Midnight Massacres

Chapter three

"There must be a mistake here, my name is Fred, not 'Son"

"No honestly, you're my son." The man replied.

"How do you know? You've literally only seen me for, what? 10 seconds now? And my Dad's dead."

"No, he's not, he's standing right in front of you!"

"He's been dead for 9 years!" Fred was starting to get impatient now. If that man was his father, surely he would have called. Surely he would have given them a sign that he was alive. But he didn't. Fred had spent the last 9 years of his life with his mother, grieving about not knowing his dad, and his mother had spent it grieving over his death. No. Dad's were meant to be kind, caring people. Not people that would leave their families for 9 years with no attempt to get a hold of them.

"Listen, Fred. I am your dad. End of conversation."

"Not a very good one then. Fathers are meant to care for their wives and children, not run away and say they're dead! Why didn't you try to contact us?" Fred was now crying.

"DO YOU HONESTLY THINK THAT I HAVE NOT BEEN TRYING TO CONTACT YOU? For nine years straight, I have been pounding my boss to let me send you a letter. Do you know what his answer was? NO! EVERY SINGLE TIME! If I called you or sent you a letter, it would risk getting our location known to the government."

"The government said you were dead." Fred said

"They did not want the country feeling that if they couldn't catch a middle-aged man, how could they run a country. I guarantee they are doing the same for you right now."

For the first time, Fred started to see the possibility of this man being his father. He clearly cared for him and his mother, and Fred noticed very similar facial features between the two. 

"C'mon let's go"

                                      *                                                       *                                                     *

Fred had arrived at the mysterious location after about another ten minutes of walking. They walked up the mountain and they trotted down the other side. The mountain was covered with the greenest grass he had ever seen. They spent a couple minutes looking over the disgraced city they had once lived in. It was all brown and the air over it was all hazy. There was smoke coming out of all chimneys and they had come to expect a gunshot every other minute. 

On the walk, Fred started to admire his father, who he found out was called Peter. He learned about his story after being announced on 'Midnight Massacres'. It was very similar to Fred's. He got the same call, telling him the same things, in the same voice to go to the same place. 

They carried on down the other side of the mountain. The view changed significantly, though still remained very bad. They were looking on what used to be a forest, but now a barren wasteland. Peter told Fred about the fire that happened 20 years ago when the government decided to burn it down for a new planting. The government suddenly got preoccupied with war and conflict to bother to plant a new forest. It remained as sombre ever since. 

With all the excitement of meeting his dad, Fred forgot to even ask what was happening.

"So, we are going to a, well... secret base you could call it." Peter explained "though we prefer the term 'headquarters'"

"'We?'" said Fred

"You see, we're going to an anti-government organization. It is mainly for people that had been called out for 'Midnight Massacres'. It is mainly for protection but we also have a group of people that serve different functions with the ultimate goal of bringing down the government."