An old dystopian short story

Why does everything have to be controlled like this?
Whats the point of the barriers and the trackers?
What do they want from us, really?
Everyone knows it can't be to keep us safe like they say, if it was surely, they wouldn’t kill us in the streets. Theres no safety in the way they rule no sense in anything they do.
who’s really in charge?
It can't be the so-called king he’s just like the rest of us trapped, controlled, told what to say and do just another prop in their elaborate show.
But who is it all for?
I could ask them these questions?
they might shoot me but isn’t that what they're going to do any way, unless they hang me, they do that sometimes …I’d rather be shot than hung, they let the bodies dangle for days I wouldn’t want my family to see that, I don’t want them to see me shot either but at least they take the bodies away quickly.
We’re here now in the centre of town I’m put in a line of people, I’m near the start so it will be over soon no more fear no more sadness maybe it's for the best.
they’ve shot the three in front of me… it's my turn now I find my family in the crowd and take one last look at their thin, tear-stained faces before closing my eyes and preparing for the bullet.




I hear the terrifying noise of the blaster but feel no pain, no blood flowing down my face - I open my eyes and see the soldier dead on the floor.
shot by a person in the crowd.
No, it couldn’t be someone in the crowd it just couldn’t, no one has access to any kind of weaponry.
Unless…I look around it can't be them, can it?
Then I see them - not many - but all carrying makeshift weapons - one of them is carrying a blaster
The blaster that killed the soldier.
she starts to shout her voice clear and calm as if this announcement had been practiced many times before now.
“Do not be alarmed everything is under control please make your way back to your accommodation.
Do not be alarmed everything is under control please make your way back to your accommodation.”
She repeats it over and over everyone is running are they scared that they are going to attack or that more soldiers will be sent out?
I should run too.
I should try to find my family.
But my feet are rooted to the ground I can't take my eyes of the body in front of me his blood is pouring on to my bare feet. I drag my eyes away and franticly look around, I can't see them, they left without me.
Or maybe they thought I was one of the three shot before, I look down at them I wouldn’t be surprised we all look the same - thin faces, shaved heads, grey jumpsuits Maybe taking our identities makes it easier to take our lives.




I feel a hand on my shoulder, he’s saying something, but I can't hear him. He’s shouting now but I just can't process the words he begins to shake me, and I realise what he must have been saying.
they’re coming.
There’s so many of them at least double the number of their insurgent counterparts
The man begins to drag me and soon Im out of the town centre and in the crowd of people all of them running from the soldiers.
Why they’re running I don’t know.
the soldiers are specially selected they are the strongest and fastest they will catch up with them in no time.
Theres no chance of them surviving even if they did outrun them, they would just track them.
Well, me at least. Ive heard they tear out their trackers with knives or razors.
Why are they dragging me along then?
Why do they want to save me I’m nobody?
A nobody that will doom them all.
I hear the almost deafening whir of helicopter blades - i suppose it makes sense now why they were running the soldiers may be fast, but they can't fly…
Well not yet anyway.
I get pushed into the copter and within seconds my arm is cut, and wires pulled out.
I begin to lose consciousness as I try to process what has happened.
I have so many questions and I still don’t get why they saved me …. I suppose they consider themselves "good people".
But it doesn’t matter why, all that matters is that I’m safe now, well safer than i was before anyway.