Fanon:Outset

Outset is the second episode of the Revolution series by WikiBuilder1147. It depicts the adventures of a group of youngsters against the oppressive regime under which they live their lives in constant scrutiny and fear.

Previously on Revolution...
With his best friend now in the hands of the Government, Ben Faulkner must now find a way to get her back. In gym class, a fight broke out between a fellow student and the teacher, resulting in a security alert. The boy made an escape, running away to avoid sharing the same fate as Miami the day before...

Chapter 1
"HEY!" the gym teacher screamed. "COME BACK HERE!"

He put his communicator to his mouth.

"We have a situation here," he said, struggling to control his tone. "Close all the gates! NOW!"

"ALEX!" Ben heard another boy shout.

Ben Faulkner saw in the distance Alex sprinting towards the front gates of the school. The gates slowly began to swing shut. The boy dodged security guards as he made his way off the school premises.

Ben could hear shouting from the entrance.

"STOP!"

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"

"FREEZE!"

But Alex ignored them all as he almost flew out the main gates and made his getaway.

Ben looked back, and he could see that his gym teacher was red with rage.

The gym teacher stormed around his class, cursing like a sailor before he shouted, "ONE HUNDRED LAPS! ALL OF YOU! YOU HAVE FIFTEEN MINUTES!"

Chapter 2
After school, Ben cautiously made his way to the residence of Alex and his family after finding out where he lived from Alex's friend. Ben then came across a panel with a number of buttons. The silver buttons looked dull in the absence of sunlight. Ben pressed the button that corresponded with the number of Alex's apartment.

There was no response.

Ben held the button while he spoke into the microphone.

"Alex," he whispered. "It's me. Ben Faulkner. I'm from your class at school."

For a while there was no reply. Then, the voice of Alex came quietly through the speakers. It was a small little thing, almost fearful.

"Ben?" Alex stuttered. "Come up. Quickly!" Ben walked briskly through the entrance to the apartment block and he entered the elevator.

"Fifth Floor," he said. The elevator cab shot up and slowed down upon reaching the fifth floor of the apartment block. Ben exited and ran towards Alex's apartment. He knocked on the door.

"It's me," Ben whispered. "It's Ben. I'm alone."

Ben saw a frightened eye look through the peephole before the door slid open. Ben quickly went inside. Alex closed the door and locked it.

"Alright," Alex said. "What do you want?"

"You know you're in big trouble, right?" Ben said.

"Of course I'm aware of that!" came the reply. "I'm not stupid."

"Of course," Ben said in an attempt to calm his classmate. "Of course."

"Now," Alex whispered. "Is that all you wanted to tell me?"

"No," Ben replied. "Remember how Miami got taken yesterday?"

"Yes."

"It was because she spoke out against the Government. It's obvious you hate the Government as well, because you did the same thing."

"You're not here to get information to report me, are you?" Alex's eyes were wild with fear. Ben could see the boy was petrified.

"Of course not," Ben said. "I want your help to get Miami back."

There was an awkward silence for several seconds. The apartment was absolutely silent. The traffic outside, oblivious to the conversation, continued to slowly slither across the skyways of Bridgeport.

Finally, Alex spoke up. "Evading those guards was hard, and now you want to charge at the Government itself? You must be crazy!"

"Why would you not do anything when the Government are Satan's incarnates?" Ben replied. "Miami is my best friend. All she was doing was voicing her opinions. For that, she is being punished. How could you let this atrocity go without justice?"

Alex said nothing, allowing Ben to continue.

"We're doing this for a good cause. We are fighting evil! Evil cannot go unpunished. Will you come with me? Will you help me liberate the one who spoke for all of us?"

Alex smiled. "Let's do it."

Chapter 3
"Alright, I managed to steal a world map from school," Ben said, laying out a large map onto the dining table in Alex's apartment the next day. The map looked quite similar to one we would use in our world, aside from the fact that it was reversed and that there were several red shapes scattered across it, censoring pieces of land and sea from public examination. Each shape had large text written in their centres: "RESTRICTED AREA".



"Miami must be in one of those restricted areas," Alex said.

"There are so many!" Ben exclaimed. "How are we supposed to figure out where she is?"

"We could try the Government Archives in the middle of Bridgeport," Alex replied.

"That's a maximum security building! You must be a complete madman to set foot within a hundred metres of the Archives!"

"Then let's be madmen, shall we?" Alex said, winking.

"We're missing school!" Ben exclaimed. "We'd better be on our guard. Government officers will be looking high and low for us." Alex nodded in agreement.

As Ben and Alex attempted to blend into the crowd as people walked about, living their lives under the complete scrutiny of the Government. The boys tried not to look out of place - failure to do so could mean the end of their mission. They even went as far as to wear similar clothing as the average worker: grey polo shirts, navy blue trousers and black shoes. Ben and Alex walked with as straight a back as they could. They could not look any different from their indoctrinated adult counterparts. Just as they were about to exit the bustling army of men and women, they saw a patrol of Government soldiers marching past.

"Back in," Ben said, his voice shaking in fright. "Back in!" The duo slowly shuffled back, once again melting into the crowd of people. They tried to stay in their position, but the busy flow of workers forced them to move.

"Where are the Archives, anyway?" Alex whispered. Ben put his hand into his right pocket and pulled out a map of the city centre.

"You stole a lot of maps, didn't you?" Alex asked. Ben said nothing, smiling. He unfolded the map, holding out in front of them, hoping that the crowd of workers would continue to unwittingly provide cover for them.

"We are here," Ben said, pointing to a spot on the map depicting Bridgeport's Central Business District. "The geography teachers told us that Government buildings tend to lie on the northern end of the CBD, so..." Ben trailed off, whirling his finger around and around the map in an attempt to locate the Government precinct. Eventually Alex put his finger on the spot.

"There," Alex said. "Bridgeport Federal Quarter. It's around a kilometre--"

"Get down!" Ben whispered with a panicked tone. Both boys immediately shrunk down as the tremendously loud roar of a large police hovercar's jet engines filled the air. The hovercar slowed to a halt as it hovered above the crowd of workers, who continued walking on to their destination, unfazed. The intense heat generated by the engines made Ben and Alex sweat profusely, not only in discomfort, but also in fear.

A voice could be faintly heard over the noise. "Are they there?"

Another. "Where are they?"

The first voice again. "Why are you asking me, you dimwit?"

"I'm asking myself, for Christ's sake!"

Some silence from the hovercraft followed.

"Well, they're not here," the second voice said.

"I concur," the first replied after another short period of silence, which probably consisted of him looking around to confirm his associate's conclusion. The hovercraft's four engines finally tilted back to forward position, and with a deafening scream the hovercar rocketed off back into the sky, leaving a trail of dark grey smoke in its wake.

"They're gone," Ben breathed a sigh of relief. Both boys stood up and continued from where they left off.

"So, as I was saying," Alex continued, "the Federal Quarter is located around a kilometre north of us, so we should be able to get there quickly enough."

Chapter 4
Surely enough, Ben Faulkner and Alex Townsend had reached the walls of the Bridgeport Federal Quarter, a large area containing important infrastructure such as the Bridgeport Municipal Capitol, the Mayoral Palace, and of course the Archives of the Federal Government.

"How are we going to get in?" Alex whispered. They were now sitting against a wall of a house opposite the Federal Quarter, in an attempt to keep out of sight.

"Frankly, I haven't thought that far," Ben said. Alex put his hand to his forehead and rustled his hair.

"Great! We don't have a plan."

"We could distract the guards somehow and then sneak through the gates," Ben tried his luck.

"That is one of the lamest strategies I've heard of. It'll never work!"

"Okay," Ben said. "How about we play a little bit of dress-ups?"

Alex smiled.

After quietly rendering the two guards standing at the gates unconscious, the two boys, realising that their uniforms were too big for just one of them, they decided that Ben, being slightly lighter than Alex, would sit on his shoulders, Alex acting as the bottom half of the 'guard's' body. After a short practice run, the two boys bound and gagged one of the guards and propped the other against a wall to make it look as if he were sleeping. Thereafter, Ben and Alex, masquerading as a guard, entered the Bridgeport Federal Quarter.

Ben whispered directions to his 'feet', "Left...Right...Straight ahead...Forty-five degrees to the right!" Alex struggled to keep up with Ben's orders. Eventually he undid one of the buttons on their uniform and looked through the small hole he created. Ben and Alex, after a bit of wandering around, stopped in front of what looked like the Government Archives.

It was a gloomy building: it looked run-down and bare, composed of what appeared to be the same drab grey brick as the school. Two more soldiers stood either side of the doorway. They glared in suspicion at the newcomers.

One soldier approached Ben and Alex.

"Papers?" he growled. Ben fished around in the main entrance guard's pocket and pulled out some identification papers. Hoping for the best, he surrendered them to the soldier. Ben and Alex were shivering with anticipation. Alex stood at attention as he and Ben waited for the soldier to finish reading the papers. While the soldier was reading, the second loaded his rifle and pointed it at Ben and Alex.

The soldier wasn't convinced. "Put your arms out." Ben held out his arms. The guard patted across Ben's arms and down Ben and Alex's bodies. The soldier stood back and handed the papers back to Ben.

"Proceed."

The second soldier lowered his gun and returned to his previous position. The first returned to his normal posture as well. With a sigh of relief, Ben and Alex walked through the doors to the Government Archives

The Archives was an expansive complex, with floors stretching eight storeys into the air, and a further eighteen underground. There was one floor for each letter of the alphabet. Ben and Alex shed the uniform, and Ben disembarked from Alex's shoulders.

"Ow!" Alex cried, rolling his shoulders back and forth. "My shoulders are killing me!"

"Sorry, Alex," Ben said. "Alright. We're currently on the 'S' floor. We need to search for an elevator or something like that to take us to the other floors."

"What floor do we want to go to?" Alex asked.

"I think the 'P' and 'H' floors are currently our best bet," Ben said. "'P' for 'prisoners', and 'H' for 'Hodgson', Miami's last name."

"Right. Let's go then."

To be continued...