A/N: Hai there! I be Blue, and you might've seen this fic before, and that is because my sister hacked my account and deleted it, so I had to reupload it. The ending might be a bit different, only because I wasn't happy with the original ending and had to change it. I apologize for it being so long, but it IS a multi-chaptered story and will be updated eventually. I hope you enjoy, and remember, nothing gets you on an author's good side more than reviewing :D And yes, the title is the name of a Paul McCartney song, and the title of the first chapter is the lyrics. Lyrics of different songs will be the chapter titles. I highly suggest you listen to the song, "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five", AND "Back in the USSR." Both are by Paul McCartney and the Beatles, respectively. And now, I will stop talking like an instruction booklet and introduce the story!
Title: Nineteen Hundred Eighty Five
Rain pattered against the window when Shay Carson woke up. She had no quilt covering her remarkably skinny body, and she was shivering from the cold. Others were awake too, huddled together and talking quietly. Through the one window in the otherwise dark room, Shay could see the lines of soldiers, all male, stomping past, the same bleak expression coating every one of their faces. They each identical outfits, black Nazi-looking boots, deep navy blue uniforms, and a black hat made from the same material of the boots. A emblem was inscribed onto the left side of their chests, a shining white sword with spread wings, trapped within a golden circle. Turning her attention away from the captivating soldiers, the constant fear within Shay's abdomen made her stomach clench. She drew her knees to her chin, breathing warm air onto her frostbitten hands. The idea of what awaited her made her bones ache, knowing the chances of getting sent out into the freezing rain were extremely high.
After a minute or so of letting herself wallow in dread, she took the jacket that was hanging from the hook above her head and put it on. She would sleep in it if she was allowed, but if you were caught with it on, it would be taken away. And then she would surely freeze to death.
Shay climbed down from her top bunk, her bare feet hitting the cold stone floor silently as she slipped on her socks and boots.
The other girls in the cabin were beginning their morning rituals as well, slipping clothes on as quietly as possible.
"Shay," A voice murmured in her ear. She turned and saw Avery, still in her pajamas.
"Why aren't you dressed?"
Avery looked around and bit her lip, grabbing Shay's wrist and dragging her into the nearest corner, which was right next to the bunk bed the two girls shared.
"What are you doing?" Shay hissed, her eyes running over Avery's clothes. "Why aren't you dressed?"
Avery shook her head. "Shay, listen-"
"No, Ave. You've got to get dressed," Shay ducked under the bed, grabbing Avery's clothes and throwing them into her arms. "You know as well as I do what they'll do to you if-"
"Shay, listen to me!" Avery grabbed her friend's shoulders and looked her straight in the eye. Her deep red hair was in her face, some strands sticking to her mouth, and her bangs plastered to her forehead. She leaned in close, and Shay tried to squirm out of her grip, and failed. "I'm getting out of here."
Avery's voice made Shay's blood run cold. "What?"
"I'm getting out of here. I'm gonna make everything better... Like things used to be."
"What do you mean, 'like things used to be'? It's been like this since before I can remember."
If Avery's grip had loosened any since she had grabbed her, it was tightened once more. She was going to leave marks. Marks that would have to be covered up. Marks that she wouldn't be able to hide for very long. "Don't say, that, Shay! You have to remember. You can't forget."
Shay tore her gaze from Avery's intense green eyes. "I did."
Avery seemed she was trying not to cry as she spoke. Her eyes were shiny and her lower lip was quivering. "Please, Shay. Remember. Before the Titans took everything over. Remember the Beatles. Remember Kelsey. Remember the sunshine and the ice cream and the happy. Remember the summertime. Remember the smell of cut grass. Remember how we used to dance. Remember me."
Then, Avery let go and dropped her clothes to the ground. She stared at them for a while, and when she looked back up at her only friend her eyes were red and puffy from crying. "Please. Remember."
Avery opened the door and ran outside, not bothering to shut it behind her. Shay followed in pursuit, but at the doorframe she stopped, looking among the throngs of marching soldiers for her crazy red-haired friend. If only she could find her, maybe she could talk some sense into her.
"You can't find her without your boots," A soft voice said from behind her. Turning around so fast she thought she tripped, Shay's gaze was met by a girl, no older then ten, with soft-looking wavy blonde hair and big blue eyes. She was the palest girl Shay had ever seen, and she most definitely was not part of Shay's cabin, but she was wearing the same uniform as the rest of the girls in the cabin. The girl handed over Shay's boots, which seemed to weight as much as her. Shay took them, sliding her feet in.
"Who are you?" She breathed, knowing that if any of the soldiers heard her they'd be punished. There was absolutely no talking aloud outside of the cabins, and while technically the two girls were still inside, anything loud just seemed... wrong. The only noise coming from beyond the doorframe was the steady sound of the marching and the rain pelting against the stone.
The girl gave a small, sweet smile and shook her head. "I can't tell you that. But I highly suggest going after your friend. She won't make it very far."
"...What?"
The girl slipped something in Shay's palm and wrapped her fingers around it. "Just go. Get as far away from here as you can. And whatever you do, don't go with them."
"Go with who?" Shay began to ask, but the girl was already practically shoving her out the door.
"Just go!" The girl shut the door behind her, and Shay was left in the pouring rain.
Sighing, Shay turned and ran, forgetting about the paper in her hand. Soldiers and townspeople around her gave her odd looks, knowing by her uniform she wasn't a messenger. But Shay didn't care. While running was frowned upon, it wasn't forbidden, though by the way the few high-ranked people she had met disliked it, it might be soon.
As Shay slipped and skidded around the town, glancing down every alleyway and side street, her heart rate increased with each step she took.
She knew she was definitely late for her position, which meant a punishment of extra-hours-no-dining-break, but she was already far too used to the awful hunger pangs she experienced often from lack of food. She turned onto Sunset Avenue, seeing her cabin on the other side of the street. The group of girls that she worked with was exiting, and with a slight hope she realized she could still possibly be on time, or at least not punished alone, if she hurried.
Then, before Shay knew what was happening, the loudest bang she'd ever heard rang through her ears, and fire licked at the sides of the cabin and the street. Screams pierced the air, despite the law that forbade them.
Fear struck her heart as she saw the blonde girl she had seen earlier, now dressed in complete black, slip from an alleyway, an unreadable expression on her face.
The smoke was making everything very hard to breathe with and even more difficult to see, but Shay knew the blonde girl knew something about the sudden explosion that was causing increasing chaos around her.
Something smacked against her cheek, and she nearly threw up when she realized what it was.
It was a finger. Just a finger, not attached to anything at all. A part of the bone poked out, and the skin was charred and bloody.
She gagged, but her empty stomach refused to let her expel the nonexistent contents.
She backed away, turning and running towards the direction she had seen the blonde girl.
Through the black cloud of smog, she could hear pleads for help and desperate crying, things she hadn't heard since the war ended and the Titans banned nearly anything that showed emotion.
She barreled on, using the sleeve of her jacket to block some of the smoke, but it didn't prevent her from coughing.
Her eyes were watering, and the immense heat nipped at her skin like a stray cat wanting food that Shay didn't have. All thoughts of Avery were ripped from her head as she somehow managed to catch sight of the girl again. She increased her speed, though her legs couldn't handle much more. She'd been running easily for over and hour, with virtually no energy, and it was taking a toll on her body.
But she pressed on, blinking away tears and ash that got stuck in her eyes.
Suddenly, something bashed into her side, and she fell to the ground, instinctively clawing at whoever had tackled her.
"Who... are... you...?" Shay gasped as something sharp was pressed against her throat.
"Don't talk or I'll kill you." It was a gruff voice, and low enough so that Shay couldn't tell if it was male or female. She moved her head and saw that whoever had tackled her had covered their face with a black headscarf. Those were banned too. Nothing showed except the light skin around the eyes.
Wait, Shay thought frantically. Are those eyes... purple?
Shay gulped, her breath coming in hitched gasps. Tears from the heat and smoke were creating trails of pale skin as they washed away the ash stuck to her sweaty-and-wet-from-the-rain face. Her eyes flicked down and saw a sleek and shining golden knife pressed to her neck. The person pushed Shay forward through the thick smoke, shoving her into an alley and pushing her down in between two empty trash cans. Her jacket caught on a nail and her back scraped against a rusty grate, and she cried out in pain.
The noise caused whoever it was to press the knife harder against her skin, and another warning not to make a noise. Tears welled up in her eyes against her will at the fierce pain in her neck from the blade.
"Attention, citizens of New York City. This is not a drill. Please evacuate your cabins immediately and calmly make your way towards your assigned Emergency Outlet, where a High Officer will be waiting with further instructions. I repeat, this is not a drill..." An automated voice louder than the chaos surrounding them rang through the streets. More screams as people followed the instructions.
The voice cursed, which finally told Shay her captor was, indeed, a male.
"Turn around and open the grate," He demanded, removing the knife from her throat. Deciding this wasn't a time to argue, she twisted around and gripped the bars of the grate, yanking hard.
She didn't expect it to come loose, and sure enough, it didn't. She pulled again, harder, ignoring the blisters on her fingers the heat had given her when it was licking at her skin. "It's... not... coming off!" Shay spat through clenched teeth. Her words were punctuated with a pull in between.
"Pull harder!" He insisted, joining her efforts. They yanked and pulled for a solid three minutes before he stopped and sat on his haunches. "Crap."
"What?" Shay demanded. If he closes his eyes then I'm making a break for it. I'll tell one of the solders there's a rouge on the loose. He'll be captured and put away.
He had been digging around in the black backpack that was slung over his shoulder. He took out two water bottles, another headscarf, a plastic container for something Shay couldn't see, an apple (an apple?), a map, a notebook, a pen, and a camera.
"Can you make a paper airplane?" He said, scribbling something on a piece of the notebook paper. When Shay didn't answer, he handed her a red screwdriver from the smaller pocket of the backpack. "Then unscrew the grate."
"Why should I help you? You tried to kill me."
"The Titans are gonna do a hell of a lot worse than that if they catch us now. So you better help or get ready to die."
"They wouldn't kill me-"
"You don't think they would? Then go back into the streets and give yourself up to them. I'm not stopping you." He slid his knife back into it's sheath and continued scribbling. He hadn't looked up at her the whole time. "But don't even think about somebody saving you when they're tearing you apart."
"What are you-"
"The Titans aren't our saviors, Shay. They're only out for power."
"They wouldn't... How do you...? They can't be!"
"Yes they can, Shay! Now unscrew the grate!"
"They freed us," Shay insisted, not moving. The screwdriver felt heavy in her hand. She wanted to hit him with it, but her training never taught her how to fight someone with a knife. "They gave us freedom."
"If you think this is freedom," The boy growled, finishing his drawing and hurriedly folding it into an airplane. "Then it means they've already won."
"What are you talking about?"
"For God's sake, Shay! Unscrew the damn grate!" His voice was shaky as he finished his small masterpiece, of which he scrambled out from behind the trash cans and tossed into the smog. The crisp white paper disappeared into the smoke.
Trembling, Shay did as she was told, her hands shaking so much it took her much longer than it should've to get the nails out of the grate. Tears streamed down her face and blurred her vision, but she blinked them away and kept working. The boy was right next to her, his fingers wrapped around the bars, ready to pull.
When the first two nails were out he pulled, and the grate swung open like a door, revealing a small tunnel about the size of a pillow.
A shout from close by made them both freeze. He hissed, "Go!"
He pushed Shay in, and she crawled forward into the tunnel, nicking her knee on a sharp rock. She bit her lip to keep from crying out as the boy scrambled in after her, using ninja-like moves to somehow shut the gate with his foot.
"Don't move," He breathed in Shay's ear. She shivered, the sudden impact of what just happened coursing through her veins, fueling the adrenaline that surged through her body.
A dog barked and Shay shut her eyes tight, hoping that by some impossible measure they wouldn't catch her scent through the smoke.
"C'mon, boy. Find 'em. Find the rouges," A rough voice of a scout whispered before speaking up. "I know somebody's here. The plane was here, and it had the Freedom Fighter's emblem drawn on it. They couldn't have gone far."
"Well, the dogs' ain't scenting them. They obviously kept running," Another scout with a thick New Jersey accent grumbled. "The city's crawling with them. They've prolly been planning this for weeks."
"Let's go then,"
The scout's words make Shay's blood run cold, and a million question run through her head. Freedom Fighter? Those only existed in myths, right? Was the boy one? Did this mean Shay was one? What about Avery? Was she one?"
Miraculously, and to Shay's immense relief, the dog's barking and the scouts' voices faded as they continued down the alleyway.
"Oh my god," Shay whimpered as the boy told her to keep moving forward.
"What? Are you hurt? Can you move?"
Shay turned on her back and scrambled away from him. "You're one of... one of them!"
"One of what?"
"You're a... a... a Freedom Fighter!" Shay whispered the last part as if it were a forbidden word. Which it was.
"Well, duh. I'm obviously not a scout or an officer. Now if that's all, go!"
Shay shook her head. "No! I have to get out of here... Away from you! Do you have any idea what they'll do to me if they catch me with you?"
"Yeah. I do. Which is why you need to move so we can get to the HQ!"
"THERE'S A FREEDOM FIGHTER'S HEADQUARTERS IN NEW YORK?"
"Be quiet! Do you want to get caught? And yes, there's one in every city," He sounded annoyed, but Shay didn't care.
"I don't care if I get caught! I just want to get away from you."
The boy crawled closer and Shay scrambled back, not wanting to be anywhere near him or his... his rouge-ness.
She'd be outlawed. She'd be taken away to the Titans, where they would either banish or kill her. She'd be punished so badly death would be a blessing, but they wouldn't let her die.
Her blood ran cold with despair as the boy scrambled even closer. Shay's head kept turning around to see where she was going before moving back to the boy's gaze. His face was still wrapped in the headscarf, and his purple eyes glowed.
"Why did you choose me?" Shay asked. She made a sudden left turn after she backed up against a wall. "Of all the people in that madness, why me?"
"Can we at least wait until we're at the HQ?" The boy pleaded. Shay shook her head and stopped abruptly.
"No. It can't. Tell me exactly what the hell is going on, and why you chose me!"
"I can't," The boy said, exasperated. "I'm really, really sorry but I can't."
"If you can take me away from my friends... My family... My life... Then you can tell me what's going on!"
The boy groaned. "I don't fucking know, okay?" He suddenly sounded tired, as if he hadn't slept in a hundred days. "They just told me to fetch you and bring you back without serious injury, all right? That's all I know."
"But... why?"
The boy let out a long hiss of air. "Can you keep moving? I don't think we're far enough from the dogs."
"What? Of course we are," Shay snapped. "We've been crawling through this stupid tunnel for hours."
The boy rolled his eyes. "Um, no. We haven't. We've been crawling for about seven minutes."
Shay pressed her lips together but refused to move. "I'm not going anywhere."
"God, can you swallow your pride for ten seconds and move?"
Shay narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to speak, but the boy cut her off before she got the chance.
"Don't even. If you don't want to come, fine. Then they'll send someone a hell of a lot bigger and stronger and older than me to get you, and they won't be as nice as me."
Shay snorted. "Nice? You couldn't be nice if it bit you in the butt."
"Trust me on this one."
Shay 'hmphed', but still didn't budge. "What's your name?" She finally blurted out, and followed the question with an iron stare. "You know mine, by some impossible means. I at least deserve to know yours."
The boy spit on the ground. "Nate. Now can we move on?"
"Fine," Shay groaned. "But if I end up dead for wherever you're taking me, I will haunt you for all eternity."
"Mhm. No promises on that one. If we're low on food we just might have to eat you-"
"NATE!"
"Kidding! Probably. Now move on, already."
Gulping, nerves and fear bubbling in her chest, Shay crawled forward, checking behind her to make sure Nate was still following every few minutes.
And finally, the cramped tunnel opened up to a vast cavern, filled with bridges and roads and people that were smiling and not wearing their designated uniforms, but clothes Shay recognized from the Old World, jeans and T-shirts and sneakers.
"You've gotta jump," Nate said, crawling out from behind her. Shay looked down, gaping at the ground that seemed a million miles away.
"No way! I'd rather go back through there!" Shay gasped, motioning towards the small tunnel.
"And be captured by the scouts?"
"Uh, yeah! There's no way anybody could survive that jump."
"It's the only way down."
"It can't be!"
"It is."
"How do you get back up?"
"You don't. You exit through another way, see?" Nate pointed out a couple other exits, that Shay didn't see at her first look.
"You couldn't have taken me through a different passage? Maybe one that didn't involve jumping to my death?"
"Oh, I get it. You're afraid!"
"I am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!
"Are too!"
"Hey!" A new voice, the voice of another boy, called from below. "Are you two- Hey! You're Shay Carson!"
"Um, yeah?" Shay said, not sure if that was good or bad.
"You did it, Nate!"
"Yeah," Nate called down to the boy. "But she's not as great as you'd think she'd be."
"What's that supposed to-?"
"Mac, get Arty. She's afraid of heights."
"I am not! I just don't want to die, is all!"
"Okay. She's been waiting for you, anyway." The other boy, Mac, called up before disappearing through a hidden doorway.
"Who's Arty?" Shay asked, once Mac disappeared. "And why has she been waiting to see me?"
"Arty. Also known as Artemis. Also known as the goddess of the moon and the hunt."
Shay's knees buckled, and Nate had to catch her before she tumbled over the edge and landed on her head.
"Artemis... the god?"
"Goddess, actually."
"But they gods are dead! They were defeated by the Titans seven years ago! She can't be... It's just not... Since when has all this been here and nobody's known about it?"
"Freedom Fighters have been around since before America existed. We just haven't really had a purpose to join together and fight until now. And no, the gods aren't dead. They're immortal. They can't die. Don't you remember from before the Titans took over? C'mon, you must remember some stuff before they taught you all those lies."
"They're not lies, they're facts! And I do remember, thank you very much, but I just don't get why!"
"Why? Because what the Titans are doing is wrong. And because of them, millions of people have died. Do you remember the population of the world before the takeover? Nearly seven billion. Do you know how many people there are now?"
"No."
"Less then nine million, not including the Freedom Fighters. That's about the population of New York City alone before the Last Titan War."
"How many Freedom Fighters are there?"
"Nobody knows exactly for sure, but we think there's about several hundred thousand. But that's nothing compared to the Titans, even if we do have the gods on our side."
"Why doesn't anybody know?"
"Because legally, none of us exist. We don't have birth certificates or records or passports. In the Titan's eyes, we're ghosts. We have nothing backing up our identity. If they were to scan us, nothing would come up."
"You don't exist?"
"Well, in reality we do. But we're kind of the equivalent of illegal immigrants from the Old World... Do you remember those?"
"Vaguely," Shay said slowly after a moment. "But Artemis is really here? Alive?"
"Well, keep in mind gods aren't really living. They're just high-powered energy that can take the form of any shape, like the Titans."
"But she's here?"
"Yes."
"But what about the other gods, like Zeus and Poseidon and Hades and Hera and all of them?"
"Before the war, they divvied up the headquarters so each god received one. In the event that they lost, which they did, the gods 'played dead' and retreated to their assigned city. Zeus is in Los Angeles, Poseidon is in San Diego, Hera got Seattle, I think, and Hades is still ruling the Underworld. None of the Titans wanted that job, so they let Hades have free reign of the dead."
"What does Aphrodite have?"
"Hollywood, which is quite fitting for her, I suppose." A new voice called up. Nate and Shay peered over the edge of the cliff and saw a girl with stick-straight black hair. Her eyes were pale, and her skin was white. She glowed softly with a warm blue light. She couldn't have been older than sixteen. She smiled warmly at Shay, and called up to her. "Hello, Shay. I am Artemis, the Lost Goddess of the moon."