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1REMNANTS ROUGH DRAFT
2one
3Year 2556
4Memorable things glorify us. A lot of things can be memorable, regardless of how simple it may be. In many places of the world, even if it’s a tiny thing, it can be memorable. It is the same even three thousand years into the future. On a bench, at a bridge near a river, a young girl sits there, shivering at the assault of the chilling winter air. She looks no older than 17. 
5She tries to cover herself even more with her wool winter coat. It is not often that she goes outside, she thought. She might as well embrace it, for the time being. She is observing the ducks in a pond, as she feeds them pieces of loaf bread that she bought at a bakery. An older man comes up to her, sitting next to her. He has a cap on, with his hands in his pockets. He has soft toned, but noticeable wrinkles on his face, looking at the same pond the young girl is feeding the ducks in. “Solar flares got you, huh?” the man asked, trying to start conversation. “Yeah. It’s actually cold for once,” she replied, giving a swift smile to be kindhearted. She continued feeding the ducks. 
6It is the 26th century, in the bursting, booming city of Everfield, in North America. A couple thousand years before, when everything went normally, a huge solar storm took place, in the year 2036. It wasn’t helping when a huge economic crash occurred in the United States, which led to a series of unfortunate events. After many years of civil unrest, protesting due to political uprisings, and a series of unfair, strict presidents in the United States, and the military weakened, due to a severely weakened economy due to the solar flares, which led to multiple economic crashes, the United States finally fell to a group of hundreds of thousands of men taking over. At that point, it is the year 2205. The group, was called the Revenant. It was a group that the military fought about a hundred years before, who tried taking advantage of the United States, and tried taking it over. The Revenant, vowed to take over the United States, and he did just that. In the beginning of the of 2205, the leader of the Revenant, named Rosco, made an announcement regarding the future of this very place millions of people called home. Rosco was a very tall, medium built man, with long, straight, and very toned black hair. “Ladies and gentlemen, I am your new leader, new lord, and new savior, Rosco,” he announced, proudly with an evil looking grin upon his face. As he spectates the crowd, he notices a lot of worried citizens, and decides to take full advantage of their fears. “As you may know, there are going to be some changes.” Over the next three hours, he announces that he is forcing everyone to convert to a new religion, where the emperor is god, and when the emperor dies, there is a new god who replaces him. Anyone who defies him, is executed, in the most painful, and menacing way possible. Anyone who does not convert, will promptly be executed. No freedom for citizens, the emperor has all of the power. Everyone must put up a specific picture of him, or be executed. There is also a ton of new rules, which restrict a citizen’s freedom. There was obviously, a public outcry. Due to this outcry, Rosco deployed thousands of his men and promptly massacred over a million civilians, because of “defiance”. It is pretty much the same after 351 years. Multiple assassination attempts were made over the past 351 years, but all of them failed. The government made sure to prevent those, as much of possible, of course.
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8Due to the huge amount of restrictions, and the ongoing solar storm at the time the Revenant took over, the entire dictatorship had to revert to a middle ages-like society. No electricity, in fact, it was so scarce at that time. There was actually a restriction on electricity, placed by the government. So, the entirety of the civilian population had to revert back to a Middle Ages-esque society. Everything was like the Middle Ages. One of the only modes of transportation available was horseback and carriages. Telephone communication was gone, the internet was gone, and basically everything related to technology from 1876 onward, just became unless. It was impossible to even work, due to solar flares. Also the government restricted it. It was pretty much the same for 351 years.
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10After a few minutes of feeding the ducks in the pond, the young girl stood up, wished the man to have a great day, and walked back to her home. Her home is a very basic one. A home made out of stone, and brick. A lot of traffic was imminent, with people trying to embrace the rarity of cold weather, which is surprisingly happening on this day. The young girl got home, only to be welcomed with her mother in her face. “Melina, where have you been? You were supposed to be picking up bread for dinner tonight!” the mother screamed at her. “I apologize mother, I had to enjoy this cold day! It is always scolding hot. It is never this cold,” Melina tried explaining. “It does not matter if it is cold, or hot as the scolding blade of Satan’s scythe, you do as I tell you!” her mother hollered in response. Melina, feeling defeated, walked into the kitchen, and she read the news, which was poorly written on a sheet of papyrus. There was no more electricity, there hasn’t been any in thousands of years. The empire restricted use of electricity, to only government officials. The news read that 500 were killed in a massacre in the next town to them, the town of Enterprise. A group of citizens were planning a rebellion to overthrow the empire. Government officials found out, and murdered anyone involved, or anyone who was related to the rebels. 
11Melina got depressed from reading this. Melina just did not understand why the government had to resort to violent solutions to problems. Any rebellion, found by the government, was simply executed. Her brother, Donovan was almost executed because he donated some money, to a group, which he did not know that the cult was part of the rebellion. Before his execution, he escaped the guards, and prison, and relocated somewhere in northern South America, in District 39. District 39 is a province of the empire, and the most recent one to be taken over and added to the province list. Melina looked at a poster, in the middle of the kitchen. “We watch you, we own you. We are always watching.” Melina felt a disgusting taste in her mouth, and walked away, into her bedroom.
12She wanted to lie down, and sleep forever. Melina sat there, on the verge of crying. No teenager should go through these types of restrictions, she thought, with drops of tears dripping onto her blanket. She looked at her calendar to see what day it is. Saturday, January 17th. Tomorrow is a huge day for people supporting the rebellion. Every year, on January 18th, the rebels take part in an event that symbolizes the pre-existing United States. Melina is excited for this event, because of how much she supports the rebellion against the empire, and Emperor Ren, the emperor currently. She decided to go with her friend, Lydia. She is 2 years her senior, and trusted her majorly due to her maturity. Lydia decided to go to the event with Melina, and Donovan, because Lydia supports the rebellion. The trio keep their support secret, and discuss plans secretly, so no one can hear them. Melina hears the clock tower bell ring.
13Bong.
14Bong.
15Bong.
16Bong.
17Bong.
18It is 5:00 PM, Melina thought. She did not know it was that late, and she was leaving in six hours. Her parents do not know about her going to this event, which is taking place in the city of Kater, an hour carriage ride from Everfield. It is extremely risky for the trio, because guards are already stationed in Enterprise, two hours from Kater, and could easily execute everyone. The trio never even heard of the past executions that occurred. All they know is that any execution by the government is not going to be a pretty sight. Melina had to go over to Lydia’s house, just down the dirt path that led into town square. Melina came out of her room, quickly, and went to the kitchen to where her mother is located. “Mother, can I please go over to Lydia’s? I’m sorry I made you angry earlier, I didn’t mean to make you angry.” Melina begged. “I don’t know, can you?”, her mother replied. “May I?” Melina corrected herself. Why is this even a thing? It’s so pointless, she thought. “Yes you may, my little Melina,” her mother said. Melina received a kiss from her mother, and she quickly left. She did not like it how her mother treated Melina. “I am a 16-year-old girl,” she thought. She swiftly walked over to Lydia’s house, and knocked on her door. Her parents are not home, because they are at District 26, a province for a meeting regarding their business. Being in the western tip of District 3, District 26 was a long way away from Everfield.
19Melina knocked on the wooden, cracked front door of the house. She waited for a little while for Lydia to actually open the door. “Hey Melina! Where have you been?” Lydia asked, letting Melina into the house. “Can we go into your cellar?” Melina asked. “About...” Lydia tried asking. “Absolutely,” Melina said. Lydia led Melina to the cellar. Melina grabbed the candle on the dining room table, lit it up by the fireplace which was ablaze in the living room. Lydia opened the door, and Melina led the way downstairs with the lit candle as Lydia closed and locked the door. The only light source illuminating the room was that candle. “Donovan is going to meet us at the bakery. There is a hidden path starting a little bit away from the back of the bakery that Rosco used to invade and make District 3 a province, and it has been vacant and unknown for hundreds of years,” Melina explained. “Perfect!” Lydia exclaimed. 
20Lydia is a short, intelligent 19-year-old, which was 3 years Melina’s senior. She has prepossessing, alluring hazel-green eyes, long hazel hair, and a great personality. She was one of the girls in Everfield that all the men went after. She surprisingly supported the rebellion. “Meet me at the bakery at 10-o’clock,” Melina told Lydia, gazing at her with an intimidating look. “I promise; I will meet you there. I won’t ditch you like last time, when we were supposed to meet up together at the chorus festival,” Lydia said. The air in the cellar was not good. It smelt of rotten wood, animal fur, and animal feces. It was also a very compact space, where a lot of storage was held, so it was the best Lydia and Melina could do as a safe spot to discuss plans of the rebellion.
21 For the next hour, Lydia and Melina planned everything, from the route using a map that was found of the entire trail, to planning on what to do if someone attempts to kidnap them, et cetera. This trail is perfect because it is seldom used by people. In fact, nobody really knows it exists, and it grows right through Kater, right into District 26.  Not even guards use it, so it’s a perfect way to get there undetected by the guards. They finally conclude their meeting, and walk out of the cellar, and Melina starts to walk back home for dinner. As she walks back home, she hears the clock tower.
22Bong.
23Bong.
24Bong.
25Bong.
26Bong.
27Bong.
28It is 6 o’clock, she thought. Four more hours until this journey really begins. These four hours is the last time in her life that she will experience life as a teenager, and she has not even realized it yet.
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49two
50Bong.
51Bong.
52Bong.
53Bong.
54Bong.
55Bong.
56Bong.
57Bong.
58Bong.
59Bong.
60It is 10 o’clock. Melina is standing in front of the bakery, in the dead of a chilly, bland winter night. “Where the fuck is Donovan and Lydia?” Melina wondered. 10 o’clock, this is supposed to start now. Donovan and Lydia aren’t even on time, which isn’t surprising. Lydia was always late, I guess to show how popular she is, and Donovan lived in Plato, a city in the southwest section of District 2. “Psst! Melina! Over here!” A deep, intimidating voice whispered out to Melina. She turned her head quickly to her right. It is Donovan, hiding in a bush. “What the fuck are you doing in the bush?” Melina asked, showing a bit of anger in her tone. “Guards found me and chased me! They have a warrant for my head. It is damn worth it for this rebellion though. Fuck the empire.” Donovan explained. “Are you fucking stupid?” Melina whispered out. “Do you want us to be killed?” Melina was fuming now, mad at the fact that Donovan said this out loud, in the dead of night, where anyone can hear them. Lydia finally arrived a few moments later, with a leather bag. This leather bag contained any weaponry to defend themselves in case any psychopaths tried to kidnap them, or any guards who were lurking around behind them. Any unlucky person who does so, well, it is not a pretty sight. 
61Melina, Donovan, and Lydia began their two hour walk to Kater, to participate in the event. A while into the walk, Donovan asked, “Damn, this is such a sketchy place. I can see why it is vacant and seldom used.” “Yeah,” Lydia agreed. “Of all days, why is this day for it to be freezing? Earth’s atmosphere is screwed up beyond belief, and today is the day? I’m used to it being hot all the time,” Donovan complained. “Stop complaining, both of you,” Melina demanded. “I don’t want to hear any of your complaining for the rest of the night. I don’t want any complaints. Understood?” Donovan and Lydia did not say anything for the rest of the walk. Melina may be beautiful, but when she is hostile, she is extremely intimidating. 
62After an hour and a half goes by of just silence, the trio hears people, and music in the distance. It must be the event! Donovan, Melina, and Lydia all ran toward the source of the music. Elegant music is playing. A beautiful, young woman with strands of black hair running down her back is strumming a harp with noticeable precision. A handsome, and subtle young man, with short, thick, brown hair, leading a choir group of about 40 to 50 young men and women. Their voices are on point, excellent, and pleasing to the ears. Melina just could not believe her eyes. She gazed around at everything she can find. A buffet with properly prepared meat, thinly cut slices of whole grain bread, with freshly picked vegetables, and fruit with water running down the sides of the fruit and vegetables, in an open picnic basket. Everything is properly prepared, in honor of the fall of the United States. This is it, Melina thought. She’s finally here, to meet new acquaintances, friends, perhaps new enemies, and this is all exciting for the trio. The three parted ways to do their own thing. Melina saw her very old friend, named Hazel. She hasn’t seen Hazel since she was twelve years old, and Melina could recognize her a mile away. Hazel, and Melina greeted each other, and started chatting away. 
63On the far east section of the room, Donovan is catching up with some old friends. “How did you manage to escape the guards?” one of the men asked Donovan. “I don’t really know, to be honest with you. I saw a chance to make my escape, and so I did. I somehow ran faster than every guard, and you see what happened. I escaped all the way to District 37. “That’s where Alaska used to be! And this is District 3, and we are where Louisiana used to be. How did you even do it?” Another man asked. “I guess it was some struck of luck. Some cities in the northern provinces are more rebellious and have more hate toward than the government than the southern provinces, and I just ran into them. I got routes, ways, and everything to escape Ren’s army. I went from District 3 to 12, 11, 10, 14, 36, and then 37. I met my true love there, which is surprising because nobody really lives in District 37.” Donovan continued his conversation with his friends. 
64In the southern end of the room, Lydia is there, alone. With a beautiful, elegant girl like this, you wouldn’t expect her to be alone. A fine, young gentleman noticed Lydia, and gazed upon her beauty. He had to approach her, so he did just that. “Hey there!” the man said to Lydia. Lydia then looked at the man. “Hello,” Lydia replied back. “I just saw you standing there alone, and I had to approach you. I couldn’t bear to see you alone, seeing that you are a fine, beautiful woman.” The man said, trying to flirt with Lydia. Lydia had a noticeable blush on her face. “Why thank you, sir. What is your name?” Lydia asked the man. “Arthur.” The man replied. 
65Meanwhile, Melina starts having a gut-wrenching feeling in her abdomen. “May you excuse me, Hazel? I’m sincerely sorry, I don’t feel well all of a sudden.” Melina said, worriedly. “Don’t be sorry at all! I will be right here if you need me. Go do your business! It’s okay!” Hazel said, with a grin on her lightly toned face. Melina walked over to Donovan, seeing him talking to a bunch of men in suits. She approached him anyway. “Hello gentlemen, I’m sorry to interrupt your conversation. Donovan, can we speak somewhere else? This is quite urgent.” Melina announced. “Uh, sure Melina. Excuse me gentlemen.” Donovan said. Melina and Donovan walked over to an empty corner where no people are around. “What do you need Melina?” Donovan asked, noticeably annoyed. “I don’t have a good feeling about this, Donovan. I feel like I am being watched.” Melina replied. “Oh Melina, stop it. You’re 16. You’re subject to feel these things sometimes. You turn 17 in March, and you find a new man to marry, and you go your merry way. You probably saw an attractive guy or something.” Donovan explained. “No no no Donovan, this is serious. I feel like-“ Melina got interrupted by a series of screaming. There were herds of people running, as masked men ran in with swords, massacring people. The guards found them, Melina thought. Thinking quickly, Donovan and Melina decided to get Lydia and get out of there. Donovan and Melina ran all the way across the room to see Lydia, not able to move due to shock. “Lydia, we need to fucking go! Snap out of it!” Melina screamed. Lydia finally snapped out of it and ran with the trio. They all ran as more and more masked guards swooped in, killing everyone they see. Their goal was to kill everyone in the room, in the most painful way possible, and they were not messing around. Melina noticed behind them is a guard chasing them, right behind Donovan. She recognized him very quickly. It was the same guard who was ordered to execute him in February of 2554.
66“Donovan, look out!” Melina cried, but it was too late. The guard swung his sword at Donovan’s neck. Due to the precision of the swing, Donovan was beheaded. His lifeless body fell, as the guard ran past it. As Melina saw the terrible act of violence, she tripped and fell, with Lydia running past her. Lydia ran back, because she did not notice Melina tripping and falling. She was going to die anyway, she thought. She did not want to die alone, with Melina left behind. She decided to run back to Melina, next to her side. The guard started laughing. “Pathetic!” He called out. “You really thought Donovan was going to escape his death sentence? Are you all really that stupid?” The guard screamed, laughing. “I don’t give a rat’s ass if he goes all the way to District 37, I was going to find him! Now, you’re going to die next!” He was treating Donovan’s death as a cruel joke. He didn’t show any remorse, as he started to have a creepy grin, with his stained, brown teeth, looking upon the two crying girls. 
67As he prepared to cock back his arm to swing his sword to kill the girls, but all of the sudden, a random man out of the forest lunged at the guard, stabbing him in the chest, where his heart is. The man took the sword out of the guard’s hand, and his own sword out of the guard’s body, and started to murder him. Melina had a deep look at the random man who saved their lives. It is a guard. Why did a guard want to save the lives of two girls in the largest rebellion in the empire? Weren’t guards supposed to honor the emperor, regardless of their lives being lost, or not? Weren’t they supposed to die for the emperor? Lots of questions ran through Melina’s mind, while the mysterious guard finished up murdering the guard. After that, all the things she could think of is dying with her brother. The mysterious guard approached them, as the girls were bracing for impact. “I don’t care if you kill me. If you kill me, do it the way that guard killed my brother!” Melina cried out. The mysterious man looked down at them for a few short seconds. “I’m not going to kill you.” The mysterious man, said. “If I just saved your life, why would I kill you both?” Melina and Lydia looked extremely confused. “So you aren’t going to kill us?” Lydia asked. “I just said that. No, I’m not.” The mysterious man explained. Melina began to burst into tears, crying loudly, and ran up to the man and hugged him. “Thank you for saving our lives,” Melina said, muffled due to her crying into the man’s chest. After the hug ended, she walked over to Donovan’s lifeless corpse. She started hugging the corpse. “One fucking day, Ren. One fucking day, and I will get revenge for you killing my brother. Fuck you, you fucking piece of shit.” Melina yelled out. Lydia and the mysterious man walked and stood behind Melina. Lydia and the mysterious man crouched down beside Melina, giving her comfort and a sense of safety.
68 “I know that the guards killed your brother. They’ve been searching for him for about two years now.” The mysterious man explained. “Your brother is perhaps one of the bravest men that I have ever came across. He did not even care if he died, all he cared for is the safety of his family, and the safety of the rebellion.” The mysterious man took off the mask, which covered his face. Under that mask revealed a young looking man, with a stubble, precisely shaved. He had noticeably blue eyes, but was not noticeable due to the dead of night. “My sister was murdered by that same guard, back in 2546,” the man explained. “Our cousin, Ranolo, was involved with the rebellion at that point. My sister, who is 16 years my senior, was not involved. She was 25 at the time.
69“On one autumn night, in 2546, probably in September, we got word that Ranolo, was executed due to his involvement with the rebellion. We thought that he was just going to die. We are completely wrong.
70“That same guard found our location, and murdered my sister, and my mother. The guard showed no remorse for what he did. I was 9 years old at the time, and I could not bear to see my older sister, the one who practically raised me, pass away.
71“From that day, I vowed to murder that psychopathic guard. In 2553, I had to join the military, by force. I thought it was the perfect way to build up my strength, since I was a weak 16-year-old at the time. But from when I was 9, I knew that I supported the rebellion, no questions asked.
72“When I was 17, I started sneaking out of the boot camp at night to attend rebellion meetings. I also had to be a guard, and do secret raids. I did not kill anybody, fortunately. The emperor was on site, every time a raid happened, so I could not do anything. This time was special. The emperor was wise enough, to let us raid by ourselves, to complete our training.
73“I finally killed that son of a bitch who murdered my family, and that fucker who murdered your brother.”
74The man was crying at this point. He burst into tears, and cried with the group. After a few minutes of crying together. “You know what was good about doing this?” The man asked, wiping tears from his eyes. “What?” Lydia asked. “At least we killed that guard before he killed anyone else.” The man explained. “Most guards are forced to enlist into the military, while that guard had psychopathic tendencies.” “What is your name?” Melina asked. “My name is Jono.” The man replied. “So, Jono, we are involved with the rebellion too, now, since both of your families were affected by this. What do we do?” Lydia asked. “Well, we are planning to create a secret army down in District 28. You’re going to have to run away from home.” Jono explained to the both of them. “Well, we both have to do hard work anyway. I’m willing to sacrifice my life to save many others’ in the process.” Melina explained. “Okay Jono, we’ll do it. Lydia will do it either way.” Melina decided. “Okay. This was actually going according to plan. There should be a carriage station up in Windell.” Jono explained. “The way you go to Kater, you go the reverse way. The continuation of the secret path should be beyond the outskirts of Everfield.” Jono explained.” “Go through the path, and it goes straight to Windell. Windell is in the northern part of the province. Nobody really knows it exists, since it is such a small community, and nobody will bother to look, so you should be fine. Meet me in the town square, near the fountain, at 1 o’clock.”
75Jono parted ways with Melina and Lydia. Melina finally got home, with Lydia over. The duo had officially decided to risk their own lives for the rebellion. They finally decided to embark on this risky mission, to finally establish peace, domestic tranquility, the pursuit of happiness, and of course, freedom, onto the empire. Besides, isn’t it what the United States was back when it existed?