Hidden Rebel

Chapter 1

I wake up in the morning before the crack of dawn. I have work to do. There's four other mouths to feed and I better get hunting. Ever since Father died three years ago, Mother barely speaks, barely does anything but just sit in Father's chair next to the window, looking blank and sad, staring into nothingness. I grab my gun and start the long hike to the forest. If I'm lucky, I'll maybe shoot down a deer or a turkey. But usually the best I can get are the small birds in the trees. The birds are quick and have sharp hearing, so they are clever and elusive. Suddenly, I see tracks in the dirt. Rabbit tracks. I follow it back to its burrow and shoot. It gets hit in the torso and falls over, dead. I pick it up and shoot a couple of birds and another rabbit, when I hear someone yelling.
"We have to stage a rebellion! The rich treat us like pests and the entire government is corrupt!" A voice shouts from a cave. I quietly creep over to where the voice came from and see a boy, about 18 or 19 with dark brown hair and blue eyes. I can barely see his face because of the black hoodie he's wearing.
"We can't right now! They're too strong! If we strike now, we'll all die! We have to wait until they are weak and have taken a lot of casualties in the war!" a menacing woman in a black outfit, about 30, argued back. "All in favor of striking now, raise your hand." A couple of hands shoot up, but not nearly as many as the hands that shoot up for waiting. The woman has a smug expression on her face. The boy looks over at her with an exasperated sigh, and that's when I realize: I know him. I try to clamp my hand over my mouth, but the words come out. "Cole?"
Every one of them looks in my direction. Cole curses under his breath. "What the— How'd you find us, Rosemary? You need to get out of here!" he says. Now everything makes sense, why he's always in the woods earlier than me, why he never tells me where he's been. He's part of the resistance. The Midnight Resistance. I can't believe it! Every time I told him I wanted to join, he said I was crazy! That all of them were killed! I remember how cruelly the government and the rich treat us and make probably the most important decision of my life. I suck in a breath, then say it. "I want to join."

Do you think I should keep writing? The criticism is greatly appreciated. I want to know what you think!
-L.R.