Your Battle, My War.

Chapter 2 - The nightmare

I was hoping for a peaceful night. No chance. My night was riddled with nightmares of boy that was here seven years ago. I watch the cameras behind his picturesque eyes, the humans watching the screen, they are human but they aren't people, they're robots. People without individual minds and feelings. The inability to think on you own and the incompetence to sway from standard instructions.
"That's her. That's the one. The girl we need. The girl we need but can never get. And right now we know exactly where she is, where she hides, and how we can get there..."
I hate how in dreams speech fades away.
"We know where she is! We know where she is! We know...." A chorus joins together and chants the words over and over again. A joyous choir of a united achievement. Nobody differs, no mind changes and everyone is exactly the same. Men and women, young and old, short and tall...
No.
No, there is no one 'short' and no one's 'tall'. No one's "young" and no one's "old". There is no difference between "men " and "women". Everyone is exactly identical. A level mass of humans. No change. No change whatsoever. None at all.
Metaphorically speaking of course. The faces are slightly unique, showing evidence of humanity, but all women have the same shaped hair: shoulder length smooth middle part and flicked at the ends; and the same clothes. All men have hair cropped just above their ears. The coloured and the texture as well as the style is uniform. How peculiar. They all strive on the same brainwave, they all feel the same. Feel the same about me.
It's only a dream. I mental comprehension of yesterday's events and the few clippers of information I've discovered over the years. I wonder if everyone looks the same in reality? Surely not, surely the human race has not been reduced to a mass army brain conducted by some voice elsewhere, they do the dirty work.

The dream's never lasted long enough for me to notice; but I believe this might be real. There might be a reason no one has caught me yet. That reason is because one person can't think about the whole world at once. That's her biggest mistake. Her? Who said it was a girl? I didn't. - if whomever is in control is only one person then they need to find another. Two brains work better than one. If, on the other hand, there already are more brains working then they need to think outside the box, I'm hidden in plain sight but they can't find me. Their loss.

It's not that I want to be caught, quite the opposite, but I want them to try... It's that scream again but it sounds closer this time, still far away, but somehow nearer. What could it possibly be? I sprint to my doorway and pass the stones that cover me from the outside, put the cave into lock down, that's all that goes through my head. I turn to the keypad and for half a second I look back into the empty space before my home. I hurriedly press my index finger to the box and my finger fly through codes and numbers that protect everything I cherish. There's a rustling sound from above me and I'm surprised I hear it over the screeching. I glance up and there's a thump behind me in the door. Everything goes pitch dark and silence reigns. I'm dragged back to my feet with ringing in my ears. I stumble and fall. I pick myself up this time, to shouts and curses.
"No, be aware, she's still conscious!"
Still conscious? Of course I am! I can walk! And I shout and I scream! And I can fight and kick! And I will shout. I will scream. I will fight. You won't the me alive.
A blow across my thighs and I'm back to the floor, then hauled over a shoulder and dumped on a truck, the doors lock and shouts start before an uneven trip into to unknown. The road makes the truck sway and rock until my head is slammed against the side and once again in in pitch dark silence.

To somewhere I've never been before, but somewhere I've dreamed of going. Not like this. I'd dreamt of arriving in a car, glitzed in gold and silver with jewels and crowns. To be welcomed with open arms and smiling faces, I'd step onto a road of rubies and sapphires into the diamond city that glimmers in the sun and shines with the moon. That dream died seven years ago along with all my other hopes and obsessions with the Capitol, the only remaining life form on earth. No I realise that I'm the only person, there are other humans, yes, but I'm the only person. The only one that can think for myself. This means I'm the only one to fight back, and fight back I must.