Born 01 - Born

off the cold metal walls. Sarah has the bag up to her face. I tie the ends of it into a bow at the top of her head. I look at the note again and swallow hard. I open the huge door on the far wall. It makes a suctioning noise when I pull the huge silver lever. The light and heat of the midday sun beat in on us instantly. I feel like an ant under a microscope. The natural air and feel of the day is overwhelming.
    "We have to jump in."
    Sarah hops to the platform over the dumpster. A massive green bin is at the end of the platform. It is a ten-foot jump down into a bin filled with black plastic bags.
    I feel sick looking at it. Sarah looks at me through the hole in the top of her bag. Her blue eyes are watery.
    "Just jump, Sarah. Try not to think or smell or anything. Just be there and know it's the way out, okay?"
    She nods and closes her eyes. She lets herself tip over the end of the dirty metal platform. I see her eyes pinch as she falls slowly into the heap. A small hand comes out of the bag with thumbs up. Anna hops in her bag to the end of the platform.
    "This is insane," she whispers harshly.
    I nod. I have nothing to add. It is insane. We are going to be in the dumpster with a bunch of dead girls until the garbage truck comes for us. I want to cry just thinking about it.
    I lean forward. "Sarah, roll to the right so we don’t land on you."
    The dumpster is huge and I can't pick out her bag from the others. Not until I see it rolling over the body bags and moving to the side.
    Anna hops down into the pit, letting her legs fold under her. She rolls beside Sarah.
    Closing the massive door, I see a weird nozzle on a hose in the shrinking gap between the metal door and the doorframe. It's identical to the one my Grampy had for washing his car.
    I turn and look around at the huge parking lot. We are behind the building. The garbage bin I'm about to jump in is one of five. The bin below me is about half full. I wonder if the others are as full. There must be thirty dead girls in my bin.
    I step off the ledge before I start processing things and scare myself, more than I already am.
    My feet land amongst the soft and stiff bodies. I let my legs fold. I wiggle down into the bag and before I tie it off I look around at us. No tears in the bags, no clothes showing. Everything is just a sea of black bags. I pull the ends up and tie them.
    "Em, I think I'm going to be sick." Anna makes a gagging noise.
    "No, just close your eyes." I listen for her to get sick. Then as if instinctual, I recall what my father used to do when I was having a panic attack.
    I lick my lips and whisper softly, "I want you to try to imagine something. I went to this place. I met Will there. It's where we are going right after this. It's like a sanctuary in the forest. When I saw it, I was stunned. A forest full of people. Normal people who live together and protect each other. They have a tent city but amongst the trees. The trees are huge. Like giants. Everyone was nice and they gave me food and medical help and a tent to sleep in with warm blankets and a soft bed. I went with one nice lady down a path. We walked for a few minutes through the trees and then suddenly it opened and there was a huge swimming hole. It's completely walled in with rock cliffs and no one but the tent city people go there. It's protected. They swim in the cold water and they play. They play in the water."
    Anna doesn’t speak again. I hope she is imagining the tall trees. I hope she is ignoring the smell of old death. I can feel it trying to get in the bag I'm in. Like fingers made of smoke, it claws at my bag and tries to take over the air inside of my small space.
    Inside of the darkness with the heat of the sun bearing down on the black plastic bags, we wait.
    I think I'm falling asleep when I first hear the sound. It's a truck. It makes a grinding noise. A sharp scream of metal fills the parking lot we are in.
    "Emma," Sarah whispers. I can hear the panic in her whisper over the plastic crinkle of her moving bag. I look through the small hole that I've been breathing through to see Sarah's blue eyes watching my bag through the hole in hers.
    I open the hole a little and smile. "Stay calm. This is our ride out."
    Her eyes are full of worry. She nods. I can see the terror as the sound moves again and then moves closer.
    The sound is what I imagine it would be like being in a factory before the fall.
    My Grampy worked at a toilet paper factory when I was really little.