Rebellion (Zero Series)

by Huth, Jacob

  “I have had a backup plan for a few years. That’s why I brought us here,” he said. We continued through the tunnel and it led into a large room. There was a large computer as well as many boxes full of scientific technology. I looked around and asked, “What is this place?”

  “This is the home of the Insurgency. Our parents spent a lot of time here. I stumbled upon it when I was just wandering around out here. I guess Kraken never got the location of this place and it just stayed untouched. We can stay here and we can work on those cases of notes in your house,” he said.

  The notes. I had forgotten about all the information we left behind. “How are we going to get those footlockers back?” I asked.

  “We can sneak back into the city at night and retrieve them,” he said, “We will have to disguise ourselves so Kraken agents don’t recognize us. I think there are some extra clothes lying around here.”

  “Let’s take a look around and see what we can find. We will have to set up a place to live among all of this hardware,” I said.

  “I already have. I have been coming out here a couple times a week ever since I found it,” Frost said.

  “Why didn’t you ever tell me that you found this place?” I asked.

  “I didn’t know how you would react. I mean look how you reacted to Pipes’ death. I had no idea how you would respond to being in a place that your parents spent a lot of time,” he replied.

  I hadn’t thought of that. It made sense that he would consider that when he decided to not tell me.

  “I guess that makes sense. Thanks,” I said.

  He nodded and walked over to a mattress and plopped down on it. I started looking around the room. It was incredible. The ceilings were higher than you would think being that it was in a sewer tunnel. The walls were held up by large steel beams and there were lights hanging down all over the area. The floor was a large metal platform that separated the hardware from the stone floor by a few feet. There was a large computer that sat against one of the walls with a workstation next to it. On the workstation there was a strange glass tube with a metal holder and a keypad next to it. I figured that it must be some sort of test tube that manufactures technology. I could take a look at a later time. I walked over to the living area that Frost had set up to see what he had brought to the cave. There were two beds, a small bathroom and a small stove. “Is there more than this?” I asked him.

  “There is a room that they kept armor in I think. It’s over on the other side of the main chamber. There is also a shower in the bathroom. I don’t know how they got the parts for a shower, but they did, and it is amazing. It is so much better than having to bathe in a tub of cold water,” he said.

  “I’m going to go test that out I think,” I said walking to the bathroom. I turned on the shower and felt the warm water come out of the head. It was so refreshing. Nobody in Marsh City had showers. Kraken confiscated them because they said that it was a luxury that we didn’t deserve. I stood in the shower for a long time before I was shocked back into consciousness by the water turning cold. I quickly turned the shower off and grabbed a towel. I dried off and walked over to the mirror that hung by the sink. My hair was getting too long. It was black and hung down to my shoulders, and it was very messy and unkempt. I grabbed a nearby pair of scissors and started to cut my hair. I cut it down to a short length that kept me from looking shaggy. I walked out to the living are and sat down on my bed.

  “You cut your hair,” Frost said in a surprised tone.

  “Yeah it looked gross I thought. Is it almost time to go back to the city?” I asked.

  “Almost. You should go to the armory and look for a disguise. It may be better to have armor in case we run into trouble,” he replied.

  “Good thinking,” I said standing up. I walked over to the armory and saw that there was no door. There was just a curtain separating the two rooms. It seemed a little funny to me that they could make all of the technology but not a door. I laughed and brushed the curtain aside to reveal the armory. There were ten dummies around the room that each had different pieces of armor. Some were heavy pieces and some were lighter types. I mixed and matched some pieces I found on different stands to create my disguise. My torso, leg and arm pieces were made of a grey kevlar type material. My boots were durable but light and made of a strong, black mesh material. There was also a hood on the torso piece that helped shield my eyes from anybody seeing them but still kept my visibility high. It was light but I still felt protected. It was a lot nicer than most of the clothes I had owned in my life anyway. I made my way back into the main room and found Frost sitting in a chair reading a packet of papers. He looked up and stared for a minute before saying, “What are you supposed to be?”

  “It’s my disguise. What’s wrong with it?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” he said closing the packet, “I just didn’t think you would be dressing up like a ghost.”

  “I want to stay concealed,” I said.

  “Whatever you say,” he replied. He put on a cloak and shot a thin sheet of ice over his mouth like a mask. He asked, “Are you ready?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be,” I said back to him. We set out towards Marsh City under the cover of darkness. I was nervous. I had never done anything to disobey the ridiculous laws of the city. I tried to stay as inconspicuous as I could for years. I lived in a small shack, had a normal job hauling cargo at a local shop, and I only had a few friends who I talked to on a regular basis. None closer than Frost. We were bonded by tragedy. It was hard to accept the loss of my parents, but he understood that hardship as I did. We helped each other as often as needed and learned how to live off of only the basics. We had a few other acquaintances that we knew from the shop I worked. There was a girl who worked at the shop named Flare. She chose Flare because her hair was a reddish orange color. She was quiet but once you got to know her, she was one of the most caring people you would ever meet. Another acquaintance of ours was Jet. She worked at the tailor’s shop as an apprentice. Jet was gorgeous. She was tall and had short blonde hair. She had cutting blue eyes that were like gems. They were the two people we spent the most time with outside of work. We kept our abilities from even them. Even though they were our friends, we didn’t know who we could trust after a traitor caused the downfall of the rebellion.

  We were about halfway to Marsh City when Frost said, “I had a thought.”

  “What’s that?” I replied.

  “I was thinking about how we kept our spikes a secret. What if people we know have gene spikes and just didn’t tell us?” he asked.

  I pondered on it for a minute. That was a good point. How would we tell? “That is a good question. With the rate that people with gene spikes are rounded up, I guess that people would keep it secret if they had one,” I replied.

  “What about Flare? Or Jet? What if they have one?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. I have no idea how we would be able to tell,” I said.

  “That’s true,” he said distantly.

  “What’s the matter?” I asked.

  “Nothing. I was just thinking,” he said.

  “About Flare?” I said jabbing him in the ribs with my elbow.

  “Yeah actually. What do you think of her?” he asked.

  “She is smart. Good hygiene,” I said.

  “I’m being serious,” he said sternly.

  “What do you want me to say? It doesn’t matter what I think. If you are keen on her, then that’s all that matters,” I replied.

  “She is great. I guess it doesn’t matter now, though. We are fugitives,” he said.

  “That does complicate things,” I said, “It makes it hard to have social gatherings.”

  Frost laughed and said, “We’re almost there. When we get inside, we need to move quickly. We can’t afford anymore outbursts like earlier.”

  “I’ll try to control myself,” I said dryly. We came to one of the gates to the city. There were two Kraken guards, as usual.

  �
��What do we do?” Frost asked.

  “I have an idea,” I said. I focused on two rocks and flung them at the guards’ heads. They struck the guards simultaneously and knocked them out cold. We ran over to the bodies and knelt down.

  “That was nifty,” Frost said.

  “Thanks. Put some ice around their mouths and help me hide the bodies so when they wake up, nobody hears them,” I said.

  He put ice around their mouths and we dragged their bodies to a clump of bushes. We crept into the city and made our way into a back alley.

  “We shouldn’t be too far from your house,” said Frost.

  We moved swiftly through the alleys until we reached my back window. We opened it and climbed in. I walked over to the hiding spot where I kept my footlockers hidden. I quickly realized that we wouldn’t be able to get the third footlocker out with us. “How are we going to get the third case?” I asked frantically.

  Frost thought for a minute and said, “Flare has a cart I think. We could see if she would let us use it.”

  “What if she asked what we need it for? Or why we are dressed like this?” I asked.

  “Then we tell her,” Frost replied.

  “Just like that? What about the lecture you gave me about how I blew our cover?” I asked.

  “Well you screwed up far worse than I have and I think we can trust Flare,” he said.

  I thought about it for a minute and weighed the pros and cons. “Alright. Let’s go find Flare,” I said reluctantly.

  We quietly exited the house and started towards Flare’s house. I followed Frost through the streets. I put my hood down after a minute. I thought that the hood would make me look more suspicious. We approached Flare’s house. Frost knocked on the door. It opened slowly and the first thing I saw was Flare’s bright orange and red shoulder length hair. Her voice came through. “Frost? What are you doing in the open?” she asked opening the door wider, “Come in before someone sees you.”

  We entered the house and she shut the door behind us. She looked over at me and said, “I like the haircut.”

  “Thanks. It was time for a change,” I replied.

  “A change? Like attacking Hades at his first public appearance in ages?” she asked angrily, “You have a gene spike and you never told me? I thought we were friends.”

  “Let me explain. We kept our spikes secret because we didn’t want the same thing to happen to us that happened to our parents,” I replied.

  “We?” she asked looking over at Frost. The look on her face was horrifying. She had the look of a mother who was about to punish her child for breaking a lamp.

  Frost’s face turned red with embarrassment. “I was going to tell you. Today was an accident. We didn’t expect to have to go into hiding,” he said.

  “After all we have been through? You didn’t think you could trust me?” she said in a louder voice. His face turned a darker red. “Since we are revealing secrets now, we should probably tell Zero,” said Flare.

  “Tell me what?” I asked already knowing the answer to my question.

  “We uh… we have been together for a few months,” Frost stuttered.

  “I knew it the whole time. He never stops talking about you,” I said to Flare.

  She smiled for the first time since we arrived. “So then, what’s your spike Frost?” she asked sarcastically suddenly realizing that his name and ability had a correlation.

  He held out his hand and made a diamond out of ice. He placed it in her hand and she looked at it. As she held it up, a small flame emerged from her hand and melted the ice. We both looked at her surprised. She slyly smiled and said, “We all have secrets.”

  “Well now that all the secrets are out, can you help us?” I asked.

  “What do you need help with?” she asked pouring a cup of water.

  “We have three footlockers of scientific papers at my house and we need to get them back to The Sanctum,” I said.

  “The Sanctum?” asked Frost in an almost laughing voice.

  “I thought of it on the way here. We need a name for it and it fits I think,” I replied.

  “What do you need my help with then?” she asked.

  “Frost said he thought you had a cart we could use,” I said. As I said this, I realized that this was just a ploy by Frost to get Flare in on our secret.

  “I don’t have a cart, but I can help carry one of the footlockers,” she said.

  “If Frost thinks it’s a good idea then you can come along,” I said.

  “Let me gather a few things,” she said. She grabbed a bag and started putting some of her belongings in it. She scooped up a cloak and we set back towards my old house. On the way, I heard a commotion in an alleyway. I looked to my right and saw a man being robbed at knifepoint by a much larger man. I threw my hood back up and took off towards them. I threw my hand down and the robber was smashed into the ground. The ground was to his hips and he started to struggle. I heard Frost and Flare’s footsteps close behind. Frost froze the criminal from the waist up and I pulled him out with a gravity flux. He laid on the ground frozen and the man who was being robbed looked with a mixture of fear and awe. How could that situation have looked to him? He suddenly was saved by three people who were strange looking and all had illegal abilities.

  He stuttered and asked, “Who are you?”

  Without thinking, I answered, “We are the Insurgency. Spread the word.”

  Frost looked over at me with wide eyes. Before I could realize what I had said, I took off running the opposite direction. I didn’t stop until I reached my house. I sat on my old bed and put my hood down. A few minutes later, the other two arrived. “Twice in one day? Is there just something in your brain that makes you do stupid things?” asked Frost.

  “I don’t know what happened. It just came out,” I said putting my head in my hands.

  “Lay off him Frost. He was just caught up in the moment,” said Flare.

  “Frost, you know I have wanted to start the Insurgency again. I think seeing Pipes today just made me snap. We have the resources in The Sanctum. We all have power. I won’t make you guys join, but I am going to start trying to make a difference,” I said.

  “You think I don’t want to make a difference? Of course I’m going to help. Besides, I feel responsible for you. You do some dumb things. Who else will keep you in check?” asked Frost.

  “I’m in too. I’m tired of living under Hades’ boot,” said Flare.

  “I have nothing better to do anyway. I’m a wanted man, too, remember?” said Frost.

  “Let’s get these footlockers back to The Sanctum then,” I said. We gathered the footlockers and a few of my belongings and we set off back to our hideout. We moved quietly through the streets and made it through the gate where we had incapacitated the guards earlier. After a short walk, we made it back to the entrance to The Sanctum. We crossed through the tunnel and into the main area. Flare looked around impressed at our hideout.

  “Not too bad. This is a nice place, kind of like a lair,” she said.

  “Thanks. I’ll show you the living area,” Frost said.

  “I’ll be sure to move my bed. I can sleep in the armory,” I chimed in.

  “We can work to build some separate rooms tomorrow,” Flare said to me, “Oh by the way. You may want to try to pop back into town to see Jet. I know she will want to see you. She was worried after the outburst at the square.”

  “I’ll be sure to go visit her. It will have to be at night though. I don’t think that going into the city during the daytime is very smart right now,” I said dragging my bed across the room to the armory.

  “I’ll see you in the morning. We need to sort through this equipment and paperwork to see what we have to work with for our rebellion. We also need to see about setting up a supply chain for food and supplies,” said Frost.

  “We’ll meet tomorrow. I need to sleep. It has been a… busy day,” I said.

  Flare laughed and said, “We’ll see you tomorrow.”
>
  I waved and walked into my new room. I sat down on my bed which was surprisingly comfortable. I took off my new armor and changed into my old clothes. I laid back and stared at the ceiling. I started wondering if my parents would be proud of what I was doing. Sleep slowly crept up on me. The Insurgency was finally reborn.

  Chapter 2: The Science of Rebellion

  The next morning we gathered around a small table and ate a breakfast of dehydrated foods that the scientists left in case of emergency. It tasted so horrible but we had nothing else so it had to do. “So what are we going to do about food?” asked Flare.

  “That’s a good question. We need to figure out how to acquire real food. This dehydrated food can’t sustain us forever,” I replied.

  “I was thinking about something last night. When you told that guy we saved about us starting the rebellion again, do you think he actually went and told people what happened?” asked Frost.

  “I hope he did. We will need support. It can’t be just us, otherwise it will just be like hitting our head against a wall. Kraken’s resources run deep,” Flare replied.

  “I don’t think it will be as easy for us to get into the city as it was last night. I’m willing to bet that Kraken will upgrade security once they find the bodies we hid. Maybe you can go in and out of the city for us Flare. You aren’t on Kraken’s radar and until we can secure a supply line and some help, we will need someone who can go into town and be our eyes and ears,” I said.

  “That’s a good idea. I need to get going anyway. For now, I’m going to keep my job at the shop until we figure out a way to run this operation,” she said standing up, “I will be back later tonight.”

  “I’ll walk you out,” Frost said.

  “Flare,” I said quickly, “Maybe you should bring Jet back with you. It wouldn’t hurt to have another contact inside the city.”

  “I’ll talk to her later when she comes by to pick up their weekly supply of thread,” she said.

  “Now wait a minute. We should think about this. We shouldn’t rush into bringing just anyone into the rebellion. Maybe you can talk to her and drop hints first, Flare,” Frost added.