The Awakening: A New Revolution Series Book 1 (The New Revolution Series)

by Keegan Long

  “Were they ever successful in making a clone?” Sarah asked.

  “I don’t know,” Jill replied. “One of the final battles of the One Year War I lead a large military force to Washington D.C. to try and take back the Capitol and stop this once and for all. We were depressingly outnumbered and slaughtered like animals. In result, we were able to destroy their main research facility where some of the experiments were taking place, but I fear it wasn’t enough. We were forced to retreat and the war was now over. We had lost and the time of the United States was over.”

  “What about the rest of the world?” Bekah asked.

  “Our country sold them the same technology that turned against us as well,” Jill answered as she looked down to the floor. “I’m afraid they were wiped out too. We haven’t had contact with any of the outside world for six years.”

  “We can change that though,” I stated as I stood up with my determination. “I refuse to give up. And if we work and fight hard enough we can make this world better again. In truth, it will never be the same as before but we can do this. We have to try.”

  “I’m right there with you,” Mitch said as he stood up after being silent for a long while. “And if we fail let’s at least take them down with us.”

  “Hell yeah,” Sarah joined in as she too stood up.

  “How about you McKenna?” I looked at her as she was sitting beside me.

  She too stood up and joined our circle. “For mom and dad.”

  “For our parents who taught us never to give up,” Nicole said as she and Bekah stood up to join our rebellion.

  “No matter how hard the situation was,” Bekah added with a smile.

  “Then it’s settled then,” Jill announced and she too stood up with Kevin by her side. “We have our militia assembled and I know just where to start.”

  “What’s the plan then?” Mitch asked. “Madam President.”

  “Our first objective is to turn the power back on for everyone,” she began to explain. “If we do this then we might actually stand a chance against Cerberus.”

  “And how are we going to do that?” I asked her.

  “I know a guy,” she responded with a big grin. “He saw this all coming way before me and hates Cerberus more than anyone I know. He’ll know how to turn the power back on but we need to find him first.”

  “Do you know where he is?” I asked Jill.

  “I do know in fact,” she told me. “He was a very close friend that I worked with and he’s the smartest man I know alive.”

  “Well let’s go get him then,” I said.

  “His name is Joseph,” Jill informed us. “But everyone calls him Joe.”

  7

  Colorado Bound

  Jill informed us that she has good reason to believe that her friend Joe was hiding out in Colorado. She said that he would probably go back there because that was his original home that he had lived at with his parents and siblings.

  Joe supposedly used to be the head Secret Service agent that was with Jill at all times I was informed. Two months before all hell broke loose he quit out of nowhere and was never seen again. I thought this was real suspicious and hopefully, when we find him he would give us some more answers that we were looking for.

  That night we got all the equipment and supplies packed in the black SUV that we were going to take for the trip. All eight of us were all able to fit in the one SUV, with everything packed in the trunk. I could tell you already though that it was going to be a long car ride for all of us.

  We decided to hit the road that night to try and avoid any detours that we might run across. That was fine with me because the sooner we found this Joe person the sooner we could get the power turned back on.

  Mitch volunteered to take the first shift in driving as Kevin joined him to keep him company in the passenger seat. Jill, on the other hand, joined all the rest of us in the back of the vehicle.

  “Mitch, can I ask you something?” Kevin said as he was the first to start a conversation on this road trip.

  “Yeah, of course,” he answered. “What’s up?”

  “Why are we going so slow?” Kevin asked.

  “Because 55 is the speed limit,” he answered as we all started to look at each other.

  “Mitch,” Kevin began with a sigh. “It doesn’t matter what the speed limit says there’s no one living here.”

  “Oh, I forgot about that,” Mitch laughed as he began to pick up more speed. “Sorry guys.”

  We all laughed at this. I realized then how I haven’t laughed in a long time. I mean when you're stuck in a prison camp there’s nothing to laugh at. I had already begun to feel connected to all these people as if they were my new family. We had all been through so much already and what was to come was still unknown.

  It had been only two hours into the car ride and the sun had set revealing the moon for the night. It was pitch black outside though and I couldn't see a thing outside. Thankfully the car had working headlights so we were at least able to see the road.

  “Do you really think this friend of yours can really get the power back on?” I asked Jill as I tried to make time go by faster.

  “I have no doubt,” she told me. “He could get his way around anything. He’s the one who told me about the human cloning but he soon left after he found out about it. I don’t blame him though.”

  “Do you think they were able to make clones?” I asked her hoping for an answer that wouldn’t scare me.

  “Honestly, I don’t really know what to think,” Jill answered as she began to look out the side window. “If anyone knows if they were able to though Joe would.”

  “Can we really trust this Joe person?” I asked as I tried to get more details. “I just find it quite suspicious him leaving right before all hell broke loose.”

  “I know it sounds bad,” Jill began to explain. “But you can. I trust him with my life. He saved me from some pretty nasty situations before and was always there for me. He’s a good friend to have around and an even better ally to have on your side.”

  “If you trust him then I can trust him as well,” I said. “The more allies we have the better.”

  “Thanks for understanding,” Jill replied with a bright smile. “Once we get the power back on hopefully more people will see our chance and join us in stopping Cerberus once and for all.”

  “It won’t be easy,” I expressed. “But in the end, it will all be worth it.”

  After driving a couple more hours on the road we decided to make a little pit stop to stretch our legs and use the restroom. Kevin and Mitch swapped places and we were soon on the road again. Kevin informed us that we should be in Denver, Colorado in around four hours time.

  I noticed that everyone in the back of the car had fallen asleep or were at least closing their eyes. My eyes began to start feeling heavy and I knew that I would soon be joining them. Jill was wide awake though as she continued to gaze at the night stars and remembering everything that has happened to her. She had the stake of the future country on her shoulders but she was determined to free us once again.

  We had about an hour left in the car ride but Kevin noticed a big road sign pointing to a history museum that would be on our next road exit. He suggested we go take a look and see if there were any supplies that we could salvage from the museum and we all agreed it was a good idea to stretch out our legs again and have a look around.

  We got to the museum and to my surprise it was still in decent shape considering that it survived a war. It was beaten up a little on the outside but when we walked in, to my amazement it appeared to be completely untouched. Everything looked as if the place was still running.

  The museum wasn’t that big on the inside but we all decided to split up and look to see if we could find anything useful.

  As I walked past various different exhibits I noticed this was an American History museum and all these displays represented a different event in our history timeline. I stopped at the 9/11 memorial as I re
membered learning about that in school a while back. Was the worst day in American history but not anymore, I guess.

  “September 11, 2001,” Jill read the date out loud as she came up behind me. “Who knew that an even worst attack was to come years after. But executed by our very own government.”

  “We’ll get back at them Jill,” I assured her. “Don’t you worry. You have my word.”

  “I know we will,” Jill responded silently. “But let’s pray that we never have to experience something like this again.”

  “We won’t if we win,” I told her as I began to walk away from the exhibit. “Let’s get going.”

  “Yeah,” she responded. “I don’t think there’s anything for us here.”

  “Just the memories of our past,” I said.

  We all gathered back outside by the car and we were soon on the road once again. When we made it to Denver it was too late to look for Joe so we set camp in one of the abandoned houses that were nearby.

  “We’ll start looking for Joe first thing tomorrow once we all wake up,” Jill said as we all set out our sleeping bags.

  I was extremely tired and once I got situated for the night. I feel asleep right away but when I was to wake up I would find something very unexpected.

  The next morning I was woken up not by the sun but a Scavenger pointing a gun at my face.

  “Wake up,” the man said as he whacked by hard in the face.

  There were a group of about ten or so Scavengers that had taken us by surprise while we were sleeping and had us all at gunpoint. They soon later forced us all outside to where our car was parked.

  The sun was indeed out now as it almost blinded me as I was pushed out the front door of the house.

  “Well, what do we got here,” one of the Scavengers said as he approached me. This one was obviously the leader of the group.

  “Piss off,” I told him as he took his hand and grabbed me by the chin.

  “Well that’s not nice,” he teased me as he began to run his fingers through my hair.

  This was disgusting and in conclusion was getting me really mad. These Scavengers gave off a terrible bad smell as if they lived in a garbage can, which they probably did. In addition, the leader had disgusting crooked yellow teeth and was even missing some teeth in a few places. I had to keep telling myself I was not going to die like this. Not today at least.

  “Leave her alone!” Mitch yelled at the leader but unfortunately was given a punch in the stomach in result by the Scavenger holding him down.

  “Where did you guys get this SUV? he asked me as he continued to get uncomfortably close to my face.

  “Found it off the side of the road,” I lied to him but he didn’t buy it.

  “I’m going to ask you one more time,” he began again. “Where did you get this car?” This time he about spat in my face.

  “I already told you,” I responded as I tried to free myself from his grip but was getting nowhere.

  “If you don’t tell me I’m going to start shooting your friends,” he said as he signalled his friends as they pointed their guns at all my friends.

  “Don’t do it!” Sarah yelled towards me.

  “I didn’t ask you,” the leader said as he signalled one of his companions to punch Sarah in the stomach.

  I really had wished I hadn’t left my gun in my bag which was still inside the house, unfortunately.

  “Are you going to tell me?” the leader hissed as he got out his gun but this time pointing it at me.

  I looked around for any kind of signs of something I could do to free us but the Scavenger had me gripped so hard I couldn’t escape even if I had the chance.

  I then heard a loud sonic boom come across the bright blue sky and became more worried about what was about to happen to all of us. We were all now in a huge load of trouble.

  A Cerberus drone with lighting speed had approached over our heads now and began firing its machine guns at us. With this, though it caused a big enough distraction for us to all get free from our captivators and run for our lives.

  “INTO THE HOUSE!” Kevin yelled at all us as we ran back into the house to take cover.

  The Scavengers were not so lucky though and were all killed and shot multiple times by the drone. To our luck though we were all able to make it back into the house but had nowhere to go.

  “What do we do?” Nicole yelled across the gunfire from the drone that was now aiming towards the house.

  “Aim for the engine!” Kevin yelled to us. “If we are able to knock out the engine it will crash to the ground!”

  I quickly rushed over to my bag and got my pistol out and started firing at the drone alongside everybody else. It was difficult trying to get a clear shot with all the machine gun fire coming towards us. We were trapped and had nowhere to run.

  Moments later in the corner of my eye, I saw a big missile being launched from outside the street and made direct contact with the drone and exploded on impact. We were saved.

  We cautiously made our way outside where we were being waited for by a man standing in the front yard with a missile launcher hung across his shoulders. The man was older than any of us and was probably in his mid-30s. The man was wearing glasses and had short dark black looking hair.

  “I see you’re still causing all sorts of trouble Jill,” the man began to laugh.

  “You know me,” Jill responded with a bright smile as she approached the man. “It’s nice to see you again Joe.”

  8

  An Old Friend

  We had finally been saved from the claws of death once again and just in time too. Thank God Joe came when he did because I was afraid we were all about to be pulverized by that Cerberus drone. Man can those things fly fast and they sure have a mean arsenal with them.

  “Thanks for the save Joe,” Jill said as they exchanged hugs with one another. “I owe you once again.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Joe replied with a bright smile. “It’s nice to see you again.”

  “Same back at you,” Jill replied. “You haven’t changed one bit. You still look exactly the same.”

  “I can say the same about you too,” he smiled. “It seems like it was just yesterday when we were going around on your campaign trail together.”

  “Those were the good old days,” Jill remembered.

  Who knew back then what was to come.”

  “I always had my suspicions about certain things,” Joe said. “But who knew how deep it actually went.”

  Joe then looked around at everyone who was present and saw many different faces but also some familiar ones as well.

  “It’s good to see you again Kevin,” Joe said as he went over to shake one of his old friend’s hand.

  “Always a pleasure to see you, Joe,” Kevin replied as he reached for Joe’s hand.

  “I see you have many new friends as well that I have not met yet,” Joe examined.

  Jill began to introduce everyone to Joe and came to me last. “This is Delaney and she’s a real fighter like you. I’m sure you two will get along famously.”

  “Any enemy of Cerberus is a friend of mine,” Joe said as he shook my hand firmly.

  “If I may ask,” I began to ask. “Where did you get the rocket launcher?”

  “I built it of course,” he replied with a smile. “Along with many other of my creations.”

  “That’s so cool,” Sarah commented.

  “I learned that we can’t fight Cerberus with just regular guns,” Joe said. “So if we want to win we have to build our own.”

  “Genius,” Nicole added. “What else have you made?”

  “All sorts of things,” he replied. “I’ll show you when we get back to my hideout. We’re a lot safer there than we are out here so we best be going.”

  We all agreed that we were all too exposed out here in the yard and that another Cerberus drone could spot us at any minute. In addition, after blowing up that drone Cerberus is probably aware of our presence and has another o
ne on its way no doubt.

  Joe’s base was about a ten-minute walk from where we were camped out earlier. We had to walk to his hideout due to the amount of damage our vehicle took from the drone. It was basically fried and had reached the end. Unfortunately, since we had no transportation vehicle that meant we had to carry all of our equipment ourselves and we had a lot.

  As we walked through the city now I saw that there was nothing left. Buildings had been reduced to rubble and broken glass littered the streets. No signs of life anywhere, not even a stray dog, cat, or even a simple bird in the sky. We were all alone out here.

  “So, how long have you been camped out here?” I asked Joe as I caught up to him as he was leading the group.

  “As you probably know I left the USSS two months before everything went down,” he began telling me. “I soon after rushed out here to protect my family but by the time I got here I was too late.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I said in sympathy.

  “It’s ok,” he replied. “I couldn’t simply buy a plane ticket because Cerberus was already on my tail after I found out everything and told Jill. I tried driving out here but Cerberus was on my tail and I was not going to endanger my family. By the time they stopped chasing me the war had begun and I came here to only find their dead bodies lying in the street.”

  “Did you fight in the One Year War?” I asked.

  “Yes and no,” Joe continued on. “I joined the Colorado Resistance Force once the war started but we were hugely outgunned when they showed up. We were slaughtered by the Centaurs without mercy and I was captured in the end.”

  “I’m so sorry Joe,” Jill commented. “What did they do to you?”

  “They took me back to Washington D.C. and held me prisoner for who knows how long,” Joe answered. “They barely kept me alive and would knock me unconscious several times, so who knows if they did something to me.”

  “But obviously you escaped,” Bekah joined in. “How?”

  “Jill happened,” Joe answered to everyone’s shock. “There was a massive invasion force on the Capitol and during that invasion, they targeted a lab to destroy. That was the lab I was being held a prisoner in. One of the mortar shells ended up blowing a hole in the wall and I escaped. Even though it took me a long while I eventually made my way back here and haven’t left since.”