Parallel II: A New Ordinance

14-FORESEEN JUSTICE

I awoke to the scrambling about of dozens of more mature voices, all of whom were stepping swiftly yet orderly over to the table. As my eyes fully opened up, I saw one of them reach over to his side and pull out a large roll of paper, which he graciously unfolded onto the table. A swarm of hands in an organisational flurry began to scribble about on top of the paper and create something atop it. I pushed against the cold, grey ground and stood up before carefully stepping between the bodies of the still-asleep children. As I stepped into the ring of adults rambling over what to do next, I quickly was able to make out John and walked up next to him.

"Hey kid, how'd you sleep?" He asked, which made me think for a moment. Considering that I hadn't had to once more encounter the Keeper, I oddly felt it was one of the nicest nights of my life. Despite resting against hard concrete within a warehouse that very well could end up being my final resting place, the hope I had for what we'd do the next day filled me with an unparalleled sense of calm and fulfillment. "Quite well, all things considered," I replied, trying to summarise everything I was feeling. "What exactly is the plan so far?" I continued, trying to get my bearings with regard to the situation. "Well, since they could show up here quite soon, we're trying to come up with a way to take back the town ahead of time... So far, it's not been so lucrative." I nodded and turned to look at what they had done to the paper, where I saw a model of the entire town from a top-down perspective. It reminded me of the old maps of the Compound we used to look at within the schools of the Ordinance. To think that some of those children thought the whole world was confined to those few acres of forest was truly saddening.

Suddenly, a hand slammed down onto the paper and traced a line from one large figure on the map to another. I looked up to see that John's friend Fabio was the one behind this, and he soon began to explain just what he was doing. "You see, if we head out of the back door from last night and back to the police station, we can probably get back in there and perhaps find some more ammunition and weapons," he said, his hands spread wide to show the sweeping method of his speech. "That is, as long as there aren't any new cops there." Someone else soon cut in. "Yeah, and if there are, then we could be done for! Why not go here," she said, drawing a line toward another building on the east side of the town. "That's my shop, I doubt they have any personnel over there, considering it doesn't really house any important materials or anything like that..." She trailed off, as Fabio began to look over at me. His glance silenced others in the crowd as if it were a powerful statement. "Hey, you there..." He swiftly called me out with a look that showed he had some sort of idea in his head. "What if we send him over to the police station and have him pull the same act as before, that way we can be safe even if there are new cops over there?" He said while looking back at everyone surrounding him. The crowd began to rumble with many different opinions, a sea of variation and uncertainty.

Then, like a blade through water, Troy suddenly cut in and blanketed them with a stunning silence. "Wait. That may have worked last night in an emergency, but we'd best come up with a better plan when it's going to be broad daylight, they'll probably be all over the place, and I don't exactly like the notion of sending him out there to handle that!" He said. Personally, I wasn't all too opposed to Fabio's idea, as it was clearly a lot safer for me in this town than for any of the others, but I understood Troy's concern. The fact he wanted to protect me was just yet another display of why he and John were so important. "If I may, I'd like to suggest something else instead..." A new voice sprang up from behind all of us. Everyone turned in a unanimous motion to find the source, which ended up being the boy from last night. We all looked at him attentively and he continued. "When we arrived here, my father and his friends threw their extra guns and ammunition into a small, hidden ditch a mile or so away from this building..." He looked all around him with nervousness. "If we go there and stock up on tools that we can use, then it's going to be far easier to deal with them."

As he stopped speaking, the crowd slowly began to whisper amongst themselves again. A random man cut in after a few moments of this. "I don't think I'd trust the son of one of the attackers!" He shouted out, sparking a lot of disagreement and rambling about between the others. They began to shout over each other chaotically, and I knew some kind of unity needed to be brought into play. I stepped over to the boy and spoke to him quietly. "What's your name?" I asked, plain and simple. "Uh... Sven..." He said, clearly shaken and nervous due to the large, rambling crowd. I turned to face them swiftly and began to speak to all of them at once. "Look! Everyone, look!" They grew quieter once again, like a mirage of sound. "Sven here is not an enemy to be met with disdain, though I know quite firmly why you'd respond that way! But think about it this way; When I encountered him, he was actively being manipulated by his father, his inclusion in this attack did not stem from his own volition! He's just like you and me! Everything around us is the problem, all this nonsense entrapping us, whether it be being born into a cult, being the son of a violent assailant of insurrection, or being a direct target, we are all the victims of our circumstances, and turning on one another just makes it easier for those circumstances to continue! I, for one, trust him. The fact that he is dedicated to this group, hell, the fact he used 'we', including himself in our cause, shows that he is not the enemy, he is one of us!" They all looked toward me, some with uncertainty, some with a swayed smirk, some touched. Then, in breathtaking fashion, John and Troy ascended from the masses and came to my side. "And we agree," said John, patting his hand on my shoulder and meeting me with a friendly smile. The rest of the people slowly started to come toward the four of us until we were all unified under this plan.

I looked over to Sven and we both smiled at one another, knowing that everything had been set up perfectly for our attack. "I think the right answer... Is all of them," said Troy, "We take those weapons so we have a fighting chance against the police, and then we can take them down. By that point, we'll practically be an army... and then, we take back every single inch of this town... Starting with your home." He looked over to the woman who had spoken earlier, causing her, too, to smile widely. The crowd was glowing with the sense of hope and fearlessness, and it was time to shine that light on our enemies.