WoodChuck Revolution

Chapter One

I ran as fast as I could, the sounds of my footsteps muffled by the forest mulch that coated the floor. The WoodChuck anthem blasted throughout the trees, the sound growing more faint the farther away I got. I didn't look back to see if any woodchucks were on my tail, I just kept running. 

I was a fast runner. When my mom was still alive, she told me my fast legs would save me one day. She was right. When our rebel base was attacked, I was the only one who escaped. I had spent the last year surviving, trying to find more people in the resistance, but I couldn't. No matter where I went, their were only woodchucks and human traitors. 

I built up speed to jump over a small river coming into the path, and leapt. The dirt crumbled under my right foot as I pushed off the ground, causing me to tumble into the shallow water. That's when the woodchucks who were chasing me drew their weapons and I knew I had lost. 

"Humans are so disgusting. You will never defeat the woodchucks!" The commanding woodchuck officer yelled. He lifted his sword in the air, ready to unleash the blade onto me. I think the reasons his words stung so much is because they were true. Adults in the old base would always tell me humans were capable creatures, stronger than the woodchucks, but I hadn't seen any proof of that. The humans could never defeat the woodchucks. 

I decided to stay rooted in my dignity in my last moments before death. I starred the evil animal in the eyes as his sword began to swing down. The woodchuck froze, accidentally dropping the sword next to me in the water. I looked up to see why, an arrow pierced his heart. I watched in shock as he fell backwards, the other woodchucks alarmed, not knowing where the arrow came from. 

Just then, a whole storm of arrows rained down from the trees. I covered my head with my hands, and prayed that I wouldn't be shot as well. I just narrowly avoided death, hopefully I could do it again. The noise stopped and I dared to look up, seeing all the woodchucks dead. Just then, human soldiers began descending from the trees with ropes or hoping from branches. There were about ten of them. I didn't trust them, even if they were human. For all I knew, they could be human traitors. 

I grabbed the sword that was now in the river and pointed it at the closest person. "What do you want?" I cried. My voice was raspy from running all this way. Now was not a good time to sound so weak. I was clearly outnumbered, plus they had long range bows and I had a close combat sword. 

The man closest to me dropped his bow on the ground and lifted his hands in the air. "It's okay, we're part of the resistance. I recognize the tattoo on your sleeve, you are from that base that was attacked a few months ago." 

I wanted to believe the man. I wanted to believe the people around me. It was hard to be by myself all this time, hardly making it by, and now there was a chance there were some people I could be with. But in this world a person like me couldn't afford to want things. I knew better than this, I had to leave. 

The man took a step closer but I jabbed the sword in his direction. "Stay back. I need proof." 

"Just forget her, she's too much work. Let the woodchucks get her," A girl a few feet behind the man said. 

"No, we help everyone who needs it," A woman said. She took her helmet off. She had beautiful silver hair and scary eyes. This woman was intimidating. "I'm Captain Nagev, I'm vegan." 

The woman looked familiar. I know I had seen her before, but I couldn't place where. Maybe I had seen her in a battle, or some confrontation this past year when I had been on the run. She was clearly the leader of this group, she carried a sense of authority on her shoulders. I stared narrowly at her, racking my brain to remember who this person was. 

"When you were little, you had such a fire in your eyes. So much hope. Now, that flame is extinguished, what happened?" Captain Nagev asked. 

That's when I recognized her. I knew her from my youth. Well over a decade ago was the last time I saw her. She was at the old resistance base I lived at for a while, but was transferred. She was a training instructor. But I was so young I couldn't remember her name or any specific interaction we had, just how I knew her. Did that mean I could trust her? 

"How do I know you're not with the woodchucks?" I asked, lowering my sword a little. 

A solider who had yet to speak growled in frustration. It startled me. "What more do you want? Look at all the chucks we just killed. Are you coming or not?" He gestured to the dead woodchucks scattered behind me. 

All the evidence told me to trust them, and every emotion in my tired body begged me to go with them, but I had learned a lot of things this past year. I learned the only person I can trust is myself. I slung the sword over my shoulder, knowing they probably wouldn't hurt me at this point. I was about to tell them I was going to go my own way, when the Woodchuck anthem slowly became audible again. 

I had forgot the whole reason I was running in the first place. I had come across a Woodchuck military base a few days ago and made a plan to burn it down. In this world, fire was the most destructive because woodchucks built everything out of wood. It took me a few hours to get a flame going with two sticks, but when I had I threw the burning sticks over the walls and along them. I hid in a tree a little bit away so I could keep an eye on things. The first four fires they extinguished before any major damage was done, but by the fifth fire I started they exhausted their water supply. 

I watched with pride as their fortress burnt down, just to get spotted. They sent a whole regimen after me. I was able to get far enough from the group of soldiers, just the elite squad chasing me and now dead. But the other soldiers would be here soon. 

"Let's go!" I yelled. 

"About time," The first guy said. 

The ten of them began running in the opposite direction of where the anthem was coming from, and I followed. I had got some more energy after taking that quick break and being cooled down by some of the river water, plus I was faster than the rest of these guys so it was no problem to keep up their pace and follow them. 

We had run for about fifteen minutes when they began to slow down. The anthem was out of ear-range a long time ago, but they still ran. I assumed we were going to their base. I debated on splitting off after we couldn't hear the music, but I knew with a whole woodchuck regime after me, there was no way I'd survive on my own. 

I looked around for some sort of hill or risen area of land. All the bases were carved into a mountain or underground. But the land around us was flat, and even the trees were scarce. There was no way a base could be here. They all stopped in front of a tree and I stood a few steps behind them, suspicious. One of them began loudly stomping their foot on the ground in a pattern, and the echo of their footsteps told me it was a metal surface we were standing on. 

Once the man finished stomping, I heard a crank from old machinery and watched as a small patch of the forest floor lowered into the ground. I was amazed. I leapt onto the descending floor before they could all leave me, and looked around in bewilderment. Entire cave systems were down here, with endless tunnels leading into the unknown. We must have been lowered fifty feet below ground before we reached the bottom of the cave. We all stepped off and the rectangle began to rise again. 

This base was huge. 

"Welcome to my Resistance Base, we'll give you a tour," Captain Nagev said.