The Dissenters

by Lauren M. Flauding

  The Dissenters

  by Lauren M. Flauding

  © 2016 by Lauren M. Flauding

  Blurtery Publishing

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the author.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 1

  I hear them before I see them. The pulsating hum of the sleek, black, air ships filling the sky above me sends cold sweat trickling down the back of my neck. Memories of people running frantically across the deck of the training barge, bloodied and stunned from the rapid fire coming from the foreign ships floods my subconscious. I escaped the deadly gun shots then. But that was when I was Amplified. All I have now is my own wits and a pair of skinny legs ready to run.

  I drop the bag of carrots I was collecting and sprint toward the silo. People thought my mom and I were crazy for building a shelter underneath the old structure, but now I see all the farm laborers running in that direction. I hope it's big enough to hold all of us. The black ships open fire. I run down the rows of crops, feeling dirt spray on my legs from the bullets raining down around me. I feel one sting my shoulder and out of the corner of my eye I see blood seeping through my shirt.

  "Mari! Help me!"

  I can barely see my friend Brexlynn stumbling out of the tall corn stalks. Her leg is covered in blood and she can barely walk. I double back and sling her arm across my shoulder, guiding her out of the field. She's so small, I'm practically carrying her as we run to the shelter.

  People are cramming into the small opening at the base of the silo. We're caught up in the frenzy of bodies and pushed through the small tunnel until we spill into the chamber that was crudely dug out with a modified backhoe. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dimness — there are only a couple light bulbs dangling from the dusty cement ceiling.

  We built the shelter after working hours. My mother would secure all the equipment and instruct me how to dig out the cavity underneath the silo. I loved working the controls of that rusty machine, watching it respond so readily and move huge amounts of earth in seconds. We had a few people help when it came time for mixing and laying the cement and creating ventilation, but for the most part, we engineered and executed the shelter all on our own. Most of the other laborers would roll their eyes or laugh when they saw us working on it. They're not laughing now.

  "Careful! You're stepping on my feet!"

  "Sorry Judd, there's no room for personal space," I explain roughly to the older man as I push to the back. "We probably need to fit about 30 more down here."

  Judd grunts angrily, but nevertheless moves to the back of the room with us. I survey the people around me. Many are clutching wounded arms and legs, a few are curled up on the ground, unable to stand. Everyone is solemn. Some are in pain, some are distraught, but they all have a dead look in their eyes. They wanted to believe all the lies the Governor told to explain away the odd occurrences, the strange deaths, the numerous "accidents." But deep down they must have known.

  "I think I'm going to pass out."

  In all the chaos I forgot Brexlynn was next to me. I peer down at her small frame. Her face is pale and she's shaking all over. I help her to sit on the ground and look over her wounded leg. It looks like a bullet ripped through the flesh on her calf. There shouldn't be any lasting damage, but she's losing a lot of blood.

  I crouch down and tear off a piece of my sleeve to make a tourniquet above the wound. There's a stray burlap bag in the corner; I grab it and wrap it lightly around her calf, then sit down facing her and prop her leg up on my knee. She winces a little, but otherwise doesn't complain. Of everyone in here, it seems Brexlynn would have the most reason to be frightened. As she's the only other non-Amplified person my age, we naturally became friends. Her parents are under investigation for disloyalty to the Equality Movement, so she was transferred here from her compound and told she had to wait 2 years before she received Amplification. She still desperately wants to be Amplified, but she's handling the whole situation very well, despite how alone and ostracized she must feel. I feel alone and ostracized by choice, but at least I still have my family with me.

  I wonder what's happening at the school where my younger brother Daniel is right now. The Community has been adding security measures to the schools, acting as if it's just routine updates, so I'm hoping he's safe. As for my mother, I haven't been able to spot her in here yet. I can't see much from my position on the floor, so I get the attention of a man standing close by.

  "Do you see my mother, Felicia Quillen?"

  "She's right by the entrance," he responds immediately.

  I sigh in relief. I can always count on the men here on the farm to be aware of my mom. Seems like some of them never take their eyes off of her. Usually it's annoying, but today I'm grateful for their attention. No doubt several of them made sure she got safely to the shelter.

  The muffled gun fire from the air ships transitions into heavier explosions. The bombs don't seem to fall very often, but their impact is unsettling; shaking the already unsteady walls around us. The air is getting thin with so many in this small space, and people are starting to get anxious.

  "How long is this going to last?" Brexlynn whispers.

  "Until the soldiers stop them or they run out of ammunition," I respond feebly, trying to make it sound like a joke. Unfortunately, it comes off really foreboding.

  "Should have known they couldn't just leave us in peace," Judd growls above us. "We didn't want any part of their mind-addling technology or Equality Movement, and we're still targeted. We're stuck right in the middle of the conflict."

  The old man always seems to have something to complain about, but this time he does have a point. Most of the laborers have chosen to reject Amplification, and yet here we all are, bleeding and cowering from an enemy who is primarily seeking out the Amplified.

  "They just want the technology, they don't care who gets in the way," a woman next to him remarks. "Especially a bunch of clams."

  There is a small uproar from her use of the derogatory term, but a large explosion overhead shakes the ceiling and silences the group. Soon enough, though, someone else a few feet away timidly breaks the silence.

  "I knew things were a little tense, but I never thought it would get this extreme. What's going to happen after this? Is this an invasion?"

  Her questions are met with more uncomfortable silence. Surely everyone must have an idea of what this means, but no one wants to talk about it. Perhaps they think that if they ignore it for long enough, it'll simply go away, much like the suspicions and threats that have been circulating for the past several months. These would be hurriedly stamped out or rationalized away by the Restrainers as the work of "irresponsible youth" or "harmless Dissenters," effectively appeasing the gullible minds of hundreds of members of our Comm
unity. But the events of the past few hours have destroyed that false sense of assurance. Despite what the Governor and the Restrainers have tried to keep quiet, the inevitable has finally happened.

  We're at war with The North.

  Chapter 2

  The air ships destroyed most of the crops. After I made sure Brexlynn was safely on her way to the compound clinic, I emerged from the shelter and saw that the fields had been completely bombed out. There are reserves at the nutrition factory, but probably only enough to last for two or three weeks. Looks like the North wasn't trying to kill us, at least not immediately anyway. They're wiping out our food supply and slowly killing us by starvation. It's a brilliant tactic, albeit merciless.

  There is a possibility that we could obtain resources from elsewhere, but who knows if the other communities would be friendly to us, or if they're even in a position to help us. The North might have taken out their food supplies as well. It still makes me uneasy to think about other people beyond our own Community, information of which I was unaware until the attacks from the North and my brief encounter with Miles Paxton.

  Even now, standing in the ruins of the farm, I feel my cheeks flush at the thought of Miles. It seems like it was much longer than just a year ago when he showed up with the Dissenters during their invasion of the training barge. It was the first time I'd seen him in three years, and I still have trouble working through the range of emotions I felt that night. Our reunion was cut short when I was instructed by the Override to kill him. Luckily, I was able to resist long enough to let Miles get away, but I still shot him in the shoulder.

  I'm a little frustrated that I haven't seen him since I've been home. Although, I don't really know what I would say if I did. "Hey, I think about you all the time and oh, by the way, sorry I tried to kill you." In all honesty, I don't know if my mandated assault has anything to do with his absence, but I can't imagine anything from our last meeting is encouraging him to come seek me out. I thought about asking my mom for information about Miles, knowing that she hid him at the farm last year, but for some reason I don't want her to know that I'm interested in finding out where he is. I suppose if I find the Dissenters, I'll find Miles. Only problem is, the Dissenter base is so well hidden that the Restrainers, even with all their enhanced abilities, have yet to discover its location.

  I snap out of my thoughts of Miles when I see my mother stumbling toward me. She's being led by an ancient-looking woman with a surprisingly spry step.

  "Mari," she calls out as she grabs my hands, "I just heard from the school and Daniel is fine."

  I exhale in relief. I was fairly certain that he'd be all right, but it's still good to get confirmation.

  "Thanks for letting me know, mom, I really hope — "

  "And Adrian is safe too," my mom interjects.

  "Oh, good," I reply feebly. My heart sinks as I realize that I'd completely forgotten about my older brother during this crisis. I've only seen him once since I returned from training, and it was a pretty tense meeting. No matter what I said, I couldn't make him understand why I had my Amplifier removed. He kept telling me I was narrow-minded and behind the times, that I was betraying my potential. Those accusations tore at my resolve. By the time I stomped out of his office at the hospital, I was really starting to question why I had denied Amplification.

  I push aside the memory of that meeting and instead focus back on my mother. She appears to be unharmed, but her left leg is shaking.

  "How are you, mom? Is everything all right?"

  "Oh, I'm fine," she responds. But the old woman at her side apparently disagrees.

  "Fine?" She spouts incredulously, "Felicia, you were in the storage center when it got blown to bits!" The woman turns and addresses me. "She was buried underneath pounds of debris and it took 3 of us to dig her out!"

  My mom smiles at me. "Yes, Evelyn was very helpful and I'm grateful that she found me! But considering everything, I'm really not feeling much pain."

  My eyes widen. I step forward and pull up my mom's pant leg. Her knee is twisted and swollen.

  "Mom, we need to get you to the hospital!" I tell her in alarm.

  "No, really, it's not that bad. I can wait until after we've accounted for all the salvageable crops."

  I stare at her in disbelief. This is one of the times I wish she wasn't blind, so she could actually see the concern on my face and maybe take her situation more seriously.

  "Actually, Mari," she continues, "how about you help me walk back to the storage center so I can give Evelyn some relief."

  I share a look of exasperation with Evelyn as I take her place by my mother's side. We both know she shouldn't be walking on that leg, but sometimes my mom is as stubborn as I am, so I dutifully begin to lead her to the remains of the storage area. Plus, it's nice to help her out for a change - I still feel indebted to her for all the time she spent taking care of me.

  When I first came back from Training, I was completely despondent. I laid in my bed all day and wouldn't get up for anything. Without my Amplifier, I felt useless, incapable of doing anything. So I did nothing. My mother would bring me nutrition and hydration capsules and force me to eat them. She would try to encourage me with stories, love, and ingenuity. She even gave me sponge baths. This went on for three weeks until one day, my mother disappeared. Daniel wasn't anywhere in the house either.

  I laid in bed unattended and unmoving for 2 days, until my hunger overcame my apathy and I stumbled down the hall to the nutrition cabinet. That act of desperation was what I needed to finally wake up and start pulling myself back together. My mom and Daniel came back a few days later.

  When I asked her why she left me all alone, my mother responded:

  "Sometimes the best way to help a person is to give them no other option than to help themselves."

  She was right.

  I shiver at the thought of how pathetic I was during that time and pull my mom closer to me so she can walk more securely.

  "Honey, what's wet on your shoulder?" My mom asks after we've walked a few feet. I glance over and see that my shirt sleeve is soaked in blood. Somehow, with everything else going on, I must have forgotten that I was shot when I was running to the shelter.

  "Oh, it's nothing," I reply. "A bullet grazed my shoulder during the attack earlier."

  "What?" My mother exclaims, "You need medical attention immediately!"

  "No, mom, we're going to wait until all the crops are accounted for, remember?"

  "We need to get you to the hospital right away!"

  I sigh and turn to face my mom. She stumbles a little at the abrupt stop. "I'll go if you go."

  She furrows her brows at this ultimatum, but then, she starts to grin. For some reason, I start to laugh. We really are ridiculous; two people too obstinate to take care of our injuries.

  Soon we're both laughing so hard that we can no longer stand up. We fall to the ground, likely making our wounds worse, and yet we still can't seem to get control of our unexplainable giddiness. We're in range of the exploded storage center, and there are bits of shredded crops and chunks of cement on the ground around us. We must be a bizarre sight. Sitting in the dirt, bruised and bloody, surrounded by the wreckage of a brutal attack, and laughing at the top of our lungs.

  Chapter 3

  "This is so exciting! Everyone from the entire Community gathered together in one place! Where are they going to put all of us?"

  I cringe a little at Brexlynn's enthusiasm for the Community meeting; my feelings are exactly the opposite.

  "The Restrainers will probably just herd us into a field and project the Governor's message on one of the buildings," I say glumly in response to her question.

  "Or maybe they've built a huge amphitheater..." Brexlynn muses, trailing off.

  I hate going to the city. It's crowded, and dirty, and full of Amplified people. It's interesting how intensely I feel my non-Amplified status now that it's never again going to be an option for me. Even though it was ultimately m
y choice, I still get bitter sometimes when I watch people use their Amplifier to complete tasks with such ease. This is my second time going to the city this week. The first time was a couple days ago when my mom and I finally went to the hospital.

  The huge facility was overflowing with people who had been wounded in the attack from the North. We sat in the hallway with hundreds of others, waiting for one of the doctors on rotation to be able to see us. While we were waiting, Adrian walked by. He was understandably busy with all of the "back up," so he couldn't talk to us for very long. I didn't mind, there wasn't much I wanted to say to him anyway.

  When we finally got in to see a doctor, he barely even looked at us. He hurriedly put my mom's leg in a cast and just cleaned and bandaged my shoulder. I remember being frustrated, thinking we could have gotten about the same level of care at our compound clinic and saved ourselves the cumbersome trip into the city. As we were leaving, the doctor asked my mom if she'd like him to check on any possible treatments for her blindness. She just gave an odd smile and politely refused. The doctor looked surprised, but apparently not enough to press the matter further.

  And now we're headed back to the city for a mandatory announcement to the entire Community from Governor Plenaris. I thought it was a little ridiculous to make everyone come together just to watch a projection of the Governor, but I suppose our precious leader has more important things to do than address all of his adoring community members in person. It's just as well. If he was there in the flesh, I might do something irrational. Like try to kill him. I'd just be returning the favor, I'm fairly certain he tried to kill me last year when he commanded me through his personal Override to remove my own Amplifier.

  I shiver at my morbid thoughts, but mostly at the recollection of the Governor's face as he watched me writhe in agony that night a year ago. I still can't believe someone as cowardly and disgusting as him is in charge of our Community. I stare out the window into the darkness, wishing that this Mall-cruiser would move faster so we could get this all over with. I can't imagine Governor Plenaris is going to announce anything we don't already know; we're at war with the North, everyone is expected to work harder, etc., etc. I am hoping, however, that he'll reveal a bit more about who the North actually is and what they want.