Assassination 2136

Chapter 17: The Beginning of the End

"Sagi! You're alright!" Xyle said, tears springing to his eyes. A feeling of dread filled my gut. Xyle shouldn't be here. He should have gotten a smack on the wrist, maybe a pay dock but then sent on his merry way. My mission was a suicide one when I planned it, sure. But I wanted him to live. He deserved to live.

Yet why was he here?

The woman pulled something else out of the briefcase, standing up and turning to face Xyle. She was shorter than him, but Xyle still looked at her with terror in his eyes.

"Surely you must understand, this is the price for democracy," She said, targetting her question at me. I barely had time to process what the fuck she was on about, before she produced a gun, the item she had pulled from her brief case. The woman aimed the gun at Xyle, pointing it at his already sweating forehead.

"No!" I cried out, but she ignored me.

Bang!

Xyle's body crumpled to the floor, and a scream escaped my throat. It was a coarse scream, already scraped raw from the torture I had endured today.

"You didn't have to do that! He didn't know anything!" I cried out. She pulled out a small, white cloth and wiped the outside of the gun. The woman then placed the gun back in the brief case and packed up her papers.

"Dissidence sows dissidence. Obedience sows peace," she said. Every sentence she said, every word sounded rehearsed, like a speech presented to a crowd. Does she even believe the nonsense she's spewing out herself?

She gently grabbed the briefcase, and turned to face the door. "I'll be back. Don't go anywhere," she joked dryly, before exiting the room.

The room was silent, still despite the chaos as I stared at Xyle. He wasn't moving, wasn't breathing. I looked for any sign he was ok, any chance he could pull through.

"Xyle," I whispered, still hopeful. My eyes scanned his chest, willing for it to rise and fall rhythmically so show he was breathing. But it was still.

"Xyle please," I sobbed. No response greeted me. The tears cascaded down my face. I sobbed loudly, the serious desperation of my situation hitting me full force in the chest. Dovima was dead. Xyle was dead. And I would die soon after.

"No," was all I could croak out, bowing my head to my chest and letting the grief overtake my body.

I don't know how long I was in that room for. It was just me, the table, and Xyle's lifeless body. In the room for hours it seemed like. My thoughts turning over in my head. I soon ran out of tears, and simply sat in a comfortable silence. Head bowed, hands still chained behind my back. Defeated.

My whole life, I had never truly questioned the authority of the government. I mean sure, you have small gripes with their decisions here and there. Yet having that woman completely level with me, it made me question everything about our society.

We didn't live in perfect unity, but we had avoided civil war for a century. That has to count for something. But at what cost? We all lived in squalor, believing that if we worked hard enough we could maybe make it one day. Not knowing the odds were always staked against us, not knowing the horror that ruled supreme.

People who rose too high were cut down, those who ran against the flow eliminated. The government not only controlled how we thought and acted, but actively destroyed people who went against what they want.

Lindsay Burge was assasinated because she had an idea to live outside the dome. That wasn't enough though, they then destroyed her reputation by planting child pornography on her computer. Using the media to paint her as a pedophile, so people didn't question her assasination.