White Canvas | Teen Ink

White Canvas

May 15, 2018
By patrick561sherry BRONZE, Wellington, Florida
patrick561sherry BRONZE, Wellington, Florida
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

The sun rose, and its light flooded the town. Awaking the ones who were able to sleep and alarming the ones who couldn’t.  The thought that came with the new day brought fear and nervousness to the town’s inhabitants. The sound of movement and shuffling began to be apparent after the sunrise and it was present in most of the buildings and houses. Everyone was dressing in there grey clothing and preparing their faces. By 7 o’clock people started to make their way to the edge of the town in silence. Everyone was walking on the road that leads to the end of the town. Along the road were soldiers with guns acting as stone statues coming to life.
“Keep it moving,” “hurry it up” the soldiers yelled to the people walking.
At the edge of the town stood a building with a gate in the front and two soldiers guarding it. Along the walls of the building were hundreds of names chiseled into the rock. They were the names of past people and there was empty space for more.
Two workers on the other side of the gate approach the gate slowly and then open the gate inward.
“Everyone form two single file lines, so we can get everyone in quickly,” announced one of the two workers.
Two lines started to form in front of each of the workers. The workers ask each person, name, family name, and number. After they gave the workers their information, they could go pass the gate.
  The gate led to a large courtyard with pillars around the building holding it in place. The courtyard was square and had a thick line creating another square within it. Soldiers stood along the walls of the courtyard watching the people’s movements. In the center was a square structure elevated and had stairs allowing you to go on it, but it was visible from standing anywhere in the courtyard. Surrounding the square structure were white rose bushes with white roses blooming and in the center was the symbol of the world. The symbol was a white triangle with another triangle within it that had a black outline. But this one was different, there were small pathways on each of the points leading away from it. At the end of the courtyard was another gate and on the other side of it was the road out of town that rarely anyone goes through.
As people started to pool into the courtyard they started to divide among their selves on each side of the thick line. Men on the left, women on the right, children in the middle, smallest in the front, and tallest in the back, so everyone can be seen. Families carefully and cunningly trying to hide their emotions to their families from the others and especially from the soldiers before they went to their part of their line. The workers have seemed to finish getting everyone inside the courtyard and they were having a conversation with the soldiers at the gate. After they had finished, they close the gate and joined the side with the women. And the crowd was complete, about 3000 people together in total.
Everyone waited and watched the other gate that was the way out of town for the officials to arrive. The people of the town were trying to ignore the circumstances and others were trying to keep their face while thinking of the worst possible situation.
After what felt like an eternity the sound of cars speeding toward the gate was starting to be heard. White jeep’s engines roaring to make their presence known.  The jeeps parked outside the gate and in them were soldiers dress all in black and with their faces covered with a black mask. They all lined up on the side of the road standing straight and facing forward with their guns across their bodies. Then the last person came out, the general. The only one dressed in all white with his face covered with a white mask. He was walking in the middle of the road with the soldiers on the sides. He made his way to the gate and waited for someone to open it for him. Two soldiers open the gate outward and he was the first to step into the courtyard and the other soldiers continued to be on his sides while following him. And some of them stood near the gate from which they came. The general was tall, and his white clothes had no stains, marks, badges, or medals. He had no assault rifle like the others but had a belt with a pistol and a few other tools. He walked slowly, straight, firmly, and making each step have a loud sound to inform people of his presence and to possibly intimidate them. When everyone noticed that the general was approaching, they made sure their faces were blank and focused.
The general walked to the square structure in the center with some soldiers going up the stairs and standing on the edge of the structure. And some of them went to stand on the side of the stairs or at the bottom, on the wall of the square structure. All the soldiers near the general were acting like lifeless stone statues like the soldiers that were at the road. The general stood in the middle of the structure, looking at the three sides of people. After taking a quick look at the people he stepped down the stairs and stood in front of them. He grabbed a black bar like tool from his belt and raised it to the shoulder opposite from his hand and he flexed his arm downward extending the bar until it made a point with a circle on the end. After extending the tool he began walking to the end of the side of the women with the pointing device on his side. When he got to the end of the side of women he turned and started to walk parallel to them looking at each and every one of them and looking into the souls of all of them. And making sure he didn’t miss anyone or anything and trying to choose anyone with emotion. The general didn’t see any discrepancies among the women, so he moved on to the children.
The children were doing their best to conceal their emotions and since they were children people hoped that the general will be more lenient toward them. But then he pointed at a child with his tool.
“You,” the general said.
The words pierced the one on the other end of the pointer; a child no more than eight who was shaking, and his face was turning red when the general came to the children. Which was most likely the reason why he was chosen. The child went up the stairs to the middle of the structure. At that moment the mother of the child broke from the crowd.
“No! Please take me instead.” Screamed the mother
The general’s head turned, and the soldiers immediately restrained her, tying her hands behind her back. Her husband dash toward the soldier that was restraining his wife in a last attempt to try to keep something in his life, so he will not be left in the world with nothing. But he failed and he sealed his fate. He was quickly restrained, and both were escorted to the structure and were placed alongside their son.
The general proceeded and went on to the side of the men. He stopped again and pointed at another, a young male about 27 years old.
“You,” he said
As he said that word the young male pushed the others around him and tried to run but was stopped less than 20 feet away from where he started. The soldiers who caught him started to beat him and everyone in the crowd ignored his cries. They stopped when they felt that he will be too injured to resist. He was also escorted with his hands tied behind him to the structure and fell to his knees as soon as the soldier who was walking him let him go.
The general had finished choosing and saw no one else with emotion. He made his way to the structure slowly and calmly. When he got up the stairs he grad the man first and put him on one of the points on the triangle, same with his wife, and the young male. The child, however, was placed in the center so he can have a clear view of each of them on the three-different points. The general then went to the front of the structure.
“Emotion will bring calamity to this world if it is allowed to exist.” He shouted to the people.
The general turned and went to the young male going behind him. He then pulled out a knife from the scaber on his belt and held it above him letting the sun’s rays reflect off it so it can be seen by everyone. He brought the knife to the young male’s neck, he was so tired and injured from being beaten he barely moved and didn’t say a word. With one swipe the neck of his was cut open like a hot knife on butter. He looked at everyone and made sure everyone’s faces remained the same. Then he moved on to the father of the child; he was silent and looking down. Then the general did the same for him as he did for the other. Then he checked the crowd once again. His wife screeched as she witnesses the death of her husband and her screams only became louder as the general came closer to her. Then her screams stopped, and the general did his last check. The child in the middle was in tears and shaking. The blood of the three flowed into the little pathways on the points of the triangle and it was led to the white rose bushes. The general stepped down the stairs and walked to the open gate that led out of the town and he was followed by the soldiers who accompanied him and one of the soldiers grabbed the arm of the child and took him with the others.
The crowd started going to the gate and went on with their lives. And workers started to chisel the names from today. And the white roses surrounding the square structure turned red.



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