Chapter 3: A New Morning. A Beginning to a New World

When I wake up it is a few hours before dawn. I know this will be the time for Cody and me to go gathering. I slowly get out of my bed and try to not wake Bobby. He is snuggling with the corner of his blanket and smiling in his sleep. I stand in silence as I watch my little brother sleep for a few more moments before I go to the closet and grab my gathering clothes. I slip into my brown capris, black tank-top and black gym shoes. I ease the door open and leave the room.

“Are you ready to go gathering?” Cody asks me as I walk into the living room. He is wearing matching brown pants, black t-shirt and black shoes. I smile at him and grab my basket. We leave the house and start walking straight to the woods.


“What do you think of Novus Terra?” Cody asks me out of nowhere. I look at him with a perplexed expression “I mean, remember when we were kids and everything was normal. Everything before Imperium decided to call war on everyone.”

“Well, I hate it. I miss the time when we could all just be free to do as we please, when things didn’t cost so much. I hate President Cilark!” I yell as we sit beneath an oak tree. “But what does it matter anymore?”

“What if we stopped Imperium? What if we accomplished what our fathers tried to almost four years ago?”

“You mean start a war? We will just get killed the same way they did.” I say in a quiet voice. I am silent as I think this over. How can Cody be even thinking about starting a war? How can he expect us to even win? I think to myself.

“Think about it Kat. We could beat them. We can get all of Novus Terra against the small government in Imperium.” He says as he looks at me. I am watching the grass slowly blowing in the warm breeze. “Please Kat, think about it.”

“I want to Cody, but it’s just too hard to imagine. Imperium has a whole army behind them, and who knows if they secretly kept any of the mutant soldiers.” I say with a frown. I am still trying to process everything when Cody takes my hand in his.

“Look at me Kitty.” He says in a quiet and urging voice. He has only ever called me Kitty once, and that was when we were kids and he was trying to apologize for pushing me in the playground. I look up at him and we lock eyes with one another. “I wouldn’t suggest this if I didn’t think we would stand a chance.” We continue to stare into each others’ eyes until I finally look away.

“Okay, I will think about it. You have to give me a few days to think.” I say as I stand up. I start walking away, towards a berry bush that I have been staring at for a while.
As we get back to the house I can tell something is wrong. I notice the door is ajar and one of the windows in the front is broken. Cody and I run straight into the house and see that everything is flipped upside down and messed up. I begin to look around, racing up and down the stairs, trying to find Bobby and Ms. Priling. I have no such luck. I return to the front room and find Cody exactly where I had left him. He is staring blankly at a wall and I slowly turn to see what he is staring so intensely at. There are four simple words written in red paint all over the wall.
We could hear you.

“What does this mean?” I ask Cody. I know exactly what it means, but I can’t accept it. I am ready to scream or cry at any moment.

“Damn it!” Cody yells and punches the wall. I tense up the moment I hear his fist come in contact with the hard wood. “This means that we were being watched in the woods. The f***ing government knows that we were talking about starting a war!” He is staring at the wall with fury.

“Th-they took Bobby, and your mom.” This is all I can say as I stand there with Cody. “We can’t let them get away with this. Cody, I’ve made my decision, we have to get everyone and start this war. I’m not letting them take my brother and your mother.”

“You mean you want to go through with starting a rebellion?”

“If it means getting my brother and your mom back, then yes, I will do anything.” A smile crosses Cody’s face and he pulls me close and hugs me. “How do we get people to join the rebellion?”

“Leave that to me.”

Chapter 4: The Team

I sit in the living room of the Priling’s house at ten minutes to midnight. The lights are all off except a single candle in front of me. “It is time to go.” Cody says as he walks into the room. I slowly stand and take Cody’s hand. It has been 4 weeks since I have seen my little brother, but today Cody and I will be meeting with the team leaders for the rebellion.

“How many people will be there?” I ask Cody as we quietly make our way out of the house and towards the town square. Ever since that day we decided to start a rebellion Cody and I have been talking none stop to people about starting it. We managed to keep the government hearing about it.

“Twenty-five people, not including us.” My eyes get wide when I hear the number. “They each will tell us how many people they have in their team and who they are working with. Each leader is working with another leader.”

“Ok, but I never thought we would actually be doing this. This is amazing.” I say in a hushed voice. We have to do our best to stay quiet, making sure not to wake anyone and draw attention to ourselves. After years of gathering, it isn’t very hard to stay discrete. We arrive at the town hall fifteen minutes after midnight. The hall is quiet and dark, but I can hear the soft murmurs of the other people. Cody and I slowly crack open the door and slip in.

“Hello everyone thank you all for coming.” Cody says once we have everyone settled down in their seats. “We are all here for the same reason, to start the second rebellion. Thank you all for volunteering to be leaders. Each one of you will now come up with your partner and introduce yourselves and say about how many people you have on your team.”
The first person to walk up is a short girl. She is about 5’4 with black hair, striking blue eyes and pale skin. Beside her is a boy who is a lot taller. He is a tall Indian guy, about 6’3 with brown hair, brown eyes, and tan skin. “Hi, my name is Leila and I am going to be working with Sav. We are both 19 years old.” She points to the boy. Her voice is very high pitched and she sounds too happy for a girl who will be leading a team in a rebellion. “We have approximately 460 people on our team.”

“My name is Tom and this is my partner Ellie. We are both 28 years old and have about 428 people on our team.” Says the next guy, he is tall and very thin. Next to him is a girl who was the complete opposite of him; fat and short. For the next thirty minutes we sit through nine more teams.
Team 4: Lead by-Danny (22 years old) and Jason (20 years old) with 459 members.
Team 5: Lead by- Clary (16 years old), Sam (18 years old) and Jake (18 years old) with 510 members.
Team 6: Lead by- Erik (28 years old) and James (28 years old) with 499 members.
Team 7: Lead by- Alex (19 years old) and Seth (20 years old) with 415 members.
Team 8: Lead by- Lori (18 years old) and Luke (18 years old) with 435 members.
Team 9: Lead by- Cami (21 years old) and Chloe (21 years old) with 485 members.
Team 10: Lead by- Allen (26 years old) and A.J. (26 years old) with 460 members.
Team 11: Lead by- Jake (24 years old), Bill (21 years old) and Arisa (23 years old) with 492 members.
Team 12: Lead by- Brandon (19 years old), Drew (22 years old) and Zoe (20 years old.) with 497 members.

“Thank you everyone for coming.” I say as Cody and I get ready to leave. We have already planned on having another meeting in a few days.

“Wait, you two didn’t tell us your names and about your team.” One of the girls says. I can’t tell who says it, but I bet it is Leila.

“Sorry, my name is Cody. This is my partner, Katherine, or just Kat. We are both the youngest leaders here, we are 15 years old.” I can see the shock on everyone’s faces. They would have never thought of two 15 year olds leading a team in a rebellion. “We also have the highest number of members in our team; with approximately 533 people.”Cody does not even flinch as we stand before the older team leaders.

“We have planned another meeting in two days, please be there so we can start assigning parts for each team. Then you may split your own team as you like. Each team should have a few hackers, researchers, spies, weapon crafters, and fighters.”
* * *

“Good night.” Cody says as we enter the house. I make my way to my room in silence, trying to think everything over. We are actually doing this. We are actually starting a rebellion. I think to myself as I lay on my bed. My mind is spinning with just the thought of Civil War III. I start to fall asleep while my mind continuously races. The last thought to cross my mind is of my little brother.
In the morning Cody and I awake early, just before dawn, to start our gathering. Now that it is just the two of us the normal amount of food we gather lasts us a few days and gives us a lot to trade.

“What are we going to be doing today?” I ask as Cody and I enter the woods. We are very careful with what we say now. “Are we going to go swimming?” Swimming is our own code word for planning more stuff for the rebellion, deer is a code word for attack, and check the news is code word for meeting with the leaders. Those were the only code words we used at the moment.

“Yea, I would love to go swimming. “ We have also learned that there are no cameras near the pond that we usually swim in. We slowly make our way towards the pond, making casual talk the whole time. Once we get to the pond we both sit at the very edge, only placing our feet in the water. It is silent as we sit there, but we soon get down to business.

“What are we going to do?”Cody asks me as I make small circles in the water with my feet. “We need a plan, and it has to be a good one.”
“Well, we first have to divide our own group, and then we have to try to keep track of everyone else’s groups.” I tell Cody in a whisper. He nods his head and reaches over to the bush next to us and grabs a handful of berries. I began to think about it.
“We have 533 members in our group. Last night I was thinking that we could have around 30 hackers, a lot of researchers, a few spies, a lot of weapon crafters/ suppliers, and definitely a lot of fighters. Does that sound good?” I ask.
“Are you sure you even want to go through with this?” Cody asks with a concerned face. We are silent for a long moment as I think it over. “This might put everyone we have ever known in danger.”
“I know, but I need to do this, not only for Bobby and your mom, but for out fathers. I have to finish what they started.” The mention of our fathers causes us to become completely silent. I know we are both thinking about the exact same thing.

I stand in complete silence as I stare up at the hundreds of men and women before me. I quickly spot my father and lock eyes with him. The tears begin to build up as I see him mouth the words, ‘I love you’. The executioner walked up behind my dad and places the noose around his neck. I can’t take it anymore. I run forward, screaming and begging them to stop. I am a few feet away now, but I feel my hand being grabbed. I look up and stare into the eyes of my best friend. Cody is watching me with his strong, bold eyes and a hard frown on his face. We stand still for a moment as we stare into each others’ eyes. I slowly step back and watch as the execution begins. I never take my eyes off my father, and I never take my hand away from Cody’s. The last thing I remember is my father calling my name with a smile as the executioner pulls the lever.

“You’re right, Kat. We need to finish what our fathers couldn’t.” Cody says as he wipes away my tears and takes my hand. It is exactly like that moment all those years ago. I grin and give his hand a light squeeze to remind him that I am, and will always be, beside him. “So, I guess we should go talk to our members and find out who wants to do what in out groups.”
The rain pelts the window of the town hall. There are whispered conversations that manage to fill the room from everywhere. I slowly turn away from the window and stare at the 531 people (not including me and Cody) who are sitting in the room, chatting quietly with one another. Most of the people in the room are people who work in small shops, friends, teachers, and even some guards who are meant to stop any kind of rebellion.
“Ok everyone, tonight we are going to be assigning everyone to their groups.” Cody says as he stands in front of everyone at the podium. “So I guess we can do this to go through the five options we have. Then I’m going to say them again, when I say something you are interested in, just raise your hand.
“We will need hackers, researchers, spies, weapon crafters/suppliers, and of course, fighters. So how many want to be a hacker?” Cody does a quick count and then repeats this for each group. I look at the list once Cody is done and smile to myself.

•
Hackers- 39 people
•
Researchers- 84 people
•
Spies- 28 people
•
Weapon Crafters/ suppliers- 73 people
•
Fighters- 304 people

“Everyone, I want to thank you all. I also must warn you of what lies ahead. This rebellion, in no way, will be easy. There will be spies, cameras and trackers will be looking for us and watching our every move. If you are not ready to die for the rebellion, then you are free to leave, as long as you keep this a secret. I pause for a moment to see if anyone will leave. No one moves, they stay in their seats and continue to watch me in silence. I smile to myself before I continue. “For now on we will only be meeting in our groups. Cody and I will be at every meeting, but each group shall choose their own leader. Also, we are going to need code words. Each group will have code names, and each meeting will have to be a code phrase.”

•
Hackers= Bugs
•
Researchers= Encyclopedia
•
Spies= Painting
•
Weapon Crafters/ Suppliers= Money
•
Fighters= Canine/dogs
•
Meeting (All)= Swimming
•
Meeting (Leaders)= Check the news
•
Meeting (Hackers)= Picnic on the hill
•
Meeting (Researchers)= Book Club
•
Meeting (Spies)= Art class
•
Meeting (Weapon Crafters/ suppliers)= shopping spree
•
Meeting (Fighters)= Game of hide-and-seek
•
Midnight= The sideways hour

“I know the code words are stupid and childish, but if we are going to do this then we cannot risk anyone knowing what we are talking about.” I say with a frown as I watch everyone copy everything down. “You are free to leave as soon as we get the signal.” I turn to Cody and begin to talk to him as everyone else starts to chatter.

“I still can’t believe we are really doing this. I remember the day we first met. You were such a shy little girl, but you were so determined, and I was just the lucky boy who managed to make you laugh. Now we are putting a team together in order to start a rebellion.” Cody says with a grin. It is almost as if he is talking to no one in particular.

“You were more than just a lucky boy. You were the only person who bothered to help me, and protect me. I was a pitiful girl who only became strong when I met you.” I glance at him for a moment to see if Cody understands me. I am about to add on to what I said, but I get interrupted by a loud chime. The bell over the podium begins to ring, signaling that it is safe for us to leave. Cody had gotten a lot of the guards to join our team, because of this we have some of them work as the look out. When someone is coming they force them away, and when the coast is clear they pull on a string that causes the bell to chime.
Everyone begins to make their way out of the hall, trying to stay quiet as they enter the silent streets. “What were you going to say?” Cody asks with a smile as he stares at me.

“Oh, nothing, it was just something I thought should be said, but not anymore.” I quickly say as we stand up and leave the hall.