Chapter 1 " The Storm before the Calm "

Chicago
10:23 P.M.
Arreck City
2/17/ 2347



Thomas Herret ran through the streets of Arreck City. The once mighty city now stood in ruins; buildings that once exemplified magnificence were now abandoned. Thom tried to keep the swells of anger welling up in him down. He skidded to a halt as he heard heavy boots marching on that pavement at the intersection ahead. He dove behind a crumbling wall and pulled out his sidearm, a gleaming silver magnum.
“Thom, what’s going on?” came a voice of his com.
“Soldiers up ahead on Taden Street, requesting assistance Josh.”

Up on the roof tops, Joshua Cross lined the cross hairs on his sniper rifle up with the head of the lead soldier. The dim light from the moon made it impossible to see him, but he could see perfectly. He squeezed the trigger and immediately rolled along the roof top. He heard the officers body hit the ground and immediate fire opened up on the roof. He peered over the edge and watched as Thom raced across the street, now with the soldiers backs to him.
“Anna, do you read me?” Josh hissed into his com.
“I’ve got you Josh. Need me to help you thin ‘em out?”
“No, follow Thom along the roof tops, cover him. I’ve got these punks.”
“You sure you can handle it?”
“I’m positive,” he said, not entirely as positive as he assured.
He came back up above the edge of the roof top and fired to quick shots into the soldiers, taking down two more of them. Fire from assault rifles pinged of the concrete edge as he ducked back bellow. He quickly reloaded his rifle came back up to fire again. The sound of another soldier falling was accompanied by the sight of Anna leaping across a gap between two roof’s, following Thom on his way to the target. More fire pinged around him and a bullet whizzed past his head and he threw himself to the ground.

Anna Seran hopped another gap a watched as Josh dropped two more soldiers. The kid, as young as he was, had a great shot. The boy was the youngest member of the resistance at the age of 16, though Anna herself was only a year his senior. Most of the others were adults who held personal grudges against President Dawrlson. She watched as Thom raced between cover, heading slowly toward the mission objective, an abandoned church about a mile ahead. She saw a soldier appear around the corner; most likely separated from his squad mates, and quickly took him out with her sniper rifle. Thom looked up at her and gave her a thumbs up, pausing quickly for a breath. The sounds of gunfire behind them intensified as the game of cat and mouse between Josh and the soldiers intensified.
“Anna, were almost at the target. Hold where you are and cover me. The disk should be just inside so you can cover me from here.” He highlighted a roof top on here GPS.
“Got it Thom.”
She took a few steps back and ran to the buildings edge, leaping at the last possible second. The grabbed the edge of the designated building and pulled herself up. She rolled to her knees and watched as Thom entered the building, searching desperately for the disk in the darkness. Their contact inside the army, a computer specialist who went by the name of Shadow, had dropped of plans for the latest raid on the Resistance’s base. So far they hadn’t found it, but each time the bombs dropped a little closer. Thom came out and waved the disk at her, catching the silvery surface in the moon light.
“I’ve got it. Turn back and rendezvous with Josh.”
“Uh, negative,” Josh’s voice crackled over the com. “This place is getting over run and a tank is pulling up the street. Falling back to the LZ outside of town. Meet you there.”
He clicked off his com as Anna climbed down to the street below.
“Looks like we got a walk ahead of us.” She said.


Please forgive any spelling errors. It's getting kinda late.