literature

Search Word - Prologue

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The crowd was spread out before Ed and he smiled. The mall was filled with people from all over, some clustered in groups and others standing alone on the green grass, but all united in purpose. In front of them was the White House and behind was the Washington monument, "It's so many. More then we ever had before." Ed slowly scanned the crowd while leaning against the dark blue van.

"Well, it should be," replied Wrench, a slightly plump man with dark brown hair who is wearing a pair of large odd looking black goggles with electrodes snaking out of them and attaching to his head in flesh colored adhesive. "I spent a shitload of time spreading the word and publicizing it."

"This is it!" Ed pronounced excitedly. "We might be able to make a true difference here."

A man standing in the corner shrugged, rippling his blue vest. He looks out at the crowd with hard black eyes and a cynical manner, sweeping his pale left hand through finely manicured black hair. "If they don't shut it down like they did every other."

"Gauntlet, you should think positively," Ed half-jokes, sweeping his long black jacket behind him and smiling broadly with white teeth. "If this works, it could be a turning point. A way to change things."

Gauntlet rubbed his metal covered hand with his regular one. "Or it could be a fiasco like every other. We'd be better off using the funds that went into this for sabotage or other, more accomplishable goals. Congress and Presser will never listen to you, no matter how many people you have on your side."

"They have to eventually, that's the only way that any real difference can be made."

"I think," a quiet silky voice appeared out of nowhere. "that what is done is done and we simply must worry about all those boys in green and blue who are standing just where we can't see them." A thin women wearing a red, tight fitting, leather long coat, Mar, stepped out of the shadows. She could be non-descript if she wished, but had chosen this point to stand out and she was striking.

"Imagine," Ed whispered. "You and Gauntlet agreeing." He grinned jokingly at Mar.

Hawk stepped out of the back of the truck. "Now," he turned towards Mar and drawled, "don't you worry about them cops. I can take care of 'em."

Mar rolled her dark black eyes at Hawks overdone southern accent and Ed silently laughed. He had brought these people together for a cause and now, now it was coming to frustration. As the group quieted down he looked over each of their faces. Gauntlet, his right hand man, Mar, spy and security extraordinaire, Wrench, his technology expert and Hawk, his general. "We are here to make a difference. Activate the drifter platform and prepare the sound system." Ed gave his orders and the tableau split up in a frenzy of activity.

A few minutes later, his lieutenants and friends standing behind him, Ed stepped up on the drifter platform, a domed circle kept off the ground by ionic drifters and stuffed full of amplification equipment. Ed's glowing blue eyes glittered with excitement.

"The Time Has Come!" Ed shouted and the entire crowd quieted. His platform rotated, in front of him was the capital building and in back was the Washington Monument, above was the dark piloted sky, an oppressive monument to the achievements of modern man. "The time has come!" He slowly repeated to the huge mass of followers spread out over the Washington Mall. "The time has come to assert our independence! The time has come to escape oppression! The time has come to escape from under the banner of security and the clouds of fear! The time has come to pronounce, 'No more!' No more will we be suppressed under the banner of national security. The time has come to speak free!"

"Wheeeeal," Hawk proclaimed. "He's certainly layin' it on thick."

"Shhhh!" Mar hissed, suddenly attentive.

"Now ma dear," Hawk ignored the look that Gauntlet shot at him. "Don't be hushin' me."

"No, I'm serious. Shut up." Hawk raised an eyebrow but Mar held a finger to her red lips and coked her head to the side. "Do you hear it?"

"Ah can't hear anything over our leada' and this crowd." Hawk replied.

Mar turned to Wrench. "Tap the surveillance cameras on the buildings. What's up with our charming government troops?"

Wrench wiped the sweat off his brow. "Damn DC heat," he murmured as he worked. "They're off."

Gauntlet turned quickly. "What?"

Wrench looked up with a puzzled expression. "The cameras are off."

"Are you sure they're not blocked somehow?" Gauntlet walked quickly towards Wrench.

"They're diffidently turned off."

"Why could that be?" Hawk asked, shifting from foot to foot while watching Ed sermonize.

"It's rumbling," Mar quietly announced. "Something large is coming."

"Ah hear it..."

"Something large," Gauntlet corrected, his face blank in concentration.

Wrench's eyes widened with sudden realization. "If there are no cameras then there is no official record."

"But why no official recorded?" Mar asked herself. "I thought that they'd want one to have more evidence against protesters."

Gauntlet turned, meeting Wrench's eyes. "Unless they don't want any evidence."

Wrench nodded.

Gauntlet made a fist with his metal hand and grunted, "Damn. Wrench, I want you to try and get some sort of camera equipment supervising this event, also we need you to plan an escape route. Mar, try and find out what the hell that rumbling is. Hawk, arm yourself and get the van ready." Mar nodded and faded into the crowd while Hawk and Wrench both moved into the van. Gauntlet tapped his comm.-unit, "Ed, I know you can't respond but..." he paused, "I think we may be in trouble."

Ed raised his hands in the air. "Information is this nation's life blood. We cannot stand it's suppression anymore. We must protest, we must change things! For a land of the free we have became --" Ed's speech was cut off with the loud pelting of bullets against his platforms transparent shell.

"Oh shit," Gauntlet pulled his gun out from under his vest.

"The military is moving in from the edges of the crowd!" Mar burst out of the crowd. "They're all around us!"

"Sounds like fun." Hawk stuck his head out the window and smiled at Mar with all his teeth.

"They've got rolling armor," Mar shot back. "So wipe that grin off your face, were in it deep."

That was when the screams began. Ed, still in the drifter platform, squinted to see the source. It was a tank, moving in through the crowd, straight towards him. He switched his two-way wireless comm unit on. "This is Ed. I can't believe it, we're under attack. Call in help, we have to save the protesters!"

Gauntlet opened the back of the dome and pulled Ed out. "It's time to go."

"This is Wrench! There's no way I can get any recording equipment online and the crowd is too tightly packed. "

Wrench jumped out of the van. "What the hell is going on?"

"Get back -" Gauntlet was cut off by a sharp crack.

Wrench fell to the floor moaning. He was cradling his hand, which was bleeding profusely. Ed ran over to him. "Get the hell inside. They've got snipers." Ed picked up Wrench and pulled him into the van.

A delta formation of marines were leading a tank forward through the crowd, and they were practically at the platform.

Ed reached down, "Common you two! We've got to get out of here."

Gauntlet turned to Mar and their eyes met, wordlessly communicating the same thought, "No, you have to get out of here."

"What?!" Ed made to get out of the truck but Gauntlet stopped him and closed him in.

Hawk stepped out of the van. "Y'all right about him, but if you think that I'm goin' to let you and the little lady take 'em on yerself then your deadly wrong." He threw some extra weaponry on the floor.

"Are you all crazy?" Ed stuck his head out of the front door, "get in the damn truck."

"You need to get Wrench to a doctor and you need to save yourself to carry on the movement. Someone needs to protect the protesters, or at least give them a chance to escape" Gauntlet cocked his pistol and turned towards the oncoming solders. "Get out now before it's too late."

Ed looked in the back of the darkened van at Wrench who was cradling his now red hand and looked through the mirrors to see the oncoming tank. He looked back at the group and floored the accelerator.

Gauntlet had a automatic gun rapidly firing out into the rapidly approaching crowd of marines. Mar had looked as if she had pulled all the shadows from that dark day around her and moved within them, dodging back and forth and picking off running solders. Then there was Hawk, pistols in both hands and a smile on his face as he shot one attacker off of a protester and then another, and another. There was a rumble of a tank and a circle slowly began to enclose the small group. Hawk laughed out load as the tank approached them and Mar reached up to Gauntlet and Ed saw their eyes meet and their bodies move closer. Then the circle closed and they left Ed's view.

"No more," Ed whispered. He turned to Wrench whose blood was staining the floor and put one hand on his shoulder. "They'll pay, they'll pay for it all," Ed's eyes filled with tears as the van drove on.
Prologue for the Search Word Novel (Hopefully :D )
© 2004 - 2024 Phifty
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last-today-again's avatar
"A man standing in the corner shrugged, rippling his blue vest. " <--- This part stood out as being funny

Very good writing.

:+fav: