Revolution- Runaways 3 [EDITING]

Chapter 31: Peyton

The next morning, I found myself in the lounge with Reese, Micaiah, and Eli. Eli's neck was still bruised, but it was lighter than it had been on Thursday. I was so thankful to see him engaging in normal activities. I knew his injuries had been minor, but I had still been concerned.

We had finally decided to sit down and watch the news to catch up on what we had missed. We had been too scared to do so yesterday, and besides, the CCSA had warned us against it. They had a very good reason to. Washington was in shambles, politically and otherwise.

The President's funeral was going to be held later this week, and preparations were being made for him to be buried in Arlington since he served in the military as a young man. Some newscasters weren't even pretending to grieve. These stations were harder to find, of course, because half of them were being shut off within seconds of beginning their risky broadcast. However, most were putting on their sad faces for the camera.

The Vice President would be sworn in at ten. He was going to deliver a speech to the public in hopes to ease the panic and anger that had arisen in most areas of the country. Protests and riots were being broadcasted from California to New York City, with DC harboring some of the most violent. Two people had been shot in a riot just last night.

"He's going to really struggle to pull this off," Micaiah remarked. "The people support him even less than they did the actual president. Plus, they barely know him."

"It's a shame, really. I wish it hadn't come to this," Reese added.

I shrugged. "Things were getting pretty bad. Something was going to happen eventually."

Then again, the Capitol had been bombed just last week. The violence should have stopped there. Did they not realize that they weren't going to get anywhere under the current political regime? Reconstruction was already being discussed for the Capitol, and investigators were still searching for the culprits. Not a word had been said about why it was bombed, and no one had dared to connect the camps or the Yellow Death to these less-than-ideal circumstances.

We sat in silence as someone began to sing the national anthem. A few months ago, the song would have warded more respect from me. Now it was just another overdone melody that no one bothered to understand the meaning of. The United States wasn't the country I had been born into anymore.

"I don't know if I want to watch this," Micaiah said. "I feel like it's just going to make me angrier."

"It is our country, it's very possible that this man will be our president when we get home. We may as well accept that," Eli countered. "I mean, hopefully he's replaced in the coming months. But we should still pay him the respect his position deserves."

"I wish we could do something to put him out of office entirely and replace him with someone better," Reese stated. "I wouldn't care if it was the same party, even. Just someone that would be able to put the public at rest."

"I don't know if that's going to happen anytime soon, honestly," I replied. "And the CCSA has already said they won't do anything until after the election in November."

I had spoken to Justin about it yesterday, after he told me the President was shot. He had explained that this wasn't a federal organization. They received government aid, but because they weren't run by the government, they couldn't act on behalf of it. And they didn't want to risk the possibility of a war between Canada and the States anyways. It was frustrating.

The procedure of bringing in a new president was long and formal, and after thirty minutes of the nonsense, we were all about to fall asleep. "Just let the guy speak already," Micaiah commented. "That's the only reason we're watching this."