A short dystopian story.

The Day it stopped Raining.                               

The 124 Islanders on Colonsay woke up to find they had a sunny day, first for months. They began to go about their daily routines with smiles and light steps.

Suddenly there was commotion down in the bay, two high powered boats arrived, men jumping out and shouting to the fishermen. Helicopters whirred into view and landed, more men leaping out and shouting at the villagers. Who? What? Why?

Villagers rounded up like cattle by masked and uniformed men. The men were separated and told they were to be numbered as M1, M2 … Names would no longer be used. Women pulled away from children were numbered W1, W2... Boys were next they were to be B1, B2… The sobbing and screaming handful of girls were to be G1, G2, etc. All mobile phones and things in pockets were taken away from them and confiscated.

The 40 men were lined up and marched off, the other groups stunned into shocked silence. 60 Women were taken to the Village Hall older ones were allocated to domestic chores, the younger women were taken by a Female intruder into the smaller room and the door closed.

Another female intruder, she said she was ‘Beta’, took the eight girl children into a corner of the field, she chose two of the older girls to be in charge of the younger ones. Then she began showing them initial formation and marching.

A Male intruder known as ‘Alpha’ took charge of the eleven boys, again two older ones were to be responsible for younger ones, they two formed up and started Military training.

The deafening noise of more helicopters, they dropped building materials and food supplies to the waiting men. Who were set to work by the man calling himself ‘Commandant’. He ordered stronger, younger men to haul huge prefabricated buildings into position. The rank and file intruders helped them to assemble two smaller buildings to be storage facilities. Older men were sorting out food supplies.

In the evening islanders were all brought together to share a meal prepared by the older women. They had to stay in their groups and no talking, a lot of eye contact between husbands and wives went on, communicating their sadness at enforced separation. The children we forcibly prevented from running to their parents by their ‘new’ uniformed carers. Most of the Islanders, though hungry from all the physical work done, were too distressed to eat much.

The Commandant said a few words,

“The progress made today has pleased me, tomorrow will be equally hard as we build living accommodations. Tonight the girls and woman will sleep in the village hall. The men and boys will sleep in one of the houses,. There will be no talking, no thought of escape, there is nowhere to go. My colleagues will guard you through the night, so you need not feel fearful. Dismiss!”

Each of the villagers were handed a sleeping bag as they moved to their allotted sleeping places.There was tiny movement of the mum’s fingers towards their young children as they showed off their new marching skills, led away by their new carer’s.