The year 2020...

Nobody budged as our front door was kicked open; we were now used to the drill. It was getting worse every year. This was the third time this month. �Joseph, get on the couch,� my mother told me. The chief inspector gave us the usual spiel as his squad of soldiers worked their way through the house. �Remain still and keep your hands in your lap. We are conducting a quick required search as mandated in section 16 of the Citizen Acts. This is for your safety and well being.� I heard my mother�s vase shatter as it hit the floor. The three soldiers moved swiftly through the rooms, knowing exactly what to do. Hopefully there would be no damage this time, but this group looked careless as our belongings were tossed out of the way without a second thought. Fifteen minutes had now passed, and two of the soldiers started the scanning. These scanners were about eight inches long, and could detect metal objects or electronic devices through the walls. The words �for your safety and protection� echoed in my mind as I tried not to think about the menacing M-16 which was aimed in our direction. The scanners finished, and of course had found nothing in our house.

The inspector then grabbed his LifeMeter and loaded the data from our LifeAlert chips. These chips are about a centimeter long and wide as they appear from the outside, and have been required for humans since the third Citizen Act. They are connected at any given time to at least 5 or 6 Military Global Positioning Satellites, and the data is logged to the chip for required inspection at least once a month. The military is still working on a full-duplex satellite connected chip that is �convenient� for personal use. The chips also log activity from other similar chips in the vicinity of the human, including chips in automobiles, airplanes, public and government buildings, firearms, computers, any communication device, as well as being able to detect illegal substances in the body. I hated that chip, and looked at my forearm in disgust as the meter was gathering my data. Of course there were those who rebelled against the idea, but they all end up in jail or dead. My uncle James just finished the better half of two years in federal prison for supposedly tampering with his LifeAlert chip. No sooner than the soldiers had broken their way into our home, they had disappeared out the door.

At dinner that night we talked about all of the inconveniences in our life and invasions of our privacy. The military always wrote these things off as �necessary for national security� or �for your own protection.� It was so quickly how the government went from just some minor changes to all of a sudden controlling our lives. We wouldn�t dare speak out publicly about our discontent however, as most who did ended up dead. At this time our government didn�t like to admit it, but we were on the brink of civil war. There were lots of people who felt that the government was taking too many of our freedoms for the sake of security, including me. Some of the more radicals could be read about through underground newspapers, as gun fights in the South would break out between Military Police and various freedom groups. Mainstream news never showed any of this, but instead focused on how great our lives were.

Our country had begun to fall apart. The government was hated worldwide. And now our own citizens were beginning to hate all the changes. We currently had troops occupying many places around the world, without permission of other countries. This was causing much tension with our allies, as well as our many enemies that we were at war with. There were rumors going around about the government officially declaring martial law during the upcoming days of the war abroad. This didn�t worry me at the time as I didn�t think it would be much different from our conditions already. I found out the next day.

�Joseph! Joseph, get up!� I opened my eyes to see my uncle James standing over me holding a gun. �What are you doing, that�s illegal!� I stammered out as I slowly rose to my feet. �There�s no time, get that emergency bag I gave you, get dressed, and get in the truck.� I tried to put this together as I stumbled across my room reaching for clothes. I ran downstairs and got in the truck, seeing James and my father sitting in the front. �Whats going on? Where are we going, where�s mom?� I asked. I felt sick after what my father said next, �Your mother�s dead Joe. Sorry. Last night they declared martial law and she went to one of the demonstrations�there was an accident and everyone was killed or injured. We have to get out of here now because we�re on the list.� I didn�t know what to think after this. �What list?� I asked him. �The government has a list of people who are deemed threats to national security. Anyone related to protestors against the government is automatically added. And soon the people on this list will be sent to containment centers for as long as they feel is necessary. We need to fight. Your mother was killed by the government along with others.�

My father disabled my LifeAlert chip, as they are capable of locating people if within range of government receivers. We arrived at a small camp in the woods. It was set up by friends of my uncle about a month ago in preparation for the events that they had discovered would happen. We had about thirty people in our group, fully equipped with supplies and weapons for survival and war. All of our equipment was technically illegal, as the weapons were banned, and all of the chips disabled or destroyed. That night I couldn�t sleep at all. My whole life was turned upside down, my mother was dead, I was living in a tent with an assault rifle under my arm.

Three days later we had a run in with military police. They opened fire on us, and we returned. At the end of the battle my father and uncle both lay dead along with 19 people. I was lucky enough to survive, but didn�t have anywhere to go. I couldn�t believe it. My own government had killed the only family I had. They did it out of justification for protecting and securing the nation, yet they were killing the very people they say they are protecting. We did nothing wrong but refuse to go to jail for these ridiculous, invasive laws. And to make matters worse we saw on the news that our country was now at full war with the next biggest superpower in the world.

One day later the five of us who were left were running through the woods with soldiers at our heels. We had to hide in the woods and were almost out of food and ammo. We were planning on trying to rescue some of our friends and family from the containment camps that had turned out to be a horrid reality. Our own citizens were being held in a prison against their will, for no legitimate reason. We didn�t get to the camp soon enough.

We were twenty miles from the city at the time that we saw the blast. I could only just imagine the thousands of lives lost in that instant, their bodies literally melted by the extreme heat from the explosion. The mushroom cloud lingered in the air as we immediately started walking away from that area. The story was told later on the radio�we launched first, and received 67 nuclear missiles for a quick retaliation. Our government was now crippled, and the fighting amongst us seemed to die down. Alas, our children were dead. Dead for a hopeless cause, a power quest of greedy and corrupt people.

My group was directly down wind from the blast, and we all have severe radiation poisoning. The sky seems always gray, the water too irradiated to drink, our lives could have been so much better. Our Geiger counter goes crazy all the time, as I struggle to write this memory of our final days. I know this is my last night alive, or I pray this, for the days will only continue to grow worse. If our country would have spent half the money on working towards peace that they do for war, this may not have happened. I only hope our world will not end and that life goes on. It won�t for me. I can see the face of the devil coming for me, as I have seen his face in the last years of my beloved nation. In the news, in the papers, all around us. It has been consuming our government for a long time, and now has caused our destruction.

GREAT story, Shoktek. It's sad you don't contribute more to the short story forum more often. DeusEx is GREATLY pleased.

DE

very good. fascinating concept, I enjoyed reading it

I posted it a while ago in current events, didnt know there was a short story forum til today...I just wrote it off the top of my head but was thinking of writing a longer more elaborate version along the same concept.

go for it

maybe you can write it backwards....ummm I mean you write the prologue now, that leads up to the events you described above.

Yeah... a little spit and polish could make this story go a LONG way. Can't wait.

DE