Battleground of the Unknown

Chapter 3

The van comes to a complete stop. When it stops the radio of the plainclothes officer, who I am assuming is a sheriff, crackles with static. I hear a voice talking on the other side, but I can't make out what is being said.

"Yea, we've got the four suspects from last night's shooting." He says into the radio. More static filled talk follows. "Yep picked em' up about an hour ago." This time I can make out the words on the other line.

"I'll need the names." I hear.

"Uhh. Andrew Brice, Sean Pilgrim—what are the other names?" He asks the SWAT officer next to him."

"Raphael Alila and Brienna Connor." He replies.

"Raphael Alila and Brienna Connor." He says back into his radio, followed by more chatter on the other line. "Yep, three males and one female." He answers.

"Alright, come on through." From the other line.

The van then lurched forward again. The van makes a series of turns and then we stop again. The officer closest to the door opens it and steps out. The rest of them step out and the two officers beside grab me by both arms and pull me out of the van.

The sudden rush of sunlight causes me to squint. I look around me and see that I am inside of a prison yard, a heavily guarded prison yard at that. We are in front of the main building, and the entire yard is surrounded by thick walls almost twenty feet high, the inside perimeter of the wall is covered with two sets of barbed wire fencing. Even if someone managed to scale the fences they would still have the wall in their way. As if that isn't enough, I see four guard towers at each corner of the yard, with at least four guards inside. I can't see what's on the other side of the building, but I can tell that there are even more defenses. I see my friends then pulled out of their vans behind me. I make eye contact with Raphael, he gives me a grin telling me "we've got this". I nod back at him. I am turned back around by one of the guards facing the main entrance. I notice something that I didn't notice before. I see an unbelievable amount of news broadcasting trucks parked in front of the building. My friends are brought to my van and we stand next to each other, each of us is cuffed and held on to by a SWAT officer. That's when I see reporters and camera crew rush towards us.

"Oh hell no," I say.

Cameras crowd around us and people begin yelling and shouting questions at us and the SWAT officers.

"Move aside now!" I hear an officer yell, but no one in the hoard seems to hear. A camera is jammed into my face, and I see a woman yell a question at me, I can't understand her so I simply ignore what she asks. This seems to anger her so she tries to push the guard closest to her out of the way. This sets off an eruption of events. The guard she pushed drops his shield and grabs her by the arm. He shouts some kind of warning to her. Instead of her calming down, she jerks her arm away shouts something back. The officer then, with a swift movement, turns her around and cuffs her. The woman is hysterical with rage. The crowd of reporters surges forward on us. The front row of SWAT then lift their shields and begin to push through the crowd. The officer restraining me pushes me forward almost knocking me off of my feet. We continue to push through the hoard of people. We finally make it to the entrance of the building, where they aren't allowed to enter.

"Can someone explain to me, why the hell Channel 6 News is here!?" The plainclothes officer then comes out of nowhere and yells. "This is supposed to be a silent arrest." The other officers look confused. Except for the one holding me.

"Sorry sir, it wasn't clarified whether this arrest was supposed to be quiet or not." He answers.

"Sergeant Johnson, what did you do!?" The plainclothes shouts. At least I now know the name of the guy that arrested me and also ruined my life.

"Um. Again I'm sorry sir, my wife is a reporter, and she wanted me to update her on whatever happened regarding the arrest. She may or may not have just gotten arrested earlier." Johnson answers.

"Well, I hope she learned her lesson!"

Sean then begins to laugh hysterically. I stare at him in confusion.

"Is something funny kid?"

"Your daddy!" He yells in his face and keeps laughing.

"You kids these days really are idiots." The officer replies. As we are escorted down a hall towards what I assume is identity processing.

"Hold on." I hear Brienna say. "If he is the Sergeant, who are you?" She asks the plainclothes officer, referring to the officer named Johnson.

"FBI" Is all he replies.

"Unbelievable, so now the damn FBI is arresting innocent people!" I am on the verge of losing control of my anger. The FBI agent turns around and grabs me by the shirt collar and violently throws me against the wall as he jams his finger in my face.

"You know what asshole. I advise that you shut your damn mouth before I add officer impersonation to your sentence charge. Oh, wait. You just killed 85 people. It won't really matter your probably gonna' get executed anyway." He shouts into my face. I feel an anger so intense course through my veins that I begin to sweat. He lets go of me and the SWAT officer grabs me by the arm, then opens a door and brings me into a processing room.

I'm still unsure of how to process the situation that lies before me. I deeply consider the possibility that we were purposely framed for the crime so that the true culprits could get off easy. It is at this moment, that I make an oath with myself. That one day, somehow someway, I will get revenge on the ones responsible for ruining the lives of hundreds of people. Including ours. That I will show them what it feels like to fell helpless and vulnerable.