Episode #5
The Betrayal
Knock!! Knock!! Knock!! Sean was breathing heavy as he clenched at a familiar wooden door. He heard loud rusting and the snapping of what was indistinctly heavy artillery. “Who the hell is at my door,” Sean still breathing hard gasped, “Les . . . Sean . . . please . . . . open!” The door swung open as a familiar brown haired beauty stood in front of Sean. The familiar small and cramped apartment was filled with papers but a short woman was holding two mismatched pistols right at Sean’s face. Sean gripped the silver box as he leapt back in terror. The beautiful face of Rachel was replaced with that psychotic look that made her eyes bulge out of her face. “Wait, don’t shoot,” he jumped all the way back as she stared at him for several minutes. She leaned her head out and gazed down the hallway. She returned to the frame when she saw that he was alone. “What the hell you doing come up here knocking on the door like you’re the damn M.P?”
“Abel, Abel has been captured by the Security Troopers,” she stared at him and after several skeptical looks she lowered the pistols. “We know . . . were you followed,” shaking his head he added, “good let me in so we can go get him . . . Why would you think I was followed”? Rachel took a second glance down the hallway and then waved him in. Shutting the door, Sean walked into a room with several mysterious men and the white grizzled man that he had been told was his Uncle Les. Yellow bandanna tied around his head, he was holding a double barrel shotgun but he didn’t lower it. “It’s Sean,” Les looked confused as he lowered his gun slightly. “How is this possible, were you followed”? Sean saw something that had not caught his attention the last time he had been in this room. It was an American flag upside down but it had a yellow tint to it. Les was snapping his fingers, “hey boy”! Sean shook his head, “Abel was captured, he sacrificed himself, and I need your help.” Rachel came over, “of course we will help,” but Les looked at Sean. “Is that the box,” his eyes narrowed to the silver box in his hand. Sean froze a little, “um,” but Les stepped forward and snatched it out of his hands, “give it to me”!
He took it out of Sean’s hands, who exclaimed, “Hey what the hell is your . . .” Les turned and growled “is this it”? Sean looked confused, but Les gripped it between his hands and yelled, “The box from the bank, this is it”? Sean nodded, “look Abel needs help, what can you guys do for us”? “Well most likely they will take him down to the Boston branch headquarters in District 4”. Sean shook his head, “District 4! We have to leave now”. “The only thing you’re going to tell me you little shit is if this is the box from the bank, the one your parent’s left you”? Les stormed forward, the pistol raised at him, “Les what the hell do you think you are doing”? Les looked deranged, “silence you silly girl,” he turned back to Sean and growled “well”? Sean nodded, “yeah Les it is, I don’t understand, did I do something”? “YES,” bellowed Les as he gripped the box in his hands raising it high into the air. “Les, what the hell is your problem,” Les lowered the box and stormed to the desk littered with papers and manila folders. He swiped them off the table as the fell to the floor their hours of organization seem pointless in a matter of a second.
“GOD DAMN IT,” yelled Rachel as she began to walk closer, “It took me days to organize that shit”. Les began to rip open the box, he smashed open the lock as the contents fell to the floor. A stack of papers the size of a novel fell out, “it’s true”. He threw the box away. Rachel was seizing papers off the floor, “Les you want Sean to know everything the Uprising is up to”. “Rachel will you shut up,” Les seized the stack of papers and opened them as if they were as precious as diamonds. “Project Anarchy,” Les whispered, Rachel’s eyes widened in surprise rather than anger. “The plans,” Les closed the notes, “look we got your plans, now what the hell are we going to do about my brother?” “Your brother is going to be tortured and left to die,” “Abel gave his life to get me out . . . gave his life to get these papers to you”. “SHUT up you stupid little kid, Rachel put a bullet in him and end this”. “Excuse me,” exclaimed Sean, who saw that Rachel looked as surprised as he did. She repeated, “Put a bullet in him and end this”? She got up from the floor and dropped all the papers that she had been gathering. “Did I stutter,” Rachel still looked stunned, “Les these are Caine’s and Eve’s boys, I don’t think you”. “I KNOW exactly, your just a traitor just like them . . . fine, the Security Troopers couldn’t do it, the Military Police couldn’t do it, you couldn’t do it, guess I’ll do it myself.”
He withdrew a pistol from his waist pocket but Rachel out of nowhere jumped in front of Sean. Her hands held no pistol but she still shielded him. “Les, what the hell is your problem,” “Rachel get out of the way, if I have to kill you I will,” “no Les, Caine and Eve gave their lives for this group, they died fighters, these boys just got away how can you dishonor their parents memory and sacrifices by killing both their sons”?
“Rachel I have always questioned your loyalty and now I guess I see where it lies,” Les’s hand gripped the pistol, “my loyalty has always lie with the Underground Uprising”. “NO,” shouted Les, “your loyalty has always been to them, remember they brought you in but we made you who you are”. Rachel began to push Sean towards the door, “Les your crazy, why are you doing this, the Council of Immortals would kill you if they knew what you are saying.” He shouted, “The Council of Immortals laws must be followed without question. I was performing my necessary duties as the leader of this group keeping up the laws of the New Constitution. The Council of Immortals . . . kill me . . . ha! Who do you think told me to do it”? Rachel gasped, “I can’t believe it. You sold out the Gatewoods to the Security Troopers”? “With Caine and Eve gone, that pathetic little group that they tried to create to succeed ours would not live to see its first act. OUR ACT! Sean heard a click of a light as he stared at the contents of the box, and repeated “Project Anarchy”. Rachel shook her head so fast sending her brown sheet of hair flying in Sean’s face. “I can’t allow this,” Sean stepped out from her hair, “are you saying what I think you are saying”? Les froze as if he was hiding something, “I know what you’re thinking Rachel, remember one word and I have all the soldiers in here filling you full of holes.”
“You are going to kill me and let my brother die because our parents tried to start the Urban Guerillas,” shouted Sean trying to wrestle over Rachel. ‘Your stupid parents were starting another group without the Council’s permission. If we didn’t kill them, the Truth would have. Your parents signed theirs deaths when they called their first meeting. I was just doing my duty for this resistance and see the N.W.O. and their precious Federal Districts crumble to ashes.” Sean shook his head, “You don’t have to do this. We aren’t even members. My brother and I were at college the whole time”. Les smiled, “wrong place, wrong time. The code states that every man and woman must be killed to prevent the civil wars and riots that plagued us before. Every district has one resistance fighting group no exceptions”. Sean ceased his advance, “so you never cared for my brother and me? All those parties and presents, the times we laughed were all nothing”? He nodded, “I don’t care for you and your parents knew that. They sent you here probably because it was the only place that they could consider safe, which was foolish on their part because they knew the code.” “So why get you the plans for Project Anarchy,” he nodded “the letter your brother gave me. Trading the plans for your safety,” he scoffed, “bargaining the last plea of a pathetic man, your family were always traitors and no honor will be broken by my actions”.
When Les closed his eyes, Rachel grabbed the door knob and opened the door. Sean fell backwards as Rachel closed the door. She screamed in pain as blood came out of her shoulder. She turned to Sean, “run,” and without a second glance, he took off in the other direction and she followed right behind. She pointed wildly, “stairs,” and they both ran down them. Sean looked up and saw Les staring down watching them retreat, “get back,” yelled Sean pushing her close to the wall. She groaned in pain, “You don’t need to do that, he isn’t going to shoot us here, he’ll draw to much attention”. They ran down the stairs and took off down the street. Soon the urban jungle swallowed them up, he knew Les and his soldiers were probably staring out the front of the complex staring blindly down the near empty street.
They stopped running when they hit an abandoned alley, Sean pounded his fists on the wall, “I’m going to kill that bitch”. “He is to well protected, you couldn’t get close to him”. Sean turned to her, “he betrayed my parents, and I will spend the rest of my life trying to kill him”. Rachel dabbed at her wound but Sean walked forward, “alright I need to know exactly who you people are and who my parents are, and what the hell is going on around here.” “God,” he shrieks as he pulled at his hair, “my brother and I just came home from college and we find ourselves neck deep in the resistance”. Rachel groaned in pain, “I need a doctor”! Sean came closer, “you aren’t going to anybody unless I get all the information.” Rachel eyes were closed in tears of pain, “I need a doctor. I saved your life”. Sean grabbed her and slammed her against the brick wall, “tell me what I want to know and I will risk my life to get you to a doctor”.
Rachel groaned as she stared around the deserted alley, “alright, what do you want to know, keep in mind I am only telling you what I can, I’ll die for the Double U”. Sean released her as she grabbed at her shoulder again. “What is with that yellow banner in the back of the room . . . you know the one with the dark stars forming a circle? My parents had this stupid red monkey,” Rachel’s eyes widened, “you mean the one standing upright in the uniform . . . beret . . . smoking cigar and AK 47”? Sean took a step back, “how do you know,” she chuckled weakly, “that was a drawing that I gave your mother a long time ago”. A car horn blared next to them as traffic seemed to come to a stop. Sean returned, “How do you know my mother”? “Are you really sitting here and asking these pointless questions, “Why don’t you ask me the questions you really want to know”! “Alright how come none of you have bandannas around you R.I.F.D. chips,” Rachel raised her left hand and glowered down at the small chip. “We cloned it, all of ours, we don’t need bandannas”. She smiled at the wet rag wrapped around his hand. “And what just happened up there?”
She winched slightly and shrugged, but Sean continued to press, “So those symbols are the individual symbols of each individual group”? Her head rested against the wall, “nothing gets by you”. She stands up and began to walk away, “where the hell do you think you are going”? She turns there is a safe house with a doctor on call, I am going there and willing to answer any questions along the way”. Sean followed her, “no I order you to stop,” she laughed, “you order me . . . and what are you going to threaten me with besides those girlie hands that you call fists”. She retreated out the alley and continued down a street. “Everybody is looking,” whispered Sean who noticed eyes landing on her bloody hand covering her gushing wound. “Just don’t draw attention to it,” she winced as the moved between a herd of people exiting off the late bus. They took down another alley and walked several blocs in complete silence. Finally after they began down a particularly long alley, Sean gave a groan, “so now are you going to stop stalling and answer my questions”?
“Yeah, we are getting really close, it’s really quiet round these parts,” Sean took a deep breath and blurted out the question that had bugged him for the last two blocks. “What were my parents up to tonight, it had to be something big if what Uncle Les’s said is true. Was it Project Anarchy”? “This safe house is right around the corner here, so I’ll answer your question but once we enter you can’t say or do anything just let me do the talking, agree”? Staring at her, Sean asked, “and what are we going to next? Why can’t I talk? Rachel was growing paler by the second, “we are going to rescue your brother and we are going to need the resistances help”. A small tattoo parlor appeared ahead of them, Rebel Tattoos. “Rebel Tattoos,” repeated Sean, “yeah there’s a safe house in back”. “Just answer my question,” Rachel stopped in her tracks and began to look around at the surroundings. She leaned in and whispered, “Your parents were starting up another resistance group called the Urban Guerillas, which you already knew. What you don’t know is that creating unsanctioned resistance groups is strictly forbidden by the Laws of Resistance in the New Constitution. If the council finds out The Truth makes sure the group is eliminated in fear of civil war breaking out again.” Sean shook his head, “and what exactly is Project Anarchy”? She rolled her eyes, “that is a story and a half! I’ll explain that after they patch me up, I’ll be no good to you dead”. Sean reached out and grabbed her shoulder, “Look just tell me what PUMA is”? Rachel leaned in and whispered four words, “Public uprising means anarchy”. “What,” exclaimed Sean, “it’s the theory behind Project Anarchy”. She rolled her eyes again, “I’ll tell you inside, if I don’t bleed to death out here”.
(To Be Continued)