Banished to prehistoric times

The Uprising

Victoria Harvey surprised herself when she picked up the firearm of a demolished ATAIS soldier and used it to shoot down some more herself. There was chaos everywhere, social order was gone and the system had fallen. Her black leather pants and a long leathery army-green coloured coat made Victoria blend in, together with her boots. A holster was wrapped around her right leg and another was attached to her belt; two guns would be necessary, she thought. Shoulder and arm bracers protected her from any light injuries and the coat's high neck and hood made her less recognizable. Tucked underneath was her brown hair which she often wore in a tail or knot. Beside her stood Kathryn Jones, someone who Victoria had known for a very long time. She too had a gun in her hand, which shook a little. Kathryn wore a similar outfit, except for the fingerless gloves which were a personal addition. Kathryn wore no hood; she thought that everyone could know who she was and what she stood for. This caused her black short hair to be revealed which was cut in a messy bob. Together they stood on an annihilated, but certainly not abandoned, city square which had been a place of glory once, but which now looked more like a battlefield through the brown eyes of two young woman. ATAIS soldiers and raging insurgents were everywhere. Their target: the Parliament Building. "Insurgents will be put down.... Please return to your homes." Victoria noticed that every ATAIS soldier was saying this, repeating it until it drove her crazy. It was the only thing these robots could say, apparently. Both Victoria and Kathryn aimed their weapons at the robots and tried to take down as many as they could while trying to reach the Parliament Building. One of the robot's heads which Kathryn had fired off rolled towards her, still repeating the words: "Insurgents will be put down.... Please return to your homes." Victoria, however, came too close to an ATAIS soldier which made it necessary for her to use a knife instead of her gun. She stabbed the robot multiple times, but it did not have any impact. Instead, the robot grabbed her neck with one hand, causing the hood to fall off. The ATAIS lifted Victoria, who was now gasping while she wriggled her legs, off the ground. A red light came from its eyes and started to scan her face. "Victoria Harvey, 24," the robot said. Victoria tried to remove the robot's grasp around her neck with her own hands, but it was too powerful; she couldn't remove it. Then, without thinking, she reached out to her gun in the holster attached to her belt and used it to bump the ATAIS on its head, right before it was about to kill her. The robot released her, shaking its head. Victoria gasped, but before she could catch her breath she kicked the ATAIS soldier in its metal chest with her boot which caused it to fall back a few feet, creating more space in between them. Victoria immediately aimed her gun at it and pulled the trigger a few times, until she was out of ammunition. The robot was demolished. Slowly catching her breath, Victoria looked around her, scanning the perimeter for Kathryn. She saw her friend a few feet next to her, fighting off some ATAIS soldiers. "Kathryn!" Victoria yelled while coughing. "We need to move, now!" Kathryn responded immediately by finishing off her fight with the ATAIS soldier with a final blow. Then she and Victoria tried to reach the Parliament Building while avoiding as many ATAIS soldiers as they could. "They scanned my face," Kathryn said, confused. "Mine too," Victoria replied while putting on her hood again. They ran over the square very swiftly, spotting some bodies of insurgents on the ground, covered in blood. Many had sacrificed themselves so that their friends and families could finally have justice. Most of the rebels had already fought their way through the ATAIS soldiers on the city square to the Parliament Building, only to find themselves facing more. When Victoria and Kathryn had finally arrived, a larger battlefield lay before them. It didn't look that good. "Insurgents will be put down.... Please return to your homes." Insurgents were killed everywhere by the ATAIS soldiers who, as they were saying, did not spare anyone. But robots were also being demolished everywhere, which made it hard to see who had the upper hand. Then, out of nowhere, a bomb detonated in the middle of the large group of fighting rivals. Human body parts flew through the air and suddenly there were a lot fewer insurgents standing. "They're using grenades!" Victoria said while seeking cover together with Kathryn. Unfortunately, they were already too close and before they knew it, a second grenade had landed right next to them. Kathryn acted quickly and kicked it away with her boot right before it detonated a few feet from their faces. Both Kathryn and Victoria fell on the ground, unconscious.

A high-pitched ringing in Victoria's ears made her wake up. She opened her eyes and looked around in a hazy world where everything seemed to move in slow-motion. People were screaming and Victoria could feel blood dripping down the side of her face. Kathryn however, still lay beside her, unconscious. Victoria stood up and limped towards her. She could hear some gunfire in the distance, which she knew meant that they had to act quickly. She saw that Kathryn's face was also covered in blood, but it looked less severe compared to hers. "Hey," Victoria said. "Kathryn, are you alright? We need to move." Kathryn's eyes slowly opened and stared at Victoria, first astonished, then worried. "You're bleeding," she said. "I know, so are you," Victoria replied. "But we do not have time to worry about that right now. We need to go. Can you walk?" "I think so, yeah," Kathryn responded. She tried to stand up only to realize that she couldn't. Victoria caught her just before she fell back on the ground. Kathryn gave her a meaningful glance and said: "I will only slow you down, you know" "I don't care," Victoria replied. "I'm not going to leave you behind." And so Kathryn wrapped her arm around Victoria's shoulder as they slowly stood up. She could still support herself with her right leg; only her left one was injured when the grenade had detonated. They could hear the sound of footsteps nearby, but not of normal ones; it was the sound of metal. Although the high-pitched ringing in their ears hadn't stopped yet, Victoria and Kathryn agreed that they could hear properly enough to notice that the screaming had stopped. "How long have we been knocked out?" Kathryn asked. " I don't know," Victoria responded. "But something has definitely changed, either to our advantage or disadvantage.

The Parliament Building was just around the corner, but they knew that they had to be careful due to the sudden change in environmental sound. Victoria would go first while Kathryn waited closely behind her. The outer wall of one of the highest buildings in Washington D.C. was now the only thing that stood in between them and a sight both Victoria and Kathryn would never forget. Victoria carefully turned her head and looked past the wall. She gasped when she saw the horrific sight. "O my god..." she said. She realized that she was standing in a graveyard. The bodies of fellow rebels lay everywhere, murdered and defeated, while their killers removed them, unaware of their observer. The uprising had failed and all insurgents were dead. Victoria turned to Kathryn who was still unaware of the situation. While tears gathered in Victoria's eyes, Kathryn could already guess the answer to a question she hadn't even asked yet. Then, out of nowhere, five heavy armoured human soldiers in black-yellow suits appeared behind them, aiming their weaponry at the two sole survivors. "On your knees and put your hands behind your head, now!" one said. Kathryn did as they said due to the fact that fighting, or even running, wasn't an option for her anymore. With her back turned towards the soldiers, she looked at Victoria who continued standing. Kathryn could see the hope disappearing from Victoria's eyes, making room for an emptiness which concerned her. "You monsters," Victoria said. "Get on your knees or you will be eliminated," the soldier repeated fiercely. "Victoria, do it," Kathryn said. "Whatever you've seen, it isn't worth dying." Victoria finally obeyed but did it reluctantly. The soldiers handcuffed them and carried them away, past the outer wall of the building. Kathryn first gasped and then screamed when she saw it, her eyes tearing up. "Keep moving!" the soldier yelled roughly, pushing them forward.