Transient Equilibrium

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So I had this chapter up for a whole 24 hours, and then I guess it just decided to delete itself. The first time I wrote it, it was honestly one of the best things I have ever concocted, but now I have had to try to re-write my greatness, and of course, it's never as good as the first time. I am very disappointed with that, but I guess I've just gotta suck it up and move on. Hope you enjoy!

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Arwin~

I sit huddled with my family around the barely functioning holoboard in our small living room, watching the government issued broadcast when it unexpectedly blanks out and is replaced by a video feed transmission.

"Freedom. Two syllables, seven letters, one word, a hundred different meanings, the starter of thousands of conflicts. It is the one thing all people crave most. We are brought into this world with a sense of right to it. We strive for it. We fight for it. Seems simple enough right? Everyone deserves it. Yet, without control, freedom would not exist, and likewise, without freedom, control could not be implemented. People strive for freedom and order, but one cannot exist without the presence of the other. Every power known since the beginning of time has tested this. How much control and order can be placed before we snap and cry out for our freedom? At what point do we lose sight of just how much we long for freedom?

Freedom. The one thing this society does not have. The one thing that will not be given to us. Freedom is the price you pay for existing; if you can even call it that. You give up your freedom the moment you are brought into this world. You give up your right to chose. The right to be. You give up any dream of what you want to do or what you hope to become. It is all taken from you the moment that mark is tattooed onto the back of your chubby little infant neck. The almost imperceptible symbol of two horizontal, opposing arrows, that looks like someone forgot the other half of the tips.  The mark that screams "I belong to this glorious society!" They say it is for our own safety and protection, but it isn't true. I know what it really is.

They think they have found the perfect equilibrium of freedom and control. However, in reality, there is no such perfection. Their system is all control and no freedom. Rule with an iron fist. Make all the decisions for them because they are too incompetent to come to the conclusion themselves. People will succumb to the power of the society because there is nothing beyond it; or so they say. They think people need them because they try to get us to believe that there is nothing else for us. For most people, that brainwashing has worked but there's just one problem: I hasn't worked on all of us.

I do not conform.

I will not be what is shoved down my throat to be.

I will not surrender to their pressure.

There are others like me. Many others like me. We resist in imperceivable measures. Small amounts that can easily be overlooked, but resistance all the same. We do not scream out our noncompliance but do it silently. Nonviolent protest and silent disobedience. If they tell you to sit down and shut up, you stand for what you believe in. If they ask you to take that jump, you don't take it. To me, it's not just some other thing to be done anymore. It is a way of life. My way of life..."

The illegal transmission is finally stopped as thousands of holoboards across the sector go black. It took almost five minutes for the cybernet teams to block out the jamming signals. I slowly close my mouth, realizing I have been gaping at the screen with eyes wide as saucers. I turn to see the rest of my family, and am greeted with expressions mirroring my own until abruptly, my attention is averted back to the screen as the broadcast continues.

"...will be punished for her crimes." Trias Holloway says, finishing his statement that was cut off. The camera zooms over to a viciously bruised woman crumpled on the ground and shackled in electricuffs. The same woman who was just seen in the previously interrupting video feed; Janis Farlow. "There is nothing I hate more than a dissident. Someone who does not appreciate what we have struggled to make of this country over the last several decades. I will not stand for petty defiance and unrest. There will be no more opposition or uprisings in this country. Let this example be a warning to all citizens of Lumeria today: we will not stand for this behavior. It will be ended, and you will be stopped with equal measures should you test my power."

The camera pans back to Farlow and three guards rise and proceed to escort her over to a small raised stage on the platform. She gets up on the stage, kneeling down, and the three men back away awaiting the chief executioner, General Sinre. He rises from his chair and makes his way over the the stage, all the while pulling his iconic handgun from its holster and feeling the familiar weight of it in his hands. As he walks over to where Farlow resides, she tracks him with her eyes, not once breaking eye contact. Her face is stolid and her eyes show no indication of fear or regret; she almost looks at peace. She is the utmost example of a person ready to die; a martyr. Sinre stops in front of her, squares his shoulders, and brings the gun up to her forehead, all the while as she continues to stare into his cold hard eyes that have never seen a lick of compassion or mercy. I quickly reach over and cover Sam's eyes so he doesn't have to see what happens next, with much protest contrary of his wishes. He may want to watch like the rest of us, but I don't think a nine-year-old should have to watch someone's brain blown out the back of their skull. The General pulls the trigger, and Janis Farlow falls onto her side never to rise again, as the shot continues to echo in the minds of people all across the nation.

They think they have just neutralized the threat with their grandeur show of power, but they are wrong; an error that will certainly prove to be fatal.

The war has just begun.

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Thank you so much for reading!

Note: The picture in the sidebar is the symbol on the necks of the people.

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I will (hopefully) be updating this every monday from now on...