The Flipsyde

The situation worsens

Hey everyone :) 50 views for my story :) :) thank you all so much for reading and voting :) :)

I hope you guys liked the new character entry last chapter xD

I'm really running out of things to say before and after my chapters xP

Anyways, here goes nothing xD

-------------chapter 3 starts here------------

The next Flipsyde put us on the poor side again. It was fun being on the rich side, but sometimes I was glad we were put on the poor side as well. It made us work together- as a family- to face our difficulties.

To give you an idea how we work, my uncle Dave helps out the rebel committee with raiding and as a result is our main provider. My mom works as an assistant for a rich person- editing his story while also helping him out with any and all bills (electric, phone, water,etc.) and paperwork. I would run all kinds of errands, taking a day job at a video game store- anything to supplement our income. Christopher would stay at home.. We figured 12 wasn't the age for him to start working, so he'd just relax and sit around while we were doing our jobs.. Of course he'd force us to let him do his bit- helping in his little way- with the dishes, the laundry and other small jobs..

Of course this, when supplemented by our money stash (which we'd keep in case of any emergencies) was easily enough to support a decent lifestyle.

This combination meant that nothing short of a catastrophe could hurt us.. We had so many ways of income that inability to raid, a lack of jobs, errands. Not one of them could hurt us- since we could easily depend on the other two. Everything was going fine..

But that all ended when the chief of police got shot.

During a raid organized by the committee, the police (acting on a tip) managed to intercept the rebels. This all fell apart as one rebel sniper hidden in a tree above managed to squeeze off a shot straight at the head of the tactical in charge.

It must've made sense at the time, but I'm sure they would have taken it back if they'd seen the repercussions it'd have on all of us.

Obviously, the rich people were enraged. They didn't pay extra to get "premium protection" when the police couldn't even protect their chief from a lone sniper even with the heightened awareness that came from police action (coffee and donuts :p)

This was definitely not something to be taken lightly- and everyone knew it. Especially the new police commissioner. He showed just how much he knew it, when he informed everyone that he would make sure that there would be no more raids until the next flipsyde.

Everyone was flabbergasted- the rich and poor alike. This would be the first no-raid period lasting longer than a month in the last fifteen years, and the first one lasting 75 days long in the history of flipsyde. Of course nobody took him seriously..

But that ended in a few days. Newer measures taken included an increased number of police- the number patrolling the rich area nearly tripled while the number patrolling the poor area to prevent us from crossing the wall almost doubled. The alertness of those patrolling was also significantly higher. I mean our odds of a successful raid were now less than picking up a toy in one of those grabber arm games, except with the additional difficulty of being blindfolded..

Wait no, on second thought that was still better than our odds.. Imagine it with you blindfolded, sleep deprived, disoriented by like 50 whacks on the head with a baseball bat and then trying to pick up a toy superglued to the bottom of the machine.. Yep, that was more like it..

What did the committee do? Nothing. I mean obviously it was costing through the roof for the police, and the committee was intent on waiting this period out rather than losing members in the raids.

After 3-4 days, the effects started to show. Significantly less people were seen on the streets, in shops, and even in public areas. The amount of garbage generated went down, as well as all leisure activities. The number of people working for the rich went up by nearly a factor of three. And those who weren't able to find a job, were forced to wait in despair, trying to hold onto the hope that they wouldn't have to suffer this way much longer.

Mom and Dave were always prepared for something of this sort. We had about 6 months worth of money stored as well as provisions for at least a week of isolated life.

But even then, mom wouldn't let me and Dave rest. Though we were fine, it was still our duty to help the others who needed is.. At the end of the day, we'd pool up our earnings, remove what we needed and donate the rest to the rebel committee for redistribution.

It was tough for me to watch our hard earned money go down the drain, but mom would just say "it's what your dad would have done," and sigh.

Personally, I hate it when people sigh.. Teachers look at you and sigh as if to say "why are you so stupid??" Your friends look at you and sigh as if to say "why do we even stick around you??" And even the guy copying off you in a test who looks at you and sighs, thinking- "even I could have done this better than you!!"

But yeah, I know it's hard for her without him, so whenever she does that I'm forced to agree with her. And in spite of all my concerns and hard work, we go donate again.

After 15 days or so though, someone must have figured out about our secret stash from our willingness to donate daily, because for the first time in flipsyde history:

A poor family was targeted by a raid

------------End of chapter 3------------

So how's it look guys? I was gonna make it a bit longer, but I felt like this was a good stopping point.. 

hopefully I'll have my next chapter up tomorrow :)