Fanon:Awakening

Awakening is the first episode of the Revolution series by WikiBuilder1147. It depicts the adventures of a group of youngsters as they struggle against a regime to which the previous generation refuses to act against.

Chapter 1
The clock began to ring.

It rang, mercilessly and unyielding, until, finally, a frustrated hand slammed down on the contraption, shutting it up. The blankets rolled back, revealing the body of a boy. His legs swung out of bed and as he sat up he stretched his arms out behind him, opening his mouth in a lion's yawn. He smacked his lips. Standing up, he turned to his bed and he sighed before he rolled the blanket back. He patted the blankets, flattening them and rolling out the creases.

The boy entered the bathroom next door, looking at the mirror. His hair was all over the place. With a tsk-tsk, he turned on the tap before placing his head under the stream of water. He shouted in pain as the cold sensation created by the water ran down his spine, electrifying every nerve. He withdrew his head promptly, quickly drying his hair with a towel. He removed a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste from a cup next to the sink, and he squeezed some toothpaste carefully onto the brush.

After brushing thoroughly, he turned the water back on to wash the brush out. No water came.

"Damn it!" the boy said. "The water's out again."

Abandoning his toothbrush, the boy went back into his bedroom. He opened the doors to his wardrobe. He removed a newly pressed shirt, shorts, socks and undergarments from the wardrobe. After making sure his bedroom door was locked, he shed his pyjamas, throwing them into a basket at the other end of the room. He then put his legs through the holes in his underpants, and then put on his singlet. He then carefully put on his shorts, zipping the fly closed and ever so delicately thread the button through its hole. His white shirt was next. After all the buttons were firmly locked to their holes and had no chance of slipping back out, he pulled his socks onto his feet before putting them into his shoes. He closed the wardrobe door.

On a hook at the back of his bedroom door was a sash. It was black in colour and felt firm to the touch. He wound the piece of fabric around his shoulder and waist before clipping the two ends shut. On the shoulder end was an emblem.

The Government Seal.

The boy unlocked his bedroom door and stepped outside into the hall. His parents were already awake and had left for work. He entered the kitchen. He removed a packet from the fridge.

"Morning Rations - Standard Citizen," the cover read. The boy pushed the packet into his schoolbag along with his books and stationery. Soon after, he heard the hum of the bus. He removed a keychain from a hook next to the apartment door before unlocking it. He stepped out into the hall. He slipped the keys into his pocket before sprinting to the elevator. Upon exiting the apartment block, he walked to the awaiting school bus, which had lowered its tube. He stepped into the tube. The boy was immediately lifted into the air, and disappeared into the bus. The bus rose into the air before joining the traffic of the busy skylanes of Bridgeport.

As the bus sped along its route to the school, the boy walked down the aisle to a seat. As he ambled past junior students, they stood and saluted him. The boy nodded back in return. He then took his seat towards the back of the vehicle. He calmly zipped open his backpack and removed the rations. He opened the cover. He pulled a spoon free from the side of the packet and started eating. It didn't really taste of much. Really, it was simply a mix of proteins, carbohydrates, sugars and other vitamins and minerals. Just enough to get him through the morning. The boy took his time. The way to school was pretty long, anyway, what with all the stopping.

The bus halted once more, and a girl was pulled into the bus. The same junior students saluted her as she walked down the aisle.

"Hi, Ben!" she said to the boy. She sat down beside him.

"Hello, Miami," he replied, smiling.

Miami sighed and began to whisper. "It's going to be yet another boring day at school. Do this, do that. Empire this, Empire that. It annoys the hell out of me. I wish they'd teach something interesting for once."

"You know the Government wouldn't think very highly of you if you let that out in front of everyone else," said Ben.

"I know," Miami said. "But all they teach us is 'servitude to the Government'." She mocked one of their teachers' voices.

Ben couldn't help but laugh, though he did manage to keep it to a stifled chuckle. "There hasn't been anything BUT the Government. Not ever."

"That's what they tell us," Miami replied, adopting a more serious tone. "But what if there was something before the Government, only they don't want anyone to know?"

Before Ben could answer, the bus finally came to a stop. Just outside was the imposing Public School 67.

PS 67 was a bleak building, its exterior being composed completely of drab grey brick. The fact that it was against a drab grey sky with drab grey clouds in the absence of a shining sun didn't really help. The windows were soulless, curtain-less frames into which one could see the classrooms, again, drab and grey and lacking anything that could've made them more interesting.

"C'mon," said Ben. "Let's go to class."

Chapter 2
"Oi, you filthy maggots! Did you just get out of bed or somethin'?!" screamed the teacher as he marched into the classroom.

"Good morning, Mr Rilkins," chanted the students, resisting the temptation to call their teacher "Captain Obvious".

"Right, then," Rilkins said, satisfied at the children's misery. "Get out The Government and Me and turn to page three hundred-and-sixteen! Anyone not on that page within ten seconds is gonna get into a LOT of trouble!"

The students grabbed out their books from their schoolbags and placed them onto their desks. They then flipped the largest one open to precisely the right page. All of them mostly did it in under ten seconds.

One, however, did not.

"Alright, time's up!" shouted Rilkins. A wry smile slowly creeped onto his face as his sadistic eyes fell upon the poor child who completed his task in eleven seconds.

"Oi! Slowcoach! Stand up!" the teacher screamed, pointing at the boy. He stood up, bracing himself for the carnage to come. Rilkins stormed up to his prey.

Slap!

"Did I not say TEN seconds?" the teacher screamed angrily, his eyes seething with rage.

"You did, sir!" sobbed the boy.

Slap!

"And how long did you take, boy?" Rilkins roared.

"Eleven seconds, sir!"

Slap!

"Is that too long?" the teacher snapped.

"Much too long, sir!" the boy said, his voice begging for forgiveness.

Slap!

"And what happens to people that take too long?"

"They become useless to the Government, sir!"

Slap!

"And don't you forget it!" Rilkins screeched.

"Yes sir!"

Slap!

"If you do, your punishment will be a lot worse than this!"

"Yes sir!"

Slap!

"Now si'down!"

"Yes sir!" the poor boy slumped back into his chair, bruised and battered. Tears flowed freely down his face. Ben tried as hard as he could to appear unsympathetic. Any show of that could put him in as much agony as Rilkins' latest victim.

More to come...