Democracy vs Corporatocracy

Chapter Thirty: New Arrivals

The ten buses and the ten prison transport trucks were headed towards Boston with several hundred people inside. There were two hundred kids, fifty abusive teachers and seventy eight guards. The teachers and the guards of course had committed child abuse and torture and would soon pay for their crimes. Lucas was looking through the window at the trees they were passing when Marcus yelled "Stealth off!" The drivers pressed the stealth buttons and the buses and trucks became visible once again. It was now easy to see the convoy and the soldiers inside of them. Lucas faced to his left and asked a passing soldier "Why are the stealth devices being turned off?" The soldier turned to him and said "We're almost there". Matthew finally asked Marcus "Why did we get stealth devices in the first place?" Marcus answered with "It is so that the Corpos can't find us and so that if they use satellites to try and find us, they don't see anything but empty roads". Hanako then saw a signpost that said "Boston, one mile". Yumiko saw it to and said "How long till we get to Boston?" Marcus looked through the window and said "Right now". The kids all looked to see the city of Boston and saw that Marcus was being truthful about the city being abandoned. As they entered the city they saw the abandoned houses with roots all over the front lawns and saw that the houses were very dilapidated due to years of neglect. There were some cars abandoned in the streets and some squirrels nesting in the ones with broken open windows. Signposts were covered in dust and they could barely see the words on them like "Speed limit, 40" and the names of the streets. Hanako and her sister were shocked at the state of the city and said with shock "Kind of depressing that the city was abandoned and left to rot". Matthew saw graffiti that said things like "MegaCorp, WE BLAME YOU FOR THIS!!!!!!!!!" and "STOP MESSING WITH BOSTON MEGACORP!!!!!!!!" That was when the twins saw some smoke in the air coming from the northern part of the city. The convoy then arrived at a street where the League had set up a checkpoint. There were armed guards and stationary machine guns. The convoy came to a stop and a soldier came up to the bus Chief High Councillor Libertad was in. Marcus came to the door and the soldier saluted him saying "Welcome back Sir". Marcus said in response "Good to be back soldier, open the gate". The soldier obliged and went over to the barricade that was set up. There was a car the width of the front of the transports and an open shipping container in front of it. The soldier drove the car into the shipping container and the convoy drove through the checkpoint. After they were gone, the soldier drove the car out of the container and got back to his post.

The kids then heard people talking and saw that they had arrived at the North Village. They saw people all throughout the village, going about their daily duties. They were harvesting food crops, doing maintenance on equipment and repairing the buildings.  The people saw the convoy arrive and stopped to get a better look. Marcus stepped out of the main bus as it stopped in front of one of the apartment buildings and the people applauded him. The students and soldiers started coming out, glad to be in the last free city in America: Boston. Mrs Honeyton was amazed at the North Village and said "You built all this?" Marcus turned to her and said "I had a lot of help". Mrs Honeyton said in an impressed tone "Amazing that a kid run commune can become...all this". Marcus turned back to his people and said "My people, I am glad to announce that the raid on MegaCorp Boarding School was a success". The people burst into applause and some started welcoming the students to Boston. Marcus then pointed at the prison trucks and said "Not only have we liberated all 200 of the kids from MegaCorp, but we have successfully captured the 'teachers' and guards who abused them". The soldiers bought out 178 prisoners and the people started booing them. Mr Trunchbull saw how much the people despised them and realised that they must've known the truth! Trunchbull angrily said "You don't get it! This is the ONLY WAY to teach kids how a decent person should act for the Corporations and look like for them!" Ryan Armis, head of the Army of Freedom, came over and said "It's always them Corpos, well who cares about the FASCISTS that enslave us!?" The people cheered at this and Marcus said "By the way you are very ignorant about what is going to happen to you". Mr Sharp looked at Marcus with an angry glare and said "What!?" Marcus said in a very stern tone "You are going to be placed on trial in the Court of Justice and be charged for the CRIMES of child ABUSE, BLACKMAIL and TORTURE! You will then be sentenced and most likely receive LIFE in PRISON!" The people immediately applauded and Trunchbull angrily protested with "You can't do that to me!" Marcus looked him in the eyes and said sternly "That's what Putin said when the Siberian Supreme Court sentenced him to exile in Crimea".  

Marcus then looked at Lieutenant Cannon and said "Take them away". Soldiers then proceeded to escort the staff to Boston Prison. It was a prison built in 2027 and was on the coast on Boston. It was a small island and was about the size of Alcatraz. There were many watchtowers and the only way on or off the island was by boat. It was inescapable and luckily there were enough guards for the prison, so there was someone to guard the prisoners. As the trucks drove off, Marcus said "Now that the new batch of citizens has been bought here, it is time to assign them living quarters and their daily schedules". Marcus then walked up to the stage in front of the church and turned on the microphone. The people gathered in front of the stage and Marcus began with "The children's names and date of births will be registered to the Department of Resource Management and Settlement development and then they shall be either placed into foster families, or be raised communally". Matthew put his hand in the air and asked "What does that mean?" Marcus answered with "It means that you'll be raised by the community. You will share a room with some other kids and you shall attend school as usual". Mrs Honeyton then asked "What about the currency?" Marcus looked at Mrs Honeyton and said "We use our own currency, called the Denarii. Named after the Roman Empire's currency, it was established three years ago and is the currency for the entire city". While the dollar had the face of George Washington on and had the words "United States of America", the Denarii had the League's flag and the words "Freedom Democracy League". Each Denarii note was worth ten denarii and it was hoped that it would become the dominant currency in America once the revolution was complete. Marcus then said "Now I would like all of the children to head over to the records building over there". Marcus pointed at a building that had the words "Department of Resource Management and Settlement Development" and said "High Councillor Religio will be there at the front entrance to greet you, you will form an orderly line at each registration station and write down all the required details". The soldiers then started leading the new arrivals towards the Department and they all saw High Councillor Religio standing outside. He had a neat beard, was wearing a Turban and a suit one would usually see a businessman wear. As the new arrivals walked through the doors, Mrs Honeyton said "Kind of weird that the leadership here are so young". High Councillor Religio replied "Well we did start out as a kid run commune". He then said "Now there are two hundred of you and there are four registration stations. So everyone please form lines of fifty or so people and we'll get this over and done with". The students obliged and quickly formed orderly lines of about fifty each.

Hanako and Yumiko got in the front of one of the lines and were the first to get registered. All four of the registration officers were in their early to late twenties, not much older than the students. The officer, whose name tag said Wesley, asked the twins "Name and date of birth please?" Yumiko answered with "I'm Yumiko, this is my sister Hanako. We were born on the 14th February 2036". Wesley wrote down these details and their facial details(Hair colour, eye colour and skin tone) on their files. He then asked them "Any family?" Hanako answered with "We're with our mom, her names Arugula Honeyton". Wesley then asked "What about your dad?" The two paused for a moment, but Hanako then said "His name was Archibald Honeyton, he died last year". Wesley looked at them and said "I'm dearly sorry for your loss". He finished writing down their details and handed the files to them. He then said "Head into the photo booth over their and have your photos taken. Then put them in the square on the file". The two obliged and went over to the photo booth. Lucas had just finished filling out his file and headed over to the same photo booth. He looked down at the file on the part about his mother having died a year prior. She was the only person who ever truly loved him and the only person who stopped his 'father' from sending him to boarding school. But after she was killed in a random mugging, there was nothing to stop Lucas's father. It was then that he bumped into Hanako, who was also looking at the part about her father. Both of them dropped their files and Lucas apologetically picked them up. "I'm so sorry" Lucas said to Hanako. Hanako replied "That's okay, it was a stupid accident". They picked up their files and made sure they weren't mixed up. Lucas said with relief "They're not mixed up, that's good". Someone in the line then said "Can you please hurry up, I need my picture taken". Lucas looked at them and said "So sorry, after you Hanako". Hanako stepped inside and took her picture, then Yumiko, then Lucas, then Matthew and the rest of the kids in the following few hours. After it was all done, High Councillor Religio said "Now if you'll follow me, I shall take you to your rooms". They then all followed him, excited to see their new rooms. Marcus looked on from the bell tower in the Old North Church and knew that these kids would do good in the Freedom Democracy League. He then thought to himself "Hopefully the mission next week will go well and the kids will be okay". He then went downstairs for the meeting with Codes Parkington, so they could prepare a special operation called.......Operation Computer Virus.