Chapter 7: Testimonies
Well, onto TerraFleet Command and another grand speech by its Commander and founder, Phineas Flynn, with the inclusion of testimonials from every Survivor. No more words. You: read. Now.
== TerraFleet Command Grand Speech Auditorium… ==
"Welcome to all officers…enlisted men…allied species…juvenile guests. And thank you to all the people sitting at home and tuning in to this speech from all corners of the globe. As was reported in the news just yesterday, a group of several youth, ranging from 9 to 15 years of age, put themselves out in the middle of Danville in the mid-afternoon, provoking the police to detain them if they could. Now, I know that they're still not happy that the law is in favor of these youth, who are now our honored guests here today, but there it must be noted that these kids had a good cause to fight for, and the determination to make their marks with the help of my children, and now, myself. My children took old childhood inventions of mine, used them to avoid the arms of police and TerraFleet officers, and made the presence of 'The Survivors" in Danville known. These platitudes aside, it is the cause of these youth known as 'The Survivors' that I wish to discuss. These children grow up in homes you would think to have vanished almost in their entirety in nature – homes where abuse and neglect are everyday fears these youth must face with little to no hope for any change. Without further ado, I would like for each 'Survivor' to give their testimonies in brief. We shall start with Adil Yanishev."
Adil walked from the front row up to the podium, the audience falling silent and entirely attentive. "I am Adil Yanishev, still somewhat new student to this country. I am 12 years old. I was born with Autism. My father beats me all the time. I have not slept without fear for years. After mother died, that was when he became alcoholic. He drank to take away his pain, but only got worse. He is why I now have a scar on my eye. He is who I ran away from to join The Survivors. They found me wandering on the far east side of town…were kind to me, said kind things, and told me to follow them if I wanted better. And here I am." Little Sean Thomson was next to speak, fearfully coming up to the podium when his turn came. "I'm…Sean Thomson. I am 9 years old. I h-have…Tourette's…my parents left me home alone s…" he began to break up, before resuming "so many times. They do drugs, beat me up, and…" He was close to breaking down crying, when Nana came up from the front row and put her hand on his shoulder. "Mom and dad have done…terrible things to me. They don't know what they're doing when they do it, but they…touch me and do things to me even when I s-scream f-or them to stop…I was rescued by our founder, Nana Flores…I was the first she rescued…and now, there's lots more of us…" Nana brought him back to his seat in tears, comforting him the whole way. The two sisters, Minh and Linh Cheung, walked up to the podium together. "I'm Minh Cheung…15 years old." "I'm her sister, Linh. I'm 10. My sister has anxiety, so I'll talk for her. We lived with our uncle, who started drinking after our aunt died. He leaves us at home alone a lot. He expects us to do everything exactly how he wants it. I think the word is…perfectionist. That's what he is. He wants us to be perfect all the time. Minh talked to people on the internet a lot, and found out about The Survivors. They came by one night, and she took me with her in the rescue."
Annika Jones went up as soon as Minh and Linh left the floor. "I'm Annika Jones. I'm 13 years old. In my house, I have 4 brothers, and my parents expect me to help keep them all in order. They swear at me, tell me I'm ugly, that I'll never be anything gr…" she swallowed hard. "…great in life. For no reason, they always suspect me. They're perfectionists, so they think I'm just a lazy teen that has no work ethic, and they're never happy with what I am or do. I wanna be a basketball player, but they don't think I'll ever be able to do that. I run off at night a lot just to go clear my head, and these others found me sitting in a ditch…crying…they gave me a way to escape and go with them, so I did. And here I am today." Dakota Patterson soon followed, a gravely serious look shown on his face. "Well…I'm Dakota Patterson, 11 years old. Some of you might know my dad, Lieutenant Commander Mark Patterson, from the USS Constantine. He's not all he appears to be. I've grown up with anger management problems, so I blow up easily when people bug me. For no reason, my parents decided to never look for professional help for me. They figured I could just grow out of it and 'grow up.' Whenever I tried to fight my dad…he always…beat me up just to put me out of it. I've still wanted to work with Flynn-Fletcher research groups, but having a dad like mine…has really made it hard…to have any self-esteem. I just ran off one day to nowhere, ending up under a bridge, where I hid for 2 days with hardly any food or clean water. I woke up on the last day and found about three of these other guys there, all with food, water, and medicine. They took me with them…had no name yet, but I just went with 'em. And here I am."
"I'm Jaime Villanueva, from Laredo, Texas. I'm 14. My parents drank all the time…and my mom even drank when she was pregnant with me. I was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. I was treated right away, but I'm still kinda mentally…retarded. I mean, you can just kinda tell by how I talk…" Jaime said ashamedly, before continuing, "my dad killed people all the time after he got drunk, and his friends would always get him away. He also raped many girls, always getting away from those, too. When he was caught, he was put in prison for life. My mom yells at me, beats me, and never lets me go to bed without being afraid. She just laughs at me wanting to be a singer, too. My rescue was close. I had already planned with Nana, our founder, to be rescued at night. When I was sneaking out that night, my mom followed behind and called the cops; we almost didn't get away. But we did. And now, I'm here with all these guys…my friends." He left the stage in light tears. "And now, for the founder, creator, and bravest of all of these youth, who endured so much in life and in rescuing all of these others, Nana Flores. Now, personally, I could not imagine that she endured what she had when I first heard her story last night. It took a lot of bravery to run away, but even more to gather together a group of like-minded kids who had gone through similar abuse, neglect, and hardships under the fist, or fists, of cruel parents or guardians. Yes, she stole a lot of equipment, managed to establish a base of operations, and implement our modern technology into it. It's very rare to see that kind of determination to help others and eventually get a message across to the world. I now call her up to the podium to give her testimony. Let's all give her a great round of applause, ladies and gentlemen."
Nana stood up, straightening her t-shirt, and slowly walked up the stairs from her front-row seat, the entire auditorium applauding. She scratched the back of her neck as she prepared for what she was about to do – something that required her to face her anxieties and fears face-to-face. As the applause died down, Nana tapped the microphone, nervously starting with "I wish I was better-dressed for this…" The auditorium was filled with soft laughter before quickly growing quiet again. "My life's been the worst out of all of ours. My mom did drugs all the time, and I was born high. Me and my sister were taken from our parents when I was about 6, and were put to live with our grandma and grandpa. They're bitter and old, and total perfectionists with me. Any time I rest, they call me lazy and tell me to get up and do something. I can't even sit down to eat without the same risk! They tell me to have a social life, but never let me hang out with what few friends I do have; and yet, my sister can go and hang out with her friends whenever she wants! They think I'll never be anything great in the future; everyone in my family's been at least a bit athletic, but I prefer drawing. My grandma has been totally rotten with me about everything, thinking that the only reason I'm depressed is because 'I haven't forgiven my mom' yet! She even dragged me to the front of church and had the pastor talk to me about forgiveness…in front of everyone!" Nana began pant some, her eyes getting watery as well; she pulled out a hypo, injecting herself in the arm with it, to the shock of the entire audience, before continuing.
"My sister's done…things with her boyfriend…and even got herself pregnant. The twins died in a miscarriage. That whole incident only made my grandparents distrust me more. They think I'm some typical, lazy, selfish teen that never does anything…and if my sister did that, what else would they expect from me, an older teen? I said earlier that I get sick easily and that it hits harder than it should. They're never quick to get me medical care when I need it…even when I've gotten very sick and been unable to get through a day. When they finally do, it's always with a bad attitude. Dentist, doctor, and even hospital…they've been rotten about taking me to them and doing all of those things for me. We live far from the bigger cities…I'm out in Oklahoma, in the middle of nowhere, and it takes an hour at the very least to get to where I need to be just to stay alive and healthy. And even the few times I've seen my mom, she's been totally hateful to me and my sister. Years ago, before she was put in jail, we saved up money together to buy her a really nice and expensive ring…" Nana began to tear up again, violently shaking her head and clearing her throat before continuing, "…and she sold it the same day for drug money." She then broke down crying where she stood, leaning over, with head in her hands. Chris ran up from his front-row seat and hugged her tightly, almost for dear life. She knelt down and hugged him back as he knelt down with her. For nearly two minutes, the two stayed that way, many in the audience crying, themselves. Before getting back up, he gave her a brief kiss on the lips, which helped her get back to her more coherent state of being.
"This (cough) is only the tip of the iceberg. It would take me all day to give it all out, but now you know the basics. Running away, stealing what I did to survive, rescuing others, and eventually building a base with stolen technology and resources are all long stories on their own. Here's where I wanted to get…and here's where I arrived. Now you know where we all come from, and I urge you all to bear in mind how you treat your children. I'm no parent, and I'm no judge. I can't take your kids away from you, and there aren't always laws in every state that allow for kids to seek justice easily. But be advised that my group is not to be totally dismantled, and neither will other Survivor groups around the world. This may be a great victory, but we're gonna keep helping other kids all around the globe for as long as we can, letting them know that they have the power to make their voices heard. That's our goal now. Captain Flynn here will help us take care of the legal side of our lives – choosing custody of a different family member or being put into foster care, but he's now gonna help us speak out against child abuse and neglect whenever he can. I sincerely thank all of you…for listening to us and our stories… … …God bless." During the applause, Nana went to sit down while Phineas Flynn himself went back to the podium at the front, ready to give his portion of the speech…
Well, The Survivors have just scored themselves a major victory; now, their members are going off to better homes – some into foster care, and others, on to better family members. This story's not quite finished yet, though. Read on for an emotional close to our story, and where the sweet sorrow of farewells must be.
