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They loaded us onto the buses Everything felt different to me with Terrence there He lent ainst hih I don’t think it was , wake up, Ida, we’re here, wake up now, and right away I could smell how different the air here ere More soldiers took us off, and for the first tih on their poles-though it was still the daytiht, and so cold all of us were sta There was Army everywhere and FEMA trucks of all sizes full of every kind of thing, food and guns and toilet paper and clothes, and sooats and horses and chickens in cages, even sos The Watchers put us all in lines like they’d done before and took our naave us clean clothes and took us to the Sanctuary The room they put us in was the one most everyone knohere all the Littles sleep to this very day I took a cot next to Terrence and asked him the question that was on my mind, which hat is this place, Terrence? Your daddy must have told you if he built the train And Terrence was very still for a hts and walls will keep us safe Safe fro until the war is over It’s like the story of Noah, and this here’s the ark I asked hi about and will I ever see ain and he said, I don’t know, Ida But I’ll look after you like I said Sitting on the bed on the other side was a girl no older than , and Terrence went to her and said, quietly, what’s your name, and I’ll look after you too if you want, which made her stop She was a beauty, that one, you could see it plain as day, even as dirty and worn down as all of us were The sweetest little face and hair so light and wispy it was like a baby’s, the way they do She nodded to what he said and answered, yes, would you please do that, and if it’s not much trouble can you look after irl, Lucy Fisher, became my very best friend and was the one that Terrenceas just as pretty as Lucy except in theyou probably know that Fishers and Jaxons been ether one way or the other ever since

Nobody said it was s, but it seeone by now Not just hoe came to be here but that world, the old world of the Ti within aon a suht to watch the stars come on They’re all dead now, of course, the First Ones Most been dead so long, or else taken up, that no one even remembers their names no more When I think back on those days it’s not sadness I feel A little sadness, forfolks, like Terrence, as taken up at twenty-seven, and Lucy, who died in childbirth not long after, and Mazie Chou, who did live a good while but passed in a manner I don’t just now recall Pendicitis, I think it was, or else the cancer The hardest to think on are the ones who let it go, the way so many did over the years The ones who took it into their own hands, froht of this life no more They the ones I dream on Like they left the world unfinished and don’t even know they’ve gone But I suppose it’s part of being old to feel that way, half in one world and half in the other, all of it ether in the mind No one’s left who even knows my name Folks call me Auntie, on account of I never could have no children of uess that suits ot so o, I’ll be taking the back, bringing more children and soldiers, but they never did The buses and trucks pulled away, and as darkness settled down they sealed the gates, and then the lights caht they blotted out the stars It was a sight to see Terrence and I had gone outside to look, the two of us shivering in the cold, and I knew then that what he’d said was so This here ould live froht, when the lights came on and the stars went out And in all the years since then, the years and years and years, I never have seen those stars again, not once

IV

ALL EYES

First Colony

San Jacinto Mountains

California Republic

92 AV

O sleep! O gentle sleep!

Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,

That thou no etfulness?

-SHAKESPEARE,

Henry IV, Part II

Slide No 1: Reconstruction of First Colony Site (33°74’ N, 116°71’ W)

Presented at the Third Global Conference on the North American Quarantine Period

Center for the Study of Human Cultures and Conflicts

University of New South Wales, Indo-Australian Republic

April 16-21, 1003 AV

DOCUMENT OF ONE LAW

KNOW ALL COLONISTS BY THESE PRESENT:

We, the HOUSEHOLD, in order to safeguard DOMESTIC ORDER; provide for the EQUAL SHARE; promote the PROTECTION of the SANCTUARY; establish FAIRNESS in all matters of WORK and TRADE; and provide for the COMMON DEFENSE of the COLONY, its MATERIAL ASSETS and all SOULS ithin its WALLS, until the DAY OF RETURN, do ordain and establish this DOCUMENT OF ONE LAW

THE HOUSEHOLD

The HOUSEHOLD shall be co FIRST FAMILIES (Patal, Jaxon, Molyneau, Fisher, Chou, Curtis, Boyes, Norris), not to exclude those who have joined a second fa WALKER FAMILIES; or, in such cases as the oldest surviving member declines to serve, by another of his surname; The HOUSEHOLD shall act in consultation with the BOARD OF THE TRADES to oversee all matters of defense, production, illumination, and distribution of EQUAL SHARES, final authority to be retained by the HOUSEHOLD in all matters of dispute and in times of CIVIL EMERGENCY; The HOUSEHOLD shall elect one of its members to be HEAD OF THE HOUSEHOLD, that person alone to serve without encumbrance of a secondary TRADE

THE SEVEN TRADES

All duties of ithin the COLONY, and without its WALLS, including the POWER STATION and TURBINES and GRAZING FIELDS and PITS, shall be divided into the SEVEN TRADES, to include: the Watch, Heavy Duty, Light and Power, Agriculture, Livestock, Co, and Sanctuary-Infirmary; Each of the SEVEN TRADES ("Works") shall be self-ad, the HEADS of TRADE to for to the HOUSEHOLD in such manner as the HOUSEHOLD determines and at its sole discretion

THE WATCH

The WATCH is henceforth known to be one of the SEVEN TRADES, equal to all others, and comprised of no fewer than one FIRST CAPTAIN, three SECOND CAPTAINS, fifteen FULL WATCH, and a number of runners to be deterbows, crossbows, blades longer than 10 cm) within the WALLS of the COLONY are to be kept and stored in the ARMORY, under the protection of the WATCH

THE SANCTUARY

Each child shall remain in the safety of the SANCTUARY ("F D Roosevelt Elee of 8 years, to depart its confines on the advent of her 8th birthday, whereupon that child shall select a TRADE, subject to the needs of the COLONY and the approval of the HOUSEHOLD and the BOARD OF TRADES