I always imagined a camera doing a huge continuous shot of the city, like in all the action/sci-fi movies people used to make. The camera would start overlooking a utopian city, the roofs all gleaming in the early morning light, it would show a city made of chrome and blue lights. Then it would begin to drop down into the city and the city would begin to age. The chrome finish would begin to fall away like dust, the beautiful blue lights would give way to orange fires, the happy civilians and automen would fade giving way to roving bands of raiders. When the camera began to slow it would show executions in the street. 6. 7. 8 people at a time. It would pan past terrible things thievery, murder, beatings . . . rape. Without saying a word it would paint a gruesome picture of just how wrong things can go in so short a time. It would finally end centered on the Space Needle, the heart of the city, With a lone girl standing at the edge holding a small cylinder in her right hand. Thirty heavily armed soldiers positioned strategically behind tables and counters, painting the girl with a million tiny blue dots. The camera would do a rotation around the girl, then lock on her face when it came back around. Shes cute, sporting short brown hair, green eyes, light lightly tanned skin, and has a look of determination on her face. Not looking at any of the soldiers she closes her eyes. Exhales. The scenery in the background would begin to rotate upwards as she shifts her weight backwards. Thirty small explosions send thirty pieces of burning metal between her and the camera. Her hair goes crazy as her feet leave the safety of the railing. The scenery begins to spin faster and faster. The camera stays locked on her face. Impact. Flames. The camera still locked on the girls face. The flames are all around her the cylinder cracked and laying on the ground under her limp hand, liquid leaks from the capsule and catches fire. Then the screen goes black.


I've lived in Seattle since before the experiment. Since I was born in fact. I've been lucky enough to survive the crackdown, the revolt, and the occupation by the UTOs. I rolled over in my makeshift bed, I wish things could go back to how they were. Mental note, bubble wrap makes much better bedding than newspaper, also, bathrooms stink. I picked myself up from my bedding. Last night had been a close call, those filthy pigs had found where I lived and sacked the place. I had to hide away in a closet. They had probably taken or burned all my art. Assholes. I slipped on my tattered shoes and slipped into my jacket. The jacket fulfilled the kind of straps and pockets ascetic my wardrobe generally adhered to. Its really all about functionality.

I bent down and removed my gun trigger lock from the busted door handle hole. I looked out into the abandoned metro station. Nothing. I straightened back up and cracked the heavy door open. No bullets, so far so good. I began crossing the dark and silent room. Navigating around broken bricks and overturned benches. Most of us the want to fight the powers that be in the city stay down here in the interconnected metro-stations. I rounded the corner, and saw the light coming down the stairs from the surface. I leaned up against the wall as I approached the corner. I peeked around the corner, trying to keep hidden in case any UTOs happened to be at the top of the stairs. Clear. I inhaled deeply, and immediately regretted it. The stench of death filled the air. I looked up. Six dead bodies tied together at their ankles. They were peppered with bullet holes, their skin was rotten and falling off, their muscle was hanging off as the local flies feasted. Their blood had dried and crusted on the stairs beneath them

I took a step back. Sons of Bitches. I reached around behind me looking for my tag cans and stencils. Glow in the dark green, and glow in the dark red. I set the two tag cans on the ground and pulled a cylinder made from roughly crafted steel from my bag. I unscrewed the lid and pulled out a tight roll of stencils. I pulled out one that reads ”REsist.” I held it against the wall and sprayed it with the green glowing tag can. The sound that a tag can makes when spraying is phenomenal ,beyond all description. Its amazing. I under scored my tag with three red lines, replaced my stencil into the steel canister, and put both of my tag cans back into my bag. Then I continued through the metro, past the stairs. I left a few more tags as I went along. As I got closer to my lair (as I like to call it) I left less and less tags so I didn’t draw attention to my secret place, provided it was all in one piece.

The door was broken in there was broken glass everywhere. The desk had been burned badly and hung in two pieces in the corner of the small room. All my prints were burned, all my clothes were destroyed, my bed was burned. . . Dammit, that was the only real bed I've seen in months. I brushed aside the ashes of what was my bed, Assholes, and fished in my bag for my knife. I felt the cold steel of the blade. I pushed the knife into a seam in the worn black and white tile and pried the board up. Idiots. I reached into the dark hole and retrieved along roll of tattered artwork and another can of tag.

Now, I had work to do. I spent the rest of that evening working my way back to the cobbled together resistance headquarters, When I stopped for the night I was about a mile from my destination. I climbed into a dirty old subway car and curled up in the corner to try and keep as much heat as I could, it was summer, but it was still frigid at night.

The next morning I rose when my watch went off, it said 6am, but the damn thing was constantly a half hour early. Mental note CHANGE THE DAMN ALARM. That is all. The damage had been done, I was awake and not happy about it. I climbed out of my makeshift subway home and made my way to the HQ. That sounds so Dumb, headquarters? That's such a cliché word.

As I passed through the mandatory pat downs at the inconspicuous soda machine front door, I heard Rolfe's voice come over the intercom. He needed me in the Tech lab, Great I'm going to be a test dummy again.

“What is it this time?”my voice filled with sarcasm.

“I have a feeling you'll like this one Kayle, its right up your alley.”, Rolfe was propped up against a desk holding a small black tube with class panels in each side, inside I could see a dark blue, nearly black liquid. He punched one last button and disappeared.

My eyes were probably as large as dinner plates. What the hell?!?!

“I told you you'd like it. “ his voice came from behind me. “simply put, its a teleportation device”

“How?” All I could mutter was how, I know, pretty dumb.

“Input exact latitude and longitude coordinates, set elevation and execute. Then bam, you're there. ” he began walking towards me, extending his hand as he came closer, “of course it has it dangers, for instance if an insect or person or really anything is in the area you're teleporting to, well use you're imagination.” As he came within reach of me I reached my hand forward to grasp the device. When my fingers closed around it I felt the unnatural chill of the strange device.

I gripped it and took it into both of my hands, it was fairly light for the power it housed.

“It will allow you to go anywhere, instantly, no more need to travel for days to expand our influence, we just need coordinates and open space.” my mind started to race with what I could do with this, I could go farther than ever and still be home in time to sleep In a real bed. Then I heard it.

Explosions, gunfire, screams. Rolfe sprinted for the door to the tech lab. He put in the lock code and drew his handgun. Never really liked guns, I see their purpose but that’s never really been my thing, I mean, I don’t mind shooting games, but not the real deal. Some people deserve to die, but shooting soldiers doesn’t make progress, all it does is add to a statistic. Their just following orders anyway right? There's no reason to kill another soldier unless it’s in immediate self defense. . Why am I thinking about this, we're under attack. Get your ass in gear.

I turned to the table nearest me and grabbed the crowbar off of the desk and slipped it into my pack.

“This is Rolfe, We need protection in the tech lab. Hello?!” Rolfe looked frantically around the room in search of another way out. He turned back to the door and brought up the external camera. As the machine was loading, there was a massive flash of light and a deafening sound . The door along with Rolfe were sent across the science lab, landing at the foot of the desk that I was standing at.

“Get Down!” I shouted as I ducked behind the desk. Bullets soared through the air, some finding homes in scientists heads, being made bloody by their arrival and others ricocheting frantically off the metal walls in the room. I could see Rolfe trying to move under the weight of the door. Realizing it was hopeless he turned his head towards me and mouthed something to me. Lont geth them to it? Sonth tem gret it? Dahnt lit dem geht dit? It struck me what he was saying, the soldiers had come for this little machine. Our whole team would die. All of them. For this device. . . My mind raced. What should I do? There's nowhere to run, only one entrance made sure of that, I could use the device, but I don't know any locations. I closed my eyes and swiped my finger over the keypad, Opened my eyes without looking at the small screen displaying the coordinates of my teleportation and hit enter.

I was falling. I opened my eyes. Looking down. A long way down. There was a railing above my head. I instinctively threw my right hand at the railing, barely grasping it as I fell. I managed to pull myself over after placing the device on the platform at the base of the railing. I could feel the wind blowing through my hair as I sat on the platform leaning up against the railing that had just saved my life.

“Thank You”, said as I looked deep into the dark blue liquid, before slipping the capsule into my bag. After an few moments I realized what exactly my surroundings were. It looked familiar. Holy S***. I was in the Space Needle. The communications stronghold of the Redmond Raiders. I could hear footsteps coming around the corner. I lept to my feet.

“Hands up b****!” I raised my hands into the air and turned my head towards the guard. He wasn’t all that tall, but he had a large rifle pointed at my chest. “Javen! Get the guys out here! It looks like we may have some fun on our hands.”

I swear to god if you touch me, I'm going to kill you. The guard came closer to me just as four other guards came around the corner.

“One of you go get the harness ready.” the guard said as he grasped my collar and gave me a shake. My left hand grabbed the guards vest, my right hand flew to the crowbar I had stashed in my bag back at the tech lab. I drew it out of the bag and began to spin toward him. As I came parallel to him I raised the crowbar above my head and began to bring it down with all the force I could muster. The crowbar contacted his skull like a train hitting a fruit stand, with blood and cranial debris spraying out as the crowbar went deeper. As I continued to spin around the now recently deceased guard I let go of the crowbar and grabbed the back of his vest with my right hand. This was about the time that the four guards rounding the corner noticed their friends recent critical condition. All four barrels exploded with rapid rifle fire. I finished my extremely elaborate move by holding the dead guard between me and death. Who's the b**** now, B****?. The obviously poorly trained guards emptied their clips into their deceased friend and attempted to reload. As they fumbled to replenish their ammunition, I worked out a plan. It didn’t take more that a moment. Please be as dumb as you look.

“Its a BOMB!” I shouted, pulling the small teleporting device of my bag. All four of the guards backed away,”Drop the guns.”

I let go of the dead guard. Four guns lay on the floor gleaming in the early afternoon sun. My hair blew in the wind as I walked to the ledge. This is a terrible idea. I climbed up onto the railing, being careful to keep balanced.

“Don’t let her leave with that device!” a voice came from inside, as twenty something more soldiers flooded the carcass of the Space Needle ducking behind tables and counters. I took a quick look at the device. S***.

I always imagined a camera doing a huge continuous shot of the city, like in all the action sci-fi movies people used to make. The camera would start overlooking a utopian city, the roofs all gleaming in the early morning light, it would show a city made of chrome and blue lights. Then it would begin to drop down into the city and the city would begin to age. The chrome finish would begin to fall away like dust, the beautiful blue lights would give way to orange fires, the happy civilians and automen would fade giving way to roving bands of raiders. When the camera began to slow it would show executions in the street. 6. 7. 8 people at a time. It would pan past terrible things thievery, murder, beatings. Rape. Without saying a word it would paint a gruesome picture of just how wrong things can go in so short a time. It would finally end centered on the Space Needle, the heart of the city, With a lone girl standing at the edge holding a small cylinder in her right hand. With thirty something heavily armed soldiers positioned strategically behind tables and counters, painting the girl with a million tiny blue dots. The camera would do a rotation around the girl, then lock on her face when it came back around. Shes cute, sporting short brown hair, green eyes, lightly tanned skin, and a look of determination on her face. Not looking at any of the soldiers she closes her eyes. Exhales. The scenery in the background would begin to rotate upwards as she shifts her weight backwards. Thirty small explosions send thirty pieces of burning metal between her and the camera. Her hair goes crazy as her feet leave the safety of the railing. The scenery begins to spin faster and faster. The camera stays locked on her face. Impact. Flames. The camera still locked on the girls face. The flames are all around her the cylinder cracked and laying on the ground under her limp hand, liquid leaks from the capsule and catches fire. Then the screen goes black. And its over. All of it, all the time spent surviving. All the death all the pain is over.