw made her hurt more than any torture could, Atticus’s head had remained unturned.
So, Meredith became prisoner 6002. Her long wisps of brown curls were shaved every two weeks, her face was shrunken in hunger, and her heart felt endless shame and sorrow. For four months, she spent her days scrubbing shirts of men who mocked her until her hands bled, and her nights awake, singing with the people she had spent her childhood with. Her thin arms were lined with track marks from energy shots, and she could barely utter coherent sentences. She found strength to survive through the friends that still made her laugh through the exhaustion.
Some nights, she would sneak out the back of the slave deck and look out into the distance at the Prison of the Asleep, where Atticus had chosen to dream alone. As she looked at the faint outline of the gray building, she hoped that by some miracle Atticus could dream good dreams. She wondered if the lips of sleepers smiled, or if in their deep sleep, they felt any joy. She wondered if he would ever wake up for her. Then she would shake her head, and walk back inside her chosen prison.
Then after months of suffering, the Redeemers came, and conquered the Enemy. The Lieutenant general of the Redeemers decided to free only the Awake. Because, in his mind, the Awake deserved freedom for fighting,, whereas the sleepers were weaklings who took the easy way out. All of the Awake rejoiced at his decision, they were angry at the decision the Asleep had made, and allowed themselves to be carried away without a backward glance.
As a strong redeemer carried her in his arms, whispering how it would be all right, Meredith looked back. Despite the fact that she was too weak to stand, an unearthly strength came over her and she sprung from the redeemer’s arms. She ran past the fleets of soldiers, so fast that her legs almost fell from beneath her. She ran all the way to the Prison of the Asleep, and broke down the door. She slipped past the corpses of enemy soldiers lying on the ground, and searched the sleeping faces for the one she loved.
When she saw him, his face as expressionless as it had been on the day he left her, all she could do was smile. He remained unchanged, his skin still golden, and his hair still dark. A bead of sweat ran down his forehead. She laughed, and rubbed her sweaty forehead against his. She gently removed his IV, and hoped his sleeping shot was wearing down. She kneeled down beside his bed, and patiently waited for him to wake.
Atticus’s eyes opened slowly, and disorientation was evident in his gaze as he looked at her. His breathing was rough. Meredith squeezed his hand, and all of her anger melted away. A spark of recognition finally filled his eyes. Meredith suddenly became conscious of how hideous and weak she must look. He slowly sat up, and pulled her up against him, kissing the top of her bald head. “I didn’t dream, Meredith, I didn’t dream.” He cried, and she began to cry with him. “I didn’t either.” His breathing became steadier. “I’m so sorry, I’m so incredibly sorry. What can I do? What do you want me to do? I was wrong. I was so wrong.” He rambled, and she just laughed as her eyes began to droop shut. “Just say good morning to me,” She whispered weakly, and fell fast asleep in his arms, knowing he would wake her up when the time was right. “Good morning.” He said, laughing in disbelief. Then Atticus lifted her up, got to his feet, and carried her home.
