Aeon Syndicate

Chapter - 02 Memory - Protest into Massacre

"You know it's kinda amazing how we got here." Ryan's mind spoke through the cloud.

"Yeah, just to think it was only a couple months ago since we escaped the clutches of the Confederacy.", Chris mentally contributes.

Entering the telepathic conversation Skyler adds, "Oh man were they on our tails every minute of the day. Couldn't do jack shit without getting arrested."

Bringing back his visual yet distant memory of the Kilian massacre, Ryan begins, "Remember that one protest we went to, the one where people were complaining about the strict punishments for merely challenging the ways of the authorities?"

Gazing upon the ceiling from his lounged position Chris answers, "I was there... One minute just about half the people in the city were gathered in city square. Next thing I knew the Confederate Guard shows up, and blasted us on sight."

Visual memories from his perspective spanned into the minds of the other occupants.

A sea of inhabitants of Kilian's fill the capital city square stand, chanting against the oppressing government.

Their synched shouting creating a shared spirit of unrest, throughout the entire city.

Through the small cracks between the waving arms of the massive crowd Chris begins to see glimpses of rallying armed Confederate Guardsmen.

Suddenly the chanting ceased. The overshadowing arms of the masses dropping their arms, creating a still and silent notion of fear, revealing the lines of guardsmen raising their rifles towards the crowd.

At this moment, Chris realizes the single line of guardsmen, stand in front of a large battalion of armed riflemen, complemented with armed militarized vehicles.

The silence lasts for a few more seconds before gunfire erupts from the lines of the guardsmen.

Panic ensues as the protesters run for their lives in whichever direction they can to avoid the gunfire.

Red mist fills the air, as these rounds rip apart the protesters, sending limbs and blood above those still able to run.

Despite spreading out in various directions, Chris finds himself closely packed with a overwhelming swarm of his fellow protesters.

Seeing an opening in this crowd, he veers left, onto a side street. Half way before the end of the road he comes across a sewer hatch.

Without hesitation he open the hatch and jumps into the dark tunnels, followed by a small number of protesters.

Landing in a crouched stance on the shallow sewage covered floor, the escaping protester pulls himself together from the horrific shooting.

Chris raises himself to stand. He looks before him, seeing the corridor long dark sewage tunnel.

Blood curdling screams and gunshots rang from the upper surface. He stares again into the dark path before him again.

The screams and gunfire begin to close in on him, giving him the incentive to run into the darkness.

Shortly after he begins running, he hears something drop into the tunnels from where he dropped in.

Shouts from a single voice rings out from his rear. "Down here! Keep running!"

Not long after hearing that voice gunshots began to pierce through the blinding, dark tunnels. Streams of light race past him, as he sprints deeper and deeper into the unknown.

A round hits the wall to his right, ricocheting into his right eye. Chris falls to the floor, just a meter or two before a waterfall of sewage leading into the deeper realms of the sewage tunnel network.