Eliot Strange and the Prince of the Resistance

2) History Lesson Part Two

After the battle, I am awake the next morning thinking. I wonder - are we making history? Will others tell our story in years to come - around the campfires or at the reunion? I can tell it myself, of course, with details and facts because I was there. I was a part of the battle we won.

I lived it. I lived history. And now, I am history.

I'm feeling pretty good about myself the day after the battle. I wonder if George Washington heard people talking about his crossing of the Delaware, and he added that he didn't know he was making history because hey, he was just doing what had to be done. He was doing what was necessary to ensure that freedom prevailed and wrongs were righted.

Just like we did at The Stadium Stand. I feel brave. I feel like a hero. Just call me Eliot, the hero.

I am very full of myself today. I'm above my raising.

That's what I'm calling it now - The Stadium Stand. Not much of a stadium really, more like a half blown up football field that looks like a field would after a torrential rain storm of bullets and grenades. The end zone, where we have all taken over-night refuge after the battle, looks like half a dozen, spiked-footed soccer teams decided to play soccer and hoe the field at the same time. It's lumpy and not at all comfortable, which is why I am awake so early. That, and the fact my head is pounding like it has a life of its own.

I don't feel at all in a hurry to get up. I'm not comfortable, but I'm content. It does not matter that the little voice inside my head, that I sometimes call my dad, is screaming to me that there is danger. I am ignoring it for now because I am happy. I will not tell later in my retelling 'round the fire that I am happy - because I do not want to be disrespectful. There is a row of covered bodies not twenty feet from me. Bodies of townspeople, soldiers of the Resistance, enemies of our nation and the innocent - all lie side by side as equals. And yet, I am happy.

My only family left to me, my cousin Carli, is missing. Perhaps captured, perhaps dead. I push this thought out of my brain because I am happy. So happy, I refuse to think about anything sad.

I can't seem to care this morning. Torin's cousin, Jack Taylor, has been carried off by Mr. Thomas, my old neighbor, who I know now is the enemy. Mr. Thomas is probably going to try to pass the look-alike off as the prince. He'll give Jack to the One Nation Army who will execute him when they find out the truth. I probably should be sad about Jack for Torin's sake, but I'm not.

I'm as happy as a teenager in love with her prince. And, I was never the girl who was searching for her prince. I am resilient and brave and resourceful. I am not in need of rescue. I will kick your ass. But first, I want to kiss my prince. My breath is disgusting, and I am filthy, but weirdly, I'm ok with that. My city is on fire, my only family is gone, and I feel like singing a show tune.

I look to one side of me, and I see Steven, my best friend in the world, and the other Resistance fighters. I call Steven a member of the Resistance because he is now. We both are now. We are willing to fight and die for our cause.

Our beautiful, worthy cause is asleep on the other side of me. His name is Prince Torin, and he has a price on his head. The One Nation Army and their crazy leader are looking for the prince, and they will kill anyone who stands in their way.

Our new sworn enemy is led by a man once called Professor Nation by his admirers and students and my mom who works for him. He is now called General Kerry One Nation. He leads an army called The One Nation Army. General Nation leads the revolution to overthrow our government and take over America and then the world.

I hate him. He turned my mother and possibly my dad into monsters too. I think my mother is a follower in the General's diabolical plan to end my country.

I say a quick prayer that my mama is being held captive and being tortured and is not a monster. Then, I say never mind in my brain, because no one wants torture for their mama. I pray she was captured and tortured just a little bit before she escaped, and she is now desperately trying to get home to me.

I hate, hate, hate General Nation. Damn, torturing son of a bitch. Sorry, Dear Lord, for you having to hear those bad words in the middle of my prayer.

I can't seem to focus today. My head hurts too bad. But, there is one thing I know. The General can't do it without Torin. Prince Torin means that help is on the way or not. General Nation intends to capture the prince and hold him hostage to his demands. The Resistance has sworn to protect the prince, and we will.

My prince is awake. He looks troubled.

"Bad dream?" I ask.

He nods.

"Tell me."

"I couldn't sleep. Last night after the battle. I'm going to call it - The Battle of the American Football Field. I had a bad dream."

"What was it?"

Torin proceeds to tell me his nightmare: He was on a boat leaving for his country. He was going home to England. He was surrounded by his new friends - Leia, Clay, Carli, Cindy Lou and Jack was even there and Sorenson who he knew, even in the dream, was dead. But there was no me, no Eliot, Torin said. He looked on the shore, and there I was. He was screaming for me to hurry, run, jump, swim to the boat. I was waving good-bye like I would never see him again. Torin screamed my name. I blew him a kiss. He could see the tears on my face.

What a terrible dream. Torin looks sad, and so I pull him close and hug him. He doses off back to sleep. I kiss his forehead.

My prince has finally found me, and he is terrified of losing me.

I lie here looking at my beautiful prince and thinking about our future in a far away land when I should be getting up and packing. It is perfectly peaceful, I will tell others later in my retelling. I hear the distant sound of a gunshot. Not at all uncommon these days, but then I hear another, and another.

"What are your orders, sir?" asks Clay, an older, ex-military man, even as he is shaking people awake. "Time to go?"

"Yes. Evacuate," says Prince Torin, the recently anointed leader and new cause of the Resistance. I notice my beautiful prince is moving slowly today. It has only been a few days since he was shot, but he still manages to inspire us all with his words, "We must go. Live to fight another day."

My prince's commands are profound and inspiring.

Geez, I am thinking weird this morning. It must be my heart causing these crazy thoughts, or it could be my head that is about to explode.

Soon, we are all up and packing and scrambling to get out of here.

Shortly after the prince's order to leave, a red jeep, a police car and an old dump truck are not noticed as they leave Mount Airy. The caravan has what is left of the Resistance after the Stadium Battle, or The Battle of the American Football Field, or what historians in the future will call - the beginning of - The End of the End.

The One Nation Army is here. The Resistance retreats and lives to fight another day.

We smell something burning. It looks like the enemy has our town now. 

But, they cannot have our prince.