Sorry it's taken so long to update, but here's chapter 5. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed, it's very much appreciated. Keep them coming!
cutecess: Brooke knows that Alan's eyes are blue, because she saw them before she turned colorblind. Also the radiation lasted for so many generations because it altered everyone's DNA.
Disclaimer: When I own the Giver, pigs will be able to fly.
It was almost dusk and I was thinking about this memory business when I was approached by a male named Noah. He was the Marine who had dropped the alpha yesterday morning. The bomb that had ended the War and destroyed every human being and piece of land left on earth.
"Hi, Alan," he said. I grunted in reply.
"Good to see you too," he muttered under his breath.
I looked up and with an air of impatience and rudeness, I asked, "Do you mind getting to the point?" Brooke was right, I decided. I would have no problems ignoring whatever crazy rules about rudeness she came up with. Noah took a deep breath.
"Don't you think that Brooke seems to have… um… a certain… um, what's the word… I suppose, bossiness about her?"
I raised an eyebrow in interest.
"Please elaborate," I said calmly. Could someone finally have been speaking what I was feeling?
"Well, is it just me, or has she taken charge without anyone else electing her to be Chief Elder? And doesn't this entire plan for the 'community' seem to overlap, at least a little bit, with the basic idea of communism? And Hitler too! With the Sameness and everything. I thought that me and my buddies were out fighting for freedom, but apparently they sacrificed their lives for nothing." Now it was my turn to take a deep breath.
"Noah," I said firmly. "How can you say that you were fighting for freedom when you bombed the second-to-last community on earth? They couldn't have come after us if they tried! You killed them and you have to live with that now. However I can see your point about Brooke and her plans. I realize that she has good intentions, but she may be going about it the wrong way. What did you have in mind; talking to her about it? I'll tell you right know that it won't work. She's too stubborn."
"You're absolutely right, something has to be done. However I was thinking of something more drastic. Maybe something like assassination," he said casually.
For the second time in one day, I was utterly shocked. I no longer wanted anything to do with Noah, his plans, or this conversation. Hadn't there been enough murder and killing? Why did we need more?
"I'm sorry, I can't help you. I won't help you. And if you push the matter, I'll do everything in my power to stop you. Enough is enough, Noah. The War's over so you don't have to be on the offensive anymore. Leave me alone!"
I backed away slowly and then started running. Memories of pain and joy, assassinations of controlling Chief Elders, it was all too much. Eventually I stopped running and I leaned on a tree. Tears flowed freely down my face, an event that hadn't occurred since I was nine. What was this world coming to? Destruction, I thought bitterly. It's coming to destruction.