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This is not a fairy tale. Be warned. |
| Prologue. Once upon a time. Yeah right. A cloaked man walked slowly toward the stationary van. His jetblack hair was uncommon in this part of the country. Inside that van were numerous enemies of the state. As the cloaked man walked closer one man followed him. The cloaked man was oblivious to this as he walked closer and closer to that van. After a few minutes of walking, he saw something in his side vision. Behind him was a person he thought he would never see again. The cloaked man patted the shape of his Mk-23. He had two options. He could run toward the van and alert the man to his awareness. Or he could pull out his weapon and give the van time to escape. He knew his life was over. Slowly he pulled out his Mk-23 out of his hidden hoister. He looked at the van. He knew what he was going to do. “Good Evening traitor how may I help you today.” The cloaked man spoke a gravel tone. “Let me see your hands John Zane.” The voice belonged to Carlos Vok, a headstrong double agent. “I see you know my name. No matter. I think we both know what is about to happen.” John said. “Indeed John I do, nothing personal of course.” Carlos said. Carlos pulled out his pistol. John Zane hit the floor hard, breaking a rib but saving his life, as a bullet whizzed past the moving van. John gritted his teeth. He would not be killed. Not like this. John rolled to his right as a bullet chipped his shoulder. “Give it up John. Your friends are not here to help you.” Carlos sneered. “You.Wont.Kill.Me.” John breathed “We will see about that.” John screamed out in pain as Carlos kneecapped him. But still he would not give up. Not to a double crosser. He limped toward Carlos with a gun in his hand. Once again Carlos shot him. But he would not die, not like this, not here, and certainly not now. Carlos fell to the ground as a bullet smashed into his stomach. “Give it up Carlos. Your friends are not here to help you.” John said. “Well, Well, Well. You managed to say something intelligent.” Carlos growled. Those were the lost words of Carlos Vok. John slowly limped away. This is not a fairy tale. This is not a happy story. This is life. This is life in the second decade of the 21st century. The Wake-up call. John was born January 1st 2000. He was an only child. He never knew his parents. He never liked school. Everything was too structured, too superficial. “John. You need to leave the city. You have a price on your head.” The speaker was a friend of John. He had jet-black hair, and had experience in John’s field. “Where would I go Chiv? They will track me down where I go. It is better to stay here.” John said. John swore as bullets shattered the windows. He looked at the corpse of his best friend. He ran to a small steel wall as bullets littered the two bedroom apartment. He was trapped. Desperatly he looked around the apartment looking for anything he could use to get out of here. He looked soberly at the broken window. It was his only hope. Yet it was crazy. Outside that window were half a dozen people who wanted to kill him. He found his pistol and reloaded it. I am insane. He dashed through the window. Bullets whizzed past his head as he unloaded a clip into his attackers. On attacker clutched his chest and doubled over onto the floor. He slid through the place where the door should have been. Quickly he dashed left onto the staircase. Not looking back on the death place of his only friend, he rushed through the fire escape onto the rugged roof. Behind him he could hear rumbling footsteps gaining on him. He took a deep breath. He then jumped off the roof. It was the only option. He was in freefall for many seconds. He was a thousand feet in the air. A helium balloon was floating in the air in front of him. Suddenly he had a idea. He grabbed the string of the helium balloon and hold on for dear life as he fell slowly toward the street below. Bystanders gapped in amazement as a strange man floated in the air with nothing but a small balloon to hold on to. Finally he landed on the concrete ground beneath him. As he ran out of danger he finally noticed the many gunshot wounds on his body. In a dark alley he finally fell down losing blood. He lay there for two hours. Finally a beautiful looking woman found him. She had golden hair that was dwarfed by her simple red dress. She was average height for her age. John stared at the women, trying to beg for help. The woman helped him up and without a word drove him to a warehouse. John was passing out as the woman drove into the dank dirty warehouse. “Welcome to the underground John Charous Zane.” The beautiful woman said. … John woke up on a small bed somewhere in the dark warehouse. He moaned in pain when he tried to get up. His gunshot wounds were bandaged. However they were not fully healed yet. He thought what the woman said. For many years John had been a part of the Revolution. However the Revolution ended violent only a few years before. John was confused. “Good morning John.” “Who are you.” John asked. “My name is irrelevant at the moment.” The woman answered. “I am giving you a choice John. Work for us and you get to live past the age of 30. Or you can choose to run away, in which case we will not help you when you get ambushed by the undercover agents across the street.” “It doesn’t seem like I have a choice.” John said. “Good. You are learning.” The woman said. “I thought the Revolution was over. What are rebels like you doing in the most regulated place in the country?” John asked. “I could ask you the same question John. But I won’t; mostly because I already know the answer. You are here because you have nowhere else to go. We are here because this is the heart of the Imperial thugs that killed your friend and millions of other people.” John did not bother to ask how she knew about his friend. “I will leave you to rest. When you are healed Ron Balthazar will be training you. Welcome to the Underground. You can call me Jane.” “I thought your name was irrelevant.” John chimed. “Things can change John.” Jane walked away as John reflected on his new life. For seven weeks. John went about in his new life. Every morning he was lectured by Balthzar about the underground. John was fed, clothed and mingled into the Underground Society. He met many leaders of the Underground and got to know its history. The Underground was founded two years ago by fugitives from the State. They started to recruit other outlaws until the ground was one thousand strong. Those two people were killed six months ago along with ten other leaders. Nobody knows what happened. John and Jane started to talk to each. They slowly bonded and were soon good friends. However good things always come to a end. John heard a large booming sound before he was blown away by the blast. It was sudden and unexpected. The moans of dying men littered the dirt filled ground. “John. Where are you?” Jane was looking for him. “Over here.” John said weakly. “John I know you are in no position to walk but we have to get out of here. The State found us.” Jane was covered with blood. John weakly got up to his trembling feet. He followed Jane through the rubble of the Underground. He carried his pistol. Not that he would be able to use it. “John theres something I want to say to you.” Jane said. “I lov- Jane was interrupted by another explosion. She was knocked off her cold feet. “JANE! I will come back for you. I promise!.” John ran as fast as his injured legs could carry him. “Sir he is escaping!” “Kill him or I kill you.” “ Yes sir.” John jumped over a concrete block as bullets shattered the surface behind him. Bullets continued to thicken the musty air around him. John kept running. A bullet shattered his shoulder blade. But he kept running. Finally he came to a staircase. He closed the door behind him as bullets smashed into the doorframe. “Break that door!” John limped up the staircase as the Underground slowly became extinct. For the second time in recent memory, he was alone, and he had nowhere to go. John finally came upon the rusty door leading to the decrepit roof. He looked for a way to the ground below. However he was not lucky this time. Two people advanced upon him as he stood at the edge of the narrow roof. “Its over John Zane.” “You are right. It is over.” John rushed toward the speaker. John fell to the ground as a bullet smashed through his collar bone. He was done for and he knew it. There must be a way out of this. There is always a way. “Ah. You are still alive” John rolled over just as a bullet smashed into the roof tiles. John swiftly aim a kick to his attacker’s groin. The attacker moaned in pain. This gave John all the time he need. He grabbed his Mk-23 and shot his attacker in the kneecaps. However many other people were coming up the stairs and he did not have much time He found a fire escape on the roof of another building. He jumped for it. John almost didn’t make it. Bullets flew past his tan body as he jumped over the edge. He landed on the fire escape with no room to spare. He ran down the fire espcae into the cold dark alley. He walked into the crowed street and walked away, blending into the mult-racial crowd. Otan examined the fire escape. Once again John escaped his clutches. However he was determined to find him, and kill him. He never failed a mission. Never. “Carlos, find him, and bring him to me alive.” … John was on the run once again. He had no one to turn to. He realized that he was a dead man. So he turned to Alcohol for guidance. For six months he turned into a drunkard. He lived after straps and slept in a alleyway. He was depressed and was going insane. It was only a matter of time before he found. He knew he would be a easy target. After 8 months he was finally found by Carlos. Carlos was a friend he made at the Underground. They had the same background, as they were both raised without any parents. They quickly became friends. At that same time John also found some Underground survivors. He was to meet them at a alleyway where a van would pick him up. John slowly walked toward the van, weary of a trap. Carlos was behind him trailing him. John did not know about Carlos’s survival. After a few minutes of walking he glanced behind him. He saw Carlos, and knew he was up to no good. “Hello Carlos. I have to say, I am shocked that you are alive.” John patted his old pistol that he kept with him at all times. “Come with me John.” Carlos said. “I am afraid I can’t do that old friend. It appears you have switched sides. I do not like traitors. John quietly loaded his pistol. “I am not giving you a choice John. My boss wants you dead.” “Carlos Vok, do you really think I can’t defend myself.” John was hungover and not feeling that great. “Goodbye old friend.” John fell hard on the ground as a bullet whizzed past his head. However he was not invincible. The next shot slammed into his stomach with the force of ten punches at the same time. “You will not kill me you traitorous beast.” John checked his stomach wound. It was not looking good for him. Another bullet slammed into the floor where his head would have been if he had not rolled over and got on his feet. I staggered backward as he shoulder blade was cracked from the point blank force of a bullet. “It is over for you John. Any last words before I shot your head off?” Carlos sneered. “I have many last words Carlos. But there is nothing I will say but this. Boom.” Carlos was knocked off his feet as John pulled out his pistol and shot him in the stomach. However Carlos pulled off one last shot. It hit John square in the chest. “Now we are both dead.” Carlos said. Carlos fell asleep for the last time. John was slowly dying. As he drifted into sleep the last image he recalled was that of a beautiful blonde woman. Jane. … John was dying. He drifted in and out of Consciousness. He vision was blurred and all he could hear was scattered voices. “Jane give it a rest. There is nothing we can do for John. He doesn’t have much time left.” He was familiar with the voice but could not pinpoint where he heard it. “He is our only hope for survival. I never told him who he was.” John remembered this voice as Jane. However he did not know who Jane is. “He will have servere memory loss even if he does live. After he was shot he literally smashed his head open on the ground. “I can hear you guys.” John said weakly. “Oh my God. He’s alive, John do you know who I am?” Jane asked tenderly. “No.” John answered. John drifted out of consciousness once more. John was fighting against odds to survive. He did not know who he was. He did not know how he came to be in this state. Oh he knew was that he had to survive. And so for sixteen hours John fought, and for sixteen hours he drifted in to Consciousness only to lose the battle to his War aginst Death time, time again. However he did not give up his desperate fight to stay alive even though he mind was not aware. John slowly opened his eyes. “Good morning. It seems you are awake. You do not know who you are. In fact you are probably wondering why you have been out for sixteen hours. Well for starters, your name is John Zane. Secondly you were dead for twenty minutes, you are lucky to be laying there confused. This is your second chance John. You see, you were shot three times, and then you smashed your skull against the concrete floor. But now you are alive, and in a few months you will fully recovered.” The man was in his late forties. John could think that much. However that was all he knew, and right now, all he really wanted to know about this strange man. Something in John’s brain turned on. He had a brief flash of soldiers dressed in black leather uniforms, breaking down a apartment door, and shooting at someone he guessed was someone he knew. “Excuse me sir, but who do you work for.” John asked. “You really have no idea who I am? Good. It will be easier for me you extract information from. As for whom I work for, well let’s just say your friends don’t like my bosses very much. Another image snapped into John’s Brain. This guy is going to interrogate something that I don’t want him to see. I don’t know what it is, but whatever it is, he will not have it. John searched for an exit. At last he found a small door leading to a corridor. Even though could not even move his legs. He somehow lifted his frail body out of the cold steel bed. “I never catched your name Mr… “ Tiben Naturan.” The man said. “Well Tiben, I am afraid you are not going to get whatever it is you are looking for.” John said. John threw himself at Tiben knocking Tiben cold. He found a weapon and picked it up. It looked like a small pistol. John limped out of the cold steel room. “John is that you?” A blonde woman came up to him. John remembered a name. It was Jane. “Who are you?” John asked. “My name is irrelevant.” Chapter One John navigated the dark tunnel. Or rather, he followed Jane. John could hear hard steady footsteps slowly chasing John. John crumbled to the slushy ground. “Go without me. I am slowing you down.” John said. “John I here in the first place because of you, why would I abandon the only possible reason I would be here?” Jane slowed down. “You have a point.” John grunted. “There they are. Kill them!” The voice came from a hundred yards behind them. “ John go faster!” Jane yelled. John pushed his suffering legs. I will not die. Not here. John ducked as a bullet flew past where his head was. He pushed on, knowing full well what the chances were of him surviving. Another bullet flew past him as the soldiers drew closer and closer to kill him. John flinched as a bullet singed his head. Still he kept running. Jane was ahead of him, but John somehow had a feeling Jane would die for him if it meant he would live. John ran and ran, and still there was no light at the end of the tunnel. |
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