The Greenfire Resistance [Edited]

Chapter 2

Hey guys! Sorry this took me so long.... but super exciting news!!! ME, @4-Elements, @ccntardis, @EmberKnowsMMA, and a bunch more of me and my friends all entered the Schoolastic Art & Writing competition a few months back ANNDDDD.......... (drum roll please):

I GOT ADVANCED TO NATIONALS ALONG WITH FOUR ELEMENTS AND EMBER KNOWS MMA AND OH MY GOD I'M SO FLIPPIN' EXCITED AND ALMOST EVERYONE (except for like one guy, but he totally deserved an award) GOT REWARDS IN THE REGIONALS AND OH MY GOD I'M FREAKING OUT WITH HAPPINESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, my explosion is over.

I also entered this novel in the Novel Competition with 4-Elements (she entered her amazing book, Unity. Check it out!), but we have to wait till mid-April before we get those results....... feel my pain yet?

Anyways, fingers crossed for winning something there too! (although I probably won't.... I'm up against high school seniors.... gulp).

But here's the story you were all waiting for!

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IT WAS DARK, and I could hear a voice saying something. It was impossible to tell whether the voice was male or female, young or old.

“What? I can’t hear you! Please! What are you saying?” I heard myself say desperately. I didn’t open my mouth, but it was clear I was the speaker. It didn’t make any sense that I was talking without opening my mouth, but it also didn’t seem very important, like a passing detail instead of a phenomenon.

“Do you want to know the truth?” The mysterious voice became clearer.

“Know what? Who are you?” I heard myself cry franticly. A faint laugh sounded from the black. “So young, yet so many questions. I remember that,” The voice said dryly, but underlying it was a faintly wistful tone.

The blackness in front of me shimmered, and then solidified. It was a girl- one with my hair, wavy and black, but short and wearing a green, v-neck t-shirt, jeans, and some boots.

“Don’t you recognize me? After all, I am you.” she said, looking me with familiar dark eyes.

I stumbled back, gasping. Those eyes… the eyes I saw everyday in the mirror, but twisted. There was a hardness, an edge to them. The same edge I saw on veteran spies. She had seen battle, possibly more than one.

Then she changed, dissolving into code and reforming into two more people. Lily and Cammy stared at me with wide,brown eyes. They were warped, too. Cammy had a scar running down the side of her face, from her forehead downwards, brushing her left eye and ending just below her mouth. Lily had a tattoo of an unrecognizable Chinese character inside a circle made of flames on her cheek, and they were both dressed strangely too- wearing matching maroon tank tops with jeans, boots, and a belt each with slots for multiple guns.

“We’re sorry,” they said in unison.

“For what? What happened to you guys?” I asked desperately, knowing exactly what happened but unwilling to accept it.

“You don’t know?” Cami asked, sounding so much like she did today it was terrifying.

“You should. You started it. You and that girl.” Lily said, cocking her head.

“What did I start? What girl? What happened?” I pleaded.

They began to speak in unison again. “You started it. If only you hadn’t been so secretive… but then, that’s how the best spies are made, isn’t it?”

They laughed bitterly, then continued, “Less secrets… if only there had been fewer secrets, then The War wouldn’t have happened. Secrets ripped us apart. We would still be here, going on assignments… but then, we picked the wrong side… we deserved it… less secrets…”

They faded away, and all of a sudden, I wasn’t in blackness, but water, and the water was made of secrets. I tried to swim to the surface, but as I looked down, chains dragged me even deeper. I heard laughing, and I turned my head to get help, but saw my team and the girl with my eyes tossing the key around… I cried for help, but they just kept laughing… I opened my mouth to scream, but the water filled it, and I was drowning in secrets, but it was slow, so slow… The other me waved the key in front of me, and as everything faded back to black I heard her say one last thing:

“If only you had less secrets…”

I woke with a start, gasping for air, then glanced around, searching for the other me. She wasn’t there, but my digital clock read 12:01. I jumped out of my bed, swearing under my breath as I realized I must have fallen asleep. I pulled on some clothes and darted towards the door, trying not to wake the others. I really hate living in a dorm.

I skidded into the open computer lab and saw a message appear, blinking on the screen:

ARE YOU THERE?

I smiled faintly as I flashed back to earlier today. Then I replied:

YES. YOU HAVE TO ANSWER MY QUESTIONS. WHO ARE YOU? HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ME? WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE PROGRAM?

The answer came a few moments later:

SLOW DOWN. I HARDLY KNOW YOU, AND I’M NOT HANDING OUT MY IDENTITY WHEN ANYONE COULD SEE.

I frowned, the typed quickly:

WHAT DO YOU MEAN? HOW COULD SOMEONE SEE YOU?

Or me? I added in my head.

ARE YOU REALLY THAT NAÏVE? THESE COMPUTERS AREN’T SECURE. I’VE TAKEN PRECAUTIONS, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN THEY’LL HOLD. PLUS, THERE COULD BE SOMEONE ON YOUR SIDE, WATCHING.

My frown grew deeper.

IF YOU DON’T TRUST ME, WHY IS THIS EVEN HAPPENING? WHO ARE YOU?

The reply came immediately:

BECAUSE YOU’VE BEEN PICKED. YOU CAN SHUT IT DOWN, BEFORE IT EVEN STARTS.

Curiosity prickled beneath my skin.

WHAT DO I HAVE TO SHUT DOWN?

I stared down in horror at the new message.

THE PROGRAM.

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Dun, dun, dun....... :)

You know the drill. Comment, vote, follow...... The sooner you do, the sooner I update!

Hope you liked it, and I promise, there are more major changes and added scenes later on.

Bye for now, my Wattpadians.

--Earthstone