This page was created by Alison Morgan. The last update was by students at Xavier University.
"Finding Tony"
Sarah swayed back and forth as she waited in the food queue. Her stomach quivered as she glanced out at the crowded and musty encampment. She had been stuck in the President Justin Bieber Memorial Refugee Camp since the Disaster struck three years ago. The camp was running low on food and people had been restricted to only two meager meals a day. “Alright, that’s it! We’re done for the day!” shouted the Guard Chief, “Go on, get out of here!” “What an asshole,” muttered Sarah under her breath. She turned and began to saunter hungrily back to her tent and prepare for bed. Sleep made it easier to deal with the hunger pains.
Sarah entered the tent to find her brother Tony already asleep. “Thank God,” she thought, “He would’ve thrown a fit if he didn’t eat.” Tony had Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism that made it hard to interact with other boys his age. He spent the majority of his time either in the tent asleep or sitting outside staring at the other side of the fence. He was having a tough time dealing with being separated from their father. Sarah and Tony hadn’t seen him since they began living in the camp. “He’s probably dead,” she thought.
It was easier to imagine her father dead than to entertain the thought that he had abandoned them. The Disaster made everyone change, even her. Before, she had been a regular teenage girl, she went to school every day and hung out with her friends on the weekends. She didn’t know what had happened to any of her old friends. “No point in worrying about that now,” she thought. She had become a much colder and more bitter person. She had to be, for Tony. They wouldn’t have survived this long without it. Her stomach grumbled as she closed her eyes. She wished sleep would come. She never slept well; there were too many things to worry about. She was sure of one thing: if her father was dead, she envied him.
She awoke the next morning to the sound of the tarps outside slapping against the sides of the tent. She rolled over to find Tony absent from his sleeping bag. “He’s probably outside looking for something to eat,” she thought. She groggily rose from her makeshift bed and sauntered outside to find the sun beginning to poke its head out from underneath the sullen earth. “Tony!” she called out, hoping to hear him respond, but knowing that even if he had heard her, he probably wouldn’t. She made her way to the community fire where a few of the residents crouched around the flame looking for warmth.
One of the men had what looked like a squirrel wrapped around a stick and was trying to find some room near the fire to cook his breakfast. “Please, man, I’ll do anything,” begged another, scrawnier man, “Let me have some of that.” “Get bent, you beggar!” yelled the man with the skewer as he pushed the other man down, “Now stay down or I won’t be so polite next time!” This is how it was in the camp. You had to be extra careful when you had food. You’d better eat it fast, or someone else would. “Please you’ve got to help me! I’m so hungry!” pleaded the beggar. He got up and ran at the food as if he were mesmerized by it. The man with the food pulled a shiv out of his boots and slashed at the beggar, who fell to the ground clutching his face and screaming in pain.
This whole scene had begun to cause a commotion and had attracted the camp guardsmen. “Get on the ground!” ordered the guard, “Now!” Possessing a weapon of any kind in the camp was a crime punishable by immediate death. Sometimes they just shot the perpetrators, but usually they liked to make an example of them. Knowing that he would be executed if caught, the man ran at the closest guard and began slicing at him as fast as he could. Before Sarah knew what had happened she was knocked onto her back by the crowd of people who had stampeded away from the outburst. She heard gunshots, then screams, then more gunshots as she began to crawl towards the closest tent, her heart pounding so hard she thought she could feel it hitting the ground. When she finally reached the tent she got up and ran as fast as she could back to her tent. “Oh Tony, where are you?” she thought, “Please be in the tent.”
She arrived to find Tony asleep in his roll. “That was a close one,” she thought. There was no point in going to the food queue as it was shut down immediately any time there was a problem, as a form of punishment for the entire camp. That meant no food today. Her stomach grumbled, bringing her back to reality. Tony rustled in his roll. He turned over and looked at her with his beady eyes. Before the Disaster he had been a chubby little boy, but now his sullen face reflected his lack of adequate nourishment. “What?” asked Tony, with a bit of an attitude. “Nothing,” said Sarah, quickly diverting her eyes to the dirt floor. “Then don’t look at me!” yelled Tony, “I don’t like it when people stare at me!” “I’m sorry,” she said. It was better to just apologize than to argue with him. There would be no reasoning with him and if it got out of control it would cause a scene and attract the guards, which Sarah definitely didn’t need. However, what she did need was to find something for the two of them to eat. “I’m going out to get something for us to eat,” she told Tony, “Please, stay right here.”
She headed towards the center of the camp where she might be able to purchase some food with a few coins she had saved from before the Disaster. She had hoped to keep them for later when she knew it would get really bad, but she had never been this hungry before. As she approached the center she saw a large crowd gathered around the podium. This is where everyone gathered when there was an execution. She hurried through the crowd to the nearest bartering stand and bought two rabbits, a canteen and four Twinkies. As she passed back through the crowd she caught a glimpse of the beggar from earlier. He was chained to a post with three other residents. The Guard Chief was circling the prisoners and addressing the crowd. “Those of you who partake in any sort of unsavory action will be punished by death. In our community, we cannot allow any sort of insolence. Drastic measures must be taken to ensure the safety of all residents
When he finished his speech he turned and walked back towards the barracks. Before entering his tent, he gave the signal and the guards aimed their rifles at the prisoners and fired. Sarah knew it was coming, but it never got any easier to hear. To know that someone had just been killed. “How could they do such a thing?” she thought, “All he wanted was some food and they killed him for it!” After the first execution, the entire camp lived in fear. There was nothing they could do except keep out of sight. But now, it was as if the people enjoyed it. “I was kinda hopin’ they’d make ‘em squirm a little more!” laughed a nearby man, “All that buildup and all they did was shoot ‘em!”
Sarah finally realized that the camp was no longer her home. She had to get Tony and the two of them had to find somewhere safe. She rushed back to the tent as fast as she could, silently sobbing the entire way. “Come on Tony, we’ve got to go! We’re getting out of here,” she said. “I’m sleeping now,” answered Tony. He didn’t budge. “Aren’t you hungry?” she asked, “If you come with me we’ll go find something to eat outside of the camp.” He stared at her with a puzzled look. “I don’t go in the Badlands,” he said quietly, “I stay here.” “This is the one time it’s ok to go in the Badlands,” she replied, “I’ll be there with you.” She knew he had always wanted to go into the Badlands. He spent the majority of his time glaring out past the fence into the harsh desert landscape. “Fine,” he acquiesced, “But I want to go to the Mountain!” The Mountain was an urban myth the camp had created in the hope that a place with plant and wildlife still existed. However, Sarah wasn’t sure if there were any mountains within a hundred miles of the camp. “Sure!” she blurted out, “We just need to get moving!” “Whatever it takes to get him out of here,” she thought.
They packed their belongings and waited for nightfall. The guards would shoot anyone who stepped foot on the outside of the fence, so they needed to be careful. “We have to be quiet,” said Sarah, “If the guards see us, they’ll hurt us.” Tony began to walk towards the fence. He stopped at a large rock and looked down at it and pointed. “Move the rock,” he demanded. She pushed the rock as hard as she could. As it rolled away it revealed a small hole in the ground. Before she could say a word, Tony jumped into the hole and disappeared. “Tony!” she hissed, “Where are you?” She heard nothing. The hole stared back at her with a black grin. “Badlands,” uttered Tony. He sounded like he was deep in the hole. One foot at a time, Sarah lowered herself into the hole. Her entire body was slowly enveloped by the darkness. She never liked the dark, but she had been forced to get used to it. She hadn’t seen the sun since before the Disaster.
As they crawled through the underground tunnel she worried about the sorts of things that could be hiding down there. Due to the lack of food, most animals were carnivorous and would not hesitate to attack a human. “How did you know about this tunnel, Tony?” she asked, still not entirely sure that he was still there. “The Badlands people use it. I watch them come,” he answered, his words echoing through the darkness, “It ends soon.” “Thank goodness,” thought Sarah, “I can’t take much more of this.” The tunnel emptied into the camp’s drainage ditch. It reeked of raw sewage and rot. Sarah looked around to find Tony standing over what looked like a body. “Stay away from that,” she said, as she ushered him away. She gave the body a cursory glance and was shocked to see it was the man who had attacked the beggar with a shiv earlier. She couldn’t help but be mad at the man for what he’d done. After all, his actions had been the breaking point. “I shouldn’t think like this,” she thought, “He was a person after all.”
The two of them trudged on through the putrid sewage ditch, the smell of death all around them, until they came across the dried up riverbed it connected to. “The Mountain is this way,” said Tony, pointing upstream. He looked back at Sarah and began to walk. “Wait!” warned Sarah, “We have no idea where to go. Let’s not rush this.” “No,” answered Tony, without stopping, “The Mountain is this way!” “Maybe there’s a settlement a few miles up the river,” she thought. After all, during the Disaster people fled north to escape the heat and global desertification, so a settlement in the south would be harder to come by. “Fine then,” said Sarah. She was tired of making all of the decisions anyway.
The sky was dark like it always was, but that didn’t make it any cooler. They were both drenched in sweat and tiring of the long walk. People didn’t get much exercise in the camp since the area was relatively small and no one was permitted on the other side of the fence. Not to mention that everyone was dealing with the beginning stages of malnutrition and lacked most of the essential vitamins. They might have stopped for some water at the river, but it hadn’t flowed for the past few months, leaving only trash and miniscule puddles of dirty water filled with algae and other amoebas that might cause harm if consumed.
Since they had left in a hurry, Sarah hadn’t had time to fill up the canteen she had bought back at the camp. “I’m so stupid!” she thought, trying to maintain her cool so Tony wouldn’t panic. She looked at him and noticed how determined he was as he headed towards “The Mountain” or whatever it was he thought they were going to. She was so thirsty. There had to be some water somewhere. If it had been before the Disaster, she would have welcomed the rain, but if it rained today, they would need to find cover as most rain was acidic. She knew they were doomed if they didn’t find somewhere quickly. “Just don’t panic,” she said to herself under her breath, “We’ll be alright.” Somehow she thought that telling herself this lie might make her feel better.
They walked along the riverbed for hours, or at least it seemed like that. As they marched on she had begun to feel more and more light-headed. “It’s all in your head,” she told herself, “You are just so worried that you’re making up problems that aren’t even there.” She looked back longingly at where the camp had once been. They had lost sight of it hours ago. She wondered if they would see it or any of its inhabitants ever again. Deep in her heart she missed it a little. She knew it was a wretched place where the residents were treated like a nuisance rather than as human beings. Her eyes began to slowly cloud up and suddenly she was looking up into the sky. For a second she thought she saw a ray of sunlight break through the blanket of the clouds, but then everything went black.
She woke up to the crackle of a fire. She sat up quickly to see the back of a woman hunched over the pit and stirring something in a small pan. She became dizzy from sitting up to fast and let out a disgruntled moan as she fell back into the cot. The woman turned around and said, “Finally, somebody decided to wake her ass up!” with a sly grin. She was an older woman, somewhere in her early sixties. She had the demeanor of someone who didn’t take anything from anybody. “Where’s my brother?” asked Sarah frantically, “Where’s Tony?” “Tony?” repeated the woman, “That must be his name then. That boy who brought you here wouldn’t answer me when I asked him. Well now, don’t you worry, he’s been right outside staring at the horizon all day.” “He’s not very good around other people,” explained Sarah, “He has autism.” “Well now, I’m sure we’ll get along just fine then. You see, I’m not too good around other people myself,” answered the woman.
Sarah tried to stand up again but once again got too dizzy. “Woah now girl, sit your ass back down in that cot and get some more rest!” she warned, “My name’s Regina. You and that brother of yours are safe here for now, so don’t you worry. You get some more rest and you can get up in the morning. Ya hear me?” Sarah nodded and slowly got back onto the cot. “Oh, and by the way, neither of y’all better touch any of my shit. Ya hear me?” Sarah closed her eyes. She had forgotten what it had felt like to sleep on anything other than a sleep roll. The cot was a nice change. “I can figure it out in the morning,” she thought. With that she drifted off to sleep.
Artist’s Statement
When I first sat down to create this assignment, I was a little puzzled as to which definition I should use to embody my vision of what “green literature” is. In my opinion, this was the most difficult part of the assignment because there are so many different ways one can describe green literature. However, I ended up choosing to write an environmental post-apocalyptic short story.
My story depicts a girl named Sarah and the struggles she faces as she attempts to look after her brother Tony in a post-apocalyptic world filled with cruelty, famine, and even though there are still humans, a general lack of humanity. Sarah and Tony live in an encampment the government has set up where people have gathered since the Disaster happened three years. Food is becoming scarce and the residents have begun to fight over the remaining scraps. Filled with fear and anxiety, Sarah grabs Tony and packs up her belongings. The two escape the compound and begin to travel north until they discover a village and meet an older woman named Regina.
The story ends here for now, mainly because if I had continued to the point where I would have liked to stop I would have written a novel. I felt like the point in the story where they met Regina was the best place to stop because it left the reader wanting more and wondering who this woman was and what they were doing in her home. Also, it makes the reader wonder how these two will be able to survive their cold and dangerous world.
I was inspired to write my assignment in this fashion because I believe The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood set a great example of how a fictitious short story can be a great way to convey the message of green literature and get its readers to think about what is going on in the world and begin to think about what we can do to try to change it. Some people may believe it may be a stretch to try to connect these stories to our own lives; however, people should not focus on trying to find exact similarities between the two worlds, but should attempt to see the figurative similarities such as our general lack of control over corporations and their ability to pollute the environment and the possibility of a future that reflects the futures written about in these stories.
Therefore, I believe the best examples of green literature are pieces that emphasize the possibilities and consequences of our actions if we continue down our current path. We personally may not feel the effects of pollution, but the evidence is all around us. It is common knowledge that smog, greenhouse gases, deforestation, desertification and melting poles are issues that the world deals with on a daily basis. Yet, many people choose not to acknowledge these issues and choose to argue against their existence so they do not have to deal with them. Works that warn of the consequences of our path can have the ability to put a fear into people that might spark them into action.
I feel that my story exemplifies this definition of green art because it emphasizes the nadir that humanity would reach if it was forced to fight for survival. The damage we caused to the Earth was so great that it made it almost uninhabitable. With no food to go around, people turn against each. In a time when people should be banding together they are fighting and alienating one another. This reflects the difficulty our society has with facing environmental issues. In a time when we should be uniting to save the Earth, we argue and disagree that a problem even exists.
I believe that the concept of “green art” has many different definitions. All of the pieces we have worked through in class have been great representations of the concept, but personally, I believe the best way to change things are to inspire people. Also, I believe one of the most effective ways to inspire people is through fear. If people feel scared enough, they will go out of their way to make change.
My name is Brennan Mullins. I am a sophomore at Xavier University. I am a Health Services Administration major, with minors in Business, Finance and Peace & Justice Studies. I find Congress deplorable for their lack of caring about the environment despite the overwhelming amount of evidence that proves the existence of environmental damage. I am even more appalled at the American people for electing these members of Congress. I hope that environmental works such as this will help to inspire change within the hearts of readers.
Media: Smoke from the Washington wildfires near blocks the sun. Digital image. The Oregonian. 21 Aug. 2015. Web. 13Apr. 2016.
