Aberjay Rising: A Tale of Courage by Joseph Michael Lamb

Author:Joseph Michael Lamb [Lamb, Joseph Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zero Bubble Press
Published: 2023-07-31T23:00:00+00:00

Now what do I do? she thought. She was in trouble. Was it her bracelet that gave her away? Maybe she should have used the aluminum foil on the bracelet the day before. Convincing herself that it probably worked, she pulled her bag from her shoulders and grabbed an old ball of aluminum foil she then used to cover her bracelet.

She had headed south but thought backtracking a bit to throw off anyone in pursuit was a good idea, so she headed west through an alley and then northwest toward Jordan’s part of town. She wanted to check on Jordan anyway and make sure he had that head injury looked at by someone more skilled in medicine than a couple of untrained soldiers.

As she made her way north, near the train tracks, she could hear shouting. A crowd had gathered in the square on the edge of the rail yard. She could see Fernando Martinez, along with several unarmed Miniyar security on a flatbed train car, speaking to the crowd to calm them.

She could not make out his words, so she moved closer. At the back of the crowd, she could barely make out the speech. Fernando was speaking without a microphone. Orange signs posted on lampposts in front of the homes seemed out of place. She had never seen them before, so she figured it was related.

“Please calm down, people,” Fernando said, speaking as much with his hands as he did with his mouth. “In order to do what is best for all, we need to accommodate the wishes of our neighbors.”

“Those are not neighbors!” Someone in the crowd roared. “They’re captors!”

“This is ludicrous,” stated another.

“The government has offered vouchers for food and to provide trucks to help you with your belongings,” Fernando shouted to deaf ears.

Leena moved closer to one spectator in the crowd, a middle-aged woman of Middle Eastern descent. “What is this all about?” Leena asked her.

“They are evicting us,” the woman said sadly. “I have been here forty years, and they are moving us out to make room for a new factory.”

“Who is ‘us?’” Leena asked curiously.

“All of us,” the lady replied as she motioned with her arm to ensure Leena understood that she meant the entire crowd.

“There must be more than a hundred people here. How can they do that?”

“Eminent domain, they call it,” said the woman quietly. “Seems like just another term for robbery to me.”

Fernando, frustrated by the crowd’s unbending views, finally stepped off the train-car stage and into a waiting car that then drove away. Fortunately, he did not see Leena as he was preoccupied with the crowd. She did not want to have to explain to him that she was on the run from the CPU again.

The crowd slowly dispersed and formed small groups to discuss the situation, while some walked sullenly back to their homes. Leena eavesdropped to get more information.

“When do we have to be out, Cyrus?” one citizen asked a friend.

“They gave us ten days,” he replied. “We can either be moved to a camp they set up down south or find another place.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.