Monotony and Mondays: Chapter 2 – Starting a New Life

Chapter 2 – Starting a New Life

With a USB in my pocket that I got from my home, I go to my family’s underground server without trouble. I’ve also taken my family’s sword since I feel that I won’t have an opportunity to get it again and I may need it for later. The guards don’t even bother asking why I’m down in the most secure of areas and only say hello and smile at me as I pass by with some commenting on how long it’s been since I was last there. One of the higher-ranking guards stops me for a particularly long conversation as he goes on and on about the revolution, modern politics, and how his job secures his safety from it all.

“Think about giving us a raise during one of your next meetings to keep my boys and girls busy. Perhaps you can have those strippers from those parties you go to come here. Everyone down here is bored out of their minds,” the guard suggests.

“I’ll keep it in mind. Is there anything else? I have to get going,” I say.

The guard puts his hand to his earpiece to listen in to something and then says, “No, sir. Sorry to bother you for so long.”

Is there something going on? I hope nothing stops me from doing what I have to. Once I get to the door where the servers are, I ask to go through and the guards armed with shotguns and heavy body armor look at one another and nod.

“What’s the occasion? Going to use what’s in there for one of your parties?” one of the guards asks.

“You could say that,” I say.

“You’re going to need a better reason than that.”

“A better reason? Like what? My family has done the same for lesser events as if the information in there is like a family photo album to them.”

“It’s more than that. You know that the Weaver family’s most hidden secrets are on those servers besides mere records of your family’s history. I could have you shot with no question or consequence if you don’t give me a better reason right now.”

“I am the head of the Weaver company-”

The guards draw their shotguns on me.

“You are a playboy who spends his time larping as a leader while partying every day and frequenting old women. If the next words out of your mouth aren’t a legitimate reason for accessing the servers, then we will kill you.”

A few seconds pass before I open my mouth and am immediately shocked when the guards start laughing.

“I’m sorry, sir. We were just kidding! We had that routine in mind if you came here since we were bored.”

“It’s…fine. Will you let me through now?”

“Go ahead, sir.”

That was weird. Thankfully, no one bothers me while I get the information I need from the servers. Another problem suddenly arises when the power goes out.

A guard opens the door and says, “Stay here, sir. We’ll investigate what’s going on.”

I do as they say and stay put. I’ve never heard of a place like this losing power. Maybe it’s a result of one of the workers being bored and accidentally causing this or perhaps it’s another one of their bad jokes. The sound of what seems to be gunshots makes me curious as to what is happening. I take out my pistol and hold it up as I exit the room and am met by a hooded black masked woman in a black shirt, pants, and shoes. Unsure of who she is, I point my pistol at her and she does the same to me.

“Who are you?” I ask.

“Nobody you should be concerned about. Step aside and I won’t have to shoot you,” she answers.

“You want what’s in the server room, don’t you? Well, I already have it on this USB I have and I’m going to expose my family for its crimes. Can I trust you with it?”

“What? I’m sorry I thought you were the new head of the Weaver family company. Why would you want to expose your family and cripple your company through it?”

“I’m tired of my family’s manipulative ways and I wanted to do something right with my life. I’ll explain myself more when we’re out of here. We can leave in my flying car.”

The masked woman doesn’t say anything for a few seconds until she nods and agrees as she lowers her weapon. She helps me effectively sneak through the shadows and an alternate exit that she used as her entrance. When we get outside, she takes off her black mask and hood revealing her creamy white skin, gorgeous dark brown hair, striking green eyes, and youthful face that suggests that she’s about my age. My breath is taken away by her appearance to the point where she has to snap me out of it before we continue to my flying car and get far away from the facility.

“Where am I taking you?” I ask.

“You don’t have to take me anywhere. Give me the USB. I have an extension for my phone that will let me plug the USB in so I can download it and send it to my contact,” she says.

I do as she says. After a couple of seconds, she hits the side of her phone with the palm of her hand.

She then says, “Dang it! The file size is too large to send all at once. It’ll be a while before it’s done.”

“I can take you to my uncle Arthur’s. He’s not too far from here and has a computer there that you can use. Will that make the download go by faster?”

“Yes, assuming he has a good internet connection. Can you trust your uncle? Does he know what you did?”

“I can trust him, but he doesn’t know what I did yet. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind too much about what I did since he’s hated our family’s corrupt ways for a while. They only keep him around because he’s a gunsmith and can work on cybernetics like my left arm and eye.”

“Your left eye has cybernetics in it? Looks normal to me.”

“If I blink twice, it activates. See?” I demonstrate what I’m talking about by blinking twice activating my left eye’s cybernetics that reveals the four black lines around my eye and its yellow and black color. “It’s a simple cybernetic addon to my eye that helps me aim my pistol while my left arm is augmented to help me deal with the kickback of my pistol, which is essentially a handcannon.”

“Interesting.”

I was actually hoping she’d be impressed more so we could talk more along the way to my uncle's shop, but she doesn’t say anything else. When we get there, my uncle asks what was going on and who the woman is. After explaining myself, my uncle looks at me in disbelief and seems to be mentally praying before he says anything else.

“Well, if this is what God wants, then so be it,” my uncle says.

“Thank you, uncle,” I say.

The woman does her thing uploading the data I got as I anxiously wait for the results and look out the windows every few minutes as if someone is coming after us.

“My contact will get this information circulating in no time. It’ll surely take an hour or so for the reveal to take effect because of how big the information is,” the woman says.

“Why don’t you stay until then? I’ll make us dinner in my house that’s connected to the shop,” my uncle offers.

“Um. Okay, I guess. Thanks.”

My uncle makes us steak and fries for dinner, a specialty of his. We have two news sites streaming on two TVs as we eat. One news station is independent while the other is biased and controlled by my family. The minutes pass like hours as I both eagerly wait to hear them talk about what we exposed about my family and dread it. After about an hour, the news starts bringing up my family’s crimes as breaking news. They talk about murders, the perverting of the truth, buying out politicians, working with foreign countries, covering up sexual abuse and perverted behavior, and so on.

The unbiased news network talks about the information as it is and that my family should answer for its crimes while the biased one tries to excuse most of my family’s actions and leaves out the worst crimes that they can’t excuse. They say things such as the age of consent being risen, how America is better without certain people my family murdered, and that we’ve kept our relations with foreign countries better through our behind the scenes deals. In addition, they bring up the facility I was at and I’m blamed as the primary source of this information since I was there and suspiciously disappeared when the power temporarily went out. Because of this, I’m labeled as a traitor to my family and Weaver company as a whole, and a warrant is put out for my arrest for disclosing private information.

“I guess I should’ve expected this,” I say aloud.

“At least the country knows the truth about your family. I’m sure there are some who you were brave for being a whistleblower,” the woman says.

“What do you think?”

“I think you were brave.”

“I think that too, Alabaster,” my uncle interjects, “But you’ll need to find a new place to live since you’re a wanted man. I’ll need to find a new one as well.”

“They’re not going to be after you, uncle.”

“They’ll come after me for questions and you’ll need someone to help you with your cybernetics. Besides, I need to atone for being on the sidelines for so long while my brother, your father, continued in our father’s footsteps and took part in an uncountable number of crimes. Even now, I blame myself for not taking a more active role in your life so that you’d come to your senses and leave that life of sin sooner rather than later.”

“Don’t blame yourself for anything. It was all my decision.” Turning to the woman, I say, “Would you know of any place we can hide? I’d also like to help more, if I can to atone for my family’s deeds.”

“You’re in luck. I’m part of an underground resistance movement we like to call the mantises. You can stay with us.”

“Thank you. Since we’ll be working together, can I finally know your name?”

“It’s Calabretta.”

“That’s a wonderful name.”

“Yeah, yeah. We should get going since you’re a wanted man now.”

“Right. Should we take my flying car to your place or would that make us stand out too much?”

“It would make us stand out, especially if you park it close to my hideout. We’ll have to walk there.”

“Okay. Let me take out something from my car first before we go.”

“What can be so important that you can’t leave it behind?”

“You’ll see.”

Going to my car, I take out my family’s sword.

“Really? A sword?” Calabretta says.

“Yeah, I thought it may be useful,” I say.

“I’m happy you got our family’s sword, but I’m sure how useful it’ll be other than a last resort,” my uncle says.

Taking the sword with me, my uncle and I follow Calabretta to her hideout while wearing a hoodie that my uncle had to hide my face. To be honest, I look pretty shady in a hoodie, however, the part of town that Calabretta takes us to is shady as well and the cops hardly go down there even under Silas’ command since they’re helping him take care of bigger criminals. Calabretta leads us to an apartment complex and into its basement where a group of twenty people comprised of people who look to be around my age and slightly higher are cleaning up after what seems to be a celebration and getting back to work on computers and fixing and creating makeshift armor and guns. Seeing them make guns out of the pieces of broken guns reminds me of how lucky I am to be carrying around a gun while most Americans can’t due to the restrictions on the second amendment that allows the general public to have small pistols with pathetically small magazines while government and corporate personnel of importance are allowed to carry handcannons like the one I do.

When everyone in the room notices that I’m here, I’m congratulated by them with Calabretta receiving some of the credit, which peeves her judging by her face. After which, my uncle goes to help the people making armor and guns, Calabretta plans their next move with the others, and I practice shooting with one of the pistols they made and swinging my family’s sword. It’s been a while since I’ve shot a gun and swung a sword so my skills are a bit sloppier than I’d like to admit. Some time passes until my uncle helps me practice.

“Are you expecting to shoot someone?” he asks.

“Yes, you told me to practice self-defense if there’s a possibility that my life is in danger,” I say.

“That’s right. You’re training like it’s going to happen soon.”

“It probably is. I feel like I have a responsibility to protect these people and that I’m finally living my purpose. Don’t forget that we got here because you told me to pray.”

“You got here because of what?” Calabretta interrupts.

“It’s unbelievable I know.”

“It’s unbelievable to me because the Weaver family is a secular organization that promotes abortion, the disrespect of religion, and gay and child marriages.”

“Well, my uncle here is proof that not all the family is like that. I guess you can include me in that now too. Anyways, want to see how my sword can cut through metal? I can also show off my custom pistol’s power if you have spare rounds. I’d rather not waste the ammo that I have for training.”

Calabretta checks for the right type of ammo for my pistol and we manage to find some. I then show off my pistol by setting up three armored targets.

“Watch this. I’ll shoot through all three of these, through the wall, and maybe hit something in someone’s basement,” I say before shooting.

The people in the basement doubt this except for my uncle. When I shoot my pistol, my cybernetic arm barely fidgets in reaction to the massive recoil. It sounds like the firing of a mini canon and is enough to scare and make some of the people in here cover their ears and I’m almost certain someone above us heard it. Its shot does go through all three targets and leaves a hole in the wall that the bullet itself is stuck in.

“What did I tell you? This is the result of my uncle’s fine craftsmanship,” I say.

Next up, I show how sharp my sword is by cutting all the practice targets around me as if they were nothing. Again, I credit my uncle for this since he’s been sharping and taking care of the sword. People then start asking him to help them with their weapons while I continue practicing with my sword and go back to using their pistols for practice to not drown out their talking with my shooting. A few hours pass and people start leaving and going to their beds. Since I’ve had a big day, I do the same along with my uncle to sleep in a bed in this basement that was prepared for us by Calabretta. It’s not the most comfortable bed I’ve been in, but it is at this moment given how tired I am from everything.

It feels like seconds have passed after I fell asleep before Calabretta wakes me up. Seeing her almost makes me think I’m dreaming because of her unbelievable beauty. My tiredness and how close she is to me almost make me want to grab her and fall asleep with her next to me, but I stop myself before I do since there must be something important going on for her to wake me up.

“What’s going on?” I ask while stretching and yawning.

“The national guard is being called on a protest happening against your family,” Calabretta says.

“And? SWAT squads have been called to control or rather shoot at protesters to get them to stop. What’s the difference now that it’s the national guard?”

“We have enough guns to arm the masses and the revolution is starting now. We have to help them fight back. Do you want to come with us?”

“Well, I’ve destroyed my family’s reputation and put myself on the wanted list, so why not fight against the army? I’m up for it.”

“Thank you, Alabaster.”

“Anything for you.”

While preparing to go out, my uncle comes up to me and says, “I heard what’s going on. Are you honestly going out there? You’re not a soldier or revolutionary.”

“I wasn’t until yesterday. Yesterday I said that I felt like I had the responsibility to protect these people and I meant it.”

My uncle looks at me before taking my head and butting it with his.

“You’re not the same nephew I knew at the beginning of yesterday and I’m not sure if I should be more afraid or proud of you. Just be careful out there.”

“I will, uncle. I’ll make you proud.”

Half of the group stays while Calabretta, I, and the other half of the group go. We get on motorbikes with each bike having two people on it. While heading to where there’s the most chaos, we hear yelling, gunfire, and the sounds of fighting. Because of the density of the crowds and the number of people going in and out of where the protest is happening, we park our motorbikes in a safe place where no one should find them and walk the rest of the way. Some of the people that we pass by recognize me. They try to get my attention with some of them turning around to join us. We arm these people with the guns we’ve made while rallying the surrounding people to join us.

By the time we reach the place where the most chaos is, there are more people behind us than in the protest ahead of us. Walking ahead of these people makes me feel important as if I’m the figurehead of the movement. The national guard’s group formation slowly begins to deteriorate as they see how many armed civilians they’re up against. Many of them flee and ask their commanders for advice. Now at the front of the protest, we all draw our guns and point them at the national guard ready for a fight, however, they give up and throw their guns down allowing the protesters to move past them and to city hall. There are even some that join the protesters as if they were on our side this entire time or maybe they’re just doing it to save their life.

“That was anticlimactic,” I say aloud.

Following the protesters, they make it to the towering building that was one my family owned and assault it by throwing molotovs and shooting even though its bulletproof steel barriers are up that are unaffected by the protesters’ weapons. I’m about to try my hand at breaking open the doors until a second group of national guard soldiers drives up in military vehicles and starts shooting into the air and telling people through their microphones to leave or else. When the crowd doesn’t listen, they start selectively shooting people, which really starts to get people to leave.

“Protect the civilians and get them to safety!” Calabretta says.

While the fighting is happening, I shift between staying at the front and unintentionally going into the crowd as if using them as cover. I can’t be a coward at this point after wanting to put my life on the line for others, especially when people are dying. Eventually, we get most people out of the city center and then leave on our motorbikes to go back to the hideout. During the ride, I hang my head and think about what I should’ve done and what I can do better next time, and I don’t stop thinking even when I sit down at the hideout and run out of ideas. Even though people died during the protest, the others seem to think we’d done well despite it since many more people survived, one line of national guard soldiers fell before us, and another one lost a good number of theirs to push us back.

Seeing me in distress, my uncle sits next to me and says, “I saw what you did on the news. You did what you could. Don’t worry about what happened today because we’ll get them back some other day.”

“Thank you. I’m also disappointed because I thought at the moment we were so close to making a difference.”

“What difference would it have made if you went into one of our family’s owned buildings and made a wreck of the place or got its leaders inside to listen to you? The country would still view you and me as criminals and wouldn’t change a bit.”

Calabretta approaches us and says to me, “Your uncle is right. We’ll have many more opportunities to make a real change like we did yesterday. They don’t come often, but when it happens, it makes everything that happened till that point seem like it was worth going through.”

“Thank you, both of you.”

She smiles at me and I smile at her back as I feel a real connection that I haven’t felt with anyone else form between us. My uncle and Calabretta are right. I can’t expect big changes with each passing day and will have to take it one step at a time. A thought then comes to me about my parents and what they would think when they hear what happened. Even though they constantly lied to the public and encouraged me to live my life of drinks and women, I still love them because they gave me everything I had and cared for me. I manage to find some time alone, give them a call, and tell them everything.

To my surprise, my mom cuts me off early and says, “You don’t need to explain everything. We’ve seen it on TV and heard it through our friends.”

“…and? What do you think? What’s your opinion?” I say not knowing what else to really say.

“We’re in retirement. It doesn’t concern us at all since we’re far removed from having any impact on the situation.”

“Do what you want. We don’t care,” my dad adds, “And if you’re going to be busting in some heads, you know to go after Kim and Yang since they always gave me trouble and were so full of themselves despite making so many mistakes that cost us money, influence, and going against my advice.”

“Thanks, mom and dad.”

“Regardless, we appreciate you calling. Keep us in the loop if you have time. We’d like to hear your side of the story. It brightened up our boring day,” my mom says.

“I will. Love you, guys.”

My parents say they love me too and dad says not to forget about Kim and Yang before they hang up. Okay, now I’m ready to keep going. Here’s hoping the coming days will bring some new and good changes to the country and my life.