Chapter 1: Pep talks and Sayonaras

A Chapter by Taig Ferrier

Tom embarks on his journey.

"Goodbye, Mom." Little did I know the permanence of what I was saying.
"Stay safe, Tom, and please… Write home whenever you can. Please?"
I smiled softly, giving her an affectionate hug. "I will Mom, I promise."

I was joining the resistance. Our world had been taken over by a group called the Equinox. The Equinox was a political army founded on the idea of everyone having fair and equal treatment; same pay, same housing, same bathrooms, everything like that. It sounded pretty good to the poor, which, by now, was a majority of the world population. There was just one thing they neglected to mention- when they said everyone was equal, they really only meant civilians. And those civilians would become equal through the means of becoming servants to the political leaders. Anyone who didn't conform was slaughtered. Anyone who whined was killed. Eventually, everyone succumbed to this new life. Except for a few. A few like me.
I was heading over to my best friend's house to break the news to her. Her long brown hair was a mess and her brown eyes were red from crying and her face glistened softly, coated with tears.
"You b*****d… You're doing... what!?" She yelled at me.
"Alex, I have to do this." I tried to explain.
"B-But what about your family? And Izzy?" she tried to persuade me. Izzy was my girlfriend. I hadn't told her yet.
"I'm doing this for you guys!" I pleaded for understanding. "It's not safe. The world has become a living hell, and I intend to make a difference."
"I fuc*ing hate it when you’re right..." she conceded with a sigh. "But write to me, Okay? I'll be worried, and I'll miss you."
I nodded in agreement, turning and smiling as I walked out the door. I went to talk to an old friend of mine named Will. He was a tall, lanky man with gray eyes that were almost emotionless. They always made him very hard to read.
"So you're finally joining, huh?" Will asked, seemingly indifferent. After all, I had been talking with Will about leaving for months.
"Yup," I replied bluntly.
"Well, don't get yourself killed now," Will replied, almost sarcastically.
That was it. He was good at pep talks. I only had one person left to tell; my girlfriend. Izzy was beautiful. She had dark brown hair, startling blue eyes, a great smile, and a personality to match. I went back home, as we lived together and asked her to come sit with me on the couch. As I told her the news, she could do nothing but cry. She clenched my shirt.
"I-if you leave me..." she gasped out the words between sobs."If you leave me... you better come back..." she kissed my cheek. "I won't forgive you if you don't..." I nodded, letting her head rest against my shoulder as I held her, running my hand comfortingly through her hair.
"I always will," I promised.
Tom was gone. Now I was Private First-class Thomas Keir. I was in command of a small special ops squad sent to eliminate an enemy encampment. With a few well-placed air support markers and a couple of hand grenades (and a few hundred rounds of ammunition of course), we took the camp by storm, and there were no survivors.
As I achieved victory after victory, it wasn't long until I was promoted to Corporal. I was happy. I saw a military career expanding before my eyes. I never realized what kind of world I was really stepping into.

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© 2017 Taig Ferrier

Author's Note

We are currently editing the first part of Gigalist so if there are grammatical mistakes just know that they will all be fixed very soon! Thanks for bearing with us!