The Force (Fighting Freedom Book 1)

by Paige Clendenin

  Phase three: Know fight basics.

  Before I can go down through the rest of the phases, a voice calls us to attention. The voice belongs to Samantha King. She is standing at the front of the room, just five feet from our table, with Jake. “Welcome to class,” Jake says. “You will be having three days of lessons, then we will be moving on to something else.”

  “Here you will learn about the phases in depth, and why you are here,” Samantha says. “The majority of you,” she continues, “I’m sure have heard one diluted version of the truth about us, or another. That we are a rebel group…”

  “Or that we are a band of misfits that don’t want to be ruled,” Jake interrupts, “But,” he raises an eyebrow and gives a small smile… “That couldn’t be further from the truth.”

  “We will be passing out a note, a kind of manifesto from our leaders of old, that explains our job, and our existence,” Samantha says, as she grabs a stack of papers from a desk in the corner.

  “We will give you thirty minutes to read these statements and formulate questions that you might have…” Jake says,

  “That is, if you can read,” Samantha says, dryly…“We figure that you can all read, seeing that you are all of advancement age, but raise your hand anyway if you can’t, and I will read it to you.”

  She rolls her eyes.

  Surprisingly, two people raise their hands; a tall tan boy that I had not noticed before, and a pale girl with her hair in a knot at the back of her head. They are sitting at the same table, I wonder if they know each other, or if it was a coincident that they were sitting by each other...

  “Follow me,” Samantha says, and they walk with her out of the room.

  At the last minute, I notice that they have pale yellow bands on their wrists, indicating that they do belong to a family group.

  Here I go sounding like Jake, but I wonder how the two of them are actually related.

  Shaking myself from my own head, I realize that Jake is passing the papers out, and for a moment I think he is going to ignore me totally, but I am the last to get a paper, and as he lays it in front of me, he lightly touches my shoulder with his palm, and I think, for a moment, that my shoulder could actually be tingling.

  Then, his hand is gone, just as quick as it was put there.

  Was it a kind gesture, or did he see me distracted, and was just trying to get me to focus?

  Either way, the imprint of his hand is still lingering on my shoulder.

  “Your time starts now, read the paper, and do not speak. Afterward, if you have any questions, you may ask me,” Jake says.

  Then he goes over to the desk and plops down in the chair, with one foot in the seat like he did during my inspection.

  I find that I am distracted by looking at him. I have to look away, I have to.

  Finally, I gain the ability to look away, but now I am just distracted again.

  On the paper, printed behind the words, is a flag. One I have only ever seen twice before.

  I saw it in my Corridor history book, only an inch or so large picture of it, with a brief description underneath, and the other time I saw, it was being burned in a large fire with a bunch of other things.

  This flag has a blue patch on the corner of it, with lots of little white stars on it, and several patterned stripes of red and white down the right side and bottom of it.

  This was the flag of The United States of America before the war, but why is it on this paper in front of me?

  I have to read the words on the page, if I can’t get past the picture, how will I focus on what is written here.

  Dear Reader;

  You have been selected for a purpose. We need your help. The Force was developed as an underground version of the current U.S. Army. The current Army will be disbanded at the end of this year, we have received papers on it. We feel the utmost importance of keeping these United States together, however, it has been decided, against the will of the current government, to dissolve the States and replace them by what will be called Corridors. Each Corridor is to become individually reliant on the new government in one way or another. The new government is to be set in place by a group of non-American born people who have overthrown us during this war. They call themselves, The Elected.

  The Force does not support The Elected and what they stand for. They support, instead, In God we Trust, and in the American way. They have been formed to eventually overthrow The Elected in hopes to put back in place the original States and what they have stood for all these years, including both democratic and republican systems of government.

  The Elected will have the Corridors believe that each Corridor is fighting against each other, and that World War Three is still raging. This is only to scare those of the Corridor into submission. Don’t believe this. We feel that shortly after The Elected are in power, the war will end, and their reign of terror will begin.

  I will be keeping in contact with the head members of The Force for as long as I can, keeping an update on things that are happening on the outside.

  Again, you have been chosen to be a part of the greater good, I hope you take it seriously. Thank you for your service for our country.

  Sincerely,

  General R. J. Timothy

  Dated: December 11th, 2025

  Following the note are some words I have never seen before, but they hit me like a sledgehammer to my heart, like words that should be instilled in me, but have been long forgotten.

  I read them slowly, tracing my fingers over each one as I say them in my head.

  I pledge allegiance to the flag, of The United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty, and justice, for all.

  I mouth the words as I say them over and over in whispers of breath. I feel like I only have a few minutes to memorize them, and then they will be gone forever.

  With liberty, and justice, for all.

  I look around, wondering if my fellow Force members are thinking the same thing. Shock and awe is all I see.

  Shawn looks like he might be sick, his face has gone all pale, but he just sits there, looking down at the paper that lays on the table in front of him.

  Mar is sitting staring down, but she has this look on her face and tears in her eye. I wonder if the look is a look of fear or is a look of surprise. The tears suggest fear, but I don’t want to speculate.

  When I look at my brother though, he is doing the same thing I did. He is brushing his finger over the paper, mouthing the words, then he finishes, and moves back to the top.

  I wonder if we are both thinking the same thing.

  What would it be like if we actually lived in a world that ran using justice instead of conviction, liberty and freedom, instead of lies and restraint?

  Was the world actually like this at one time?

  I don’t know the answer to this, but I intend to find out.

  Chapter Ten

  The thirty minutes seem to go by quickly, and before you know it, Samantha is leading the two non-readers back into the room.

  “Now that you have read the letter,” Jake begins, “do you have any questions?”

  “Yes,” a boy from across the room says, a phase one I think, “who is General R. J. Timothy?”

  Samantha looks at Jake. “Shall I take this one?”

  “By all means,” Jake says.

  “Rodney James Timothy, was a Private in the United States Army and, he was a young man then, but by the time he was twenty-five years in, they had made him a General, the head of the army.” Samantha spins around and hits a button on a machine on a small table in the middle of the room.

  A picture pops up on a blank wall in front of it.

  “This is General Timothy, he believed in fighting to keep the States united through peace and freedom. He fought as a soldier in wars in places called Afghanistan and Iraq. A few years after those wars ended, World War Three started, he was General by then, and after he saw which direction the w
ar was going, his main goal became setting up The Force to eventually overthrow the United States’ future government; The Elected.”

  “Any more questions?”

  And there are, lots of them.

  Mar asks about the flag, and Samantha goes into this speech about what the flag stood for, and what they hope that it will stand for again.

  The rest of the questions are small in comparison to the General Timothy question. What will we learn in The Force? The obvious answers are to learn how to fight and defend ourselves and Jake gives some version of that as his answer.

  Will we learn how to shoot a gun? Yes, is all that is said to answer that.

  But then I, ask a question that seems to stir up all kinds of emotion.

  “If The Force has been established for seventy years now, why have they not acted against The Elected yet?”

  Jake and Samantha glare at me for a moment, and boy do I have the attention of all of the rest of my fellow phase members, but I honestly thought it was a good question to ask.

  “Because The Force, as it is currently, was not fully functional until about thirty years ago,” Samantha says, sounding annoyed.

  This answer seems like a diversion from telling the truth. After all, thirty years is also a long time, so… this answer doesn’t suit me.

  I know better than to smart off, but if I reorganize the question, then maybe I might get at least part of the truth.

  “Okay, well, that wasn’t a good enough answer so…” I should really stop talking, but I can’t help myself. “If The Force has been established as it is currently,” I use Samantha’s words, “for thirty… years now, why have they not acted against The Elected?”

  I smile with the satisfaction of not letting her think that she can just get by with a flimsy answer, and I know I really am going to get into trouble here. I talk too freely, and I speak my mind, but I don’t care.

  Samantha walks over to me, arms folded across her chest. She reminds me of instructor Philips, and I wonder for just a minute if I am going to have to go stand in the front of the room, but I know this isn’t lecture, and Samantha is not instructor Philips.

  “Girl,” she finally says in a threatening way.

  I feel like she is going to hit me, and I tense up, ready for the impact, but instead, I feel strong hands on my shoulder from behind me.

  “I’ll take care of this one.” Jake says with a tone of anger, and now, I am actually scared.

  Would I rather get into a fight with Samantha in front of everyone, or Jake?

  The answer is automatically in my mind. I don’t want to be on Jake’s bad side, and I’m not sure why I care, but I feel like I never want to see his bad side, but…

  Here it is, he has his hands clamped on my shoulders, and he sounds mad.

  “Come with me,” he says as he pulls me to my feet. He is still talking to me in the same angry way.

  Eli raises out of his chair, like he is going to save the day, but Jake says, “sit down,” rather sternly, and Eli does as he‘s told.

  I follow him, but he still has his hand on my arm, and he is more dragging me out of the room, rather than allowing me to walk.

  He walks me down a set of halls and into this little room that looks a lot like the room we were locked in with our fellow fighters. He closes the door behind us, still holding tightly onto my upper arm.

  I jerk away fast and his grip falters, and there I am, in a small room, and he is standing between me and the way out.

  I cross my arms to show that I am not afraid of him, but I really am.

  “What do you want?” I ask him.

  I try my hardest to sound irritated.

  “Liz,” he says, but I am shocked, because he is not talking to me in the angry tone now, he is talking normal, almost gentile. “What were you thinking talking back to Samantha?”

  “I wasn’t thinking anything, you said I could ask questions, I asked a question, and she didn’t give me a straight answer, so….”

  “So, what, you decided that you needed to be right and force the issue?” Jake is looking me in the eye when he talks, and I feel my own anger dissolving.

  I drop my arms down to my sides.

  “I didn’t need to be right,” I whisper. “Listen,” I continue, “you guys took us, and despite every effort on mine and Elious’s part,” I shake my head quickly, “I mean Eli’s part, we couldn’t fight our way to freedom. Now, you expect us not to be curious, to not have questions, and not to speak our minds?”

  “Liz,” he says, as he puts his hand on my shoulder.

  I really wish he would quit saying my name every time he spoke to me, it‘s uncomfortable.

  “If you will just shut up… I will tell you what you want to know,” he says.

  “You will?” I say, but I know I must look shocked, because, I am.

  “Yes, I will, but we… I mean me and the others in charge here, don’t want everyone to know all the details, because, there will be some in your group, that don’t make it through the phases, and some knowledge is only reserved for full phase members of our complex.” He pauses for a moment. “Or who I choose to tell.”

  “And what if I don’t become a full phase member, what if I’m not good enough?” I ask, but now I am serious, because I am not sure what is going to happen to those of us who don’t make it through the phases.

  “You will, I know it,” he says as he looks at me sincerely.

  “Yeah, well, I don’t feel very confident in that area, and I want to know answers even if I don’t make it all the way to phase fifteen, or whatever phase you have to reach to become a real part of The Force,” I say.

  “Okay,” he says, “but here is hardly the place or time to be telling you secrets about The Force.” He whispers the words, almost so I can’t hear them, then he glances up to the corner of the room, and it’s then that I realize why we can’t talk right now.

  There in the corner of the room there is a camera, just like the one that was in the room I was in before.

  “Alright,” I say, as I look from the camera back to his face. “So where and when do we talk?”

  “Tonight,” he whispers. “I will come find you.”

  I nod my head and fully intend on saying okay, but no words come out, so my head shake will have to do.

  As we walk back down the hall and are about to reenter the big room, he grabs my wrist and turns me around to face him.

  “Now remember… I just bawled you out, so… you need to go in looking defeated,” he says.

  “I’ll try,” I say, and back into the room we walk, his hands on my shoulders and my head down like I have just lost my best friend.

  Chapter Eleven

  I don’t know for sure when Jake intends to talk to me, but time is running short.

  After eight hours of class, with only a break for lunch, we were ushered out and told to get cleaned up for dinner, which will be in three hours from now.

  The rest of class was just going over the various rules of the complex, and what The Force expected of us in the long run. We talked about what we already had learned in lecture group, but to my surprise, a lot of that was false information.

  Either that, or what The Force is telling us is false information, I don’t think I have decided yet.

  At the end of our incredibly boring day, we were handed a stack of papers each. On each of the pages is an update or correspondence from General Timothy. We were told to read them over the next two days, and then we would discuss them on the last day of lessons.

  After class, I go back to the dorm and sit waiting on meal time, but then I decide to kill time by going to take a shower. The water is warm, which is a nice change from the water I have bathed in since I was born. Also, there are no rules against how long you can stay in, as long as you make it to your next assigned event, so…

  I just let the water run over me, like the water might actually allow me to emerge a new person.

  After my shower, I go to the dorm and sit
on my cot, still waiting on meal time, or Jake to find me, whatever happens first.

  I find myself going through the stack of correspondence, there seems to be thirty or forty of them. Some of them date back as far as January 2026, but the last one was on August 9th, 2068, nearly forty-three years after the Dear Reader letter.

  I can’t help to think that it’s been almost thirty years since General Timothy stopped corresponding. It makes me wonder who took his place, if anyone.

  I find myself more daydreaming than reading letters, so I let them wash over me until I finally drift off to sleep.

  A little while later, a short bell rings, letting us know that it’s dinner time. It wakes me up, but not Mar who has been sleeping longer than I have, I know she must be exhausted, because I know that I am, but I also know that she has to wake up. I shake her gently, and after a few tries, she gets out of bed.

  Then, we walk over to Shawn and my brother who have been talking to a group of guys on the other side of the room since I got out of the shower.

  “Hey, this is Malachi, Sampson, and Levi,” Eli says as he looks up at us.

  The boys all stand, and Malachi is eyeing the F3 on my upper arm.

  “So, you can fight?” Malachi says, nodding in the direction of my arm band.

  “I’m alright,” I say.

  “Alright?” Eli says. “You’re better than alright. I was just telling Levi over here that you kept up with me when we tried to fight off The Force.”

  “Yeah, well, we’ll see,” Malachi says with a wide smile on his face.

  I take note that Malachi might be someone that I need to look out for.

  They all three just stand there staring at me, Eli, and Shawn as we walk away with Mar.

  “Why were you talking to those guys?” I finally ask Eli.

  “I don’t know, I just thought I would check out our competition,” Eli says.

  “Yeah right,” Shawn says. “They were checking your sister out, and you wanted to put an end to it.”

  My face turns red. “Why were they… checking me out?”