The Great Awakening

Chapter 14

            Melissa had trouble sleeping that night after seeing the broadcast. At seeing his face, she relived everything that happened the night she left AngelCity to see Europa. A nightmare of a night that was. It wasn’t just the scene with Siris that she relived, but hiding in the closet as they heard screams and gunshots, running from the hoards of cannibals, and their stand against them. She could even hear the firing machine gun in her ears, and worse yet… she had no perception of what reality was while triggered. She had to be escorted back to her dorm that night with Joanna and a Olivia’s father, the psychological professional.

            It was explained later that night to Troy and Jayden that she was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, where a traumatizing event would be relived if given the proper trigger. In this case, the trigger was seeing Siris’s face.

            That night, Jayden kept close to his mother, waking up every time she would begin to scream in her sleep. “No! Stop! Please!” She would say. And Jayden would be on her bedside immediately, shaking her awake.

            “It’s okay, mom. It’s just a dream. I’m here. And I’m not going to let anything happen to you…” All these things he would say, but the screams never stopped. The moment he would almost fall into slumber is when she would start screaming.

            The next morning, Jayden was awoken by Joanna and Olivia. He was honestly surprised with Olivia’s presence, but more surprised that he had actually found some sleep. “Where’s mom?”

            “Melissa is with Dr Mitchell right now,” Joanna said as she sat down beside him. “She’ll be alright.”

            He nodded as he sat up from the bed, looking at Olivia. “It’s nice to see you finally. Where the heck have you been?”

            “I have a family here too you know,” she said with a smirk. “C’mon, we have a lot to do today.”

            “Like what? Training?”

            Joanna shook her head no. “Troy is giving the military recruits a special assignment: we are going on a run.”

            His eyes widened. It seems this morning was full of surprises. “A run? We’ve only had a few weeks of training!”

            “He’s the boss,” Olivia replied in a snarky tone. “And I think we’re ready. We’ve even been trained to kill cannibals.”

            “But what about my mom?”

            “Father will tend to her,” she replied again. “C’mon. We have to go…”

            They downed our breakfast and it wasn’t until then that Jayden realized he hadn’t had the chance to process what had happened and more importantly, how it will affect everything. So when Siris appeared with his ‘public statement’ he made it very clear that the Lowsector was a force to be reckoned with. Since he was a leader, and there was only one leader in the Freedom Fighters, he would be the leader of the Panthers, making him our rival. In the end, they wanted the same thing… Or did they? Maybe the end result would be different. What if a person like Siris wanted to make actual changes? After pondering that idea, Jayden shook his head. The others couldn’t tell what he was thinking. It would have been too fast for them to comprehend.

            Siris couldn’t want change. He executed a man in cold blood on public television. He sent a message with an execution. Isn’t that what the government does? Could it be possible that he is working for the government? Then why would he kill Michael Watson, a person who from the very beginning was essential in convincing the public that the government was something they could rely on? He can’t be working for the government. He probably just wants a shot at the throne. He wants people underneath his thumb so that when he becomes Prime Minister, he can do as he pleases…