Dawn on Jefferson (scifi story): Chapter Thirty-five - Complicated! Why so Freakin Complicated!?!steemCreated with Sketch.

in #writing5 years ago

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Chapter One: Getting Up
Chapter Two: Where I Live
Chapter Three: The Walk
Chapter Four: School
Chapter Five: Introducing my Friends, the Merry Pranksters!
Chapter Six: Walking to Mom's
Chapter Seven: Mom’s House
Chapter Eight: It Began on Constitution Hill
Chapter Nine: Attack of the Awknerds!
Chapter Ten: No Awknerds Were Harmed
Chapter Eleven: The Breaking Shadstorm
Chapter Twelve: Where I Envy Grilled Cheese
Chapter Thirteen: Doom! Doom! Doom! Where I Want to go to School! The End Must be Nigh!
Chapter Fourteen: The Game is a Foot
Chapter Fifteen: Uncomfortable Revelations!
Chapter Sixteen: WAITAMINUTE!
Chapter Seventeen: The Healing Power of Popcorn
Chapter Eighteen: The Lessons Learned Before Maven
Chapter Nineteen: No Haven From Maven
Chapter Twenty: Meeting Maven
Chapter Twenty-One: And Then I was Roasted Alive and Served Up With a Worm
Chapter Twenty-Two: That Which has Been Set in Motion…
Chapter Twenty-Three: Shall Stay in Motion...
Chapter Twenty-Four: Until Acted Upon by Something Absolutely Annoying
Chapter Twenty-Five: The Veena Swarm Circus!
Chapter Twenty-Six: A Rain of Blobs Pulled the Church Down
Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Harrowing Sounds of Yoatling and the Popping of Creepy Fruit
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Where We Get Chastised by a Spiny Creeper
Chapter Twenty-nine: I Spy With Rosa’s Drone Eye
Chapter Thirty: Where I Lose to a Mockery. Stupid Mockery.
Chapter Thirty-One: Where I try to do the Right Thing
Chapter Thirty-two: But I Didn’t Ask for Knight in Powered Armor!
Chapter Thirty-Three: Be Careful What You Wish for, You Might Just Get It!
Chapter Thirty-Four: An Interesting Story, But Do We Believe the Story Tellers?

Chapter Thirty-five: Complicated! Why so Freakin Complicated!?!

My father once told me a religion should not set itself up to be testable. That was to say, don't make a claim based on something that was easily proven or disproven, if you wanted people to have faith. He said it was a problem with many religions, especially newer ones. The older ones had, either intentionally or unintentionally, learned that rule.

While very different than religions - most of the time - lies are pretty similar in one way. If they are easily proven to be untrue, then to get people to believe them would be almost impossible. Those that did believe them were almost assuredly not the ones you really want to buy in to your story. It was always better to tell the truth. You either had to own up to the situation and accepted the consequences or be ready for the worse consequences when the truth came out after you lied. And it would come out. It always came out. Even if you were the best liar in the world.

And then the payment for that lie came due.

Jaideep had lied to us.

He thought we were just kids he tailored his truth for for sympathy and help. It's not a uncommon story: adults often lie to kids to get what they want. Sometimes it was because the situation was very complicated and they wanted to simplify things. They often left out details to make a certain narrative that made sense. Sometimes it was to make them seem like the victim or hero or just an innocent bystander that got caught up in something. Sometimes it was to try to keep them from looking bad. Really bad. Sometimes, it was because they feared what the kids will think if they knew the truth.

The truth outs. Sometimes it took a long time. Sometimes it's really quick as the lies were transparent. There and then, I would have said the truth had freaked out Helmet really bad.

Cheenee. Hindi for Chinese.

Wonderful. Just wonderful. Just freaked out wonderfully with whip cream and cherries and yummy sprinkles.

Where we were, captives of Indian soldiers on an American world with CHINESE soldiers looking for them. Awesome sauce. Really. I was thrilled. This was my thrilled and happy face. Don't believe me? Why? I'm so cute and amazing! Really!

Good. That was a lie. Less damaging than Jaideep's but, still, a lie.

Helmet shouldered his/her weapon and was scanning. Jaideep scrambled and pulled on his own. There were no lights to tell what was happening inside and he was saying. Jaideep turned and seemed to be scanning off axis from Helmet. Helmet then turned to Jaideep and gesticulated wildly. No words were heard. It was pretty obvious Helmet was berating Jaideep.

The tent popped and Jaideep began to leave. Helmet gestured at us even more wildly. Jaideep seemed to just ignore Helmet as far as we could tell. Jaideep ran for cover and aimed his rifle: he seemed to completely ignore that we existed. Even without verbal cues, it was patently obvious Helmet was furious and frustrated.

Helmet turned to us and handed back our needlers and boosters.

Just then a drone the size of my thumb zipped past us. I didn't recognize it. Was it Indian? Was it Chinese? Was it American military? I didn't know. In that instant, Jaideep opened fire on whatever was coming from the direction the drone had come from and Helmet fired something from his or her rifle that chased after the drone.

Then, Helmet turned to us and in plain, accented English, said:

"Run. Do not stop. Do not slow down. Do not look back. NOW RUN!"

The words were harsh, but said in as kind a manner as could be. The weirdest thing was, his accent was NOT Indian. It was also not one of the American accents either. I could have sworn it was ... Nigerian.

Helmet then turned and began popping off his, yes, his own drones from the back of his armor.

With that, we ran. We climbed up and over a hill and down another and over another and down into an arroyo, a dried up stream. We were thinking it would work like a trench if explosions started going off. We ran down the arroyo bed pounding on sand and through Jefflife brush. We were trying to get away.

And as we ran, it hit me. Helmet hadn't been angry or contemptuous of US. He had been of Jaideep. He didn't want us to get hurt because of what they were doing. He thought Jaideep was risking OUR lives for whatever he wanted: information? food? Help to surrender? We didn't know. We didn't have TIME to know.

In that moment, my opinion of Helmet wildly changed. It was a bit head spinning on top of everything else.

And as we ran, we heard explosions and the sounds of a huge swarm of drones crashing, clashing and exploding.

We had run for what felt like a long time when a really big explosion was behind us. The explosion was so big it knocked us to the ground. Stunned, we got up. After a moment, we franticly checked our leathers and balkavas: we they torn? Compromised? Remember, that can be life and death out on Jefferson. We were ok.

After a second of elation, we realized we were still close enough to get hurt! We got up and started running again. We ran up and over the hill and then down into another arroyo. We ran and ran.

We stopped to breathe, plopping ourselves in a creepy bush again. PLEASE, we all mentally begged then, don't let this one's fruit pop while we're in it!

We were panting and gasping.

I felt everyone smile. We thought we were safe. The explosions had stopped. We were ok. All we had to do was contact our parents and we could be done with this adventure. Not the butt chewing that was coming afterwards, but at least the really dangerous (but not the scary part) would be over. And a thorough buttchewing by our parents meant we were alive and someplace safe!

I reached into my pack and started to fish out the other clean booster when I heard it.

"Ahem. Excuse me."

I looked up. We all looked up.

There stood someone in powered armor. Again.

It wasn't Indian.

It wasn't American.

It was Chinese.

Or so the shoulder flashing with a red flag and yellow stars indicated.

We were caught.

Again.

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