Zero Two Three One | John Laurens X Reader [Hamilton]

IX: Ninety Seconds Under Water

❝One can resist the invasion of an army but one cannot resist the invasion of ideas.❞
—Victor Hugo

My eyes remain glued to the American flag pinned on the opposite side of the plane, examining the familiar pattern. It has the thirteen stripes and fifty stars, but the flag is almost entirely black. The stripes alternate between black and white, except for one blue stripe near the middle of the flag. It's called the Thin Blue Line.

It used to represent support for the police force, but it has since shifted to representing support for the AC. Blue, overall, has become the color of patriotism in America.

I've seen it quite a few times. During President David Eaton's speeches, they fly both the Thin Blue Line flag and the normal American flag. I wish I could say I like it, but I'm not so sure what I feel about it.

I don't feel much of anything at the moment.

By the time we reached the settlement camp, the entire thing was blown to bits and up in flames. We were far too late, and we ended up retreating to Fort Simon in Southern Georgia. We heard that many major towns and cities in Florida continued to get bombed even after we left. Both Charles Lee and John Laurens demanded that we be given more men and get sent back into the crossfire to evacuate the civilians we left behind. Neither George Washington nor Thomas Castle gave such permission. Instead, the normal American Air Force took over the operation, shooting down the invading Cuban planes.

March 15, 2058.

It's been one month since the attack, now dubbed the Bombing of Florida. It's been all over the news, the headlines dangerously startling. Many headlines include the death toll, which simply sickens me to see the number. I've avoided reading any article, telling myself it's unnecessary. I mean, I was there. What more do I need to know? Alexander, on the other hand, reads everything written about the Bombing of Florida. According to him, a majority of the state has been destroyed and the people have been evacuated to other settlement camps.

Alexander makes a point to remind me that Nikolai Ivanovich made a direct threat to Florida during his Russian-Cuban conference back in December. I asked him what he thinks the correlation is, but Alexander seemed keen on insisting that Nikolai was in no way behind the attack. What happened was completely planned by the Cubans.

Well, President Eaton and George Washington were having none of it. Both were furious, perhaps for different reasons. It was embarrassing to Eaton — the inferior Cuban Air Force almost destroyed an entire state. It was a smack in the face to Washington — he was caught off guard and his AC troops were unable to fight off the Cubans... or maybe he's just distraught that his nephew is dead.

So while us AC soldiers waited idly with stationed AC soldiers in Fort Simon, Washington and Eaton got together with the brightest military minds in America to plan something. Apparently, John Laurens was requested at the meeting, but he turned the invitation down, insisting to stay with his men.

Next thing I knew, a new unit of the Air Force AC came by and picked up about seventy of the AC soldiers at Fort Simon, both from the British side and American side, including my unit.

That's where we are now, flying through the air to an undisclosed location. We're packed into a series of three fighter planes, twenty-three soldiers in each plane. These are our three groups. The first plane has a group led by Charles Lee and Aaron Burr. The second plane has a group led by the General who was standing by at Fort Simon by the name of Henry Knox. The last plane, which I'm on, has a group led by John Laurens.