Revolts, Riots and Rebels (The New London Riot)

My eyes were wide open when Skye poked me with her foot through my sleeping bag. As I said, I can’t sleep. And Skye snores – a lot.
"Zeph, Crash says that he has something to tell us! I think it’s about a new combat, are you comingareyoucomingareyoucoming?"
"What? Oh, that. Yep, I’m on my way, hang on…"
I crawled out of my sleeping bag and sighed.
I woke up in the morning… and then the whole day was ruined, I thought and smirked in a very bitter way. I’m gonna put that quote in my future autobiography, if I live through this.
"Zeeeeeeph, for god’s saaake!"
Skye shouted from the kitchen, and I was still sitting on the floor, dreaming about releasing the book Zephyr – social misfit and warrior in the British Revolt.
Do me a favor and shoot me, will you?
"I’m coming, I’m coming!"
Luckily, I slept with my clothes on (black tank top with a white AC/DC print and grey jeans, cut off by the knees) so I saved a few minutes on that and ran out to the living room where everyone had breakfast. I sat down on the floor with Skye, close to where Crash stood. I glanced at him quickly, and he saw it. He winked at me and smirked shortly before he cleared his throat to get everyones attention.
"We will fight at the Tower Bridge in a few hours…"
I already knew what he was going to tell, so I pointed at the toilet but sneaked in to my room instead to make myself ready.
I pulled out my big bag of different weapons from our wardrobe and zipped it open. The Glock lied on top of everything else, it seemed to be screaming to be used. I put a belt around my waist with three holsters and other kinds of pockets in which I could put grenades, knives and ammunition.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Skye found me sitting on the floor sometime, with the Glock in my hands and caressing it while whispering stuff like ”my… precioussssss…”
I shoved the Glock in the holster closest to my right arm, the old Smith and Wesson .45 and the half automatic pistol (I can’t remember the name of it) in the other holsters, stuffed two pockets with ammo, one with bandages and stuff to clean eventual wounds and put one grenade in each remaining pocket.
I put on knee pretty long, tight socks, high Dr Martens boots and shoved a few knives inside the socks, so they were pressed to my leg and easy to pull out.
I was armed to the teeth and in a weird, morbid way, excited to get out there.
I stood in front of the mirror and put my long hair in a ponytail. I looked at my outfit and the weapons and thought of how I looked like half a year ago – the difference was heartbreaking.
I used to be an insecure little teenager with all sorts of heavy metal in her headphones, no friends or good grades at all. She was often depressed, her parents even talked about getting her anti-depressives.
That girl used to be me.
The new me, the riot me, is a girl with very high self confidence and a bitter and sarcastic but humorous way of viewing the world. I take deadly risks every day with a gun in my hand, killing greenies cold hearted and without mercy. I’m sixteen, involved in an enormous revolt and about to storm the government’s house soon to make everything alright again. To make everything alright in a city which we had trashed and almost fully destroyed.
I’m sixteen and I’m stuck in a dead end situation. If we manage to find that Finnish scientist and make him stop this madness, we will prevail but we’ll have London looking like the World War III.
I nearly started crying when all this went through my head – who the fuck did I turn out to be?
I buried my face in my hands and took a shivering breath.
We’re doomed to fail. The government with their clones will prevail, and will not be alive when it happens, when Crash and Skye gets defeated and tortured to death. I can die today, who knows…

"My god, are you okay? Are you crying?!"
I didn’t hear Skye when she came in, but she saw me with my head in my hands, I guess it looked like I was crying.
She ran over to me and hugged me, tightly.
"I wasn’t crying… I’ve just got a headache. I’m fine."
"You seemed to need a hug."
Skye was my first real friend. I knew I was nothing before I met her.
"What did Crash say, by the way? He told me about the combat yesterday, on the balcony."
"Oh, just that we’ll be there together with Halo and Sparkle, probably stuff you already knew. Speaking of Sparkle, isn’t that Andrea gorgeous?"

We left the base 90 minutes later.
All of us where heavy armed, and no one said a word when we walked to the Bridge (except from Skye who shouted bull-fucking-shiiit! when she almost fell over from stepping in a hole in the road).
We met up with Andrea and the rest of Sparkle on the Bridge, it looked like it was a huge traffic stocking there but the cars were abandoned, the drivers fled months ago, probably when they heard the first explosion.
Andrea and Crash got our attention and explained the plan to us, but I didn’t listen (no shit?). The only thing I was gonna do was to kill greenies and avoid to get killed. Big deal.
Halo joined us ten minuted later, and then there was the waiting.
It was a weird silence, except from Skye (of course) who stood with me and sang In The Air Tonight.
We must’ve been there waiting for at least half an hour before we heard voices and steps on the other side of the Bridge.
The greenies were here; the battle could begin at any second. I loaded the Glock and hid behind a car.
Cli-click friish-click.
I didn’t look at Skye, I didn’t look at anyone. I was crap nervous, but that’s part of the game. It comes without saying.
"FIREEEEEE!
"Fire!!"
It was now or never.
I stood up, and was surprised to see a greenie standing a few meters from me. Those creeps run fast.
He seemed to be surprised too, aimed at me with his shotgun, but he was dead before he even thought of pulling the trigger.
There were people everywhere on the bridge. I saw Crash stabbing a greenie, Skye punched another and Andrea’s leg was bleeding but he looked okay, since he stood up.
I saw a bunch of greenies about 20 meters from me, it looked like six men, so I gave it a shot.
I ran to a car closer to them, they didn’t see me since they were too busy fighting a few guys out of Halo.
I was two meters from them now, I could take them out in a matter of seconds.
I aimed, put my finger on the trigger, squeezed it firmly…
Suddenly there was an excruciating pain somewhere between my left elbow and shoulder.
I screamed, everything seemed hazy and I almost fell over.
Someone grabbed my waist, and everything went clear again. The pain vanished a little as I got furious.
I turned around, and saw the greenie who stabbed my arm. His face was close to mine, and he could’ve been two years older than me.
"You fuckbag! You should’ve stabbed my lungs if wanted to kill me," I shouted.
I kicked his ankles, elbowed his ribs, bent down, pulled out a knife from my boot, stabbed his thigh and pushed him. He fell over, winced from the pain in his thigh and he looked like he was about to start crying. Blood poured out from his wound; I think I cut off some kind of vein.
The only thing I should do right now was to blow his brains out, so I aimed (I could only hold the gun with my right hand) but it wasn’t over here.
Two greenies had thrown their selves over me, we fell to the ground and they almost crushed my ribs.
My left hand was still holding the long, black knife and the greenies punched me wherever they could.
My left arm was still burning, but I roared at the top of my lungs, forced my arm to move and managed to cut off the greenie’s throat. He died instantly, and then there was the other one.
I made an attempt to stand up, but he kicked me in the stomach and I fell back. I lied close to his feet, and I still had my Glock. I didn’t really look, I shot without aiming.
The bullet was supposed to pierce his heart or chest, but I missed and shot his knee instead. I moaned from the pain in my arm, it was blood all over it. I stood up.
The greenie screamed, fell over and aimed at me with his little revolver where he lied on his back.
"You’ve got guts," I said simply and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit him between the eyes.
The other greenie, the one who stabbed my arm, had crawled to me from behind.
I turned around just to see that he was about to bite my wrist. How silly.
"Well hello! You’re the dumbfuck who stabbed me! I’ve got something special for you."
I pushed him in the chest with my foot, which made him fall on his back.
He was on his way to get paralyzed by fear. His eyes were wide open, he opened and closed his mouth a few times but he couldn’t make a sound.
I turned off my feelings, aimed at his forehead with the Glock and… bam.
He was gone.
I looked around, no one noticed me so I jumped into a car and locked the doors.
I needed to take care of my stab wound – it hurt like hell. It looked okay, even though my arm was covered in blood but it had stopped bleeding. I don’t think he cut off a vein or something.
I sat in the driver’s seat and pulled out everything from the pocket with first aid stuff. I didn’t have any fluid to clean the wound with, I only had plasters, bandage and a syringe with some sort of vaccine to inject if you’d gotten a wound of some kind. Crash gave them to us; he said that we should inject it if we got stabbed and inject it close to the wound to prevent blood poisoning.
No one had seen me, and I could see Crash and Skye fighting. They were still alive.
I injected the vaccine close to the wound and squeezed it into a vein, winced from the piercing feeling and when the vaccine hit my bloodstream. I felt like a heroin addict.
Then there is the fact that I have a sort of phobia for syringes.
I stretched my wrist and fingers, wrapped the wound with the bandage and got an idea.
I crashed the wind shield with a few shots (it’s a waste of ammo, I know, but I’ve got two other guns too) and had a perfect shelter to shoot greenies from.
I saw Crash again 50 meters from where I was, he was fighting two greenies all by himself.
I leaned over the dashboard, aimed at the first one.
Bam-bam. Bam.
I got both of them in five seconds, and Crash looked surprised until he spotted me and ran over to the car.
"You okay?" he shouted. The noise was pretty loud.
"Yeah sure! I had to take care of my arm. How about you?"
He jumped in through the crashed shield and sat down in the passenger’s seat.
"What happened to your arm?"
"Got stabbed, but I think it’s okay now."
"Keep an eye on the greenies, I’ll clean it."
He leaned over me an removed the bandage. I shot a greenie from behind.
"Jesus Christ, Zeph, this is serious!"
"Nah, it’s fine! "
Crash pulled off his vest and zipped open the big pocket on the back of it and pulled out a little plastic bottle and some cotton.
"You’re not gonna sew it, aren’t you?"
"I think I have to! You’re a big girl Zeph – you can handle this, right?!"
"Oh, I’ll give you for big girl!"
I took out a few other greenies when Crash wiped off the blood with the cotton and he held a needle and some medical thread in his hand. Crap, I hate things like this.
The wound was pretty big, actually. At least one decimeter, and it felt like it was deep too.
I shrieked when the needle pierced my skin and when the thread followed. It was pretty painful.
"Stop screaming and kill greenies!"
"Stop telling me what to do, doc!"
I let go of the Glock, pulled out a grenade from a pocket, pulled out the safety thing whatever you call it with my teeth and threw it away. It landed just where I wanted it to: behind a group of greenies who thought they had hidden well behind a car.
The explosion was effective: it felt like an earthquake and there were greenie body parts everywhere.
I screamed again; Crash was halfway down the wound.
I couldn’t reload the Glock with one hand, I had to use the half automatic for a while until Crash was done.
I shot nine other greenies and tears ran down my cheeks. It hurt like shit. Crash so owe me one now.
"Damn, Craash! How much more?"
"Hang on… There!"
"You done? * sob *
"Yeah, I’m all… Zeph, are you crying?"
"Um… no?"
Crash laughed and wiped away my tears with his knuckles. God, it was embarrassing.
I glanced over at him to see that his face was extremely close to mine. He was smirking, it was a weird smirk that I’d never seen before. Like… loving.
No, no, no. Dani Carisma Vassandra Clarke, aka Zeph, you can’t do this. You MUST NOT do this; it will change EVERYTHING between you and Crash. He’s your leader and friend, nothing else. Besides, he’s seven years older than you! He’s OLD! You’re YOUNG!
He attached his lips to mine.

Okay, let me explain the tragic situation.
We sat in an abandoned Volvo XC90 with a broken wind shield, surrounded by people fighting and dying all over the place. That was the place where I got my first kiss.
And I’m not even into this love thing!
I pulled away almost instantly.
"Not now, Crash."
And that was the only thing I could say?
'Not now Crash, but come again tonight when everyone else are asleep?' Fuck, Zeph, you haven’t got any brains at all.
"Yeah… Here’s your Glock, by the way."
"Thanks. You wanna stay here or d’ya wanna go outside and fight?"
"I’ll stay here, it’s a sniperish sort of place to hide."
"Sniperish?"
I laughed and looked at my arm. It looked clean and good, and Crash re-wrapped it with the bandage.
I reloaded the Glock again.
Cli-click friish-click.
Crash aimed with his shotgun and loads of greenies died. I aimed at a fuckhead who was giving Skye a hard time ten meters to the left and he fell to the ground. I shot him in his lung, but Skye finished it with an arrow between the eyes.
My arm was still pounding, but I could use a gun.
I don’t know how long we sat there, I reloaded the Glock two more times until I ran out of ammo and had to use the .45 and then the half automatic until I had the knives and grenades left.
I only saw a few rebels die; the greenies fell to the ground every second until there were a few left. They were about seven people, terrified.
I saw dozens of rebels who aimed at the greenies, but I couldn’t resist it.
I pulled out another grenade and threw it away.
It landed under a car behind them, and it exploded together with the greenies. The car was on fire, and all the greenies were eliminated.
And I was alive.

Crash jumped out of the car, got up on the roof and shouted.
"Group Whistle here, now!"
Andrea and Frances out of Halo did the same, and I got up on the roof with Crash too.
I counted the people in our group, and it was a miracle. We were still fifteen people, no one got killed!
Even though some of us had wounds, but no one was seriously hurt.

The time was 6 PM when we headed back to the base and grabbed some dinner.
Skye and I had our dinner on the floor in our room (ham and cheese pie and Skittles for her, some nachos for me) and I told her what happened in the car.
One of the greenies cut her forehead, she’d gotten a huge scar.
"He kissed you?! "
"For chrissake Skye, not so loud! Yeah, he did. But I pulled away after like a second."
"But… Why did you do that? This might lead somewhere! It could start something between you!"
"Why? My god. First, we were in the middle of a war. Second, He’s a little too old. Third, even though I sorta like him, what would happen if he’d get killed or vice versa? I’d get crushed. I’d commit suicide with my fucking Glock if he’d die! You can’t love someone in a war, you can’t have a relationship with someone."
"True, but I’d give it a shot if I were you. Just so you know. I’m not gonna push you into something."
"It’s okay. But Skye… thanks."
"Thanks for what?"
"Thanks for just… being my friend and all, listening to me and stuff… You’re my first friend."
"I am? Aww Zephyyyr…"
Skye leaned over and hugged me. I fell over and she followed, we ended up lying on the floor and just hugging each other.

We went to bed half an hour later, but I got up as soon as Skye had fallen asleep and sneaked out the door.
Crash sat on the balcony again, alone. He was waiting for me.
Should I go out to him or should I go back to my bedroom?
Ah, damn.