The Insurrection

Chapter Three

"Grief is the price we pay for love." ~ Queen Elizabeth II

I freeze. My heart races as a million thoughts cross my mind and fight one another for center attention. I shake my head. No, I must have heard wrong. I had to have heard wrong because the voice that just called my name belonged to someone who was long gone.

"Alan?" The same rough voice calls out again.

"Gerald?" Zahra asks as her face burns with hope.

A pause, then "Zahra? Is that you?"

Zahra laughs, emotion clogging her voice as she answers, "Yes, yes it's me."

A sob catches in my throat and surprises me, I didn't even realize I started crying.

"Dad?" I choke.

The man at the other end of the door breathes out a sigh of relief, "Oh, thank God, Alan. Are you alright?"

It takes me a minute to recover from my shock but I finally say, "Yes, I am okay. How are you here? I thought you were-"

I couldn't even finish my sentence.

"Just hang tight, I will get you all out of here."

We hear his footsteps receding before they come back again and the door opens with a loud pop.

"Watch your eyes," dad says.

Bright light filters in the cell, blinding us momentarily. As my eyes adjust I finally lay them on my dad whom I haven't seen in three years. I run and meet him halfway as he wraps me in his arms. For the first time in years, I feel safe again.

I pull back when he laughs and says, "Let me get a good look at you, boy."

He looks much thinner than I remember him being, his hair was graying at the edges, and he had a gaunt look to his face like he aged twenty years instead of three.

Dad finally looks behind me and then back at me.

"Dad, this is Leon," I gesture with my hand behind me, "Taika, and well you know Zahra."

He nods at them, "Good to meet you, although, I do wish they were under different circumstances."

Leon and Taika both murmur their agreements, and Zahra finally takes a step forward.

Dad smiles wearily at her, "I believe we have much to discuss, no?"

Zahra chuckles, "Yes, yes we do." They share a look that hints at their familiarity and shared pain that they must have experienced together over the years.

Dad looks over at me, "I know you have many questions but we have to get out of here first."

I nod and look around me, recognizing the prison we are in. There is only one prison in the World, and it is about the size of a country. All of the World's criminals are locked up here. There aren't really that many and the prison never reaches its capacity, thanks to daily public executions.

Dad leads us through the maze of deserted hallways and after about ten minutes of walking, we reach a large open space that leads to the outside. Dad hands us all the same glasses we used from before to see anything made invisible. An aircraft comes into view that looks incredibly similar to the one we rode to Jakarta with on Day Zero. We all climb in and before we know it, we are up in the air.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

Dad turns, "The Liberators' HeadQuarters of course, or I guess I should call it the Insurrectors' HeadQuarters now."

I look at my dad and see the pride shining in his eyes, and I knew we were going to be okay.

"Well, we have about five hours before we get there so who wants to fill me in?"

And because I can't hold it in any longer, I ignored his question and blurted out, "How are you alive? And where were you for the past three years?"

Tension fills the air as we all wait with bated breath. My dad sighs, "Yes, I guess this can't wait any longer."

"Three years ago, UniFed was made privy to some details regarding one of our missions and they intercepted us. We got caught, some of us were killed on the spot, and others were detained for questioning. I was part of the latter. They drugged us the same way they drugged you and took us to the same prison you were just in. We were tortured and then questioned and then tortured some more. This was ongoing for three years. The only reason they didn't outright kill us was that we had something they wanted, technology. They knew we had technology more advanced than them and it was what helped the Liberators last this long. Most of us didn't survive the torture, and the ones who did, managed to escape three days ago when the alarm that you caused sounded."

Zahra's breath catches, "Did-?"

My dad gives her a tight smile and says, "Barely, but he made it."

She breathes out, "Alhamdulillah" voice filled with gratitude to God.

Taika turns questioning eyes towards her but doesn't push. Zahra gives her a small smile, "My husband's alive."

"You have a husband?!" This comes from Leon.

Zahra nods, "We never found his body so I assumed they took him, I just didn't know if he was still alive."

I turned back to my dad, "How did you escape?"

"We always knew how to escape. That same tool you used to seal the doors of UniFed's House, can also open the cell doors at the prison. We managed to sneak it past them with our invisibility tech."

"No wonder UniFed kept you for three years to find out about your technology," Leon murmurs in awe.

Dad gives him a slight nod of agreement before continuing, "We just never had an opportunity to run, there were always too many guards and UniFed personnel around. When the alarm of a terrorist breach sounded throughout every building and street in the World, everyone in the prison ran for their lives, probably into hiding, the cowards." My dad scoffs.

"And then you went to the Insurrectors' HeadQuarters?" Taika asks.

A nod, "I tried to reach anyone who was already there because we still had no means of transportation to get us out of the prison. I finally reached Mila, and she sent over an aircraft to get us. When we got there Mila and Nicodemo filled us in on everything that happened, we used your trackers to find out where they kept you, and you know the rest. They lost contact with you around the time-" he stills as if realizing something just now. He looks around at all of us before slowly asking, "Where's Tau?"

Taika curls inwards to herself and Leon places a comforting arm around her. Zahra takes a breath before saying, "We lost him at the end."

My dad's shoulders sank as if two huge boulders landed right on top of them and dug into him. He closes his eyes and lets out a small breath as if preparing himself for the worst. He looks at me with eyes filled with so much fear that I knew. I knew what he was going to ask next.

"And Kyra?"

I shake my head, unable to say anything.

He shuts his eyes closed, "When?"

"A year ago."

Grief overcomes him as he mourns both his wife and friend.

This is the price we pay for fighting for ourselves. Fighting for our families, our friends, our people. Fighting for humanity. So much loss, pain, and grief with no end in sight. That is the scariest part. We don't know when it will end. When one of our insurrections will succeed, if they will ever succeed. Until then, we will always be stained with the deaths of our loved ones.

We fly the rest of the way back in mournful silence.