Daya

The van bumped along the gravel road, making the cages rattle.

I kept drifting in and out of sleep. As soon as I closed my eyes, another bump would jolt the van, making it impossible to sleep.

On a particularly rough patch, the van went airborne, and I wet myself. I started to cry. I was a baby, not a big girl like Mother said I was.

Mother looked at me from her cage at the opposite corner of the van with reassuring eyes. I felt myself being comforted by them.

My cage jerked forward like someone had knocked it. I turned around to see a seedy-looking man in the cage behind me. His eyes were milky white.

"Hey, little girl, help me. Please" He leered at me through the cage bars. He gestured to his thigh, which was ripped and bleeding badly. The opening was festering, pus leaking out. The sight revolted me, and I almost vomited.

I looked at Mother. She was frantically shaking her head "no."

"I-I'm sorry, Sir, but I can't," I stammered. My voice was shaky from fear.

"You can't?" he repeated, narrowing his eyes. "You can't or you won't? If I die it will be on your hands! It's becoming infected! Please, it hurts!" His voice rose with every word, until he was shrieking, his every word dripping with desperation. Suddenly, he lunged, trying to grab me through the bars, his eyes as wild as a caged animal's.

I screamed and propelled myself backwards from the wall. My back hit the other end of the cage and I pulled my legs to my chest, quivering.

"DON'T TOUCH HER!" Mother shrieked.

"I need help! She must help me! No one else can do what she does!" The man screeched, his hands still desperately trying to grab me.

"Leave her alone, or I'll end your wretched life. Too many visions into the future have addled your mind, " Mother snarled.

"Damn seers," a man muttered from a cage below me.

The man narrowed his eyes, huffed, and withdrew his arms from my cage.

I took a shaky breath to calm myself down. I tried to sleep, but I was too worried the scary man would try to touch me again.

I stayed huddled in the corner in the same position for what seemed like hours, but it had only been a few minutes. I layed down on the hard wire and closed my eyes. It was too uncomfortable to sleep. The wire was digging into my skin.

I gave up and got to my knees, rubbing my eyes.

I heard a shout, and my cage started to rock again. A couple of the people who were in the bottom-most cages had started to fight. They were trying to claw each other through the cages. In only a few seconds the back of the van exploded into chaos. There were shouts, screams, and wails everywhere.

My cage toppled forward, into the door, along with everyone else.

"Shut up back there!" yelled a gruff voice from the front of the van. The screaming continued.

The van stopped abruptly, causing the cages to bang against the doors. I heard footsteps making their way to the back.

"Don't open the door!" someone warned.

The door opened.

I toppled forwards and I was crushed under several occupied cages. My cage crumpled, and the lock broke.

"What the hell? Raymonde! Acton! I need your help over here!" said the biggest of the three men.

Some of the captives had started to crawl out of their cages- their locks had broken as well- but it took one hit from the man, and they were knocked unconscious. I whimpered and made myself as small as possible, taking as much shelter as I could from the cages above me.

Raymonde and Acton got out of the van and helped the other man lift the cages back into the van.

"It's going to take us forever to get to the market if this continues," Acton complained, kicking one of the cages.

"Well, shut it and load these up. The quicker we get moving, the less we have to deal with these freaks," the bigger man snapped.

"Calm down Samson. Have a little fun. Don't you realize how much money we could make off of these?" Raymonde said.

"They better damn well be worth it," Samson growled.

There were only a couple cages left to go back into the van. Acton picked up mine and frowned. "She's so young. It's a shame, really," he sighed as he placed my cage back into the van.

"Who cares? She'll probably sell for the most," Raymonde said.

Acton stayed silent, a thoughtful expression on his face. "I suppose," he murmured. "But I still don't think it's right."

"Let's just go already," Samson growled. "We still have over two hundred miles to go until we get to New York."

Raymonde slammed the doors shut, plunging the back of the van into darkness once more, and making me flinch.

I heard a roar as the van's engine started, and we were moving again. Even though I was scared, I couldn't help but feel a little bit excited we were going to New York. Maybe I can see the Statue of Liberty! Or maybe Mother and I could walk together down the streets!

I settled myself as comfortably as I could. At least I wasn't by the scary man anymore. I felt a hand brush my arm, and I jolted. My head snapped to the side, and I whimpered in relief as I saw my mother reaching her hand towards mine. I grabbed her hand, and scooted towards her, enjoying the body heat she radiated. My eyes became heavy and they closed.

••••••••••••••••••

My sleep was uncomfortable and restless. I would wake up frequently, from the jolts of the van. Most people had given up on trying to sleep, and just sat dejectedly in their cages. Out of the tiny window on the door, I saw that the sky was becoming grey with the coming of dawn. The van turned a corner, and I could see the horizon out the window. First it was a red line, then more and more colors were added, until the sun finally showed itself.

Suddenly, the sun was blocked by a large building. I couldn't see much out of the window, but what I could see made me not want to look away, ever. Buildings, as tall as the sky, everywhere. I kept staring out at the buildings. After a few minutes, the van slowed, then stopped completely.

Sunlight poured into the van as the doors opened. Samson stood there, his silhouette black against the bright sunlight.

"Welcome to New York City."