Editing Phase Q/Crackdown

Your little car pulls in to the cabin. After the rough, muddy road. It feels safer to get out of the car. You stretch, while Natalya and Smitty walk towards the building. Tommi screams, and collapses.

You look around, stunned. As fear takes over, your heart pounds and your mind goes animal. You duck back down behind the car, scanning around. Natalya and Smitty are already out of sight.

Leaves stir in a nearby tree. Did somebody shoot at you?

Pulling out the device Smitty gave you, you hurry to check it and point it at the bush where you suspect fire may have come from. ''Click''. Nothing happens when you pull the trigger.

“Agh, sound,” you mutter.

All of a sudden, large bodies heave from the bush. Four burly agents in full body armor rush out, and run towards the car. As they make their way past you, your mind flips in bafflement and gratitude. The agents run down the side of slope next to the road, and climb into a personnel carrier. It drives off. Natalya and Smitty come out soon after.

“What the light?!” You ask.

“Shut up, we can’t stay here,” says Natalya. “Where’s Tommi?”

You point to the corpse on the ground.

“Dark!”

Smitty gets in the car. “Let’s go,” he says.

You get in the back, and after a second Natalya gets in and turns the key. The three of you drive off, after the sole road the Trad agents took.

“What the light happened back there?” you ask again.

“Smitty tossed a frag grenade. Last one.”

“So what do we do now?”

“You know as well as we do. Didn’t you say you observed an org meeting?”

“Yeah, well I only heard the plans. I have no clue what’s happening now!”

Smitty jumps in. “Look, we’ve got to get to a better place. They’re obviously not going to ignore the woods. We’ve got to get away from here.”

“There’s nowhere else to go,” says Natalya.

“I’ve got an idea,” you say.

Pulling out a sheet of paper, you start to make some figures. Like an old-time general sketching out plans, you mark a set of x’s and o’s. Tracing out lines, calculating, testing. You model the flows of Trad forces, from their barracks in the cities. You pencil in the militant supporters out in the hillsides.

“Aha,” you say.

Smitty takes a look at your jottings. “Good job,” he says.

“Where do we go?” Natalya asks.

“Follow the stars,” says Smitty.

The tension remains, as you drive on. For hours, beautiful scenery floats by that you can’t afford to watch. Your mind races, trying to piece together recent happenings, to piece together what happens next. How much longer can you trust these two? How many more hours do you have left to live?

Well, this is it. Here you are. Why not, right? Screwing up your courage, you decide on your gameplan. From now on, you know which side you are on. You are ready to do the meaningful. You will strive.

Winds rustle the leaves. Birds chirp. They don’t know. They can’t see.

Tick. Tock.

Every second counts. From now on, you are a new you.

Who are you?

* [[Phase Q/Reaching Out|Reaching out]]
* [[Phase Q/Wreckage|Wreckage]]

{{Phase Q}}