As Josh scrambled to get away he could hear the crashing sounds of the police. They must think smashing everything with their primitive clubs would help them find him, but due to the very law they enforced they would not even think of pressing the button to turn off the hologram projector that made the image of a wall on the curtain of his secret escape tunnel.

The government's war against electronics had been raging for what was going on three years and was winning. Apparently the worldwide government (WWG) was having an easy time thanks to the special ops using the two of the three known remaining computers programmed solely to detonate H.E.M.P.s once per week. Of course it cost a lot of tax money and of course people hated it, but other than knowledge kept solely in your mind it was impossible to find information on even PGDs (portable game devices). If you let the wrong person even have suspicions, the WWG had the right to scan your brain, and even to delete unwanted info using the third remaining computer. Along with electronics they of course got rid of lots of other recent technology such as cars which used electronic power to start, and even those crack-started ones because the technology was still considered to be 'advanced'. A lot of books related to technology such as Sci-Fi, and even modern books where cellphones or hair-dryers were used, were deemed bad for the minds of our youth.

Josh decided a hideout with a secret exit tunnel was a must from now on due to its convenience. He also deemed the convenience of a laptop with portable high powered hand generator and two passports with 500 tetra bytes for a backup necessary in order to have a speedy getaway since he didn't have to carry as much weight around as back when he had several dozen books per device. Luckily he had finished converting all the ink and paper data into 1s and 0s that his computer understood right before the cops showed up. He really did find letting the books get burned to be a shame since he loved books just as much as he loved computers, but if he managed to successfully revive the cause then he would be able to print many copies of the books and place them back in libraries around the world. Ever since the WWG had deemed technology of that sort bad for the mental and physical health of the people, it had strongly enforced the 'Control, Alt, Delete' bill which declared that all electronics and technology that led to people being lazy could and should be 'Deleted' as they called it. Josh came out into the busy city with its brick and mortar buildings; they glowed an earthy red in the sunlight. Everyone rode on leftover bikes from the technology age or walked on foot, some even had some bikes made from wood and hard work, although those were few and far between since they cost so much.

As he gazed round at people going their ways, often carrying work supplies in backpacks that were in unbelievably good shape despite all being at least three years old, he realized just how much mankind had regressed in those mere three years: The unshaven faces of men or legs and arms of women, the yellowing teeth from only being able to brush said teeth once a week due to low amounts of tooth paste produced when it had to be made by hand, and the inability to brush properly without their electronic tooth brushes, even the lack of elderly due to them no longer having even their mobility scooters. Although all this was going on, Josh knew ... no at least hoped, that with a single strong strike electronics could return. He hoped that other people would join the stage if he could begin production on his last hope.

A couple of months later

The bell tolled three as if making fun of the government for not being able to get rid of clocks. Since clocks were able to work on a non electronic system and were near impossible to be deemed bad for people due to the increase in efficiency they created, the WWG had decided to stop its rampage with the clocks. Gabriel was more than happy to follow the procedure of standing, saluting the WWG flag and sitting, only because as soon as the class quieted for at least three or four seconds he was allowed to immediately jump up and run off to meet up with Raphael and Michael. He didn't mind the name calling he had to endure for them being called the angel trio by his fellow sixth graders because Raphael was the cutest girl he could think of and Michael the best bud a guy could have. That is, when they weren't all three acting as kids should, in their secret hideouts or just out at the nearby park. Yah, he missed his electronics for entertainment purposes, but the convenience ones that lessoned his work tome were the ones he missed the most. He couldn't play outside even half as much and had recently become sluggish and less athletic due to having to stand at the sink to do dishes for two hours every day since his family was the neighborhood dinner place every night so people didn't have to each cook individual meals. Michael had the same problem since his family did laundry due to the loop in the river meeting right in his backyard, and even Raphael, since her family did the tailoring. He knew that every kid had the same problems. All the kids knew that the parents were losing sleep trying to give their kids time to have recreation time. Everyone knew that their free time was cut short even though they had cut hours off their work time by spreading the load so one family would handle all of one chore for the neighborhood. But without the precious electronics there was no one with the energy to fight any more. So although he got a precious half hour free time with his friends, he knew that things needed to change for this society that was so greatly damaged by losing its technology.

After school the next day Michael slipped both Gabriel and Raphael something hard and rectangular before they all ran off, since today didn't have any free time for any of them. Since he knew that Michael must have had a reason for not making a show of giving it to them or even letting anyone except Raphael see it being given to him, he knew that it was best not seen and hid it in his pocket before even looking at it. Since he couldn't get away until night he took out his one remaining zip lighter from back in the tech days and with it a candle he had made himself from the wax from the beehives that another of his friend's family was in charge of. When he took the hard rectangular thing out of his pocket a safe distance from the house, inside of his secret bush hideout, he saw it was just a hard plastic rectangular box that was folded in half to close. The small box reminded him of something but he couldn't quite remember what. When he opened it he realized exactly what it was. The screen of the cellphone lit up with letters spelling out the words "Welcome to Ronix Select". It continued to a screen telling him to double-check his surroundings to confirm that no one was around and then to a home screen similar to that of his old cellphone. On the screen it had four numbers which it advised him to memorize since it would be his cellphone number, and to not write it down, no matter what. After the letters disappeared, it told him to call himself if he was in a place where no one could hear him talking.

The phone gave him the tone he remembered from whenever he had called someone in the past. After only two rings someone picked up on the other end.

"Are you one of the new users?" asked the voice on the other end quietly.

"Users?" asked Gabriel quietly, "who is this?"

"First I must ask three questions. First: is a black horse black?" inquired the voice.

"Um yah" said Gabriel.

"Second: is the moon rainbow colored?" inquired the voice, continuing with the Q&A.

"Heck no" Stated Gabriel who had to be extra careful not to raise his voice in shock of the stupidity of the question.

"Finally, are you willing to fight the ban on technology?" the voice questioned with the strong authority of someone who cared deeply about the topic on hand.

With authority that was almost as strong as that of the voice, Gabriel immediately agreed.

"Then my name is Josh and that cellphone you currently hold is your weapon against the WWG's 'Control, Alt, Delete'. It is immune to the H.E.M.Ps and it is water proof. It has a built-in taser and a couple of other useful features. Its main use, though, is as a cellphone which you will use to communicate with fellow anti "Control, Alt, Delete", or CAD as we call it, people which you will address as users. We call our group "Electronixs" but in public you are to use the name Ronix Select. You keeping up so far?"

After making the mistake of nodding to thin air Gabriel whispered a yes into the phone.

"In order to recognize other users you are to ask "Do you know of Ronix?" and they will reply "I enjoy the Select Ronix products that are still around!" and you are to do the same. After which you may attempt to acquire their cellphone number to contact them more easily. After a certain amount of time as a user I will help you acquire more cellphones to distribute to those that you deem trustworthy. Beware of people disguised as pro-electronics revivalists, because they are many. You still remember your cellphone number, right?"

"Yah" replied Gabriel quickly.

"Please tell me it now", said Josh, then quietly stating:"2121".

"Please keep in touch with the person who gave you this phone and contact me again in about a week or as soon as possible after that, without there being risk of discovery. The world wide revival will be soon, I hope, so good luck until we succeed."

Gabriel heard a clicking sound as Josh hung up and closed his own cellphone; he noticed what seemed to be a solar panel on the back in order to recharge the phone.

The first thing he did as he walked into the classroom, which, as usual, was filled with several children at their desks, sitting quietly, was signal Michael and Raphael to meet at the secret spot during their 15 minute lunch break. He sat through the boring classes, trying to absorb as much of the boring information as he could while he was being bored, so that he could make something out of his life in the future.

And then the bell rang redemption from the hell called class. The 15 minute relief had begun. When he met with Raphael and Michael he went through the procedure as described by Josh. When both gave a proper reply they immediately went into deep conversation.

"So, Michael, how long have you known?" questioned Raphael.

"Only bout a week. Soon as I got the phones I gave them to you guys."

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" both Gabriel and Raphael spit out at the same time:

"Why give the news without the goods? Besides it's probably a rule although I don't remember if Josh said for sure. Plus, if I got caught before you guys even got them, then you would probably get in trouble too. Neither of you can tell a good lie". With the last part accompanied by a wink, Michael shifted into a more comfortable position in their now starting to age, giant platypus thing. Basically a little roof made to look like a platypus, the tail was even a slide.

"Do you know any more info then us?" asked Gabriel cautiously.

"Yah a little. In exactly two weeks on EMP day we are going to start the riot."

"EMP day?" asked Raphael "the day when they let off the first batch of HEMPs around the world? They also let you past the level 1 security at the WWG main base, right?"

"...and all other bases around the world. We just happen to be closest to the real headquarters here in Blackfoot Idaho", stated Michael.

"The Fort Hall base they just made seven years ago? By the Indian Reservation? I thought the main base was the London Headquarters." said the confused Raphael.

"Actually, it makes sense, Raphael. Think about all the stuff they had brought into the base right before the no electronics declaration. And all the construction equipment right before that. Not only would you need a bigger base to hold the kind of stuff they brought in, but the small bases don't get enough money to hire, buy, and maintain all of that stuff. "said Gabriel. "My dad used to be part of the army before the CAD bill and he was in charge of finances for another base. It was a bigger and more important base that was also a bit younger, by about six months, so the construction work was happening there, too. But they got barely enough for less than one third of the normal equipment and one half of the construction equipment."

"Precisely, Gabriel" said Michael happily, "they built down below where not even the high tech electronic radars and such could reach. Even the effects of their most powerful EMP couldn't reach".

"By the way, how do you know this much, Michael? You've only been a user for two weeks, right?" asked Raphael.

"Yah, but I was friends with Josh a long time ago. He used to babysit me right before the CAD bill was passed".

The bell rang to signal the end of lunch.

"Well", said Raphael while eating the last of her sandwich "either we are in for better or worse. I'm just hoping that it's for better. That's why I agreed to join".

After about a week, Raphael and Gabriel obtained phones from a special place near an old tree at an abandoned farm. After handing out the phones they realized just how many people had them. If you decided to pay close attention you could even see the teacher messing with something under the desk that they were sure was a phone. Although you wouldn't notice if you weren't looking, once you decided to pay attention it was really obvious. They noticed that a lot of the parents in their neighborhood didn't behave at all suspiciously, though, but they figured it was fine since they didn't want to get their parents in trouble anyway.

The day finally came and they placed themselves as near the entrance to the level 2 as they could get. They felt the crowd ready to go out of control and they knew that something had to be done before the raid started. They did the only thing they could think of. They found a hiding place and called Josh. When he finally picked up after a dozen of so rings, they knew that he had noticed the problem, too.

"You guys are calling about the wild crowd, right?"

"Yah" said Gabriel, who just happened to be the one who called first "is there anyway to contact everyone at once and call them down? This is the most important base, right? We need to make sure it goes perfect here."

"I've already confirmed that the leaders I set in the other places around the globe have their people organized, but here it is different since they know this is the headquarters."

"How long until we start?"

"About 30 minutes when they open the 2nd level gates to allow the head of the base out here."

"The fence is just a steel chain link with barbed wire, right?"

"Yah, and I made sure our men have stuff to get through it, just in case."

"Well, it looks like we need to do the 'just in case'. We need to reset to leave in about 10 minutes and everyone will know when it's time, don't worry."

"Wait, you have a plan? No offence, but you're only in elementary school, are you sure you can turn this around?"

"Yah. Age doesn't matter when you want something as bad as we do. I'll organize the crowd. Just be ready to back us up once you catch on."

Gabriel hung up and immediately dived back into the crowd before either Michael or Raphael had time to answer. He dragged his two friends with him before they even realized that he had grabbed their hands. Once they made it to the big stage which had been hastily constructed near the gate to the second level out of basic lumber and lots of the lava rocks that were abundant in the area for some extra support, Gabriel immediately climbed up. After dragging his two friends up he took out his cellphone despite the fact that the whole crowd could see it. The immediate hush startled all three friends. Gabriel opened his cellphone and pressed a few buttons before speaking into it, using it as a microphone.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, races, and government preferences. As many of you know the WWG has tricked us, enslaved us, and taken away the one thing we could have used to fight back."

Michael saw Josh come to the front of the platform with a group of men he had probably hastily organized, and watched as they made a human wall around the platform.

"They have taken away our electronics along with much of our other technology. They did not do this because it is unhealthy, although it can be. They did not take it away because it was bad for our world wide economy as some say, in fact, quite the opposite. They got rid of our weapons! By taking away technology they make it harder to communicate! To send messages that would be instantly received! To travel to where the other people are quickly! In fact they even got rid of our physical weapons in the form of guns, stun weapons, and even our ability to produce a reasonable amount of swords! They even take our memories and the information on how to make the things needed to fight back! Almost all of you are here to fight this, but we must unite in order to do so! We must not be so enraged that we become blind to the problems of our team mates; otherwise we are no better than animals! Now follow our lead and we will knock the WWG and CAD to the ground!"

Josh quickly jumped up onto the stage and within three minutes had everyone separated into three groups, one of which was lead by the three children and the others were lead by Josh and The principal of the high school.

By that time the battle had already started, though. It would have been hard not to notice someone giving a speech against your policies within your own base. The principal stayed behind to fight as the two other groups tore through the fence with any kind of wire cutter they could find.

After only a couple of minutes they were through but they still had to make their way through the entire level two area into the level three area, and then into the secret level four underground that supposedly didn't even exist.

Luckily, with the principal's group taking care of most of the main guard, due to the main body of the guards being in the level one area for the event, they got through the level two area with only one skirmish. But unfortunately, once they got to the level three area, they had to stop because there was a 20-foot cement wall with barbed wire at the top, along with tons of steel spikes. The gate was a giant wooden door inside a stone arch, powered by horses on the other side. Luckily, though, many immediately noticed that it was made of wood, and they also realized that the wood could be chopped. All the people with axes from Josh's group immediately began chopping. Meanwhile, the kids who actually had quite useful battle experience from playing fake wars with the adults with water guns back before CAD, realized that even with both groups chopping it would not speed it up any with no more room to chop away. They saw some of the choppers fall and immediately looked up to see bowmen on top of the gate. Raphael, who had been put in charge of the bowmen during the skirmishes, immediately got her men and women set up and returned fire. After about 15 minutes of back and forth shooting the axe men finally got through.

As Josh's men flooded in, the kids organized their men and then followed immediately, only to find that there were men with guns on the other side. The level three area only had one building in it: about 100 yards from the gate was a huge air plane hangar. Josh's men had formed a wall on either side of the path on the way to the hangar. Gabriel immediately knew that if he didn't lead the trio's group through the path quickly, then there would be no chance to recover their mission. He signalled for a dash to the hangar and his friends and men followed with great speed. After many near death experiences for everyone that managed to not get shot, they realized they were trapped. The door had an electronic lock that was apparently protected from the effects of the HEMPs. Michael ran into the crowd of his men, hectically pushing them out of his way. After 30 seconds he returned with a teenage boy no older than 17.

"This is Christian, let him at the keypad, quick!"

When they let him see the keypad he immediately began trying to hack the lock. His fingers moved faster then they could even follow, and after exactly 23 seconds the doors to the hangar began opening. As the trio led their group in they noticed Josh moving his dwindling troops to protect the doors. They saw a trapdoor in the middle of the hangar which was packed tight with all kinds of non electric technology that was also considered illegal by the CAD bill. They opened the trap door and knew instantly that it was the right way. Unfortunately, the tunnel was so narrow that everyone would have to go single file. After picking up a nearby shield that he hoped was made of bulletproof glass, Gabriel climbed down into the hole.

He made Christian follow second behind him, with Raphael in the middle and Michael brought up the rear. In an incredible stroke of luck they began to come into the giant underground area of the base just as the soldiers that guarded the underground came from their lower areas. As each small army set up on each side, Gabriel stepped a little ahead of his troops and noticed a tall man, about 7 ft in fact, do the same. After a bit he noticed that not only was the man tall but he was also fat. Not the fat that is actually just you growing bigger from muscle like those guys who pull cars with their teeth. He was honestly obese, as if he just sat around on the computer all days, watching movies and TV shows from pre-CAD.

"Well, I guess you punks are the measly opposition that managed to make it this far…" the tall man who was obviously the commander paused, probably because he had noticed the wall of bullet proof glass shields being linked like the Roman infantry would do.

"Even with those shields you are still fighting with primitive weapons…" he once again had to pause when he saw Gabriel point a pistol at him, and then he ran behind his troops, who were mirroring the other small army, when he saw the ends of the barrels of the semi-auto rifles that had been stored in the hangar above and in multiple cases along the walls on the way down.

"Check!" yelled Gabriel before turning around and walking slowly back to his line.

He paused for a bit as his men opened a hole in the wall to let him in, then stepped behind the wall which instantly closed behind him. As soon as the hole was closed, he instantly fell on his knees and began crying from sheer terror and stress.

For the first five minutes while Gabriel was crying and trying to recover his cool, Raphael took command. They moved their line slowly forward while making sure to keep the opposing line against the opposite wall. Due to the many people in their group that had previously hunted, or worked in the military, the ability of the rebels was higher then that of the lazy soldiers that had thought their above-ground allies would be able to keep anyone out. Their inability was also due to them thinking themselves superior simply because they had guns which they thought no one else in the world other then their close allies had still. Due to their false feeling of superiority they were being quickly pushed back as the rebels made their way to a specific target, a door in the middle of the opposing wall. Once they got through access to the main computers would be easily available to them, and since the only ones who were brainwashed were the top known scientists, or electronics geeks caught trying to put their own things together, there were many that could work the computers. Once Christian, who they were being extra careful to protect, hacked the system, they would have control over the who WWG network.

Seven months later

Josh managed to survive long enough to fortify himself at the doors of the hangar where he found the guns that turned it around for him. The principal's group had minimal casualties of both sides, but everyone's head hurt afterwards due to the majority of weapons on both sides being simple clubs, bats, and the like. The stock market already got back up last week in the USA and Great Britain with their governments restored to being presidency and royalty although the rest of the world is still having problems.

That was what was going on in Josh's head as he was about to start his diary, when Gabriel ran in and began asking him some questions about organizing a second raid in the main bases of France, Ireland, and Scotland. Raphael rushed in to get Josh to sign some papers for starting construction on a new nuclear power plant since the Research on almost all nuclear power had been uncovered recently in one of the smaller British bases. Michael didn't rush in since he was to busy opening a new playground at their old school, and he had to cut the big ribbon.

Even though they had won the war, there were still many battles to go to saving the world as a whole. Although it was really more like a clean-up since the WWG was cut off from all technology. They didn't even have a working hologram projector.

Xarin Sliron

07.12.09 Front Page

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