Chapter 9: Insurgence

The next morning, Stone laid solemnly on his big plush bed as he couldn't help but stare in the direction of that one particular oil painting his father gifted him a long time ago. It was the painting of a woman, a very beautiful one to be exact.

The painting looked surreal and had a dark hue to it. The woman in the painting stretched seductively and gracefully on a bed of white tulips. Her hair, the colour of coal was braided neatly, exposing its full length and pushed to one side of her face as she stared back deeply through the painting to the outside world.

Her heart-shaped lips were curved in a more pronounced flirtatious smile and her unrelenting dark brown eyes held nothing but the mysteries to so many stories unveiled. She was dressed in a silvery ash lace gown and painted ethereally, to put the even the most beautiful women in the world to shame, and her beauty and grace without a doubt depicted that perfectly.

Her sun-kissed skin which could be compared to the colour of the sun was flawless and uniquely beyond beautiful. Her straight thin eyebrows, however, could not hide the tiny mole that sat close to her left eye like a benchmark.

Blinding sunlight from the clear blue sky streamed through his air-sealant window and past his shuttles, reminding him that it was past his normal rising time.

Its rays attached itself to the painting, causing the painting to blaze with colour. Tiny little dust particles could be seen floating and dancing around softly in the rays, like a dance to a soothing melody.

He changed his position on the big bed as he recounted his visit to the library hall yesterday. His thoughts were driving his subconscious mind miles away from home.

He couldn't help but wonder why relevant information regarding The Council had to be stocked and accessed at the Capital only.

It wasn't like he was working with an undercover agency or anything related to that. He was just after whatever little information he could fetch about them so it could help him be ahead of his mates in both his History and Government & Policy class.

Damn them for harnessing control over the littlest things he could think of.

He knew wholeheartedly that not everyone was easily given the permit and allowed entry into The Capital, especially after what happened and occurred in Unit five: the Regrev Unit.

To add to this, there were enforcers everywhere to ensure that the movements of both human and advanced technology were monitored accordingly and kept in check.

Not to mention the fact that their numbers doubled every year due to the recruitment of new members in the Capital. Though the historic three-hundred-year war between man and advanced technology had long been over;

The Council, however, had felt threatened ever since and pushed whatever measure they could come up with to ensure that the revolution of advanced technology against man was to never sprout back to life.

The quiet stillness in his room was disrupted by the piercing blaring sound from his newly designed mechanic android. He had invented it a couple of weeks ago and the thought of it functioning today as supposed made him feel proud and elated. He whipped his head in an awkward angle toward it and turned it off.

He rubbed his eyes, went ahead to groan inwardly and reluctantly got off his bed. His sensitive feet suddenly became aware of the cold heavy tiled floor beneath him.

He moved towards his closet and dithered over what to wear. Finally putting together a couple of outfits which he felt would complement his personality better, he headed towards his bathroom.

He walked down the stairs after freshening up and found his aunt, Una glued behind the tv. Her arms were crossed around her torso with her back facing him.

Her posture was stiff and unmoving, it felt as though whatever thing her eyes were feasting on wasn't good news. He walked quietly to her side.

She was absorbed, completely oblivious of his presence in her space. He was about making his presence known when he was interrupted by the next thing he heard from the tv. He believes the word he heard right was 'siege'.

What was under a siege?

He whipped his head toward the tv and was immediately horrified by the scenes that unfolded before his eyes.

The headquarters of the Justice Unit was surrounded and placed under a tight siege by a crowd of unyielding civilians.

Scenes of burning skyscrapers, shopping malls and offices in about eighteen different districts were displayed. Young men and women ran with home-made explosives, the response was an immediate chatter of electric gunfire. Civilians who sensed this danger on time scurried away like an amoeba exposed to sunlight.

The electric bullets were fired into civilians who wanted nothing more than a fair law and order, a decent chance in society, a job, security and the same chance of happiness that so many others in the Capital took for granted.

They wanted democracy.

Aunt and nephew watched on as blood flowed freely from one lifeless body to the next. A female enforcer knelt and closed the vacant eyes of the deceased as they were transported by vehicles to a health center.

An uneasy feeling seeped into the light air surrounding them they absorbed every scene before their eyes.

Stone sighed and that finally got his aunt's attention. She cocked her head in his direction and turned her body to face with her arms draped around her.

"I'm so sorry that you had to see that, Stone. This isn't the world we imagined for our generation. I don't know what exactly is happening," a feeling of angst washed over her as concern flickered in her eyes.

"What's happening now is that The Council isn't using the right measures to control the situation," Stone voiced and she furrowed her brows in response.

"Why would you say something like that? The Council is trying its maximum best to curb the situation and we can all see that."

"By sending in troops of enforcers into a Unit filled with innocent, yet armless people?"

"How can you stand there and call them innocent. Innocent people stay home and listen to reason. But those...those people are out there demolishing anything they can find in the open," she voiced. "They are portraying a bad picture for civilians in the other Units to pick up and learn. What if another insurgence like this one begins to occur in another Unit. What would you expect The Council to do? Sit back and watch?"

"I expect The Council to use its head and not its power."

"Don't you say that! The Council is like an umbrella we run to in times of need and Its decisions are primarily for the greater good of our race. It is this same Council that makes sure every single surviving individual is well catered for," she said, emphasizing her point. "Look at the world they helped us create after the apocalypse our forefather's talk of. And remember that The Council is made up of people like you and I so every decision they make is in our best interest."

"You sound almost like another big fan of The Council," Stone inputs with a blank face. "If every decision they make is truly in our best interest then why did they have the remaining surviving civilians in the Regrev Unit terminated. Those people were humans just like The Council and us and not animals that you dispose of whenever you don't need them anymore."

"You have to understand that if The Council hadn't taken that drastic decision, the plague would've kept spreading into the other Units and you know how dangerous that would've been to our race. We all would've gone extinct within a year. Your father, Novera, Myself and you would've been dead by now," she says calmly as though she was speaking to a child who lacked the capability of understanding the meaning behind her words."

"That was still not a good reason to take away the lives of innocent people like they're doing now in the Justice Unit. If this continues, it won't be long before the people gradually begin to realize that there's a loophole in certain decisions The Council makes," with that being said, he walked back into his room, took his bag and walked out of the house.

He was met with an Ecopod waiting to be flown into the atmosphere at his entrance. He entered his public ride and brought it to life using his access code. He glanced through the thin windowpane of the Ecopod to see several GT13 mega trioids flying in the atmosphere, broadcasting the same scenes he had seen with his naked eyes a while ago with his unbearable aunt on the tv.

He looked down to see people watching the horrific scenes concerning the matter on their Tap-pads, a number of them craned their heads towards the sky to catch the scenes from above whereas a few went about their business unconcerned because they'd already seen it and expressed whatever emotion they could express on the matter at hand.

Something unexpected caught his eyes as he kept watching the people below him to read their reactions towards the insurgence going on in the Justice Unit.

It was a vehicle, but not any random vehicle. This was a military vehicle, one that was purposely used by enforcers. He watched silently as about sixteen enforcers got down from the vehicle and scanned the city with vigilance. The same number of enforcers descended from the other four vehicles.

This to him meant only one thing -the same thing he hopes the others know.