Rebelling in Silence

36 hours to go

‘Insane. This is insane Ali.’ Winn, my best-friend, whispered to me as he crouched down beside me. ‘If we’re caught-‘

‘We won’t but if you’re that worried about it then get out of here. I’ve got this.’ I whispered back as I used the screwdriver to pry the panel in front of me loose, exposing the bundle of wires in the wall.

‘You haven’t and you know that.’ Winn replied with a roll of his eyes. He lifted our revolutionary device up to my face. ‘Do you even know how this works?’

I shrugged as I placed the panel on the floor next to me. ‘I’m sure I could figure it out’

‘Well, lucky for you, I’m just as insane as you are and I know how it works’

‘Well, I should hope so. You built it.’

He nudged me in the back with a grin. ‘Shut up. Now, move over.’

I moved aside and let him kneel down in front of the exposed wires. Winn reached in and isolated a single wire. It was a mix of black and red. The two colors swirled together as they twisted upwards. He separated the blue box into its two halves before putting it on the wire and clipping it together. He lightly pressed the single button that was hidden on the bottom of the device, before pulling away. A little orange light began blinking.

‘I thought you said it would flash green?’ I asked concerned.

Winn simply held up one finger, telling me to wait. The light continued to flash. Orange flash. Orange flash. Orange flash. Green flash. Winn grinned over to me.

‘I could have done that.’ I muttered, reaching over to pick the panel up to replace it. I screwed it back in place.

‘So, that’s the disruptor in place. What next?’ Winn asked.

‘We get out of here before we’re caught.’

‘You said we wouldn’t!’

‘I lied’ I told him honestly, quickly standing, grabbing his hand to pull him up beside me.

‘What!’ Winn exclaimed, horrified.

‘HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?’

Neither of us glanced back to see who the voice belonged to. We shared a glance and knew what we needed to do. Run! As fast as we could. I kept Winn’s hand in mine as we ran in the opposite direction. We were down in the underground which gave us the advantage. Well, it gave me the advantage. I had spent many hours traversing the underground areas of the city as I made my way home from work. It was peaceful in the underground. It was an escape from the world above.

I led Winn through the maze of underground tunnels, cutting down side tunnels in quick succession to confuse whoever it was that was pursuing us. By the tenth turn, I was convinced we were safe but kept Winn running for another two turns before I allowed us to relax. I finally let us slow down and we began walking at a more leisurely pace back home. We were both breathing heavily from the adrenalin.

‘That was close’ Winn breathed out in relief. ‘Why did I let you convince me to do this?’

‘Because we’re going to be bringing hope to a hopeless people.’ I replied with a bright smile. My smile faded a little as I remembered the more personal reason that I was doing this. I reached up and gripped my locket firmly.

‘And get ourselves killed in the process’ Winn added before sighing, ‘What do we need to do next?’

I looked down at my silver heart shaped locket and opened it. I glanced down at the only picture I had of my beautiful mother. For you, mother. This is for you. ‘We spread the word. Carefully.’

‘Word of mouth then’ Winn concluded. ‘I’ve already spoken to Dad. He’s talking to his people.’

I nodded, ‘Good. I have been talking to mine and he’s been talking to his people who have been talking to their families and friends, who are talking to their people, and so on and so on. We need to tell them that it is actually happening.’

‘And what if nobody does it?’ Winn asked.

I shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I think they will.’

‘Yes, but what if–’

‘They’ll do it. They have to.’ I told him determinedly. They had to do it. They just had to. If they didn’t then that was it. The oppressed had lost and they had won. They would have broken down the spirit of the ‘ordinary’ people. ‘The people have to rise up. History has proven that we can. Time and time again. The luddites, the chartists, the suffragettes, Pride, Black Lives Matter. They have proven that we can do it so we must. People just need to be given the opportunity’

Winn eventually nodded in agreement, ‘You know you should really stop talking about the forbidden history. It’ll get you and your Dad in trouble.’

‘I know but sometimes I can’t help it. I read those old books about the time before and it’s like reading a fairy tale. You can do the job that you want to do. You can have kids when you want to have kids, not when the government says you can have them.’

‘Have to have them’ Winn corrected.

‘Yeah, have to have them. You can have hobbies and-’

‘What’s a hobby?’

‘Something you do for fun, because you enjoy doing it.’

‘Oh. I thought you had a hobby already. Isn’t getting us into trouble your hobby?’

I laughed and lightly elbowed him in the side as we walked home.

Home was just as it always was. Crowded and loud. Winn and I weaved our way through the building.

‘Hey Ali, Winn’, ‘Ali!’, ‘Not getting into trouble are you Winn?’

We smiled and greeted the neighbors that we knew. The whole apartment block was a community. A family of its own. And we all shared the same ‘enemy’. The landlord that lived in apartment 1A. The government lackey.

We eventually reached the last apartment on the top floor. This was home. For both of us. There were four family units packed into the two bedroom apartment. The two younger families had a bedroom each. It meant that the babies’ cries were slightly muffled by a wall and door, even if it wasn’t by much. Winn’s family and mine shared the main room. We separated the room into two with sheets to give us all some privacy.

The kitchen was shared between the four families. We often ate together and shared our food. The four family units were almost one big family. The parents raised the kids together and the kids were like cousins, if not siblings. Winn and I were the eldest of the ‘kids’ at seventeen and sixteen respectively. The next eldest was just reaching the end of school age at eleven. He will be joining the rest of us at work soon.

‘We’re back.’ I called into the apartment.

Dad was sitting in the kitchen with Molly and Francesca, the two young mothers that lived in the bedrooms. Francesca had the youngest in their little family, Lulo, bouncing on her knee. All three of them looked at us sternly.

‘Where have you been? Work finished an hour ago.’ Dad questioned.

Winn and I shared a look. I lost the staring match and answered. ‘Getting things ready.’

‘Ali–’ Dad started.

‘No, Dad. It’s going to work. The disruption device is set and ready. We can do this. Everyone can.’ I told him. I put on a stern expression filled with determination. My voice sounded confident and proud.

Dad continued to look stern so I kept looking stern too. I wasn’t about to back down. If I backed down now then there was no point in doing anything else. His lip twitched. It twitched again and finally grew into a smile. ‘Okay. I’m proud of you plum.’ He reached out and gently took hold of my locket. He ran a gentle thumb over the top of it. ‘Your mother would be proud too.’

I grinned and glanced over to Winn who smiled happily for me.

24 hours to go.

The horn blared out across the city. It was wake up time.

Waking up for work in the morning was rather difficult, even with a loud air horn. It always was. Work didn’t exactly inspire me in any sense of the word. I spent the day writing notes from a tutor for a rich kid that couldn’t be bothered to write their own notes, or pay attention to their lessons. It was somewhat interesting, sure. And I learnt a lot but it’s not like I could ever practically apply it anywhere. It also filled me with jealousy. Why do these children get to learn beyond eleven? They were no smarter than us at eleven. They were simply born rich. It also filled me with great anger. These children are given an opportunity that most of us can only dream of, and yet they spend it leaning back in their chairs, gossiping with others or dazing off into space while people like me take notes.

All ‘staff’ in the school were like me. Stuffed in overcrowded apartments, living from credit to credit with our entire lives planned out for us. Where we live, where we work, who we marry, when and how many children we have. The only thing that they don’t have control of is when we die.

The school had one advantage for me. All of the underappreciated and downtrodden staff provided a huge network of people for me to exploit.

‘It’s ago’ I whispered to every member of staff that I could reach. ‘It’s ago’.

They passed it onto the ones that I couldn’t. It spread like fire.

‘It’s ago.’

‘It’s ago’

‘It’s ago’

12 hours to go.

‘It’s ago’ people were whispering it in the apartment block by the time I got back. There was a hum of excitement in the air. As people began returning home from work there was a feeling of joy and a taste of freedom that hadn’t been there before.

People still used their credits to buy meagre rations of food. People still used their allotted shower water and soap. People were still crammed into the apartments. But it was different. There wasn’t any despair or bitterness. There wasn't any annoyance or tiredness.

There was hope.

Hope that things are about to get better.

Hope that, for richer or for poor, this was the beginning of something new.

1 hour to go.

I woke early with the sun. I wanted to be awake to see it. I let my Dad continue sleeping but I slipped across the room to wake Winn. The two of us would see the fruit of our labor. We made our way to the roof and perched on the edge.

I gripped my locket as we counted down.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Silence.

There was no horn. Nobody was waking up to go to work. No babies were crying, having been woken from their sleep. The world was quiet. Peaceful. And it would remain as such. There would be no smoke from the factories. There would be no children in the schools.

The oppressed would relax while they panicked. The oppressed would cheer while they screamed. The oppressed would dance while they froze. The oppressed would rise while they fell.

It was the beginning of something new. It was the beginning of the end for them and a moment that would be treasured through time for the oppressed.

‘You did it’ Winn commented, breaking the silence with a wide grin.

‘We did.’ I replied, glancing down at the well-loved silver heart-shaped locket.

For you, Mom. We did it for you.