There was a war waged against the poor, they used those who once stood for freedom against the lives of the innocent. It was in these dark times that we gathered together, a group of people lead by ex-solders; ones whom could no longer be ruled by the government and their threats of torture. At the time I wad younger and came to discover the rebels base while rescuing the last three pregnant woman the government kept alive; one of them being my lovely wife Amaya. We had information on the governments secret project which I planed to use to end the war before that project was complete; but when we discovered the identity of the rebels leader I kept those plans a secret and planned our escape from this base. We would begin our own band of rebels far away from these corrupted sheep, but I needed to open the eyes of a few blind followers. During the nights I walked amongst the moldy concrete halls and cautiously whispered harsh truths to the blind ones that way when they aligned themselves with us it would appear to be their own ideals. In the mornings I prepared our weapons and monitored the health of the pregnant women; we stayed there for a week before things took a nasty turn. The morning was stale and gloomy when I rolled out of bed I noticed Amaya and the other women were missing, my heart began to race as I began to search the compound. That’s when I saw it, trails of blood leading outside a giant hole in the concrete walls; my skin became ice as my breath grew staggers. When did this happen? Were they okay, or were they dead? My heart ached at the thought of their deaths, but I gritted my teeth and searched for the double agent; Commander Bryce. I found him standing in the shadows wrapped inside a dark cloak, he had a sinister smile spread across his scarred and a child like gleam in his emerald green eyes. As we drew closer to each other he removed the hood of his cape and signaled for me to follow him; he lead me deep into the compound and he eventually dragged me inside of a dark room. Once he turned on the light he revealed a gloomy room with a large oak table and moldy roach filled walls, Commander Bryce pulled out a chair and looked at me,

"We have some business to discuss." His was dark and raspy.

I sat across from him and stared into his eyes, trying not to show him my anger or knowledge of his real identity in the outside world. For a moment we sat there in silence just staring at each other before he cleared his throat and began to speak,

"You brought living targets here and now they’ve been captured. I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to slaughter these sheep."

"So you’re going to stage some sort of rescue mission in order to kill the people here?" I asked, baffled by the fact that he was serious.

"Of course, after all I would be devastated if they discovered I was the one whom leaked the location of the escaped prisoners." His eyes held a dark glow and his face held a devilish grin.

Anger began to build inside of me like a volcano getting ready to erupt, but I kept my cool on the outside. I already knew he was a double agent from the files we managed to confiscate during our escape and I knew they had some sort of secret project that was aimed at "improving the counties obedience". How far did this evil plot spread and how do the last remaining pregnant women tie into it? I stared at Commander Bryce and spoke quietly,

"I want you to know I don’t agree with your tatics, but I need your assistance. After we rescue them I will be leaving and setting up my own base; we will be enemies after this."

"Understandable, I look forward to having you as a foe."

After that we quietly walked towards the main waiting room where everyone was waiting for Commander Bryce’s commands. He stood before them like the snake in the great Garden of Eden; fake tears in his eyes as he spoke quietly;

"Last night our base was compromised and because of that we lost three women whom were the sole survivors of the great massacre. So not only will we be sending a small group out to look for a new base we will be headed out to war."

Silence encased the room like stars in the night sky as everyone silently thought about the words Commander Bryce just spoke. How could we wage a war against someone we knew to be stronger than us? A small group of elders stepped forward, but only the small woman with large pale brown eyes began to speak in a quiet voice,

"Send your weakest to find shelter, we will protect them and lead survivors of this war to our new home."

Whispers began to fill the room as everyone looked around trying to figure out if they were the weak ones or the strong ones, bodies moved quickly as whispers grew into loud grumbles which eventually became screams. Fights began to break out as everyone began to panic over who was weak and who was going to war, madness continued to consume everyone as Commander Bryce stood there smiling. I could no longer watch as the people who fought against the corrupt system feel apart so I forced myself out of the shadows and began to shout;

"Stop this madness! There is no reason to be destroying yourselves! You are all capable of being warriors, the ones who will find shelter should be the elders and anyone under the age of eighteen. We need to stand together during these times due to the enemy we’re facing; if you have a problem step forward and voice your concerns. Otherwise stand down, shut up, and prepare for war."

First there was silence, then a small amount of murmurs as everyone looked around the room; the only person who stepped forward was the same elderly woman whom suggested the split. She smiled as she stood next to me, her pale eyes sparkled in the dim corridor lights,

"The new kid has a point, some of you in this room are soldiers and you’ve tasted many wars. The rest of us have witnessed the corruption outside of these walls and have fought it in order to be alive. Anyone who’s not considered to be an adult should stay as far away from danger as possible and the ones whom are no longer able to hold their own will be in charge of finding new shelter. Let’s not forget what brought us all here in the first place, there are greater things to be concerned about than who is stronger than who. Put down your fists and pick up your guns for tonight we will fight for true freedom!"

Cheers erupted as men and women alike embraced their children and wished them luck on their travels, children attempted to put on brave faces as they watched their parents line up to receive weapons, and the elders quickly gathered the supplies to transport to the new hideout. Commander Bryce stared at me intently, curiosity burning in his eyes as we assisted everyone with gathering weapons and field supplies. My palms were beginning to sweat as my hands grew shaky while I packed my bags, I placed my weapons on my shoulders and with heavy eyes I pulled put a small crumbled photo; the last picture we managed to capture before the country plummeted into darkness. I placed the picture in my pocket and faced everyone that was prepared for this battle, no words were spoken as we all began to march towards the capitol building, a place where they executed anyone who dared to fight against them. The sky no longer held any color only dark clouds that rose from their infernal factories, we had tied rags over our faces to prevent us from breathing in the toxic chemicals. As we marched towards the capitol I began to feel a knot building inside of me, knowing that once we were inside I would be face to face with my old captors, I shook my head clear of those memories and crouched down inside of a ditch. Pulling out my binoculars and checking to make sure the path was clear of their solders I signaled the others and warned them to stay hidden within the shadows, as we snuck past them my heart began to race knowing that Amaya was close by. The lights of the city were blinding but we pushed forward keeping to the shadows as we looked for a way into the capitol building, we sent our scouts out to find an entrance that wouldn’t alert any guards. Once inside they signaled us towards them and we would quietly enter the building and begin our rescue mission; a small chirping could be heard as they guided us towards an entrance. Once inside we noticed a large gathering being held in the center court, in the middle of the blind citizens was a large stage and on that stage stood a group of hooded men and women holding prisoners stripped of everything. From where we stood I could count a total of 12 prisoners all scarred and bruised from their previous fights, we had to change our plan in order to lower the potential death count. Commander Bryce pulled us all into a dark corridor and spoke quietly,

"I don’t want to draw any attention to ourselves that would result in instant death, so what we’re going to do is create a diversion. We will have our heavily armored men and women dress in cloaks and the rest of us will strip down and pretend to be the prisoners that we have captured. Then while we have the hooded ones attention you will break free of your chains and begin to take down the real enemies."

We all agreed silently and decided who would pretend to be a prisoner and who would pretend to be a corrupt leader. I had volunteered to be one of the prisoners knowing the corrupt ones would recognize my face, cautiously stepping outside I undressed and hid my items deep within a wilting rose bush near one of the planned escape routes. With a heavy sigh I rolled around on the ground trying to give off the look of a fight, then I walked towards the others and prepared for the battle we were about to enter. Commander Bryce smiled openly as he placed lose chains upon our wrists and dragged us towards the stage, everyone’s eyes were upon us as our hooded comrades tossed us to the ground and faced the corrupt ones. There was an air if tension around us as the corrupt ones scanned our faces intently, as I watched them measure up our hooded comrades I looked into the eyes of the other prisoners and noticed the scars on their bodies; that’s when I noticed the pregnant women strapped to tables with IVs in their arms. My stomach began to churn violently as Commander Bryce looked at me and smiled, he began to speak,

"These creatures you see before you were caught trying to kill the only true order in this world. We caught them trying to infiltrate this great place so they could free the other scoundrels and force the women to bear unhealthy children. They are the ones responsible for spreading hate just so they can force others into taking down the only true justice we have in this world."

The crowd grew wild as everyone shouted obscenities, the cloaked ones approached our men slowly and only the one in a pure white cloak began to speak,

"Thank you fellow comrades for bringing this to our attention. We knew helping the pregnant ones give birth to healthy babies would prove to be challenging and that is why we brought them here with these other prisoners. For tonight we will clean this town of all it’s poisonous scum and we will continue the purification process to bring back true order in this chaotic world." the white cloaked one placed a pale boney hand on Commander Bryce’s shoulder.

Within that moment I could feel things begin to take a turn for the worse, how could I not see that the venomous snake had lead us into a trap? I tried to send a signal to the other false prisoners but could not remove my hands from my shackles, I struggled against my restraints as I watched the chaos unfold. Our men were butchered before they had a chance to grab their weapons, their heads torn off and proudly placed on pikes as the other hooded ones set fire to the remaining prisoners; the smoke burned my eyes as a tall cloaked figure picked me up and dragged me towards Amaya, my throat was raw from the screams that had escaped during the massacre of my fellow comrades in arms. White cloak approached me slowly as the smoke settled, their voice began to boom over the silent crowd,

"The man you see before you was chosen to be one of our elite solders, but he choose to fight against us instead. Once we found out that one of these women was his wife we wanted to keep him alive so he could witness what happens when you choose to fight against the new order of the world. Now we will cleanse these women and make this traitor give up the location to the others like him and we will all be purified by the evilness they have spread."