Odd

Part Four

That morning I could barely get dressed, but Scarlett said I had to try to look like I didn’t know. When we walked into the training room Bruce Donovan was waiting there.

“Zac, I have some bad news.” Here it comes. “You’re mother died of a freak aircar accident.” What? That’s a lie.  “It doesn’t happen very often, but it can be common if the car is not being taken care of properly.” He murdered my mother, and he’s trying to blame it on her!

“There will be no training today due to this tragic accident. You are dismissed.”

 I nodded, not looking him in the eye.

“Oh, and Zac?”

“Yeah?” I said weakly.

“I’m terribly sorry for your loss.” His voice sounded sincere, but there was an evil glint in his eyes. He wasn’t sorry. He wasn’t sorry at all. He was mocking me.

It was then that a spark lit in me. He can’t get away with this! Does this happen to everyone who gets “taken care of”?

We walk back to the apartment. “Zac? You okay?”

“Am I okay? He murdered my mother! Then lied about it! Plus, he tried to make it seem like it was her fault!” I yelled.

“I know. But lower your voice, someone will hear.”

I sighed and sank into the couch, my head in my hands.

“We have to do something. This can’t keep going on.” Scarlett sits next to me, soothingly rubbing my back.

“I know, don’t worry. We will fix this.”

“But how?” I asked, looking up at her, “What can we possibly do?”

“Future Leaders, remember?”

“Yeah, but we can’t wait till we become Leaders! Do you know how many deaths there will be if we wait?”

She sighed, “I know. So what do we do then?”

“I think I might have a plan.”

***

            We spent the entire day talking about our plan. Now it was night, and it was time to put it into action.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Ready.” Scarlett replied. I took her hand and intertwined it in mine while giving her a reassuring smile. We snuck into the vent again, until we got to where we heard the voices the first time. Scarlett dropped down first, me following.

We were exactly where we wanted to be. The security room. Cameras were everywhere, watching everything and everyone. We searched for something useful.

“Zac, look!” Scarlett pointed to a screen where Bruce Donovan was talking to a plump woman. I have to give myself credit, broadcasting this all over the world is a genius idea. We took out the camera and started recording the screen.

“Bruce, this has to stop! People are going to start getting curious!” yelled the plump woman.

“Calm down. No one is getting curious. They’re all too stupid to notice missing people.”

“Not for long! This is going to come and bite you back,” she said sternly.

He scoffed, “No way. Everything is going perfectly. Stop worrying.”

“Going perfectly? You just killed Zac’s mom for finding out! Zac is smart, not stupid. Do you really think he’s not going to check up on it?”

“He’s smarter than average, but still stupid. We’re fine. He believed the crap story I told him.”

The plump woman looked surprised, then worried, “Are you sure?”

“Positive,” Bruce replied. I couldn’t move, what did my mom find out? That getting “taken care of” is being killed? That must be it.

I turned the camera around to face Scarlett and I. “That footage you just saw was our great Leader, Bruce Donovan. He has been lying to us for 17 years. The Change did not fix anything. It made everything worse. We all get the minimal amount of everything to survive, and he gets to live in luxury.”

Scarlett spoke up, “And that’s not the only thing he has been lying about, he didn’t get rid of poverty peacefully, he killed off anyone that wasn’t working hard. He made it so everyone thought learning and school weren’t important anymore, making everyone stupid.”

Zac took over again, dropping the biggest bomb. “And if you have had relatives or friends that broke a bone and they weren’t able to work anymore, they were “taken care of”. A.K.A. they were killed. My mom was just murdered for finding that out. We cannot live like this anymore. Please, where ever you are, revolt! Stand up to this cruelty, because it is happening everywhere!”

At that moment, security guards broke through the doors and guns were aimed at us from every direction. I set the camera down so everyone could see. This is the moment I die.

“Are you ready?” I whispered in Scarlett’s ear.

She looked up at me, “For what?”

“To die a hero?”

“What better death is there?” She said, somewhat nervously, yet still confident in death’s doorway.

I took Scarlett’s face in my hands and spoke gently, “I’ve wanted to do this ever since I first laid eyes on you.”

My last moments were spent kissing the girl I had fallen in love with.