Chapter 3 - A Prayer For The Family

Christian's first tastes of revolution were mere appetizers—during his first few weeks with Gloria's resistance, he didn't participate in much more than the occasional shootout and theft. Gloria insisted that, after his escape from society, he should remain in the shadows for a while. "Let the rest of us handle the heavy duty demonstrations," she said, "and after some time passes, then you can reappear as a rebel."

He, however, had other plans.

In the dead of night, he gathered up any flammable liquid he could find, even going so far as to steal the gas out of a parked car and siphon it into a bucket. Then, he shook Gloria awake. "Hey Gloria, I want to show you something."

"Huh?" she groggily bumbled. "What time is it?"

"Who knows?" Christian replied. "Who cares? Come on, you've got to see this."

"I do?"

"Yeah. It's that important."

As she slowly rejoined the waking world, withdrawing her bandana from an inside pocket and sloppily securing it around her face, he led her, his arm around her shoulder, out of the station and down several blocks, until they found themselves in front of a large, impressive, and empty stone building.

"What is this?" asked Gloria, her voice still raspy with fatigue.

"The church I used to go to," said Christian. "The one that used to control my family."

"Why doesn't it control them anymore?"

Christian picked up his bucket of gasoline and threw its contents onto the buildings, smashing the window with the empty bucket. "This is why." He poured bottles of acetone stolen from the pharmacy onto the grass, flung rocks through the rest of the windows, lit a match, and let the flames roar across the landscape. Gloria let out a squeal of shock.

"I thought I told you to stay inconspicuous for a while!"

"Relax, no one's going to find out," Christian smirked.

"Of course they will! You just lit up the biggest church in the city!"

"Yeah, well, it's about time someone did. If nobody stands up and fights, nothing will ever change, now, will it? There's no such thing as a silent revolution."

Gloria smiled in approval in spite of herself. "You learn fast, kid," she said, patting his head like the proud teacher she was.

An alarm sounded in the street as the blaze intensified, but by the time the cops arrived on the scene, Christian and Gloria were already gone.

Christian's picture plastered the city walls on the 'wanted' posters that now joined the propaganda. A board meeting of frustrated government officials convened to decide what to do about him, its leader reclining in a swiveling office chair and throwing darts at a big, blown-up copy of the wanted ad. "I want this newest threat killed," he growled.

"And how do you suppose we're going to accomplish that, Mr. Greene?" said one of his subordinates. "He hasn't been sighted anywhere near his home in weeks, all of his recent movements completely contradict everything his records suggest about what he would do—"

"We get to him through the girl," a new voice rang out over the discussion. A man stepped forward from the crowd, in many ways just another extension of the homogenous blob of people. His slicked-back hair and monkey-suit marked him as one of them, but there was a hawk-like sharpness to his eyes that none of the others possessed.

He slapped a photograph of Gloria, the infamous rioteer, on the table in front of his comrades. "It's obvious that she's taken him in. We get rid of her, and taking him out will be a breeze."

Greene raised his eyebrow at the young law-enforcement neophyte. "Really, Adam? You would betray your own sister?"

Adam rolled his eyes in annoyance as a few of his coworkers murmured about him and his relationship to 'that blaspheming scum'. When the whispers died down, he turned to Greene and said, "Betray? Hardly. I'd be doing her a favor if I could bring her back to her senses and restore her faith."

"Sounds like a decent enough plan," someone nodded. "But how are we going to find her?"

Adam's face contorted into a twisted smile. "I think I have an idea."

Gloria's parents were assaulted by policemen in their home as they were eating dinner. Adam was at the table with them that evening: he just happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to invite himself over. One of the officers threw the mother against the wall and held her at gunpoint. "Where is she?"

"Who?" the woman whimpered, her wide eyes trained on the barrel of the gun.

"You know very well who we're talking about!" snapped her assailant. "That little demon you're trying to pass off as a daughter!"

The other policeman pinned Adam and Gloria's father onto the table, pressing the muzzle of a revolver to his head. "Please," he said, "let us go, we don't know anything…"

"Mom!" Adam shouted, rushing over to his mother and placing himself between her and the officer's firearm. Whispering low so that no one but she could hear, he told her, "I can stay and defend you for a moment, but I have to know where Gloria is. I have to warn her. You've been corresponding with her, right?"

She nodded and mouthed the words, "Subway station at sixty-second and Lexington."

As soon as Adam had the information he needed, he drew his own pistol and shot both of his parents dead.

Now Gloria was the only thing tying him to dissent, the last enemy he had.

A/N: All songs/characters (c) Green Day, except Adam, who's a product of my own demented mind. I'm not sure why he's so twisted...he and Gloria probably have some deep-rooted sibling issues they need to work out, but we won't find out about them here. Anyway, this covers East Jesus Nowhere and Peacemaker. Reviews might be nice.