"The government isn't working for us, the government has never, not once, worked for us. Delusional people will see our leadership, our authority as good. People don't see the clear attempts of ruining our lives, they don't notice the flaws in the system and the laws we live under. This world is a horrible place and there's only one thing to blame: our government. The leaders of our nation, the leaders of every nation, and it needs to end. Good people lose their lives because of the disgusting authority that we are forced to abide by. We won't stop until they're gone, and we will make them pay for the things they've done."
The group in the small amphitheater applauded as Christie concluded her speech. It was a small group, maybe only thirty people, but any larger and the anarchist groups would be attracting too much attention. Christie stepped away from the podium as everyone got out of their seats.
"Amazing as always, Christie." Her friend Hannah patted her on the back, "You never look like you're nervous."
Christie smiled, "It's easy to not be nervous when you're passionate about what you're talking about." She simply replied to her friend. She looked at the small crowd of people and some looked eager for her to approach them and talk to them. "I'll catch up with you soon, I'm gonna go talk to some of these people."
"Alright," Hannah grabbed her keys from her purse, "I'll be waiting in the car."
Christie smiled at her supportive friend before stepping away and approaching the small group of people.
"Christie, that was very moving. You're amazing with your words, they really stick." A middle aged woman praised, making the younger woman put her hands over her heart and nod her head.
"Thank you," She replied, "I learned from the best."
"You seem so young, how are you getting involved in these things at your age?" Another man asked. Christie pressed her lips together as she thought about how to answer that.
"Well," She spoke, "I'm a senior in high school and politics have been... forced... into my brain since I was very young. Growing up in a household with beliefs forced onto you gets your brain working pretty early on."
"Sounds like your parents suck." Someone commented, and the group laughed.
The comment made Christie's brain stutter. Speechless, she tucked her black hair behind her ear and stifled a laugh, but she couldn't stop the memories and feelings from flooding back.
Her father...
Christie never told anyone the truth about why she was involved in these things so early on in her life. Her father was the sole reason why she had such a deep hatred for the government, and she made a promise to him to never tell a soul why.
Her father was a military general years ago, when Christie was still in preschool. He would tell her about his life in the military, he told her the coolest stories and she admired him and how carefree he was. He was a good man and an even better father. He told Christie all of the cool, heroic things, but in the middle of the night, she would hear her father tell her mother about things that didn't sound as positive. She recalls hearing him say something about the government "leaving the military out to dry", but she didn't understand what that meant at the time.
There was one year where he was sent on a specific mission where he was deployed to Iran. The country and the United States were having conflict, so they told her father that they were sending them for combat support, at least that is what was relayed to her mother.
While on this mission, her father was killed. It brought devastation upon her family. It broke her mother and changed her, making her more strict about rules in the house and forcing religion onto Christie. That isn't to say her mother was bad, she loved Christie, but the loss of her husband permanently damaged her. Christie couldn't hold a grudge on her for it, her mother was all she had left.
It was years later, her sophomore year, that she learned the truth. She was sent a letter from an anonymous person and the contents changed her life. She found out that her father was practically sent on a suicide mission by the government. The mission was a spy mission to intercept intel, but her fathers troop weren't trained as spies. They were infantry, but her father referred to them as "warriors". Because of this, they were caught nearly immediately and imprisoned, their punishment being their death. The troop agreed to write letters of their demise and apology to their families before taking their own lives.
That letter changed the trajectory of Christie's life forever, it changed her as a person. It instilled deep hatred for the government, hatred of any government for that matter. They sent her father to Iran knowing full well he was doing to die and she would never find any forgiveness in her heart.
She then began to sneak out and give these speeches to speak out against authority and the governments devastating choices that ruined families around the world. She gave very empowering speeches that reeled people in and compelled them to listen to what she had to say, she had a way with words, a way that she learned from her father.
Her father didn't want anyone else to know what happened, and she respected those wishes and kept the events of her fathers death apart from the movement she was making. Regardless, she was still becoming well-known in the area for her speeches.
In the present, those memories of her father flooded her brain for a moment before she could formulate any kind of sentence.
"Parents will be parents, I guess." That was all she had to say to the crowd, offering a smile to hide the pain she was feeling.
The group laughed and began to mingle with one another, many conversations erupting at once. Christie saw this as an opportunity to back away and head to the car where Hannah was waiting. She climbed in the passenger seat and saw Hannah scrolling through twitter.
"Christie, I think you're into some trouble..." She said. Christie furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, but a moment later she heard her own voice coming from Hannah's phone. She quickly snatched it from her friends hands and looked to see what she was watching.
Someone had recorded her speech and posted it. Not only that, but it was blowing up with likes and retweets.
"Who the fuck would record an underground organizations speaker?" Christie loudly questioned in panic, "Holy shit what do I do..." She covered her mouth with a hand as she desperately tried to think.
"I don't know, this is really bad, Christie." Hannah looked to her friend who was more anxious and panicked than she had ever seen before.
For the second time that day, Christie was speechless. "Just drive," She told Hannah, who didn't hesitate to take her anxious friend home.
That night, Christie constantly refreshed her social media feed and was met with local officials shunning her and her beliefs, saying they would find her and put an end to her extremism. She could barely get to sleep as she cried. She couldn't give in and stop, her dad wouldn't want that for her. She needed a new plan, a fresh start.
The next day she told her mom, "I'm thinking of moving out. I just need a new start in life."
Her mother wasn't supportive of the idea in any sort, saying it was a horrible idea and that her father wouldn't want her to abandon her family like that. But Christie knew that her mother only knew the beginning of what her father wants, and in a fit of anger, she stormed out of the house and left her mother to never see her face again.
She stayed local for a few days, just sleeping at Hannah's while she formulated a plan, but the guilt of not giving her mother any closure was eating at her, so she wrote a note and dropped it off at her mothers house before disappearing for good.
Mom,
I'm sorry for getting upset with you, it was wrong of me to storm out like that. But you should know that I'll be gone for a while, maybe forever. You may not see me again, but please understand that I'm doing exactly what dad would've wanted for me. I'm gonna be a warrior like he was, and I promise I will make him proud.
I love you,
Christie
