The sun rises over the cloudy Vancouver Skyline with what light can get through reflecting off the buildings throughout the city, the city streets filling with the morning work traffic.
Faint beams of light shine through the partly open blinds onto the bed, illuminating the rest of the bedroom. A young black hair woman groans while putting her pillow over her head, It's too fucking early.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
She groans louder with head still under her pillow while blindly trying to turn her alarm off. Fine! I'm awake! She throws the pillow off her head onto the other side of the bed, she sits up rubbing her eyes then stretching her arms out before going to brush her teeth and take a shower then go through the rest of her routine.
After getting dressed she goes down to the kitchen to get herself some breakfast, with the downstairs so quiet she suspects she's alone. Her suspicions are confirmed when sees a note on the fridge,
Got called into work, don't wait up. Order yourself something for dinner sweetheart. Cash is under the cutting board.
She looks at the cutting board and there is forty dollars sitting under it, she exhales softly, another night alone. She continues making her breakfast: a simple toast with jam since she doesn't eat very much before work. She sits on the couch while turning on the News on the TV, the News transitions from weather to Breaking News, with a blonde, light skinned female anchor giving the News.
"At around 5:30 this morning a raid was conducted by the Anti-Terrorism Task Force, supported by the Armed Forces in the I-1 Industrial District on a warehouse suspected of being an insurgent training facility. Reports from both a public statement, and the spokesperson Operation stated the Insurgents refused attempt made by the ATTF to surrender, and a prolonged firefight ensued resulting in no prisoners being taken." She rolls her eyes as the earlier statement taken by the spokesman is played, she eats her toast while going through her thoughts,
Guess I know where dad went this morning, not surprised. Every time one of these facilities, or Safe Houses are taken out another one will just appear somewhere else and somewhere down the line more people will be killed. Never end cycle.
The News continues in the background as she quickly rinses off her plate talking about the significant amount of weapons, and ammo that were seized after the raid. She leaves the plate in the sink as she returns to the living room and turns the TV off before grabbing her black leather jacket, wallet and leaving the house thinking about the latest raid.
If the Insurgents keep taking losses like this, how much longer can they keep going? Do they still think they can win like this? I doubt they can... not like this.
She gets on the bus that takes her into the city itself from where she lives taking in the same view she sees everyday: suburbs, the dense building of the city, the water passing under the bridge from the Pacific Ocean. The bus comes to a stop with a squeak and hiss from the brakes, the doors slide open and several people begin getting off, the young woman is the last to get off as she's greeted by a sight she's eerily familiar with: two armed soldiers wearing full gear and carrying their rifles walking by her as she keeps her head down avoiding making eye contact with them. As she walks a Humvee drives along with normal traffic with a couple soldiers inside waiting at the traffic light as she also stops for the light, she signs deeply as the light changes colour and the traffic resumes.
As she nears the grocery store where she works she sees a checkpoint with armed soldiers conducting frisk searches of people passing through, and inspecting vehicles with sniffer dogs and mirrors to search underneath the vehicles. This checkpoint is a part of her everyday route to her work but she never got used to being searched on a daily basis on her way to and from work. A male soldier pats down a middle aged man with black hair before telling the man to go through the checkpoint, and calls the next person forward. Realizing that the next person was the young woman he yells out, Sergeant! and a blonde female soldier comes over to conduct the pat down.
"Arms out to the side, Ma'am, and separate your legs." She follows the instructions as the soldiers begin patting her down.
Same shit, different day.
The soldier says, she's clear. The other soldier tells her to move along, and calls the next person forward. She walks through the checkpoint with her hands in her jacket pockets with her head down.
Daily searches, being treated like a criminal everyday... Other countries don't have to go through this kind of treatment. I wonder what that's like... what it's like to have to live a life without the consistent sight of soldiers, and military vehicles. A free life...
She continues down the street to work, taking the sights of daily life she's never gotten used to seeing: Military Vehicles driving around the streets with traffic, Military Police checking the Identification as she walks by them. Just before she rounds the corner a Military Police Humvee speeds by her in the direction she needs to be going, she rounds the corner and sees where they were going: a row of townhouses where Military Police have blocked off a portion of the sidewalk and street, while soldiers are forcing people out of the house with their hands on the back of their heads and forcing them onto their knees on the sidewalk. She crosses over to the other side of the street but slowly walks by so she can see and hear what's going on,
Why are you doing this? We haven't done anything wrong! A woman with long black hair says with a fearful emotional tone as a soldier standing behind her pushes her to the ground with his boot.
HEY! Leave her alone! A brown haired man next to the woman yells out, begging the soldier to leave her alone. We aren't sympathizers! The man continues to plead with the soldiers. A soldier standing behind him yells at the man to shut up while aiming his rifle at him.
A small crowd begins to gather, and people begin pulling out their phones and recording the scene while others are just watching. The atmosphere becomes more intense when a younger man runs down the street, yelling at the soldiers as he nears the blocked off area. An MP stops the young man, telling him to step back several times but the two end up yelling and arguing with each other, this is your last warning to back up! The soldier shouts before striking the young man across the face with the stock of his rifle, people exclaim and begin murmuring as the MP drags him behind the blockade where two soldiers rush over and detain him.
These kinds of scenes are playing out more and more lately. And they wonder why the people are becoming discontent, treating them like criminals every other day. Everyday it feels like it's getting worse here...
YOU ARE READING
True North Rising || Ongoing ||
Historical FictionKatlyn has tried to live a normal life, but when nothing is normal a spark begin to ignite in her. A spark that could ignite the fire of freedom. But at what cost? Freedom comes at a cost.
