The Inaugural Address

PART I - CHAPTER X

10.

"Follow me," We heard Mabel shout from behind the opened stairwell door. Charity looked back at us and we nodded quickly in response.

I followed Charity, who followed Mabel, while Brock followed me. I really wanted to have Brock in front of me, but upon glancing back at him, I knew that he wouldn't allow that to be an option. We ran out into the open and dived into a tan military vehicle, shielding our eyes and bodies from our surroundings. Gunfire, shouts, and explosions continued as we ran from one door to the next, but I couldn't see anything directly as we were moving so quickly.

I hopped into the vehicle and heard the door slam behind us just as Brock made it in. I was finally able to look up at our surroundings through the windows of the vehicle. I witnessed dozens of soldiers surrounding us as we moved, protecting us from anyone and anything that was approaching the vehicle. I noticed the soldiers protecting us were all wearing dark grey uniforms with lighter grey accents, while the Ariesan soldiers had on their typical red and black attire. Luckily, I saw no red uniforms infiltrate the band of grey around us.

In the distance I saw smoke from bombs lining the shore of Lake Taupo, and further off I saw my hometown, up in flames, with various helicopters and other aircrafts hovering over the ruined town. I felt my heart sink as I witnessed missiles aim and fire at the already burning buildings.

"Why are they still targeting Taupo? I'm not even there!?" I shout, trying to get Mabel's attention. After I received an inadequate silence in response, I shouted again: "Mabel! Tell them to stop!"

"That's not us bombing, otherwise I would. Our commands have already called on the Ariseans for a ceasefire,"

"Our commands?!" Brock joined in, his voice angrier than mine. "Is that Alexandria's commands, or the actual rebellions?!"

We were furious and not afraid to address the elephant in the room. Mabel's silence only made us more furious.

"How could we ever have trusted you, the rebellion would never have allowed this!" I shout, seeing Charity nod in agreement. She remained silent as Mabel looked back and finally responded.

"Alexander's forces are to blame for this, Alexandria is obviously not responsible for the killing of innocent civilians! Who's side are you on anyway, you are the one that aggravated the Ariesans. This is the consequence of your actions!" Mabel shouted back, leaving me speechless.

I didn't ask for any of this, and I couldn't stand to let my words be the cause of so many inevitable deaths. I couldn't be the leader of any rebellion, Mabel's or Charity's. Tears pooled in my eyes as I witnessed grenades go off as people ran across the beaches of Lake Taupo. I didn't care at that point about anything besides keeping people safe.

"I'm not strong enough for this," I whisper back to Brock, who I saw crying as well. His tears were the final straw. "I can't do this," I say, managing to make eye contact with him. "I'm so sorry, I'm so, so sorry..."

"We're approaching the dock, just a few more seconds," Mabel said in a calmer tone. I could tell from the slight unease in her voice that she too was unprepared for such a disaster.

"I can't do this," I turned my attention to Charity, who seemed numb to the entire situation.

"You have to, you don't have a choice at this point." Charity replied quietly, stating the cold hard truth, but in a way that came with such sympathy. If only the people's rebellion had the ability to exist outside of the loyalist forces, I could only imagine what it would be capable of if it had the resources either loyalist rebellion had. Is such potential worth all the damage being done, though? No one seemed to want this.

"Alright," Mabel's hand lifted as we felt the vehicle come to an abrupt stop. "On my go, we're all getting out and running to the boat, under my lead, okay?"

Through tears and numbness, everyone nodded while Mabel made quick eye contact with all of us. I had no energy to fight anymore.

Seconds passed and I witnessed as grey uniforms slowly opened up in front of the vehicle to make a protected runway to the dock. Once deemed safe by Mabel, and only upon her direction, we all jumped out of the vehicle and sprinted down the beach, in the same formation and order as before: Mabel, Charity, myself, and Brock. As our feet hit the sand, I glanced around to see others attempting to escape down the dark beaches to our left and right. Boats lined every dock in sight, but most seemed partially sunken and/or on fire. Our designated boat was one of the few seemingly undamaged. I witnessed a few people closer to central Taupo jump into the water after seeing their sunken boats, only to be aimed and shot at by Ariesan soldiers who showed no mercy on the shores.

My gaze then adjusted to look straight ahead. At the end of our dock stood a familiar face – Eleanor. She was tied to one of the docks poles and guarded by a few grey uniforms. Perhaps Alexandria did care about her grandmother after all. Her forces to my left and right were taking shots for us as we neared the dock, and I witnessed some fall through my peripherals. With my eyes still locked ahead, I noticed a submarine surface from behind Eleanor. The four soldiers guarding her then split off so that two guarded from the front and two guarded from the back. An overwhelming unease shot through me and I felt a scream exit my body.

I witnessed all four guardsmen fall, as I shouted through the sound of a bullet piercing Eleanor from behind. She screamed before slouching down as life left her body. Grey uniforms doubled down before us as commanders ushered us all onto the dock. It took everything in me not to give up and fall, willingly joining my grandmother in death. My legs and feet thankfully had a mind of their own and I managed to make it to the dock.

Once on the dock, I tried to run past the boarding bridge onto Mabel's boat to hopefully have one more moment with my grandmother.

"I need to say goodbye!" I screamed, trying to push through the grey uniforms to reach Eleanor. "Please!" I shouted again.

"She's gone! Get on the boat!" I heard one of the uniforms shout back before pushing me toward the boat.

"Philip, come on!" I heard Brock shout, he must have realized I was trying to get past the soldiers. I wasn't budging though. "Philip, it's not safe!"

I jumped past the guards somehow and ended up in the open before my now deceased grandmother. I didn't manage to speak a thing, I only managed to cry. I fell onto my knees before her, sensing an overwhelming feeling of grief bigger than both of us. It felt like I wasn't only losing my sole connection to my family, it also felt like I was losing my one source of truth in the mess that had become of my life over the past few weeks. With her death, a part of me died too.

Throughout my mourning I heard Brock shout from behind me something I couldn't actually comprehend given my state of mind. I heard the crack of a gun and a sudden jolt of excruciating pain in my left shoulder. I instinctively fell as I saw my blood pool, beginning to stain the custom suit jacket Leo had made specially for my first interview of the tour of territories.

As I fell, everything went black.