Thanks for defending me, Mathuen (by the way, I'm a guy). It is obviously wrong to quarantine people because of their religion (even though it happens all the time in our world). I'm an atheist but that doesn't mean I hate religious people, just radicals. I guess I phrased that poorly, sorry for any confusion.
Scipio
No problem, I understand.
Very interesting! However, as a Christian, I'd probably join the terrorists in trying to cause as much damage to the world outside the FPZ,s as possible. Scary to imagine people quarantined because of religion.
You know what? That was almost exactly what my girlfriend said when she read this thread!
Now here is a continuation of the story...
_______________________
Gibson, Indiana
United States of America
5/22/74 A.N.P
Princeton was the most populated settlement in Gibson and the busiest as a result. However, compared to other places in the union, the "city" of Princeton was actually quite laughable. With just over nine thousand people Princeton wasn't a city in the minds of anyone who had seen New York, Boston, or any place where a population of several million was a conservative estimate. Still, for the people of the FPZ 4, Princeton was a city all the same.
Guardsman Jason Marx was in the gunner seat of a laser-point humvee* that was driving down Princeton's main street. Looking around he couldn't help but be captivated by the "city" around him. Princeton was quaint, peaceful, and beautiful; it was hard if not impossible to think that such a place could breed a terrorist. Albeit a failure of a terrorist, but a terrorist none the less.
Something was wrong, something just didn't fit. The people here were friendly and happy. This wasn't a place where terrorists came from, if anything community activists, comedians and all around nice people came from places like Princeton. For a moment Jason thought that maybe command had made a mistake. Maybe they were in the wrong place and this was all a big misunderstanding. This wasn't a time to question the command though, especially not when lives could be at stake. So the humvee kept moving Jason kept himself at the ready, waiting to reach his destination.
Jason heard a bell ring throughout the town as people started pulling into a large white building. The building was distinguished from the other buildings in Princeton for two reasons. One it had a large spiral-like structure pointing upward from its white form and two, there was a cross planted in front of the building. It took as second for Jason to realize what was happening; it was a Sunday and that building was a church of some sort. People were going there to do whatever it was that mythologists do. This disturbed Jason; The very thought of a church existing, let alone having people go into it turned his stomach. His love for Princeton was quickly replaced with disgust.
The humvee kept moving down main street and towards the outskirts of Princeton. After the church was far behind him Jason focused on the reason why he was here in a Free Practice Zone in the first place. He and the DOD's 5th Guardsman Squad** had been informed of the exact location where Alex J. Stevenson had lived. He had lived with his Wife Amanda and his daughter Joyce at 150 Sarmaset Dr, Princeton. The plan was to take Amanda and Joyce back to Mead and find out if they had any connection to the attempted terrorist attack.
What would happen to the two of them afterwords? Well, it wasn't Jason's job to ask questions.
As the humvee neared its destination the air began to take on a grayish hue. It became harder to breath and there was a weak yet noticeable scent in the air. Neither Jason nor anyone else in the humvee could tell what the smell was. The closest thing that the smell resembled was that of cooked pork. The crew was unnerved yet completely silent until their Staff Sergeant Ross voiced what everyone was thinking.
"We've orange-lighted, watch out for any hostiles. Ready weapons men!" The Staff Sergeant said. This was followed by the sound of everyone loading their rifles and of Jason readying his laser-point.
When the humvee finally reached its destination Jason was left with his mouth wide open and the rest of the crew wide-eyed. The house at 150 Sarmaset drive as no longer there; all that existed was a charred mess and the smell of burned flesh, human flesh.
The crew exited the humvee and moved towards the charred remains of the house they had come to. Inside, one of the guardsmen located where the flesh smell was coming from. There were two bodies on the ground, burned beyond all recognition. One of the bodies was smaller than the other and appeared to have been holding some kind of toy, now turned black and fused to the charred corpse by the immense fire that destroyed the house.
"Fuck" a guardsman behind Jason muttered.
Jason paid no attention as he was transfixed on the two lifeless forms in front of him. He knew that these two were Amanda and Joyce even though a part of him didn't want to admit it. He wanted to turn away, but he couldn't. Jason then noticed a shimmer coming from one of the bodies. He moved the bodies aside to discover a strip of soft blue fabric. Somehow it had managed to survive to fire, but that wasn't what concerned Jason. He knew he had seen this fabric, this color before. He turned around with the fabric in his hand and approached the Staff Sergeant.
"look" Jason said as he showed the Staff Sergeant the fabric. At that moment Jason saw an expression on the Staff Sergeant's face; an expression that showed that they of them were thinking the same thing. The two of them just stood there until Jason broke the silence.
"Something isn't right here" He said.
* Directed energy weapons are extremely common and have started to replace conventional weapons on Humvees, FAVs, IFVs and ATVs.
** The Department of Defense is one of the most powerful organizations in America and is often considered a branch of the military. Think the regular DOD mixed with the CIA, FBI, NSA, Department of Homeland Security and the National Guard and you'll get an idea as to what this America's DOD is like.
