JUDITH STRIKES!
THE TAKING OF LAWNDALE HIGH

by Charles RB

If you were out in Lawndale after curfew, you were either desperate – for food, for shelter, for an escape - or hard as nails. Either way, you wouldn't go to the Zon. It was too big a wreck, too condemned, too much a reminder of how Li had massacred organised resistance in her rise to power.

So twenty one people sneaking into it over the space of an hour? Twenty one people who were clearly armed?

If you'd see that you'd immediately know something was up, just before they slotted you before you blabbed it.

-

On the old stage, still stained from Trent's final stand, Daria Morgendorffer surveyed the massed forces – but one eye was always kept on Judith, leaning casually against the wall with her hood still up. A child of four could have guessed she had an agenda beyond the liberation of Lawndale, but help was help. Didn't mean Daria wasn't prepared to shoot the stranger if need be.

"The cell leaders aren't happy," muttered Jane, always staying close to Daria when she had the chance. "We better get a move on."

Jane was the resistance's courier, a one-woman communication network between Daria and all the cells. She was higher on Li's wanted list than even Daria, the one person whose arrest could shatter the resistance in one blow: she'd not been happy about the meet either. She knew the risks better than anyone.

But still, people assumed Daria knew what she was doing. Time to prove it.

"You're all wondering why you're here," she said, raising her voice to be heard. "And I don't blame you, because this place was a pit before it got half-burnt. We needed hazmat suits.

"No? Too ghoulish? Okay.

"Well, the first reason we're here is because one of us is a traitor to Li and we're going to have a bonding session by stomping them to death." She raised her hand to silence the confused babble that broke out. "Second reason is it ends now. We've spent two years in the shadows, barely two dozen, only able to make plans and steal weapons and help people escape to safe houses. Fighting is something we try to avoid, because it's killed six of our number and results in collective punishment against civilians.

"But we knew one day we'd be in a position to fight and win. And we are. Judith?"

The lady in red produced the gun with a flourish: sleek, curved, nasty.

"This little beauty is the Widowmaker. Ten round magazine, moderate range… and every round is armour piercing. You could cripple light-armour tanks with it. Shoot a fucker in the head, you'll take out the head of the person behind them. And I've got a grand total of twenty of these bitches and enough rounds for you to kill this entire state." She smiled. "You're welcome."

"Thank you, Judith." Daria turned to her rebels. "Lawndale High is a fortress and Li's army greatly outnumbers us. But this sort of firepower is not something they will be prepared for. It'll be a nice equaliser. If I was a traitor, I know I'd be feeling pretty stupid right now. Anyone know the Lord's Prayer?"

The rebels chuckled, all except Head. Lanky, short-banged, thick-glasses Head, always so nervous and eager to please, now looking terrified. Despite herself, Daria felt sad for him.

"Oh, Head. You should've been better than this."

"Th-they're coming now!" he screamed, unable to bear it anymore. "They'll save me! They'll-"

She shot him in the head at medium range. Behind her, she heard Judith snicker slightly and felt a rush of hatred for the stranger.

"There's a secret passageway under the basement that leads to the school grounds: the original resistance built it, Li filled it in, I had it unfilled. We move now. Except you, Tori, you know what you've got to do."

Nineteen people fled underground while the twentieth ran into the night. Two minutes later, a squad of Li's stormtroopers stormed in with tear gas and machine gun fire, not having enough time to realise the Zon was empty after all before the bomb went off and turned the ruins into a fiery beacon.

-

Eighteen rebels, one Judith. They were split into three teams of six, each one despatched to a separate part of the grounds, each one armed with Widowmakers and walkie-talkies and given a summary of Daria's strategy.

Judith stuck with Daria's team, much to her annoyance.

"Still can't believe you had this kind of firepower," she said, keeping her voice casual.

"What can I say, D? Armalin has resources."

"It's an honour to be chosen by him, Judith."

"The Saviour-General" hadn't been heard from by anyone in eight months, not since Radio Free America's last broadcast as he headed for Las Vegas. Rumours – myths – abounded of a vast army gathering in the badlands, of Kyle Armalin being elected by free people as the first President since the Collapse, of this shiny hero who was far away but was clearly coming to save everyone any day now.

Judith was talking bull and Daria knew it. The guns came from somewhere else. But Daria wasn't going to let on that she knew.

She checked her team: Jane, Mack, Jeffy, Scarlett, Shaggy. This would be their finest hour, or their last, or both.

"Ten seconds. We don't stop running until we're at the gates."

The school was a fort, the unbreakable stronghold of Li's junta. Even Fielding didn't dare mess. If not for her man on the inside, Daria would never risk this.

"Go!"

Mack fired their makeshift rocket – it joined two others, sailing through the air towards three spindly watchtowers and turning them into three sets of flying debris. Buh-bye, sniper cover.

On impact, the three teams broke into a run. A siren whined into the night, stray shots rang out, and after fifteen seconds the squat, ugly machine gun posts came to life. The centre-ground one roared and Jeffy fell back, guts spread across the tarmac.

"Team, stand to! Three rounds rapid!"

Five teens dropped to their knees, five Widowmakers fired three times, and the machine gun fell silent. It fell to pieces.

Where the hell did Judith get them from?

The three teams had converged at the entrance, where the retreating remnants of the ground's guards had met up with fresh reinforcements under Morris' command. They were putting up a steady field of suppressing fire, well-trained by Morris and not flinching, and Dawn was shot down far too easily. But each Widowmaker shot caused sprays of red, and Morris called a withdrawal after a few seconds of combat.

"Seal the doors and outflank! Siege mode! Sie-"

Judith's arms blurred, and knives appeared in Morris' shoulders. She went down screaming, left outside as the titanium doors slammed shut, and Judith yelled in joy as she ran up and smashed the woman's neck with a jump.

She smiled back at Daria. "Thought I'd give a hand! I was bored!"

Now she's not even trying to seem friendly. She'll make her move soon. Still, while it works for us…

"Once we're in, this is what we're doing: Mack, take two guys and hold the door from the outside, don't let us get outflanked. Kevin, take Andrea and Robert, seize the armoury, we need those guns. Everyone else, teams of three and sweep the first two floors." She glanced at her watch. "Li's security is about to shut off right… about…"

-

Detention Room – the prison for all dissenters and malcontents, before they were executed – was Barch's domain, especially when she had experiments to do. She'd fixed it so even when the shooting could be heard, none of the prisoners dared cheer or react at all. Of course, she still knew the rebels were coming for them; they couldn't get in, sure, but they could make a big mess and then where'd Lawndale be? Fielding would eat them whole once Li's forces were trashed.

She glared at DeMartino with distaste when he came in. "Oh, slinking off to the safe rooms, eh? Just like a man to-"

He shot her down, giving a snarl of "YOUR LESSON PLANS SUCKED!".

The lights flickered. That mean that, across the school, every door and lock was opening, and the security camera system had just rebooted itself. He'd worked hard setting up that computer virus.

He threw open the cell doors with a feral grin: "So… WHO wants to CRY SOME HAVOK?"

-

The element of surprise, the superior weaponry, the compromised security: the rebels were able to take the ground floor faster than they thought, and were hitting the second floor before Li's men had the chance to set up defensive positions. Through the windows, the lights of a dozen fires could be seen in town – Tori had got the mobs out in force, putting the boot into the soldiers in town who'd made their lives hell.

Reinforcements would already be coming from the town, Daria knew, but with the school and town in her hands they'd end up caught in a crossfire. As long as she'd planned this right.

"So why don't we just take the top floor?" asked Judith, idly stepping on a corpse as she walked. "You've got good time."

"We get that far, Li snaps and sets off the bomb that she obviously has to ensure nobody but her can have Lawndale High. We need the school intact, and its armoury. We know what Fielding did to Oakwood, it's not going to happen here."

"Forward planning! Excellent! Of course, you still have to take out Li…"

"We'll plant bombs on the second floor roof – the floor for her office."

That was a lie. Upchuck and Jane were going to sneak through the air ducts into the third floor and use nerve gas. But why tell Judith that?

"I see." Judith sighed. "Oh well. Time to make a move, I guess."

Daria had her Widowmaker up and firing the instant she heard that, but Judith had – how could anyone vanish like that? – somehow ended up at the other end of the corridor, near the stairs. And that didn't make sense. Judith's big secret agenda was to run up and get shot to death? Shaggy and Scarlett, her rearguard and co-plotters to nobble Judith when she made her move, held their guns at the place where the woman had been, confused beyond words.

From the stairs came sounds on gunfire. And… other weapons, things Daria hadn't heard outside of B-movie sci-fi. And some footsteps going up.

Judith was actually succeeding in single-handedly going up and oh shit Li was going to freak and set the bomb off.

Daria grabbed her walkie-talkie and screamed: "Top floor is boarded! Fall back! Grab all weapons and armoury kit possible, and fall back!"

"You don't think-" Shaggy started.

"Yes, duh! Run like the wi-"

Both her kneecaps exploded and she fell in the greatest pain she'd ever felt. Scarlett fell next, dead in an attempt to return fire. Shaggy was running, and Daria dimly felt pleased because everyone had to get out. Everything had gone wrong.

Even over her screams of pain, she could hear Judith laughing her head off.

"My god, spending all that time with you! The things I do for my schemes, eh?" She had a hard drive cradled in her left arm, a 'death ray' that should not possibly exist in the other. "I should thank you, really, if it wasn't for you and your merry morons I'd have never been able to pull this raid off. Too great a chance Li would've torched the drive. But this distraction, well…"

"AAAAAGGGGG WHHHYYYYYYYY?" Daria fought to choke back her screams, focusing on her hate instead of her pain. "You could've taken it AFTER Li was dead!"

"I could, but then you wouldn't have died knowing you'd lost. Where's the fun in that?" She kicked Daria hard in the side, laughing again. "And oh yes, I told Fielding what was going to happen, they'll come steaming into town and burn down everything you'd fought for! Don't worry though, Queen Bentley is going to have a nasty 'accident' soon after, because I've decided it'd be a nice little asset to have a conquering army under my thumb. Handy cannon fodder, a secondary HQ, all those attractive murderers to fuck… Fielding, Fielding, rar rar ree!"

It wouldn't be long now. The bomb would go off (and suddenly she wanted the pain to continue, anything but the alternative) and everything would be over.

No.

No, hell with that.

"You're…" She spat out blood and hate. "You're wrong. My guys'll get out… They'll get out of here with part of the armoury…"

"So it'll take them longer to die. Fun!"

"They'll win! You don't know them, what… what they're capable of…" She grinned, horribly. "I do. They'll win. Fielding will die."

"We'll see. Well, I'll see. Have fun dying in delusion."

Judith walked out, leaving Daria to die.

Lawndale High erupted into flame a minute later. Ten percent of Li's armoury had been scavenged. Fielding advance squads were spotted a few hours later.

The final outcome is not yet recorded.

FINIS