How long have I been here? I can't remember. The adults... all the strong people... they left long ago. They had to. But nobody cared about the women. The children. The old. The weak. We were left behind. We were forgotten. We wanted to go with them, but the armored men wouldn't let us. We were too weak, they said. No matter what, we were too weak. We cried. We begged them to leave some of the strong to protect us, but they didn't.

We asked them nicely. We asked them desperately, with tears in our eyes. We begged them to leave some. To leave any. To leave but one strong man to protect us. But they didn't. They took them. They took them in chains. They told us that they needed them. And because of that, no one has been able to protect us. The men we have are weak. They can't keep us safe. We can't keep ourselves safe.

Why? Why is this happening? Two years ago, the kingdom was happy. What happened to that happiness? No one smiles anymore. Nobody laughs, and the only songs you will ever hear are those that mothers sing to their babies to lull them to sleep. Our lips are dry. We are thirsty. We are hungry. Any breath spent singing or laughing or even crying is a breath wasted. A breath we could have spent working to earn money for food. How did this happen to the kingdom? None of the adults or elders understand, and no man from the capital city can be bothered to travel out here to our town just to explain.

We still have men, but like I said, they are all weak. They can't protect us. The weak men tried to get strong once, but once they did, they were taken too. Only the weak stay; only the strong go. I do not know where they are taken; the armored men that took them didn't tell us. They only told us that they needed the strong men. The weak: the weak men, the women, the children, the elders--all were to stay behind. They left us. They left us to die.

All day, we work. We work in the sun, the rain, and the snow. When we are not working, we are eating and resting our bodies so that we will be able to resume work shortly. When the sun sets, we stop our work and enter our houses and huts. We lock up every door and window before we go to bed. Then we sit in the dark and listen as to the creatures that wander the streets by night. And we pray. We pray that we will stay safe. We pray that we will live to work one more day.

We were left behind. We were left in the dark. We were left defenseless.

Nobody will come to save us. Nobody cares. We are worthless in these times.

We are the forgotten.