Ballad of a Rebel

Chapter 1: White Forest Fortification

There was a distinct sound of crows cawing, engines revving, hammering upon metal, and conversations between men and woman at the White Forest Fortification. Leonard Persch was comforting himself with a cigarette while he was sitting on a boulder looking over the valley with an old hunting rifle. He was a short and lean young man, with black eyes, and a stubble that started to surface not too long ago. His face had high cheekbones and a pointy chin, almost elfish. He had golden brown hair, combed neatly into a flattop (with help of hair gel).He sported a cheap blue denim jacket with a yellow lambda insignia spray-painted on the shoulder, blue roughed up jeans, and black leather gloves. In times like these, nobody could afford luxury clothing, but if it could keep him warm, it was good enough for Leonard. He inhaled the smoke of the nicotine, and after a brief pause, exhaled it into a neat ring of smoke, that flew away to where the wind blew.

Leonard heard the rustle of leaves, distant at first but seemed to sound closer and closer until he turned around. He saw his superior soldier, Captain Ronald, a stiff and disciplined middle age man with a slowly graying but well groomed beard, who roared "What the hell is that in your hand private?!" Persch hastily lifted up his rifle and replied "My weapon sir!" "The other hand numbnuts,"! The captain yelled. "Just a cig sir" Leonard announced with fear. The captain walked with a stern posture to Leonard and took the cigarette out of his hand. He looked with disgust at it. "And what did I tell you about smoking on the watch?" he asked with his pearly white teeth clenched. "Save it for R&R sir." Leonard answered. Captain Ronald hurled the cigarette at the floor and stomped on it while yelling "Don't ever let me catch you smoking on watch again you worthless excuse for life! You should have been left as a combine slave! Now go back to base and clean the toilets! Your shift is finished! "

Leonard hopped of the boulder with his rifle, and lumbered to the fort. He passed by other rebels like him laughing at him, some simply looking him. One of them, a stocky and egotistical rebel with short blond hair warned Leonard "I left you a present in stall number 2, you might want to put on a gas mask 'fore you go in there" as he walked along with his posse of rebels. Leonard just murmured an insult to the rebel. Leonard went to the revolting and dark bathroom with homemade cleaning solution, and a roll of towels. He accepted his fate, opened his first stall, went on his knees, and went through the rancid process, one scrub at a time.

As Leonard finished the painstaking cleansing of the last toilet, he walked outside and realized he is late to lunch. He hurriedly threw out the used towels into the dump, and stored the supplies back into the storehouse. He speedily jogged to the mess hall when the distant blasts of a weapon rang out from the direction of the valley, following the flapping of birds. Leonard hasn't heard many shots in his time serving at White Forest Fortification, but in the moment that the sound registered in his mind, he instantly knew that it could not have been a weapon that the rebels had in the armory.

To be continued?