5/15/2023

The Year Of The Rebels

By Alfredo Damián Cavazos Dávila
Language Arts
Miss Mariana Treviño

A brief story about the

Right things that you do
Because they are!
As I was waking up, I noticed there was a metallic smell in the air beside me and I was on the ground. My
sight began to return as I was remembering what happened to me., but just when I recovered, I was
dripping foreign blood as I realized I was beside an old, putrefactive, and mutilated pile of bodies. I
screamed, crawling backwards to the contrary side of the pile. I stood up, and I looked around, and what
was of my home, the remains of The Buckingham Palace, became the debris of a pale, sad and warm
home like in a war, when there’s just a desolated field covered in, mud, dust and remains of families,
scattered around like peanut butter in bread.

I remembered what happened… they had taken the rest of The Wolves, didn’t know how, but they
weren’t there, and since the beginning of the creation of the organization, we promised not to leave and
be incognito outside the walls of The Palace, but the circumstances (the pile, the ruins, the blood) told
me, that something, or someone had accessed the castle, and since that happened, it was time to use
our technology.

Our latest secret invention, the Nano-Particle Divider, was based on the virus that killed the world, the
Thanatoceps, it came in little doses in a little container with a needle; you inject it into your skin and it
starts doing the rest: it begins to alter DNA within seconds and starts to take control of your body, except
the brain, which is you. From a computer that I always carry in my wrist, I can control the Nano-Particles
to “mold” my body and “shape” my DNA to design it, that way, I can gain strength, flexibility, or whatever
you can imagine with your body, so basically, I had superpowers. But who created it? We, the Wolves,
are an organization, made to figure out to restore everything everywhere, and why we created it?,
because, when you’re at the border at the end of the world, there’s got to be a way to defend yourself,
and that’s how we decided, use intelligence and technology of the leftovers of mankind, because “the
fastest, the better, the strongest, the better, but the most intelligent the best” as the phrase of The
Wolves told, intelligence is our weapon, and our weapon is powerful, and powerful means ruler of all,
and well, I guess that’s how our plan works, halfly, but I think I diverted from where I was, so… shall we
continue?

As I was reaching out for a way out of The Palace, a couple of drones surprised me; those were made to
seek and destroy whatever live being there was, but nobody knew who made them.

The robots were going to reach me with their blades which was the way they flew, but these were
different, because they were razor blade sharp, so they could technically cut through anything solid, like
my head. Nearly being cut in tiny little pieces of human flesh, I had a container of Nano-Particles in my
pocket and as fast as a cheetah hunted an antelope, I injected it in my arm, but it was too late, because
one of those little shits had already cut through my leg. I felt a sore pain, but not too much , as It was a
particularly clean cut, but luckily the Particles had already done their job; from the little wrist computer, I
began controlling my loose limb and attached it back to my empty part of my body, standing up as fast as
I could.

I adjusted the computer to regenerate each time I lost something from my body, as well as some extra
strength and began to fight those little bastards. I ran towards one of those drones and I reached it, but
it began to shoot with some minigun and I felt the shots pass thru me, but as slime, didn’t manage to
harm me. I punched it hard as I could and I broke its cameras, blinding it; another punch, knockout, and
fell right in front of me miserably, not being able to harm me at all, except for some cuts in my body.
Strangely, the other drone was gone. I looked around but I couldn’t find it, at that moment I felt like if
someone was watching me, but maybe it was true, what if that drone was someone watching me
through it? I realized at that moment I had two missions to do, one: to find the ones who kidnapped my
peers and friends, and two: to find the one that was watching us through the drones, but the journey
wouldn’t be easy, I had not went out from The Palace since some months ago, and I would need all the
necessary things to carry with myself.

Barfing from the pile of bodies, I looked for supplies to bring with me, I found water bottles, canned
food, a map, a gun, more containers of Nano-Particles, etc., and I headed out. I couldn’t believe what I
was watching when I was out of the walls of the Palace… Can you picture an empty London, without
people walking by your side or red, double-decker buses going around in circles, filled with smiling
people because of their excitement, willing to watch everything about London and its rich history? That
was what I was seeing, and I shed a tear to my surprise.

I just wanted everything back to what it was, before the pandemic that killed everyone. My family,
friends, everyone who I’ve ever known was killed without a reason. I remembered the good times as I
was walking down the blue streets of London and shed even more tears.

I just had headed out of some thick walls in which I lived for almost eleven months, my left leg was
hurting a little bit because of the re-attachment I made with the Particles and I was just crying, all alone,
in a blanket of sadness without anyone to mourn with, but I remembered that I was on a mission to find
everyone else, to maybe rescue them, if they hadn’t already died…

I think I walked like an hour to get to Abbey Road, I don’t know why, but something in my mind told me
that someone was there that could help, but it was pointless because we never saw someone outside…
until I heard a sound.

Someone was running, I felt a rush of blood to my head and started to run too. I saw a silhouette run to
the corner of Clifton Hill and tried to run fast as the silhouette, but I just couldn’t. But again, I used a
container of the Particles to modify my body, and this time, I modified my speed and resistance.

I injected it right in the buttock so the particles could go through my veins and reach all of my muscles in
my legs, and again started running, but this time I felt an energy on me rising up as I ran faster, and in
less time than a car would go from 1 to 50 mph, I started to run as fast as I could skip a stone, and in no
time I saw what was the silhouette.

Trying to reach her, I saw her long, slippery hair float in the air as she ran, but not her face. And in a
matter of seconds, I grabbed her arm; she wore a yellow jacket, black dirty jeans, and a pair of brown
boots. She turned her face, and I saw the most beautiful brown eyes as I had too, but my eyes were dirty,
they were stained with nature’s bleach, impure and dry: they saw many horrible things you wouldn’t
want to know, but those eyes, were innocent.

When I grabbed her, she tripped and we fell together, because of the fact that I had my hand on her.

As I was recovering from the fall, she stood right in front of me on a pose that I understood as a sign of
hostility, obviously, a fight pose. I stood up too wishing not to have that stinging pain still on my leg. She
talked to me:

-Who are you? – She said, unexplainably tense.

-I just want to find my friends. - I said, trying to calm her as she was tense.

-Who are you? – Said again, with a menacing tone.

-My name is Robert; someone kidnapped my friends, they’re like seven or something, I’m trying to look
for them until I found you. I thought you could help, but it doesn’t seem like it. – I said calmly, trying to
hide the stuff I had in the inner pockets of my spy-like coat. -What about you? –

-My name is Porcelina, or at least, that’s how they call me… - Said calmly now.

-Who calls you like that? -

-What? You don’t like it? – Said once again with a loud, menacing tone.

-It’s not that I don’t like it! It’s just that I haven’t heard such a beautiful name. -Said trying to correct
what I said.

-By the way, I may know about your friends, it’s nothing personal. – Said with a mysterious haze.

Immediately, we started talking about everything, and by everything, I meant EVERYTHING!

Porcelina worked for some reaper, making drones for him, but she lost control of them because the
Reaper took control of everything she made, the drones, some machines, the COMSYS (which stands for
Computer System) and she’s now running away because the Reaper wants to marry her to repopulate
Earth, which is a horrible idea.

I told her about my mission too, I was on search of my peers and friends and I told her that maybe we
could work together for what we want, and so we made a scheme, a plan, something to stop this
anarchy in apocalypse, and we went in our way.

Ok, so apparently, the fortress which was where the Reaper was, was the Big Ben. The plan was enter
through the west gate, the rest of the gates were being watched by drones, but Porcelina knew their
weaknesses, so we could pass peacefully; next, we would climb up the stairs that go to the clock
machinery, because that’s where the computer was kept, we would hack the computer, gain control of
the drones, and fly away, leaving the Reaper there, helpless.

As we approached the Big Ben, we noticed something strange, there wasn’t any movement inside the
walls of the big, gigantic clock building. So we entered the building, and… there was nothing, the walls
were empty and selfless, but then, from all of a sudden I heard a big thump and Porcelina was gone. I
searched around but I found nothing else but fire around me. There was this big thick circular wall of fire
surrounding me, each second getting smaller, I started to cry as I remembered that I always lived my life
alone:

-Nooo! I regret all of this! I regret being born! I regret being alone! I regret my love! I regret
EVERYTHING! – I was saying, mourning and regretting every second I lived my life… but just as I was
saying my last words and spending my last breath…

-Wake up Robert! You’ve been having a bad dream! - Said Porcelina by my side, on the bed we had at the
corner of our room.
I woke up, sweating like a pig, terrified as a stray dog from thunderstorm, but at the same time thanking
myself to not have made the plan that would have killed us years ago, remembering the woe that
awaited for us if we had taken another choice remembering bad memories from yesterday. I am thankful
that I moved away with her, to be more specific, to Scotland , and also, I am thankful that I made a family
with Porcelina, having two children, one’s a girl called Collie and the other’s a boy called Mellon, named
after our Smashing Pumpkins favorite album, and also, I now know why my love’s named Porcelina,
because her favorite song is called Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans…

I never understood why, but dreams pass by and sometimes they tell us things like stars in the blue, dark,
deep sky…