The Uprising

CHAPTER 13

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Today is election day. It has been seven months since the mid-September university explosion. The country was awfully quiet, I once thought that everything was finally going back to how it was—that was only wishful thinking. Yesterday the reporter announced the first mass murder in seven months, I can guess that it was due to the election. The polls were high for Michael Wade and it worries me. If what Jordon said is true then the country was in trouble.

While everyone who is over the age of eighteen is fulfilling their right to vote, I'm going to search for Lia. My efforts to contact her failed, no social media page and her number doesn't exist anymore. The only thing that kept me going is the fact that she wasn't dead—at least that's what the police station told me.

I shove my feet into my slippers, grab my purse, leaving the house. I  haven't been outside since late January—after my birthday. The age of twenty didn't feel like a good age to die, so practically fear causes me to confine myself in my room. My small online job evaded the need to even be outside.

The Three Rings practically disappeared overnight. The day after the car theft incident, Jordon along with everyone else left. It felt like my mind conjured them up in the first place. Some part of me was still hoping that my phone would be frozen on my GPS again.

And Daniel, I found myself thinking about his masked face an unhealthy amount of times.

Nevertheless, it's back to my regular life and the country was going back to normal in some sense, except that wasn't really the case. The violence was amping down because everyone wants to see who will win. Elections will not please everyone, after it's finished there is going to be blood— a brutal Uprising part two.

I exit the bus at the entrance of a community called Riverside just outside of St.Maris. I held my head up boldly to appear normal and not draw attention to myself. It worked until I made my way pass a fence that was home to a ferocious animal. The dog continuously barking menacingly, even when I was completely out of range. If that didn't wake the whole area nothing will.

Lia was in her front yard tending to the small tomato garden, which belonged to her mother. Her dull brown eyes held great concentration, so much so that she did not sense my presence behind her. She wears her hair in her usual curly afro style. I wait until she notice I was there. My mind try to pull off my angriest face but I was delighted to see her, a sense of relief washes over me.

"Jemi!" she bellows with joy. Her muddy gloved hand wrapped themselves around me and I return the hug.

"Don't hug me!" I started. "Where were you all this time?!"

"My parents wouldn't let me out of the house after what happened on campus. I tried but they were too adamant," she explains in a calm voice.

We talked for at least two hours before going inside. I told her about the Three Rings and Atticus. She was especially interested in what I had to say about the Three Rings. I tell her everything I knew but I left out the part about Jordon and Daniel's masked face . I wasn't sure what I felt for either of them and I rather not complicate things on my end.

"They sound super organized," Lia compliments sounding impressed, which was by far the last reaction I was originally expecting.

The living room was just as I remembered. The furnishings are typical and undistinguished, their main feature now is that they have evidently had to accommodate the living of ten people for numerous years. Still, it is noticeable that the room was designed with care and pride, even with the flower patterns bearly showing in the curtains; due to being washed too many times. The chandelier in the ceiling suffered from cobwebs and low maintenance, I'm always mindful of it falling from the ceiling when walking under it.