Phase One: Resist

Phase one: Welcome to the Resistance:

I used to have a very REGULAR life. I went to school, I played sports, I hung with friends, and I constantly argued with my father. No school, no sports, barely anything resembling friends. Phase one is the most rancid, trashy, thing my father ever did to me. I always felt it must be so nice to have lived so much life and had so many experiences that you now know what is best for EVERYONE. That is definitely what my dad thought, that is why he made me go on this trash journey of phase one with him.

Imagine being 17, at the time of the perfect placement proposal.

The timing of everything literally could not have been more terrible for me. Right before the virus began to spread and our country began to shut down, I had finally felt like things were going right. High School can be difficult, but right around the time of the pandemic, I had become royalty. My high school team was on a great winning streak, and we were weeks and a few games away from taking home the title. Consequent events would prove that everything I had worked hard for my whole life was stolen from me in a matter of months. Our sports tournament was canceled, then our schools shut down, then my dad was laid off. I did not think anything would make me smile again until perfect placement.

Perfect placement seemed like my only chance to regain what I lost. By the time the perfect placement was ready to be implemented I was about to be a senior. I had been praying every day that they would bring sports back. Would there be college in the bubbles, they said they had thought of everything. I was so excited to forge out on a new journey as an independent man.

That’s right my dad, the dude with whom I was constantly arguing, was a total quack. The term mainstream society would use is a HEADQUARTERS theorist. The idea behind HEADQUATERS was bonkers just like my father was. The story he loves to tell is that EVERYTHING is controlled, and EVERYONE is controlled by HEADQUARTERS, a super-secret organization, located on a different planet, that was responsible for EVERYTHING that happened on earth. Pretty much HEADQUARTERS became a cop-out for a lot of individuals who felt that life was unfair and that they were individuals who were pre-determined to suffer. They thought if only the HEADQUARTERS looked upon them with favor, then they could have anything and everything they wanted out of life.

My dad and other HEADQUARTER theorist believed that the only way to stay outside of the control was to stay away from all rules and establishment. The HEADQUARTERS theorist believed that all rules and all establishments were tools of HEADQUARTERS to control and manipulate the masses. These people believed that entertainment and movies were brainwashing the public and controlling their every thought. The plan of HEADQUARTERS theorists was to cause resistance and renounce all structures, rules, and authority figures openly and without fear or doubt. It became a large cult and a bit of a pop culture trend vibe. The message became recruit, recruit, recruit, the more folks who resist the more chance for ESCAPE. That’s right this entire following was growing built off the promise that once a large group resists and causes HEADQUARTERS trouble, the power structure would RELEASE these individuals from the controlled SIMULATION.

Well, my father was an officer of this resistance and I just knew that perfect placement would never have me anywhere near my father. My father believed all his problems and everything that was wrong with the world was the fault of HEADQUARTERS. I did not agree.

I believe that everyone gets what they work for and not what they want. I believe that winners prepare all week at practice, and the games are just a formality. I believe that HEADQUARTERS is a total make-believe urban legend to make lazy and low-performing people feel better about themselves.

I was just floating on magic fairy dust as I prepared for my departure from my father. Most kids can look up to their parents and say all sorts of sweet and kind things about them, once it's time to leave. What I can say about my father is truly short. There was a time when I could not use the restroom alone or feed myself without help, during those times it was important my father was around. At the age of six, it became safe to say I no longer needed any assistance from my father. It was at this young age when I discovered that my father was of no use to me. Always with his head in space, his eyes away from cameras and technology, and his mind always on rebellion and the glorious RELEASE from the SIMULATION. At six I began going to the store for my father, having a credit card in my name, a house in my name, and a long list of other rude parenting choices my father made. At times, I honestly believed that my father was not my father and just some crazy rebellion officer who stole a baby to hide his identity from the world. Nonetheless, after seventeen years I was ready to fly away and leave the nest and excited to NEVER return.

ENTER THE SMALL PRINT…

The day I REALIZED that at the young age of 17 I was ineligible to apply for perfect placement as an independent, was the worst day of my life. Well at the time I thought it was, it was the start of a series of events that led to a whole new world for me.

My father was never going to apply for perfect placement and having to get dual residency in a bubble would have made me miserable. Previously my father had begged me to opt into phase one and leave with him before the relocation raids. He told me of a secret hideout where we would prepare to RELEASE the rest of the world from the SIMULATION. I had never wished much from my father but on that day I wished he would have remembered to tell me he loved me before he left.

AGAIN, I assumed my father was crazy, BUT everything changed the day of the first Relocation warning.

I call it that because that was what each officer had said it was, but it was this day that I realized things were never going to be the same.

Weeks after the deadline, my apartment complex, the town, better yet the whole state had become a very strange ghost town! Most folks had been accepted into perfect placement or had opted into phase one and had left the area. The area we had previously lived on was destined to be a neutral zone, independent of Perfect Placement influence. For some reason, it seemed that the government wanted to be sure that the area had been abandoned, or perhaps they had no intentions of ever allowing people the freedoms they promised.

Relocation day was almost the last day of my life, but instead, it turned into the first day of my new life and a day I would never forget.

The apartment complex had become somewhat run down and trashy immediately. Most Phase one individuals, PARTIED their faces-off before departing from the area. My father and many others in some sort of resistance cult had places to go and people to meet. They had a chance to party and pack. All their dreams had finally come true. A lot of the phase one individuals believed that phase one was the RELEASE from the SIMULATION that they had all been waiting on.

On relocation day I woke up to eight dirty army-looking kids. I pretended to sleep to acquire as much information as possible. As an athlete, I understand how important preparation and a game plan are. I was hoping to get information that would that help me prepare a winning game plan in my head on how to handle THIS situation.

Dirty Kid One: "Is it him? how can, you be sure?"

Dirty Kid Two: “We are at the right address. There are markings of the heart all around here. This house is definitely home to A HEADQUARTERS resistance officer.”

Dirty Kid Three: “This kid does not look like he is prepared and there is no heart-shaped locket on him anywhere. “

Dirty Kid Four: “Dirty Kid Three is right, him or not, we ought to leave him today is going to be crazy enough we do not need any extra dead weight.”

Dirty Kid Five: “Everyone knows how important today is, the war will start here just like it has started everywhere else. We do NOT have time to argue. If he is the one, then we need to get him to the tunnels and to our hideout. Dirty Kid Three, AND Dirty Kid six, make a decision and quick “

Dirty Kid Seven: “We have finished looting the apartment complex we have three bags of resources. We all know how long the journey ahead is, this might be the last stop until we make it to the hideout."

Dirty Kid Eight: “This kid is the son of the LEADER, group I can’t believe he is our ninth, he obviously isn’t trained, rule number one always where your heart-shaped locket."

Dirty Kid six: "Enough! My father and LEADER are like brothers this kid is part of our crew now. I will escort this kid and carry the extra resources. Together we must make it to the tunnels, and we must not be followed to our hideout. Exit Formation!!!"

When I pretend to jolt awake, eight kids are all staring at me all of them wearing heart-shaped Lockets. It appeared that my dad had sent these guys to extract me. I was certain that the heart-shaped lockets were the exact one my dad and other members of THE HEADQUARTERS theorist wore in meetings. Remembering the urgency In the Dirty Kid’s voices, I decided I should get to the tunnels and the hideout with these kids, then I could re-evaluate when there was less mysterious danger lurking.

Dirty Boy Six speaks first.

"I am Eagle" and he pulls up his heart-shaped locket to show me. "Your dad asked us to bring you to our hideout and implement you into our plans. Today will be a wild day for this area and we need to move fast we can explain more when we make it to the tunnels. LET’S BE QUICK and get out of here."

As I walk out behind Eagle or Dirty Boy six I could not hide my smile, MY DAD made sure I was going to be alright. He must have known just how much I would NEED my team to survive these brand new times.

PHASE ONE: WELCOME TO THE RESISTANCE By Elijah Davis