Voynich Shift - Season One (COMPLETED)

Leonis, 1:1, 2:4, - I Pledge Submission - Part III

Parker flinched at the report of a firearm fired behind him. He turned to discover a squad of Officers emerging from around the corner of a decaying house, the apparent leader brandishing a smoking pistol. Parker knew it was only a warning shot or he would have been dead.

"You there! Freeze!"

Parker immediately lifted his hands in the air.

Officer Merrick stood with the assistance of an arriving fellow Officer. He wiped the blood from his mouth and nose with his black BDU (battle dress uniform) shirt sleeve. Merrick glared at Parker as he extracted his pistol from Parker's hand. "You are going to pay for that, asshole..."

Parker heard a bird call and ducked, barely avoiding a hail of bullets fired from the woods that surrounded the war-torn neighborhood.

"Die, asshole!"

Parker dove behind a rusting minivan to avoid being shot by Officer Merrick.

Several of the Officers fell to the ground and twitched, their lives extinguished. Others did as Parker and ran for cover behind the cars lining the cul-de-sac, including Merrick.

"Parker, over here! Run!" shouted a woman's voice from the backyard of a nearby dilapidated two-story.

Parker did as told and made a mad dash toward safety. Bullets whizzed past him as the Officers attempted to exact revenge on him for their fallen comrades. The young man ran head down across the yard as fast as he could. As he reached the corner of the house, he dove behind the wooden structure followed by a handful of projectiles embedding themselves where he once was.

Parker bent over, out of breath, but managed a two word reply. "Thanks...Kate..."

"Come on, we gotta go, Parker!" a brunette in digital camo BDU's said, patting him on the back. Looking around to make sure they were in the clear, she turned, shouldered her rifle, and darted for the cover of the woods. "Come on!"

Parker nodded, took a deep breath, and followed the woman's swaying ponytail into the trees.

<<*>>

"I am going to kill that man!" Merrick growled, ducking as another bullet zipped past his helmet.

<<*>>

The ragtag group of freedom fighters stood in the center of a bombed out department store in the ruins of Platte City, Missouri. It was the last stop before the Buffer Zone of the Missouri River. The overhead afternoon sun flickered in through the holes in the building's roof revealing a collection of smudged, tired faces.

"...Fletcher?" Kate inquired.

"Here!"

"Tilton?"

Silence.

"Anyone seen Tilton?"

"Not since the Citadel," said a graying, unshaven man in an olive drab field jacket. "I think the Officers got 'em"

"Dammit...alrighty then, that's most of us and I know Parker's here. Okay, that's still three missing," Kate said with a sigh. She shook her head as she thought about losing more of her comrades-in-arms to the NWUS. Her list of acquaintances killed by those mind-numbed fundamentalists had grown to a number too high to count, much less remember all of their faces. Raising a fist to her chest, she lowered her head. "Now that we're all here together once again, let's take a moment and give our fallen brothers and sisters one last moment of respect, shall we?"

The eight person assembly all followed suit and placed their hands over their hearts. "Together we stand, divided we fall. A nation of many, individual souls," they said in unison. "Forget the fallen!"