Chapter 7 - Morgan
Wow, I didn't know their soldiers were this bad. I always assumed that the NASR actually put a decent amount of training into them. Guess not though, because this one went down with barley any fight.
Well I guess I should give myself some credit. I was, after all, trained by my father in hand-to-hand combat.
Oh, it looks like our soldier boy is waking up. I'll just have to give him a talk.
I jumped over to him and used my body to secure his legs and my hand on his chest to make sure he stayed down. I gave him a little extra push to make sure he knew who's on top.
"Hey there boogy woogie bugle boy! How ya doin'? Yer head feeling okay?" I said in my "stupid American" voice. I was always harassed by any and every NASR soldier about my voice. I had grown up in the south and had a heavy souther accent. He responded with a loud groan.
"Oh my, that's not good," I teasingly said. "you might have a concussion! Hold still and let me check."
I picked up the rear of his head with my hand so that I could take a look at his eyes. Even if he did have a concussion, I didn't care, I just wanted to make sure he knew I was in complete control of him. As I clutched the back of his head, I felt blood trickle onto my hand. There was something familiar about his figure, something I had seen before.
I clicked on the light attached to the bottom of my pistol. My old Glock 17. It was old, but it still worked. Actually, it worked like a charm. When the light finally flickered to, he squinted for a moment. As soon as my eyes adjusted, I dropped his head to the floor.
"OWWWW!" he responded.
"Ben? Crap man, is that you?"
"Well yes its me, but...who are you?" Ben tentatively asked.
"Its me, Morgan. I didn't think anyone would be here. Someone turned me in. I got Alex and headed here. Alex! Alex get in here. This is Ben."
"Oh my gosh Morgan, what did you do?" Exclaimed Alex with a accusing tone.
"I tackled him."
"HA! More like slammed my head into the ground. Hey, is there a dent under my head?"
"No, but I'm sure we can make one." I responded, half jokingly, half serious.
"Wow, my head has suddenly stopped throbbing. Why did I throw myself on the ground?" He responded with a heavy dose of sarcasm.
"Wait wait, hold up. Who are you?" Alex asked.
Interesting question. I have known Ben for, well, what seems like forever. Before the war, our parents knew each other very well. We have been friends since we were probably 4. Now though, it's more than a friendship. It's more like a brotherhood. Honestly, I'm not sure what I would do without him.
Ben and I started this whole thing, the revolution or whatnot. It was his idea, but I had always wanted to overthrow our "government". I don't know why they want to call it a government. They hardly care about us. All they care about is keeping themselves in power.
Before the war, I lived in the United States. I was very young then, but I still remember it. Life was great. There were petty complaints, such as not having the latest gadget, or maybe that the weather man was wrong. Now, we have real complaints. Like, we die because of starvation or the government takes people away.
That's one of the things that scare me the most. I've heard stories of people getting taken away in the middle of the night, then being taken to government buildings and being experimented upon. There was a story once about a boy that was taken away. They say he had his arms and legs removed, and then reconnected in their opposite places. There was another story about a pair of twins that got taken away. Rumors are that the government wanted to learn the connections between twins. There were apparently many experiments involving things done to one twin and then monitoring what the other one did.
"This is Ben. We've been friends for...for a long time." I said, responding to her question.
"Oh," Started Alex. "That explains why you just slammed his head against the ground."
"Haha, I like her." Commented Ben.
"Too bad I don't like you."
"Nice one. Did she learn that from you?" Ben asked Morgan
"Hardly," Alex interrupted. "He hasn't taught me anything. I hardly ever see him. He's always gone."
"That..." Ben said as he cleared his throat. "May partially be my fault. You see, we've been meeting fo..."
I loudly cleared my throat. I didn't want Alex to know about this quite yet. It is very possible that we could get caught. If we get caught, I want Alex to know as little as possible. She doesn't need to be punished for this if she doesn't have to.
"Let's just say, Alex, that we have been meeting to discuss things. Important things. Things you don't need to know all about just yet."
"Yep, my predictions were right. You have been fooling around with him. I always knew you were gay." She shot.
"Alex!" I tried to get out.
"Nope, don't want to hear it. I'm just going to walk around for a while. I don't want to be here when you guys start 'being friends'."
Alex said with a dismissive hand. She certainly had the attitude of her mother. Then, just as if nothing had happened, she skipped out of the room and into the mall.
"Um...," I cleared my throat. "Sorry about that; sometimes I just don't know what gets into her."
"She is a mirror image of her mother." He laughed. "It's fine. I have to go to the bathroom, well actually I've had to go to the bathroom for an hour, anyways, keep watch for me?"
Ben. He always knows when to give someone space. He is a great people reader. But now, it's just me and my thoughts. And a bunch of monitors of course.
Wow, she must really hate me. After all, I haven't really been in her life much. Okay, I haven't been in her life at all. But regardless, that behavior shouldn't be tolerated. I have been doing something more important, right? Isn't the future of our nation, our world even, more important? Isn't it?
