The Insurrection

Chapter Five

"It hurts to let go, but sometimes it hurts even more to hold on."

~ Unknown

It has been a week since Day Zero. A week since we put everything on the line. A week since we've failed. If Taika was right and the Chiefs, UniFed Royalty, and their families really do go into hiding for a month, then we have exactly three weeks. Three weeks to figure out what our next steps will be.

We are back in the formal chamber where we first met everyone, but instead of there being twenty-four chairs there are now twenty-seven. We lost Tau but gained four other former Liberators including my dad and Zahra's husband.

Most of the people are looking at my dad and it hits me that they are probably waiting for him to speak, since he was their president before, alongside mom. So, I motion for him to go ahead of me. He looks at me in confusion first before realization dawns on him too.

He smiles at me before clearing his throat, effectively silencing the room. "Good morning everyone, it is nice to see some friendly faces again. I recognize that most of us in this room were former Liberators, however, you are now Insurrectors after joining my incredibly brave son's movement. That also means that I am no longer your president, and I say that with pride as I know Alan will be a much better president than I ever was." Applause sounds and dad motions for me to come up and take his place.

I greet Taika and Leon before we all head to the front of the room once more. Deja vu hits me as I realize we are back to square one, back to the very beginning again when we were trying to convince the Liberators to join our cause. I shake my head and tell myself this is different. I hope.

"Good morning, I hope you all slept well last night because we have much to discuss and plan in the upcoming days." Soft murmurs echo through the room. I go on, "By now you all probably gathered that we have not succeeded. The details of what went wrong will be disclosed later, but right now I want to remind us of our goal. Our goal is to dismantle UniFed. We no longer have the element of surprise on our side, they know who we are. However, that will not stop us. UniFed Chiefs, Royalty, and their families have gone into hiding after we triggered a terrorist breach alarm. They usually remain there for about a month. A week has already passed, so that gives us exactly three weeks to plan and execute." I let them digest this timeline before I continue. "I know that is a much shorter time frame, but at least it's something. It gives us another chance to get it right. We have already come this far, we might as well keep going for three more weeks." I looked around at all the defeated and pained faces and I knew it was going to be an uphill battle. "This evening we will have a session to discuss what went wrong and throw around some ideas for what might be our last Insurrection."

We disperse after that and everyone resumes their activities. I go check in with Taika and Leon.

"Hey, stranger." Leon greets me.

Taika smiles but it doesn't reach her eyes, "He thinks he's too good to hang around us now that he's a president." She says.

I appear to be offended, "Me? Never." I exaggerate. "All this did start with us first, or more specifically you, Taika."

"Damn I always knew I should've just done it all on my own, then I would've been president instead."

We laugh, and easy conversation flows before Leon excuses himself to go see his tech team.

"Hey, are you okay?" I ask Taika.

She gives me a wide smile, but there is so much pain in her eyes. "I'm perfect, don't worry about me, Mr. President," she rolls her eyes playfully, "you have much more important things to worry about."

"Taika you don't have to pretend, not with me. It's okay to let yourself mourn him, or talk about him. Anything that will make you feel better is worth doing."

She shakes her head before silent tears form at the tips of her eyes. "How can I even move on when it feels like I killed him."

Her guilt will never allow her to forgive herself and she would never be able to grieve properly. I would know, better than most.

We walk silently to our room, Alex is nowhere to be found so I assume he is with dad. I seat Taika on the chair in front of mine as she sobs into her hands.

"I never told anyone this," she quiets down a bit to hear me. "My mom would always tell me to never talk to one of our neighbors. They were a family of four, like us, and the two kids that were our age went to the same school Alex and I used to go to before we had to stop. I always wondered why, and mom would say it's because they are opportunists. I never really knew what that meant, but I figured it couldn't be that bad. What's forbidden is always the most tempting. I befriended their eldest son, Caiden, who was around my age. I hid it from my mom. The day UniFed came knocking on our door, Caiden and his family were standing right there with them. They watched as we ran and hid, and then they watched as UniFed shot my mother. Two days later, before Alex and I left for the woods, Caiden approached me. I thought he wanted to apologize or send his condolences. Instead, he flashed me a wide smile and said, "Thanks for being our easy ticket to Royalty."

Taika breathes out harshly. I continue, "He used me as an opportunity to get to UniFed Royalty, just what my mom warned me against."

"It's not your fault," Taika begins saying.

I look at her, "No, it's not my fault just like Tau's death wasn't yours."

Apprehension crosses her solemn face.

"Taika, there are many things that we cannot control. Could we have done things differently? Sure. But the outcome might have still been the same. If we cannot go back and change what happened in the past, then we might as well move on as best we can and look ahead into our future."