Page 4 of Dissent

Chase stood rigid like stone, solid and unwavering, his focus down the alley. About midway down stood a Telvian Enforcement Officer, dressed in his white and black plated armor, towering over a young boy crumpled on the ground. The boy stretched his hand out toward the officer.

“Stop it!”

“Shut up,” the man sneered as he lifted his assault rifle into the air and then slammed the butt end down on the boy. The child screamed out again.

My whole body jumped at the sickening smack of the gun making contact with the lump of flesh, and I didn’t think. My body reacted out of its own volition. I hustled around Chase and yelled, “Stop!”

The officer lifted his weapon again and then rammed it down once more. Before I knew what was happening, my hands were on him, yanking on his arms and pulling him away from the boy.

“I said,stop!”

The man whipped around, shoving me back while throwing his right arm across his chest. Right as he swung it back toward me in a back-handed assault, Chase dove in front of me, pushing me back with his left hand while holding out his right to block the blow.

But it never came.

The officer froze as he took us in, confused. I knew he’d never had someone step in like this before. Hell,Icouldn’t believe I had just done what I did. He gave a scathing glare at Chase before setting his eyes on me.

“How dare you interfere with Enforcement?” he growled through gritted teeth.

My heart pounded, threatening to break through my ribcage. Chase turned his body to stand directly in front of me, putting both his hands up in surrender. “Hey, we’re not here to interfere. We heard screaming and thought someone needed help.”

“No one needs you here, soscram. This is none of your concern.”

I placed my hand over my heart, pushing against the violent beats, letting out a breath. “Please forgive us,” I said. “I’m Mara de la Puente.” Chase kept his stare firmly on the officer, but slowly lowered his arms. The man brought his rifle down in response, and I took it as a sign that the drama was over. Trying to settle my nerves, I took in deep, full breaths.

Stepping out from around Chase, I tried to gather my courage and spoke. “Tell me,” I began, pulling myself up to my full height, which isn’t much when you’re only five foot five. “What happened here? What did this boy do to deserve this?” I chanced a glance at the child, and my heart seized. His lip was split open, one eye swollen shut, and I suspected the other eye wasn’t far behind.

The officer rolled his shoulders back. “You’re the president’s daughter? I don’t recognize you.”

I gulped. “Yeah, I get that a lot, but I’m his daughter. My Citizen ID is 1311. You can perform a retinal scan if you need to.”

He eyed me up and down and then shifted his gaze to Chase. He hesitated, calculating, and then he looked back at me. With narrowed eyes, he cleared his throat. “I think you’ll agree, Miss de la Puente, that this little shit deserved what he got and more.” He pointed at the alley wall, guiding my vision to a huge reelection campaign poster.

I recognized this one. It was the same one my father used in his past several elections, since the very beginning. The poster was life-sized, showing Raúl standing tall, decorated with his medals, looking straight at you. Behind him were trees, flowing water, laughing children and families.

Raúl de la Puente

A vote for Raúl is a vote for a sustainable future.

It was a good one. A gentle reminder that our very existence depended on water, a resource that the earth could give plentifully or just as easily take away. The Great Drought had been hard on us all, leaving only extreme choices as our options for survival. And when Raúl became president, he made those tough calls, carrying the weight for the rest of us. It meant extreme rationing of water and food and the development of a caste system. Those who were determined to be of high value to the preservation of humanity’s future were placed in the Noble Class and given access to more of those needed resources. Those who were thought to be problematic, defective, or just coming frombad stock, were placed in the Subclass. The Administration still took care of them, but what they received was…well, not as much.

The poster was definitely a brilliant piece of propaganda, but that wasn’t what the officer was pointing at. It was the giant, red graffiti painted across it.

Dissent

Resist

Rise

My jaw hit the floor. “Oh my god…” I covered my mouth with my hands. This wasn’t good. This was bad…reallybad.

Chase stepped forward, putting a hand on my shoulder. “The boy did this?”

“That’s what I suspect. I came around the corner and noticed there was a Subclass citizen out of his district in the alleyway. I was planning on escorting him back into District 3 when I noticed this.” The man tipped his head toward the defiled poster. “As you can see, miss, the boy clearly deserved what he got.”

I looked at him and then at the boy, fear huge in his eyes. How would I get him out of this? I looked back at the poster, reading the words again. Raúl was going to be livid. There had been no one bold enough to engage in this kind of rebel activity. Not in the Noble Class District, anyway. Movement caught my eye, and I turned to watch Chase. He stepped up to the poster, eyeing it up and down before running a finger across the paint. Rubbing his fingers together, he turned to face me.

“It’s dry.”

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