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'None of us are free, if one of us are chained.'

By Kantuck Nadie Nata-akon

A story in my Terra - Civil War storyworld.

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The world? The world is not interested in us. Today, everything is possible, even the crematoria... Elie Wiesel, Night

The march was long, and tiring, but finally into a clearing we started seeing, or rather we started /smelling/. How can I describe the intense /stink/ of decay and rot. It was August 2113, and it was hot; 35c hot. Only the micro refrigeration units in our suits kept us cool enough to walk the eight kilometers. But gods it was like a foul cloud that slammed into us. It was all we could do to walk to where it was, and to stand outside the barbed wire. In a massive heap, was hundreds of bodies, rotting there in the sun. Vultures were still fighting over the scraps, with ditches full of putrid liquid just standing there like a fowl swamp.

Our leader "Sargent bull" the toughest and most loyal to his troops Sargent leaned against a tree, nearly passing out. What could I do? A private in this rag-tag Dirty Dozen? I checked the safely on my rail gun, flicked it on with a whine of power building up, and took point. We'd been told this camp was crawling with traps but it looked deserted. Lord knows, the company had spent a great deal of money camouflaging this entire area. But thanks to a 10-year-old martian boy who found the flaw that all the grownups overlooked. The power needed to holo-camouflage such large areas release a /lot of energy/ which is easily detectable from space. Guess he shouldn't have put that on the hypernet, since they found his body on Lucus Planum a week later; a bolt though his head. Once Bull recovered, he set off two robots, to scan the perimeter for to check for anything nasty -- other than the mass of decay. Guess we came into the wrong area, that must be the grave site.

Around us, aside from the piles of bodies was barbed and razor wire, on tall poles. A steady 'click' told us it was electrified. So couldn't get through there yet. There were rows and rows of wooden barracks. Neatly lined one after another. I saw a tall smokestack, build with bricks, and white smoke was pouring from it. I knew they had to be burning something but what? It was too hot to burn for heat, can't be documents. Then I started to notice that it was snowing...a revulsion ran though me, as that wasn't snow, but ash. I could tell it was from the smokestack, and it hit me finally what was burning...

Then there was movement.

Uplifts; hundreds of them slowly staggering out of the barracks. But they didn't look right. Some de-furred, some living skeletons. Infections pitting their bodies and some were coughing. Tails held down, with sunken eyes on tipped down muzzles. Deer like Cervinoids, Caniniods, from the loyal dogs, the giant equine Equinoids, all 3 species of the sims, even the feline Jaguarines and the wolf Lupiods. They gathered at the fence, not touching it but close enough telling us they want to meet us. Finally, Bull gave us the signal, that we could advance, "Go on, you grunts. Help 'em out. We gotta job to do. Move it, move it!" he barked.

Even after we opened the gate the uplifts just looked at us like it was another day. No one advanced to us or tried to leave. Those living skeletons just stared. I guess we were nose blind for many was covered in shit, and piss and yet we didn't smell 'em. But we could see and hear. Some of them were starting to assemble around us. Just staring. Finally, one Jaguarine shuffled up to me and asked, "what are you doing here?"He tilted his head, sniffing at me."Your not the guards."

I pointed to an insignia. A blue moon "We're here to get you out."

He growled at me, showing dangerous teeth and I leveled my rail at him amiss the sound of dozens of other rail guns powering up. "Back off," I said firmly.

He did, still growling but turning away. He wasn't in any mood for a fight. Finally a caniniod walked up and put his dirty paw on me as he asked "Leave?" with a tail started to wag cautiously, "We're going away?"

I dropped my gun down, knowing caniniods." Yeah, we're getting you out of here. This insanity is over."

"Leave?" he asked again. His ears perked up a bit, a tilt of the head.

He obviously couldn't believe, he was going away.

"Leaving"? He whined softly. Then he came up closer and put his arms around me. "Take me away?" his whines grew stronger.

I felt him shiver and shake. I couldn't help but to hug him lightly. "It's ok. We're going away. We're taking everyone home."

For 20 minutes we had to assure each one, that was going to happen. The sarge ordered in the trucks in and after an hour they started climbing on the trucks. Nurses, vets, all started helping the worse cases. I helped carry out dozens. One Chim reached up with his paw and wiped away the tears of regret and shame. When I looked down at him, I saw him mutter "thank you." Slowly they started to understand what I told the caniniod. "It was over."

I kept thinking "They're not human. Why are we here, risking our lives for them?" But when I looked into their eyes. The caniniod especially after all he endured he /still came up to a human, wanting nothing more than comfort./ I could see it. I knew it.

I remember something I read as a child, "The only reason for this treatment was that they were Jews." Yes, they weren't human. They were something we created, gave life too, /but by god they were people/ and don't we fight for that?

In the days and months, The civil war continued. For the uplifts, all could be done was liberating them from camps, personal and familial slavery. But the war of emancipation had just started.