CHAPTER III - THE CHOICE THAT SEALS THE FATE
“Steve, Steve! Wake up!”
Steve woke up in a place he had been before, it was the bar. The bartender was shouting at him, trying to wake him up.
“What is happening… Why am I on the floor…” Steve murmured.
“You were drunk, and you fell onto the floor! Now get up!”
Steve felt hot and dizzy for a few moments, and he stood there still for a long while. Meanwhile, he heard a noisy crowd outside the bar, moaning about something.
Suddenly, a gun shot shocked him, then there were a few more. So he ran outside to see what was happening...
There was a young boy, lying dead in front of a man. The man was a government official, who had just been patrolling the city with the robot squad. The man was taking pleasure out of the dead body, humiliating him, laughing at his weakness.
Steve’s face turned white, he could not react nor believe what just happened in front of him. Violent, abusive and disgusting images flashed through his mind. The shock unhinged his mind, he began to faint, slowly, his surroundings seemed to blur and disappear.
Steve stumbled in fear, and did not know what to do. Suddenly, there was a voice in his head.
“You should revenge for the boy! Take revenge on the cold-blooded government! Look at what they did to us, we must do the same!” It was a revengeful voice, but at the same time, it sounded justified.
Then there was another.
“You should not go! If you go and take revenge, you will get into a big trouble! We cannot do anything against the government… Just let it go, it is all over now. There was nothing related to you anyways, why do you even need to care? We shouldn’t be creating chaos in this ‘peaceful’ place…” It was a timid voice, but at the same time, it sounded reasonable.
Steve could not make up his mind, he struggled between the two thoughts in his head - he wanted to revenge, but he afraid to mess with the government. He stood still in the crowd of people for a while, deciding whether he should take action or not.
He finally made up his mind, he held his fist tight, and started to walk to towards the government official slowly, with a strong and fierceful soul in him.
“Hey! What do you think you are doing, stay back!” The official noticed him, but Steve kept on walking.
“This is the final warning to you - stay back!” The official is angered for being ignored by a low-class civilian, “Alright, if you insist to disobey, don’t blame me for doing this, robots-”
Everyone who was watching gasped in fear, as Steve punched the official in the face, without any thoughts. The robots immediately detected violation of the civilian, they raised their robotic arms, and their fists opened wide and showed a hidden machine gun.
Steve knew that was going to happen, but he didn’t regret for it, at least he made one righteous decision in his short life.
“BURN IN HELL YOU-” Steve took his last gasp of air and shouted out loudly, he shocked the crowd of people, but he also further angered the official.
The official knocked him down with his elbow, Steve fell, onto the road made up of bricks, slowly. He could hear the crowd screaming in fear, whispering to each other, but he couldn’t understand a word, as the sound around him was blurred. His eyes could still see, but he couldn’t recognize an object. His head was spinning, the world seemed to be collapsing, and finally, it all went dark.
*****
There was light, shining into his eyes.
There was sound, he could hear it.
There was a sense of coldness, he could feel.
Steve awoke on an operating table, he started to feel his body temperature again. He can sense the environment - the brightness, the noises…
“Am I dead? Am I in heaven?”
It took some time for Steve to clear his mind. When he could finally move his body, he took a look around him, he found himself in the middle of an empty chamber. He got his feet onto the floor, and he heard footsteps coming from the direction where the only door was.
The door opened, a woman came in, Steve recognized her - she was Eva Ross.
“Welcome back to the reality Steve, did you have a good experience in your dream we designed?” She came to Steve and said
Steve wanted to ask questions.
Eva stopped him, she put a finger onto his lips and continued “I need to apologize for knocking you out and dosing you with some -stuff- we got from the government, they used it for interrogating prisoners for intelligence, but we found another way to use it.”
More people came into the room, they all surrounded Steve, who was standing beside the operation table. Steve understood the situation quickly, and asked in a smile “So, How’s my result?”
Eva smiled too, and replied in pleasure “Welcome to the Crimson Rebels.”
*****
There was a man walking on the street, the people around didn’t know him. He seemed to be a normal civilian, but there was one thing that the others might not know - this man had courage, the determined mind of turning himself into a great man, the stamina of training himself into a man with strength, the confident of making a significant contribution to the world in the future.
He was called Steve, and his name would be written down in history…
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