The Dawning of a Revolution

by J3ZA

Please read and review, Flaming accepted

The Dawning of a Revolution

By Jeremy Hearn

Chapter 1

A pure gentle world where there is peace, where there are beautiful views to share with the one you love, Where the clouds blow gently over grassy hills of green and there is an abundance of everything. Where every time you look around there is a view of something beautiful, where every emotion is positive and where man has not destroyed the world. Where time itself seems to stand still just so you can live more. Where no man or woman are judged, but rather loved for whom they are, and not what other people think they should be. Where love flourishes and there are no bounds to life, where there are no chains, where someone can live freely, where evil does not exist. This is what Reul was once. Now the planet of Reul is nothing more than a fascist hell hole. Where we are told what to do and when to do it, where there is no love, no feeling, and no life. There are no longer any views of beauty nor is there any love of life, it is all gone. I used to live in the harmonious capital of Reul, it was called Raiben. Raiben was a medium populated city with no major constructions and views so beautiful and pure a whole day could be spent on a large hill, looking out at the spectacular views of mountains, meadows and valleys, many of which where covered with flourishing wild flowers and long thick lushes of green grass covering the grounds, but today this is not the case. Today Raiben is a city spawning diseases, where people are killed and crime rules the streets, where the smell of rotting, decomposing corpses can be smelt at all hours of the day and night, and the bodies of children and adults alike lay dead, cold and stiff on city streets and in gutters. We work shifts for the government with little or no pay. The government rules with false lies, dark sarcasm and an iron fist. They torture people for no reason and shut down any attempts to be overthrown with incredible speed, and the one who actually makes all the decisions is known simply as Leader.

I step outside my door and onto the grey cracking and deteriorating footpath. I begin to walk and each breath I breathe leaves a small trail of fog behind me. The night is cold and dark; the streets lights are placed awkwardly on the street and provide little light. I proceed to walk under a certain street light that blinks on and off, as if it is trying to decide what to do with its self. I look over head and see but only one star. I hear the familiar sound of a helicopter flying overhead. It's at that time that the helicopter flies past a building and into my vision, although it is still a helicopter it looks much like a plane but on each of its two wings is a hollowed out sections where there are blades in the wings, this gives them lift and some mobility but they are much better suited to combat conditions rather than patrolling streets. It flies speedily overhead and soon disappears into the dark mist not too far away. I think back to the days when the invasion began, how the day was quiet and the sky was clear when thousands of planes flew over head like a cloud and blocked the sun. They came like massing and marching like ants, they had no emotions; no fear, no remorse, no mercy and no compassion. We had no weapons to fight with and those who tried to fight or resist were killed on the spot. People over the age of 65 are no use to these people; one of the first things they built was a giant crematorium. As soon as someone is useless to the government their home is invaded, they are kidnapped and taken to what the people call "Hells Fire". Hells fire burns you alive, the flames shoot from the floor and lick your skin burning you deeply. Within minutes you are either burned to a black crisp or choked on the gases within the chamber also. I once had to work a shift at Hells fire. I remember it was a cold dark night about 2 years ago. The moon was full, or at least in those days you could still see the moon some nights, the air was cold and stale. I walked in the front of Hells fire, I found strange men in uniforms that didn't show their faces, and instead they wore gas masks and black uniforms that covered their entire body. As I walked the long twisting hallways the screams and cries of people could be heard through the thick doors, the smell of people's burning flesh seeped from under the doors and crawled along the floor before racing to my nostrils. The smell was putrid and sickening, it made your throat burn and your eyes water; that is a place I never want to return to. I can also remember my child hood before the invasion; it's been nearly six years since we were invaded and overthrown, I was nineteen at the time of the invasion and hadn't realized how much I had taken everything for granted. Before the invasion we had no government, we had a council that people sometimes had to report to just to make sure everything was in order, but we never had someone watching our every move, someone telling us what to do, when to do it, and how we should do it.

I stop where I am in the street. Our people deserve better than this, we need to find a way to fight it, and we need a better life. The worst thing that could happen is death and at the moment even death is better than living in this hell. A moth flies past my face; I stick out my hand quickly and capture the moth. I hold it in my cupped hands and begin to tell it to contact the rebels quickly. In the times before the invasion, we were so in tune with nature we could talk to it, but now much of the skill has died and practicing the old arts is punishable by death. I release the moth and watch as it flies high into the sky and disappears. I decide to head home.

Chapter 2

I'm resting in bed peacefully when I hear something rattle, I think nothing of it. I sit up and check my room quickly glancing at the corners, I have two candles shining dimly on either side of my bed, but I can't see anything outside my window so I lay back down. Then the windows open and the wind appears, the candles blow and the light disappears, the curtains fly and then they appear, dressed in black carrying weapons of fear. They aim their guns and me and start to yell commands telling me to get on the floor. I realise it's the government's tactical police forces. I'm hit with the edge of a gun and pushed on the ground; they bind my hands together tightly behind my back and stand me up roughly. They begin to force me to walk, we proceed to walk down my apartment's stairs and onto the street where there is an armoured vehicle waiting. I'm pushed into the back of the vehicle and I land face first. I can taste the blood in my mouth as it drips slowly from my lip. I turn and look at the door as it closes quickly making a loud slamming sound, once the doors are shut there is only pitch black and the feeling of loneliness sets in. I can hear the car accelerate and can feel every bump and ditch we drive over. The journey seems to take forever but finally the car comes to a stop. I hear the front doors open and the footsteps of the men coming around to the back. Then the footsteps stop, then the door is flung open and two men grab either one of my arms and start to pull me out of the truck. They drop me on the hard gravel and stone ground and I have to try and stand by myself, I manage to stand with great difficulty and they once again grab either one of my arms and start to lead me towards another truck that is stoped not too far ahead of the truck I was in. There are two guards with guns in hand waiting next to the open doors of the other truck. They also are wearing all black and their faces can't be seen.

"Where's Milo and Kine? I thought they were going to be the change over drivers." One of the men holding my arm yells as we grow closer to the other truck.

"They couldn't make," one of the men says as the 2 guards holding me put me in the back of the new truck, "They said something about being dead." Says the other guard next to the new truck, he then lifts his gun and shoots furiously at the other guards, them before they even get a hand on their guns. The two guards lay dead on the ground still bleeding from where the bullets punctured their vests. One of the other guards comes over to me and spins me around before he cuts the cables that bound my hands behind my back.

"My name is Trigger, I'm the leading sniper for the rebellion, and this is Piz, he likes machine guns, fast things and blowin' stuff up" Says one of the guards, "Your going to have to ride in the back until we get to base, then you can see our faces but until then your not allowed to know the way or to know what we look like."

"I understand" I say before I shift myself against the trucks inner wall and sit down.

"See you soon buddy" Piz says with a chuckle, and with that the doors shut once again and the car soon starts and takes off on the journey to base.

Chapter 3

I wake up, the truck has stopped and the front doors have just slammed shut. The doors open slowly and bright light from the sun stings my eyes for a second, I can see one figure. The figure sticks out there hand I grab it and they help me to my feet allowing me to step out of the truck. I can now see that the figure was Trigger the taller of the two, but I have still not seen either of their faces yet.

"How long were we travelling?" I ask curiously

"Just over 4 hours" He replies

I look around; we are standing atop of a small hill. Down below is a beaten path which leads to rocky ledge above a river. The ledge seems to go behind a waterfall. The waterfall is quite large and has more than one stream of water falling from it. The pure clear water falls and lands on different levels of rocks before it actually reaches the body of water below. To the north and behind the waterfall big luscious hills of green grasses and amazingly coloured wild flowers roll for as far as the eye can see with the river running in between the hills before tapering together and falling of the edge of the rock to form the waterfall . To the east there is just landscape and hills. To the west there are mountain ranges and looking past them some of the mountains become snow capped, I have no idea where we are. I can see Piz walking down the ledge and towards the waterfall and now Trigger is starting to go the same way so I follow him closely. We walk down rock ledge, its more stable than I thought and not at all slippery. I can see Piz not too far ahead going behind the waterfall; we soon follow and step behind the wall of water that masks the interior of the Rebel's base. Behind the waterfall there is a large hollowed out section of in the rock, the walls are made of shiny stone and the interior is lit entirely by candles. We walk in and there is a man waiting in the middle of the room. When he sees us he waltzes over joyfully and sticks out his hand.

"I am Ted; if you follow me ill take you to meet the rebel's leader and we will discuss our current situation and you will be introduced to some of the other members." And as he says this Trigger just walks past me and into one of the branching hall ways. I follow Ted as he leads me through the marvellous sparkling hallways that continue to twist and turn until we finally reach a room with a dark brown wooden door. Ted opens the door slowly and signals me to go in; as I step through he shuts the door behind me but doesn't come in. There is a man sitting behind a small aged oak desk, He has reasonably short hair, black and is spiked, he looks to be young, maybe late twenties, but looks absolutely nothing like I would expect the leader of a rebellion to be like.

"I, as you probably know by now, am the leader of the rebellion, my name is Caleb. So I'm presuming your going to join the rebels, well you needn't worry about a welcoming ceremony or anything, we are too close to the battle for one of those, you better get some rest tomorrow you will be very busy, Ted should be outside waiting to show you to your room, ill see you tomorrow." He says as he seems to ramble on.
I walk to the door and step out side to find Ted waiting eagerly outside the door.

"How did it go?" he asks over enthusiastically

"Alright, I guess" I say somewhat confused

"Well good, follow me then and ill take you to your room." As he says this he turns and starts to walk through the narrow corridors of the base once more. We reach the end of the corridor and he stops at the last door on the right.

"This will be your room" He says proudly

"Thanks," I say tiredly as I turn the handle of the door and walk in. The room is not lit very well and is small only housing one bed and two sets of draws.

"Ill collect you in the morning, be ready by 7 am." Ted says as he closes the door.

Finally I'm alone; the first thing I do is lye on the hard stiff mattress and try to go to sleep.

Chapter 4

I open my eyes and I'm lying on something hard, I sit up cautiously and look around. I'm sitting on a hard concrete path, there is sand all around me, but not ordinary sand, this sand is blood red. I stand clumsily and look at the sky. The sky is a pitch black, and then thunder starts to sound, getting louder and louder until I can no longer even hear my own thoughts. I cover my ears with my hands and start to walk forward slowly, suddenly a streak of red lightning shoots across the sky. Then more lightning all of it bright red and all of it seemingly dancing across the sky and it appears from no where. I pick up the pace; no longer covering my ears from the bellowing thunder, I begin to run. I run on the path as it twists and turns through the blood red sand dunes until I find my self standing in front of a two giant wooden door, I push them cautiously but don't open them all the way, I step through them and walk down the path that continues behind the doors. The doors are joined to giant white stone walls and behind the door there is a large brick structure that could be a temple or a house. I keep walking on the path, I get about half way down the path when I blink and when I reopen my eyes there is a man, a man whose face is recognizable instantly, a man of pure evil, the leader of the current government. I peer down at his large hand which is carrying a thick pistol, he slowly raises the gun until its at my head I turn and try to run but I the ground just moves under my feet and I don't move at all, I turn back to face him, as soon as I do this he squeezes the trigger slowly, then bang.

I wake from my disturbing dream very startled and glance at the clock, 6:50am. I only have ten minutes to be ready until Ted comes; I jump out of bed quickly and race to put on some clothes. I get dressed and just as I'm finishing getting ready there is a loud knock on the door,
"Are you ready in there?" he asks without opening the door, "We got to get going, they are expecting us very soon."
I fling the door open and in the process slam the door against Ted's ear that was pressed against the door.

"Oh, Sorry!!" I say embarrassed

"No, my fault" he says holding his ear in pain, "Lets go."

We walk through the hallways for about 10 minutes until we get to a large open space that kind of resembles a hall. Ted walks over to two men sitting at a table and introduces them, even though I have a feeling I know who they are.

"This is Trigger," he says pointing to a man in his mid thirties, he has short brown hair, and a goatee. His face is tough and looks serious. "And this is Piz." He points to a shorter man with longer brown hair, but his hair is a lighter brown, he has no facial hair and looks to be about 19.

I shake each of their hands and nod at them.

"They will be taking you on some short training and you will receive a new name corresponding with you skills or personality." Ted says loudly

"Lets get going then, don't want to waste any time." States Trigger as both of them stand and start to walk, I follow behind them.

Chapter 5

Training was gruelling and took a while, but I was very good in the stealth and close combat sections. I walk over to where Trigger and Piz are resting,
"How did I do?" I ask puffing for breath

"Very well" They both reply, "But now we have the matter of a name, I was thinking of something along the lines of Briar….."
"Sounds alright, Briar, yeah I could live with that," I state quickly cutting off Trigger

"Good, then it is settled, Briar it is." He says whilst chuckling "Now we got to get back to base, two days until we move to strike against the government, I hope for the world's sake, we are ready."
We get back to base to find people scrambling around checking plans and organising things for the assault on the Government's HQ, I spot Ted and as soon as he sees us he rushes over hastily.

"Caleb requests your presence immediately; he has a special assignment for you." Ted turns around and walks hastily towards the rebel leader's room, Piz, Trigger and I all follow.

Ted flings the door open quickly and holds it open as we step through; he leaves and shuts the door once the three of us are in.
"Gentlemen, I have a special task for you three, as you know in 30 hours we are planning to attack the Government's Head Quarters, we need you three to be on the main assassination mission, you will kill the leader of the government. This won't be an easy mission, he has more security and an entirely different section on the grounds, but, I'm trusting you three to complete this mission with the upmost of efficiency. At exactly midnight you will commence, if anyone tries to stop you from completing this task, kill them and if you are seen or spotted you can not abort the mission, you must carry it out and if you don't come back alive, you will be greatly missed and remembered forever for your efforts. Now go, we don't have long." He says sternly

The three of us walk out very quietly and go our separate ways back to the rooms.

Chapter 6

Last night passed quickly and the whole of today was spent preparing and receiving equipment for tonight's mission. It's currently 7:30pm not long until our mission swings into action. I pace back and forwards uneasily, waiting for that knock on the door, waiting to be told where to go with all my equipment, waiting to get started. I sit on my bed and let my thoughts drift far, far away. A loud banging on the door brings me back to reality; Trigger opens the door quickly and sticks only his head through the gap.
"C'mon kid, grab all your stuff, we best be leaving." He says in a serious tone
"Right" I say while nodding and picking up my pack. I follow Trigger through the hallways until we end up outside where there are ten trucks waiting. I look at the other people getting into the trucks and wonder why one of the trucks isn't being loaded.

"That's our transport," Trigger says pointing to the end truck where no one else is.

I walk over to it and jump into the open back, Trigger also jumps in before he hands me a belt.

"What's this for?" I ask curiously
"Everything in your pack should fit on that belt, it'll just be easier to carry on a belt."

I nod, stand up and put it on the belt; I then open my pack grabbing things and start sticking them on the belt. I have an Automatic hand pistol, a small sub machine gun, rope, mace, a bandage, a knife and a gas mask with night vision on it. Once it is all attacked I sit back down, spotting Piz slowly walking towards the truck. He also climbs in saying, "Are we ready people?" But Trigger just laughs.

The truck starts and slowly accelerates and the journey starts back to the governments head quarters.

The four hours go quickly and we soon arrive at our destination, we are not yet at the head quarters, but we can drive no further so the rest of the journey has to be done on foot. We walk through the muddy grasslands that surround the government's headquarters, and before long we have to walk a different direction to the other groups, seeing as how the fascist leader's sleeping quarters are on a totally different part of the facility. After about fifteen minutes of walking we soon come into sight of a giant wall that surrounds the entire head quarters. I can see small out lines of figures walking on the walls. Trigger must see them as well because he pulls out his sniper and lies down; we copy him and also lay on the ground. He lines up his scope and switches the silencer on. He waits, waits, then a soft sound no louder than a stapler being used can be heard and one of the figures drops out of sight, he realigns his scope then another 2 shots are fired, and no figures can be seen patrolling the wall. We start to move again, when we get to the wall Trigger pulls the rope off his belt and uses a grappling hook that Piz hands him to secure the rope, after he makes sure it is secure Trigger starts to climb up the rope, then Piz follows him and I am last. When we get on the wall we find the bodies of the guards that were patrolling it, there is only one guard that was shot in the head, which means that there is only one uniform with no blood stains on the torso. Piz decides to change into the uniform and goes down the stairs to scout ahead and dispose of any potential threats. Trigger decides he will stay on the wall and offer sniper back up. I just have to wait for Piz to finish scouting then me and him will go down and locate the leader. Piz races back up the stairs and gives me a nod, I follow him down the stairs and we start to walk the long stone streets in search of the leaders sleeping quarters. Then we find some big gates, exactly like the ones in my dreams, Piz walks over to them, but not before checking that he can still see Trigger. I look back also and can see Trigger clearly; Piz edges the doors open slowly and quietly, we step through the gap, behind the door is a court yard similar to the one in my dream. On either side of the stone path there are rows of pink flowering cherry blossoms, and in the night breeze the pink petals dance as they detach from the tree. The courtyard is completely empty and there is absolutely no noise, but I have a feeling someone already knows that we are here. We walk down the path carefully and slowly, trying to make as little noise as we possibly can. We are close to the steps that lead to the door to the sleep quarters when I hear a twig snap, I spin quickly and see the leader standing there with two guards, they are all holding guns. The guards have their standard semi-automatic but the leader is holding a big pistol. Piz senses that I've stopped and he grabs bot his guns out and spins. He points a gun each at the guards, but I haven't drawn my weapon yet. The leader is the first to break the silence. "So, you've come to kill me? You're doing a pretty lousy jobs." He chuckles, all the guns are pointed at Piz because they can see that he is armed. His guns stay fixed and his facial expression doesn't change. The leader looks at one of the guards and suddenly the guards gun is pointed at me, he pulls the trigger but even before he does that I sidestep, the bullet flies past my side only making contact with my belt, the bullet cuts through the leather on the belt and it falls to the floor. The mace rolls out of its place on the belt and lies on the ground not too far from my foot. An idea strikes me, I glance at Piz then back down to the mace, he follows my glare and looks back up. I take a step back, then a couple of steps forward before kicking the can of mace. The leader laughs at the thought of me trying to hit him with a can of mace, but I'm not trying to hit them with the can. The can draws closer to the guards and the leader standing opposite of Piz. Just before it hits them Piz fires a single shot at the can piercing it and sending the gases inside racing out, then the can explodes, sending a cloud of toxic stinging mist right over our three enemies. The guards hold their eyes and scream as the large amount of mace enter their sinuses. The two guards start to turn around and run, as soon as they turn their backs Piz sets both his guns on one at a time, he shoots the first guard sending him jolting forward from the number and speed of the bullets, but as Piz turns his guns to aim at the other guard the leader lifts his gun and fires a single shot through Piz's chest. Piz lets out a moan of pain but still he manages to shoot the other escaping guard. He falls to his knees holding his bleeding wound as it pours out blood at an alarming rate. He turns to me and mumbles, "You got to finish the mission kid, don't worry about me I'm a lost cause, just complete the mission." Then he falls to the ground and remains motionless. I look at the leader as he stands hunched laughing. I reach down and pick up my guns, putting my pistol in my back pocket, and holding the sub machine gun ready. The leader looks up at me with a smirk on his face, suddenly he runs towards the trees leaping into them. He runs along the side of the trees, defying gravity, I hold my gun up and start to try and shoot him but my bullets keep missing him by the narrowest of margines. Then I remember that I should always shot where something is going, not where it is. I aim the gun at the next tree the leader is about to jump onto and fire, the bullet races forward and rips through his shin. He lets out a scream of pain as he falls to the ground. I walk over to his huddled body as he grips the place where he was shot, the blood slowly trickles out and down his leg and onto his hand. I walk behind him and pistol-whip him hard on the back of his head. He does nothing. Then he breaks the silence, "Good work kid, now its time for your revenge, go on, kill me, be a hero." He turns to face me "Shoot me."

I turn away and start to walk toward the gates where we came from.
"What's the matter kid, you scared, or did you realise that my government made your world better, made your world a better place?"

I look at him and murmur under my breath "Keep dreaming"

He starts to laugh I glance at him again, he starts to stand slowly, my gun is still at my side, I face the barrel backwards and keep walking then I pull the trigger, when I get to the gate I look back to see if I hit him with that single shot, I'm stunned to see that there is a hole right between his eyes and there is a stream of blood dripping slowly from that hole. I walk back up the stairs and up onto the wall. Trigger gives me a look that asks about Piz, I just shake my head and he nods slightly. We climb back down the rope and start to head back to the vehicles, I glance back briefly at the head quarters, now ablaze with bright orange flames and a thick cloud of black smoke above. Most of the other teams have returned as well and everyone starts loading into the trucks, before long we are on our way to base, we will return victorious, we have changed the future for the better, or so we think, only time can tell.

By Jeremy Hearn © 2007