The home front revolution

Moments of peace

George knew that he had some time on his hands they weren't raiding the armory until the middle of the night. Stealing the weapons would signify the beginning of the end once they had the weapons Ashanti would soon be dead. George still felt emptiness in his stomach he couldn't truly be happy until Ashanti died. Everything else was in place they knew where he slept and for the remainder of the week the cameras were playing repeated footage from the previous week.

George sat on his bed and Sid sat on his they both took everything in there cover was very nearly blown they couldn't afford to take another risk like they had before. They sat in silence before George eventually decided to try and talk to Sid. "So how did you know all that stuff hacking and what not?" He asked he was curious but he didn't care what the answer was but for some reason he wanted a yarn a story something to reassure him that Sid was a professional.

Sid sighed and waited a few moments was probably questioning whether he should tell the truth and how much of the truth to tell. "High school bored me there wasn't really anything I wanted to do a friend of mine taught me how to hack just to make a few quid. I guess I got kind of obsessed before I knew it I was hacking into the databases of big businesses oil companies and the like. I funneled hundreds of millions into my account. I never took much a few thousand dollars tops the rest I just sent back to the company."

"So why do It?"

Sid shrugged. "For fun I guess besides I'm not stupid I knew if I took too much I'd end up getting caught. One day though I took it a step to far I decided to try and hack the CIA databases I figured there wouldn't be anything I hadn't seen before. Turns out I was wrong ten minutes later armed police kicked in my door and I was arrested. I was in deep shit deeper than I thought turns out the stuff I was hacking contain details of agents in the field they could have died if the information got leaked. I was looking at twenty five years minimum but just before my case came to court Adams approached me and told me he'd wipe the record clean if I worked for him."

George thought about what general Adams said to him about him needing men with loyalty. It seemed that what he meant was he needed men who had no choice but to work for him. "That was lucky." George said without thinking about it.

"Was it though? I'd be safe in prison here I could die any second." Sid argued George thought it over they was a lot of truth in what he was saying.

"I would think that its better to die free than live in a cage." George said perhaps this was why he wanted to kill Ashanti to reclaim his freedom.

Sid laughed, "You sound just like my mother."

"She wanted you to join the mission?" George was surprised his mother would follow her maternal instant to want to keep her child safe.

"She knew me well it was what I wanted normal life bored me she knew prison would be my worst nightmare. Well that and she didn't want to make an hour and a half car journey to visit me in prison each week." George faked a laugh his mother sounded like a good woman she knew her son very well and was able to tell what was really best for him. Hearing the story make George wish he had kept in contact with his own mother. For him it was too late though she was still alive her mind had caved to dementia she no longer recognized him. At least he'd kept in touch with his father he thought he was going to be spending two weeks with him over Christmas.

"How did she react you were arrested if you don't mind me asking." George said he felt he might have been probing a little to far. Something about Sid's backstory fascinated him he never seemed like a criminal George had wondered why he was with them.

"Well she knew about the hacking she'd caught me once or twice before but I don't think she knew just how bad it was. I know she was disappointed in me but she never lectured me or held a grudge given the sentence I was facing she knew that I would be punished enough."

"She sounds like a good person."

"She is I love her. Anyways you've examined me enough tell me what brought you here was adventures have you had in your past?" Sid said humorously though he was serious enough to warrant a semi serious response."

"Well I'm afraid I'm not nearly as interesting as you I was just a solider, I'd completed a few mouths of service and I was about to be put on leave. However General Adams approached me-

"Oh here we go again" Sid said rolling his eyes.

"No it's better than that listen he told me that I had been selected for work on the ETS."

"Seriously."

"Seriously. I got onto the ETS and as you know that didn't end to well I was just able to make my way to one of the escape pods. I landed and the invasion had already begun I stole a car and made my way to Boston to find my wife Sarah. I went to a dock to try and arrange to have here taken out of the country. At first I was told there was no way she was getting out but after I told her my name general Adams came and told me if I agreed to join the mission she would be evacuated."

"Okay you win." Sid said.

"Hey your story wasn't half bad either."

"Do you think I'm a bad person?" Sid said turning serious suddenly.

"Huh"

"Do you think that I'm a bad person for what I did."?

"Hacking into the CIA's database isn't right but no I don't think you're a bad person sometimes we all do things we regret. I'm not entirely clean myself when I was trying to get to Boston some kid dressed in the enemy uniform attacked me. He pulled a gun on me I had to shoot him I almost severed his leg and he'll most likely need crouches for the rest of his life."

"Jesus."

"So no I don't think that you're a bad person."

"Thanks."

The two were silent again George laid back and tried to sleep but he found it impossible there was too much on his mind. Even thoughts of Sarah were no longer enough to calm George everything around him was so violent so different to her world that it was hard to believe that they both existed. Instead George thought about Sid despite everything he told him he really did think he was a good kid and he was thrown into a world for which he wasn't prepared.

Though George could not envision going home he did truly want to not for his sake but for Sid he could see he was out of his depth. As for George he couldn't go home not until he knew that Ashanti was dead and buried. "How do you feel about tomorrow night?" George asked Sid without bothering to look at him.

"I'm scared but I think it'll be okay I've never helped to kill a man before but I can't think of anyone I rather see dead."

"Can't say I disagree."

"At the end of the day I just want to get this over with and go home ever since we started I've been waiting for it all to end."

"Well it will soon remember I made you a promise when we were about to take out the plane that I would keep you safe that still stands."

"Thanks man. You reckon we'll keep in touch afterwards?" George didn't have to think about it he'd given it thought already and he'd made up his mind.

"No I don't want to I don't mean to be disrespectful its just I want to this to die here I don't want what I did the last few days to linger about even in a positive way." Sid nodded he didn't seem disappointed he understood what George said.

"People will bring it up though in the future when all this is declassified we'll be remember as heros."

"Well you know what they say the winner writes the history books."

"Well than lets get writing." George laughed for a bit he found Sids optimism amusing George certainly didn't consider himself to be a hero. Nor did George feel so certain that he would win he felt that at the moment the odds were stack against him.

"Yeah looks like we have a war to win."