Viva la Revolution: scene one.

They had had it this time.

Oh, dear, sweet Jesus had they had it!

The man had gone too far.

Too far!

That's all there to it.

The time was now for it to be begin.

A golden age would soon arise from the ashes of their dead and eaten comrades.

They'd be damned if their friends and family would die in vain.

It was high time they put them to rest.

And him into shackles of animals.

Some called that night of Violet Contingency mad, stupid, futile, suicide and revolution.

We came.

We saw.

We friggin conquered.

But before the plotting and initiating of Violet Contingency there had been a terrible happening.

A massacre.

This event was forever frozen in our minds and time as Tuesday, bloody Tuesday.

It was the day I lost my brother.

He had been a sacrifice to the man's voracious hunger.

Man.

As if.

He was no man but a beast.

A creature that devoured everything.

It was just a matter of time for all of us.

Just a matter of time for me.

Hello.

My name is Conrad.

I'm an orange.

 

VIVA LA REVOLUTION!

 

Scene one.

 

Tuesday.

Bloody Tuesday.

They had been assaulted from every direction it seemed.

At least a dozen snatching hands and mouths had feasted upon their flesh.

We lost good men and women that day.

Tabitha(Watermelon), Nicolas(Ham), Shane(Ice cream), Kyle(Apple), Kendra(Apple), Timmy(Cake) Stephan(Chick), my brother Connor(orange) and countless others.

Six of the wretched beasts attacked us and taken them outside away from our prying eyes.

Maybe they didn't want us to see our comrades be torn to sheds.

Compassion?

Yeah.

Right.

They came as if from nowhere and caught us by surprise.

We just... didn't see it happening that morning.

The man's birthday had not been for another week our Intel had informed us.

We could've prepared, had we known.

We could've hidden as many as we could.

Lives of good people could've been spared.

Well, shoulda, coulda, woulda.

It was way too late for that.

And on that day when they exited the large, tiled floored kitchen I screamed from the fruit bowl "Damn you!

Damn you all to Hell, you animals!"

They were not men and women.

They were a disease to our kind.

And they had plagued us at every turn for ages.

They had killed off all the other oranges and had taken some of my closest friends.

The things were unrelenting and I hated them for it.

Since the day I was born they had threaten our very way of life, man.

They had even taken me and my brother away from paradise.

Far away from the Mother tree to some cold place where I was picked up and put down more time than I can count.

I wish I could just go home to those green, lush fields.

Go home to the bright, yellow sun and the soft drizzling rain.

But now all I knew of sun was the one that shown through the windowsill onto the marble counter.

I wish I could see the real sun again.

See my beloved mother again.

I miss you mother.

I really do.

But now all I hear is the gnashing of teeth in dark places.

Those teeth haunt my dreams, mother.

To them I die daily and everyday I wish I'd stay sleeping in my grave.

But no.

They take others.

Others like Kendra.

"We are dead and this is Hell."

She yelled as she was carried away.

They couldn't even hear us.

Or they didn't care.

They had no love or understanding.

All they were must be hair, flesh and those gnashing, horrid teeth.

"Well, this sucks."

Commented Howard the kiwi.

He was a rotting kiwi so the man and his kind had never even touched him.

Lucky kiwi.

Connor had not been so fortunate.

"I...

Oh, God Connor."

I whispered and rolled back down into the wooden bowl.

"Cmon.

It's not that bad, Conrad.

We all gots to die sometime and Con-"

"Shut up!

Shut the Hell up, you pathetic little fruit!"

I screamed vociferously.

"If you ever -and I mean ever- say his name again I'll kill you where you roll.

Now just shut up!"

I was in no mood to listen to his blank optimism.

You can't really blame me, though.

At the time it sounded less like optimism and more like "I'm sorry your brother died but can we move on now?''

We all die sometime?

What the hell?

That wasn't good enough for me.

It wasn't then.

And it wouldn't be now.

Revenge was only what could fix it.

Revenge was the answer even if it was such an ugly word.

"And anger is a gift."

I whispered these outlandish words so low that Tessa the pear rolled up and said softly to me "Conrad?".

I didn't answer.

I felt as if I'd just forgotten something important.

What was the answer again?

Nothing.

Jack-diddly-squat.

Nothing meant anything any more.

These fruits were not my family.

The last of my family was gone and consumed by the gnashing of teeth.

But what if there was an answer?

I contemplated this idea as a few others approached.

They were so concerned.

So very concerned for Conrad the final lone orange.

F**k them.

I didn't care about them

All I cared about was... the answer.

The answer!

"I have it!"

I yelled aloud causing my fellows to jump and back away.

"Have what?"

Asked Howard.

But I didn't answer.

I was becoming pensive once more with the questions that were always innate to this kind of plan.

Who?

What?

When?

Where?

How?

And then what?

But I knew then it was the only solution.

Everything was flaming but that one word.

"Revolution."

I said this so... well, nonchalantly that the others just gave each other dispassionate glances.

The word meant nothing to them then.

But, by God(if there was one) it'd mean something to them soon.

"What are you babbling about, Conrad?

Talk to us.

To me."

Said Tessa who seemed almost too scared to breath.

Had Conrad gone mad?

This was the thought that appeared and vanished before all of their mind's eye.

Maybe I had.

Maybe I was utterly broken and was a mere shell of the fruit I once was.

I wouldn't doubt it.

They wouldn't doubt it.

You wouldn't doubt it.

But once they hear me speak tonight or tomorrow they'd never doubt me again.

Well, most of them wouldn't, anyway.

"The man must die, my friends."

He said with a callused disregard of their shocked faces.

"The man?

The man?!"

Laughed a hill billy apple named Leim who should have been carried away instead of Kendra.

"Don't you mean... the beast?!

How on God's green earth are we, mere fruit, to kill that... that thing?!"

"David... and Goliath."

Retorted Conrad still looking over the distance of the expansive kitchen.

"You can't be serious, man!

You're gonna get yourself killed or eaten or worse!"

Commented Howard.

"What could be worse than getting eaten?"

Asked Jamie the grape in the back of the crowd.

No one had really noticed the small grape as usual.

That lack of regard towards him didn't change today either.

"If I go down his throat I'm carrying arsenic into his stomach.

He'll die.

By my husk he will."

I swore it.

I rolled to a vacant part of the bowl to be alone with my thoughts.

My brother was dead.

Many others were dead and everything was in shambles.

This was no good day.

This was Tuesday, bloody Tuesday.

Reviews

[Mikel]

I found this to be an interesting read. I like the one line layout, interesting concept for a story. I do think it could use a little more detail, I wouldn't break up the pattern thoug, just a few more lines about why the revolt, details of the politics. Not a lot, just enough to get a cleaner idea of the background of this.

[Paul B. Spence]

*head thunk*

You know. It took till the end to realize it wasn't all a metaphor.

As usual, a complaint about the formatting. I think this is more a disguised poem than a story.

[Marie Harrison]

Brilliant! This was a scream. Very creative write. Love the picture too!