The Great Awakening

Chapter 5

            In her office, a rather elderly woman with gray hair and blue eyes named Arionna Lee sat at her desk. At this hour, she was really the only one working, and even she usually doesn’t work this late (or early, depending on the person). As the prime minister, she had been making preparations for the top one hundred scores.

            Upon entering the room from the single entrance, on the left and right were bookshelves embedded into the walls. Ancient literature like Huckleberry Finn, Brave New World and 1984, were stacked back to back, as well as historical literature like Mein Kampf, and the encyclopedias of the past were preserved in this room. At the other end of the room upon entry, is Arionna’s desk, and behind her was a window.

            As the prime minister, one of her duties is to monitor the flow of information through the media, deeming what was appropriate and what was not. This helped to keep everything in line, as it should be. People need to be kept in their places so that the gears of society would turn. If there were no censorship, society would be chaos with the abundance of information. The order was kept with the outflow of only good information. See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. Also, as a result, she knew of everything happening above and underneath the surface of AngelCity. She knew about the existence of planned uprisings, and possible usurpation of her position.

            Despite what the media had been telling the people of AngelCity, there were much deeper and pressing issues at hand. While most of the population remained unaware of the threat of a possible revolution, the size of the coups were growing. Of course, the coups would never rival the military might of AngelCity, but the war would certainly cause a mass awakening of people questioning their governments, and that must be suppressed and suppressed covertly, for if everyone in AngelCity were to rise, there would be no stopping the usurpation.

            Arionna was also in charge of monitoring the security officers, making sure that there were no hiccups. In AngelCity, every officer is implanted with a two chips: one on the cerebellum and one on the brainstem. At her command, she may locate a specific officer and send a shock to the cerebellum, stopping their motor functions. The sole purpose of this is to stop the officers from committing atrocities, but it also has another implied use.

            There is also another implanted chip on the brain stem, designed for executing the security officer by sending an electrical shock, stopping all the essential functions of the body, like breathing. This was produced to prevent the officers from giving away valuable information if they were ever captured and tortured. On the other hand, it can be used for manipulating the soldiers into doing whatever the leaders want. After all, what is more valuable to a person than their life, and the life of their families?

            She heard a beep from behind the door and a burly man with short brunet hair and a tuxedo came in. She looked at the man with a smirk. “Roswell Jenkins…” She said slyly. “I assume you come with good news?”

            Roswell is Arionna’s second in command, and tonight, aside from protecting the prime minister, his job was to secure the first selections of the top one hundred by a random selection, and bring them to the Plum Sector.

            “Yes, Prime Minister Lee…” He smiled.

            She smiled and stood up from her chair, walking around her desk in her blue work attire. “So I take it the preparations are ready?”

            “Yes ma’am.” Roswell nodded. “The chopper is ready to transport the first set of the top one hundred. But is it necessary to do this so early in the morning?”

            “Absolutely…” She chuckled. “We have to make sure that Europa is being properly dealt with at all hours of the day.”

            He nodded in agreement. “Yes, Prime Minister. Should they be transported right away?”

            “Yes please.”

            Immediately, Roswell left the room, and Arionna breathed out a chuckle. “Computer, Show Screen.”

            One of the bookshelves retracted into the wall before shifting away to the side, revealing a wall of monitors, displaying random parts of Europa. Nothing happened yet. Everything was calm and peaceful, as it should be… until she saw movement. “Enhance.” The camera zoomed in on a pair: A raven haired man with a scarred face and a brunette woman. “Identify.” Digital squares appeared on screen around the heads of the pair as the computer searched the database for positive identification.

            “Name: Melissa Aran.

Occupation: None.

 Family: Jayden Aran; Son.

 Height: 1.6 me-”

            “Skip to next person…”

            “Unable to find in database…”

            She held her chin at the slew of information given to her. Melissa Aran… She smiled diabolically, and pulled out her phone. “Ros…” Her nickname for Roswell. “Begin the operation…”

            She can’t have anyone knowing about what awaits the students at Europa. If the truth leaks, it would surely be her downfall. All it takes for a revolution to happen is one person with a radical idea. It needs to be stopped right away.