[Sf] Mourning Freedom (M)

For several months now, I've been wanting to write a dystopian-style story. I put it off for various reasons, such as not having any idea what to write, and already trying to focus on my other two stories. However, I finally watched V for Vendetta, and that gave me ythe push I needed to get started (plain and simple).

The prologue here is the main protagonist's first entry into this world as his 'radicalized' persona.

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Prologue:

'20' His burnt orange-colored cloak flailed gracefully behind his back while he ran through the dimly lit hallway. 'Three corners to exit...' His breathing was heavy from exertion, yet as steady as his vigorous and well-calculated sprint. He could hear the calls of no more than seven guards behind him, separated from him by one turn. Their voices were agitated and annoyed, for these men had been chasing him for at least twenty minutes, through every level of the BioArm Labs building. They were two stories above the ground now, almost to the bottom... But there was no time now.

'10' He kept reminding himself how little time he had. Yet, it would have to be enough. He had to reach the exit: his freedom, for a time.

'8' He counted down as he drew closer to the emergency exit. '6...' His hands could almost reach the door's handle. '4...' The guards were closing in. '2...' He was clear! He leapt off from the fire escape, head-first towards the ground.

'1... Detonation.' As his hands came into to contact with the sidewalk under him, the uppermost level of the building erupted into a massive flare, extending several metres away from the building on all sides. Each level below it followed in line, downward. He reached the other side of the empty, rain-washed street just before the final level met it's fiery destruction, and made the final blow to the building. There was no need to watch the 124-story building's framework collapse in on itself; he'd seen such things before.

~ ----- ~ ----- ~ ---- ~

"He what!?" Dean Redoak was furious, and this was made abundantly clear to The Directors. "How? How, I ask you, can one man... One single man... evade BioArm's finest security for twenty-minutes, and then utterly destroy the entire building!?"

Barry Willson was the first to find his voice. "He... must have taken advantage of the explosives already in the building to enhance the destruction..."

"Really now? Is that the best my staff can come up with!? God-dammit! My six-year-old could have figured that out!" Dean continued to fume on about the matter for several minutes before Carmine Anderson put up a finger.

"Sir, I have reports indicating that several orders containing high amounts of dangerous chemicals were ordered by an anonymous man."

Dean leaned in towards Carmine. "Anonymous, hm?"

"Yes, sir. I speculate that the information was hacked, and wiped by whomever ordered the materials, probably this new radical."

"And these materials were...?"

Carmine took a file folder from his briefcase, and placed down on the table. He flipped it open to read over the first page. "Red phosphorus, potassium chlorate, sulfur, and calcium carbonate, as well as a few other chemicals."

Dean glanced down at the list himself, then pushed off the table. "Armstrong's mixture, hm? A highly sensitive explosive mixture... Add to that a building full of other such explosive chemicals, and even a man in a flamboyant costume can destroy 124 stories of advanced weapons research." His cold stare turned back to Barry. "Is that what you're telling me?"

"Y-yes, sir... You h-have it right, sir," Barry stuttered nervously, not even looking at Dean. Dean slowly raised his hand up across his chest, and over his head. He was only a split moment away from bringing it down on Barry when the meeting room's doors opened. A guard dressed in a gray and green uniform rushed in with a long-distance walkie-talkie in his hand.

"Sir! There's a call for you! He won't give his name, but he claims to be the one who destroyed the BioArm Labs!" Dean ran over to the guard, and snatched the walkie-talkie from his hand, quickly placing it to his ear.

"Good evening, Chancellor Dean Redoak." The voice that came to Dean's ears was flat and cold. No emotion, no unnecessary fluctuation. This man had no fear. "I, who's name shall go unannounced for the time being, am indeed the one who destroyed your research building."

"You bastard-!" He was cut off by the voice, which suddenly seemed to flare up with feeling, and intensity.

"I, sir, am the people's art, I am their unique qualities, their free will, their expression, their emotion, their belief! I, Chancellor sir... I am the voice they don't have, the mind they cannot think with. I am the people, Chancellor! I am them, and they are me. What I do is what the people want. I am their hero, their savior. I am their government, a government as it should be! I guide, but I do not rule. I watch out for them, but I do not hold them back" After his enthusiastic statement, both he and Dean were perfectly silent for almost five minutes.

"You are nothing but a bug! An ant that I will crush under my boot." He heard the man on the other end chuckle to himself.

"Chancellor Dean... Look out the window to your left." Dean frowned with a slight confusion in his mind. Was the man going to somehow show himself? He wasn't sure what to make of the man's request, but he did so regardless, standing right at the window. "Look now at the BioArm production facility."

"No... You're not going to...!?"

The man's cold, lifeless voice came back. "3..."

"You infidel! You fool-!"

"2..." The last second of the countdown felt like an hour to Dean as he prepared for what was coming. "1... Detonation." Dean fell down onto his back as the entire building he was in shook like mad. The BioArm facility was untouched...

...It was the indeed the government building's bottom floor that was hit. Dean rushed out the door with The Directors following close behind him. They could all feel the slight sway of the 30-story building as it's supports began to give into the pressure. There wasn't much time for anyone to reach the bottom floor, but the Chancellor had another, much closer way off. He and his cohorts scurried up to the helipad on the building's roof, where a HAL Dhruv helicopter was already starting up.

He was watching from the building across the street. He saw the men frantically climb into the helicopter. He smiled to himself at their fear. "Pathetic." These men were actors to him. If something went wrong, their act was disrupted completely. They portrayed fearless, strong-willed leaders, when they were truly the lowest of humans.

Dean watched from the helicopter's window... Watched the government building fall right down into itself, leaving every other building around it unscathed. This radical, whoever he was, knew what he was doing... Deep inside, Dean felt a true, cold fear.