Tin Cans and Missing Hands

Chapter 2

The sweet scent of morning dew filled his nose. The bridge connecting his house to the others softly swings in the breeze. The homes are set up like treehouses. Each house being in its own tree, and connected by a sturdy bridge. To have a lot of homes, you need a lot of trees. A forest was planted by the Zipizan government at the beginning of Draznas ruling. Mark sighed, shoving his soft hands into the pockets of his jeans, strolling towards the bridge. He steps on, walking quietly across, as he walks, a loud sound, seeming like a storm warning, blares across the forest and city, suspended above the ground.
"Tch, what now.." He growls, running to the end of the bridge, grabbing onto a zipline at the end, and he glides down towards the center tree. A one hundred and fifty foot maple tree sits in the center of the city, hidden in the trees. Swinging forward, he lands on the wooden platform, and walks through the tall gate of the entrance of the city leaders headquarters. Most of the citizens remained calm, flowing in. The city leader, Drazna, stands on a large platform, surrounded by heavy, burly men holding machine guns. She eyes Mark, her crimson red iris's seeming to puncture his soul, and he looks away, waiting for her announcement.
"Citizens of Zapizno, I welcome you to the center tree, it has been a while since we were all together like this, hasn't it?" The words roll of her tongue, raspy, harsh. Her eyes skim over the crowd, who remains completely silent.
"Hmph, I called you all here today to make an announcement. We will be invading our neighboring countries." She chuckles evily, her eyes furrowing into a devilish look, the crowd gasps.
"How are we going to invade Great Britain and Norway?! Is she insane?!" Mark thinks, his mind buzzing, before she silences the crowd.
"Oh shut up you mongrels, we will not be using combat forces, we will use something different." Drazna sneers, smirking as if she sounds like the most intelligent being in the word. The crowd whispers to each other, and Mark rubs the back of his head, confused. A brown figure places her hands on Mark's shoulders, peering over them, her hair slick and black, but a large blue and purple stripe down the middle of her hair.
"Oh, hey Leelo, you got any idea what's goin' on?" Mark questions, turning his head to look at her.
"Not a clue, like always." She chuckles, going silent as Drazna speaks once more.
"I have invented a disease to sweep over the countries, so we can take them for ourselves! The land shall be ours!" She laughs, the crowd shifting back in fear.
"Oh, I almost forgot. You all are the test subjects!" She yells, slamming her hands onto a red button, located on a metallic bracelet, bound around her wrist. A hologram appears behind her, counting down from ten. Mark turns, grabbing Leelo, and he darts first, running out of the gate. The psychotic laughter of Drazna echoing behind him, and people begin to scream, as grenade-like objects fly into the air, and begin to explode, letting a soft red gas expell out of them, choking the citizens. Mark huffs, setting Leelo down.
"We must run! Now! There's no time Leelo!" He yells, looking to his home. A grenade lands under a rocking chair on the front porch, right beneath where his mother was sitting.
"MOM! NO!" He cries out, before the object explodes,filling the air around her with the red gas, and she stands up, choking. A few seconds later, she drops to the ground, and Mark's eyes welt with tears, before grabbing Leeo's hand, running away from the chaos, and towards the end of the platform.