Choices Chapter One

                            Chapter 1

“We live in a world where our choices affect us every day. Whether they are good or bad, these choices are what form the future. One little mistake can drastically affect the future, and all the people who will exist there. And now people of the long since dead America, we remember the choices that brought us here. The American Senate of 2023 outlawed any guns or weapons. Then, in the elections of 2028, we elected Norman Allen as President.  The only problem is that he was a former criminal with ulterior motives. This became clear in 2030, when he pardoned several murderers, con-artists, and swindling businessmen out of jail, and then gave those business men very VERY influential parts of our country’s leadership. Then the really bad stuff started happening, martial law was imposed, jails were emptied, money was stolen, the New Crooked Congress were making rules and regulations that pushed the common folk dangerously close to poverty. Crooks and Criminals are ruling our once free country. But, hopefully soon that will all change; with the Underground taking the fight to the streets. Led by General William Hayes, one of the great heroes of the century; and the son of the last good president, Sargent Samuel Hayden, the Underground appeared in 2040 taking out major New Government plants and fighting New Government soldiers and helping the police rebuild jails. It is our job to keep the dream of freedom alive, and aide the Underground in their mission to liberate us from the criminals.”

Michelle Skinner leaned back from her typewriter. She sounded more inspiring than she actually felt. She had been writing these articles 8 years ago, when the Underground had first appeared and she had watched them take down and entire battalion of the New Government soldiers. She had been distributing copies of a New Government newspaper, and one of them approached her and asked if she wanted to do something worthwhile. She said yes and got this job writing motivational articles, but she didn’t feel like she was doing enough. She wanted to be out there with the Underground, not being the news reporter for them.

She looked at her watch. Crap! She had to get the finished article to Silas! Silas was one of the organizers of the Underground newspaper, and he worked under the General himself. Every time she saw Silas, she made sure to make a statement to him that she wanted in on the action, but every time he would just laugh and walk away. Not this time, though. She would make him take her to Underground headquarters, so she could do something other than write articles. She took the paper off the typewriter and stuffed it into her jacket and zipped it up. She grabbed her bag and walked out of her run down house.

She headed toward the market, weaving her way around people and tents. She walked up to the fruit stand, and started to examine the fruits. She picked up one of the apples and noticed that these were really red.

The vendor, who was a friend of hers named Carroll, noticed her examining the apples. “Oh, we just picked up these beauties this morning! Their fresh and crisp.”

Michelle smiled, “Those are my favorite kind! I’ll take four of them.” She put four dimes into Carroll’s hand.

Carroll nodded and put four big apples into a small sack and handed it to her. “Here ya go!”

Suddenly she heard a gruff voice behind her, “You Skinner?”

Michelle whirled around. Behind her stood an older man; who reminded her of a military general, except he was wearing regular clothes. She nodded, “Um… Yes… I’d rather go by Michelle, though… What do you want?”

The man came over to the stand and made a show of examining the oranges. He chuckled, “I used to have a friend who hated oranges. I would put oranges everywhere just to freak her out… She had quite the temper, though.” His smirk faltered a little, as if he was remembering something from a long time ago. He turned to Michelle, with a somber look, “Silas is dead.”

Michelle gasped and her eyes widened, “How?” she whispered.

The man put the orange back and turned to her, “He got captured last week. He was carrying one of your articles. They tortured him until he was dead, but they never told them who wrote the article.”

Michelle gasped again. Silas, that jerk, had died protecting her. “How do you know that?” she asked.

The man looked around, “It’s not safe to talk here… I have already said too much.” He started walking away, then turned around and walked back to the stand. He pulled out a five dollar bill and put it in Carroll’s hand, “You never saw us.”

Carroll’s eyes widened at the sight of it and she nodded.

The man turned back to Michelle, “Follow me.” He turned around and started walking towards the edge of the market.

She gave Carroll an ‘I am sorry, we’ll catch up later’ look and started walking after the strange man. After they left the market, she saw the man was leading her to the edge of town, where there were broken down buildings. “Where are we going?” she said, getting a little nervous.

The man turned slightly to give her a look, “You’ll find out soon enough.” He walked to what used to be a floral shop, and picked up a rather large stray curtain. Under this stray curtain was a decently sized hole that looked like it went down a long way. “Go down the hole.”

Michelle backed up slightly, “Why? What’s down there?”

The man looked around, “Listen, I can’t explain right now… Just go.” He gently pushed her forward and she fell into the hole.

“AHHHHHHH!!!” She screamed as she dropped down the hole. She winced as she hit the bottom. “OW!” She looked around, and was amazed. She had fallen into a room, a room that looked like one of the underground bunkers that the military had used as their base of operations back in the 2010’s.

A young man with jet black hair and blue eyes walked up to her and extended his hand to help her up, “You okay?” 

Michelle took his hand and he pulled her up, “Yeah…” She shook his hand, “I’m Michelle…”

The young man smiled, “Michelle Skinner, Oh yeah, been expecting you! My name is Wyatt.”

Michelle froze, “How do you know my name? What do you mean you’ve been expecting me? Where the heck am I?”

“Well, Skinner…” She jumped as the man came up behind her. “You’re in the Underground.”

                Michelle’s eyes widened, “No way… This is the Underground!?” She turned to the man, “Then who are you?”

                The man smirked and extended his hand, “General William Hayes, at your service.”

                Michelle’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped, “Wha... You… Oh my gosh!”

                Wyatt grinned, “Yeah, I did that too!”

                The general snickered, “Yeah for some reason my name is pretty popular right now… Still, I usually go recruit new soldiers myself. That way I don’t have to risk anyone, but myself.”

                “Wait, What? Are you…” Michelle’s face was a mix between surprised and freaked out.

                 The general’s smirk widened, “Yes, Private Skinner. When I say you are in the Underground, I mean it in more ways than one.”

                Michelle was too stunned to say anything.

                The general turned to Wyatt, “Go ahead and take her to the tech room to get measured for a uniform. Then… Maybe you could show her around.” He winked.

                Wyatt blushed as he led Michelle away to the tech room.

                The general watched them walk away with a smirk, then left to attend to some other business.