REBELLION (Book Three of The Criminogenic Trilogy 3) Read Free Page B

filled the large space, the only light coming from the streetlights outside.  Cramped and bewildered, the crowd started to get restless while they waited for any sign of life from the offices above them.  The Lower Zone citizens had come together for this meeting, waiting for the cover of darkness so that they could sneak out into the night.  Mothers and their children propped themselves up against pillars while they chatted among themselves.  Fathers stood tall with pride, pointing out their teenage sons and regaling in their shared achievements.  Some citizens, who were reunited for the first time since the sanctions were imposed on the Region, were euphoric with happiness.  Seeing their long lost friends and loved one proved to take an emotional toll on some of them.  Evelyn watched this all unfold before her eyes from the darkened office above them. 
     
    “Come,” she motioned to the legion of hooded silhouettes behind her, “let us begin.”
     
    They walked out toward the bustling crowd, each still preoccupied with their own conversations.  Standing on the ledge above the group, Evelyn looked out into a sea of faces.  The people in the assembly represented every race and class; mothers still nursing their newborn babies were standing shoulder to shoulder with the elderly.  It seemed to Evelyn as though there was no demographic missing from this meeting.  It wasn’t meant to be such a widespread event; she thought. It was supposed to have been a small meeting of outcasts wanting a reprieve.  She turned to Calvin, who was searching through the faces with desperation. He was still hopeful that Giselle would turn up again one day.  The disappointment on Calvin’s face sent pangs of despair through Evelyn’s body; she yearned for the day when this would all be over.  She longed for the day when everyone could be free from the State and when her son could be happy again.
     
    Evelyn called for attention by stretching out her long arms toward to crowd; silently she started lowering them to her sides.  A collection of eyes watched her intently, each sparkling with the reflection of dim lights and the singular flaming torch that Calvin held next to his mother.
     
    “Thank you all for meeting with us this evening.  We appreciate the bravery that it takes to come out so late at night.”  Evelyn spoke with clear and concise purpose, she needed to appeal to everyone within the Zones, and she needed them to know that their cause was not in vain. 
     
    “Some of you may not know who I am, while others might see me as an impostor.  But I am here to tell you all that I too am a victim of the State’s injustice.  I too have felt the fear of being exiled to an unknown hole, hidden away from the prying eyes of the upper class.  And I too have lost loved ones to the Facility.”  Evelyn heard Calvin shuffle behind her.  The crowd listened to her, silently swaying under the glow of the single flame that illuminated Evelyn.  She looked like an angel, shimmering and glowing under the radiating warmth of the fire.  Her grace and elegance helped put the masses at ease, as she spoke to them with compassion and desperation.
    “We are all tired of being less than worthy in the eyes of the State! We are all tired of being treated like cattle, poked and prodded until we can take no more.  We are all tired of living in fear that speaking our minds will have our worlds ripped apart.”  She looked toward the mothers, hugging their children closer to them as they listened to her impassioned plea.
     
    “Our children are being dragged from their beds at night and thrown away because they might lash out at the system.  Children as young as eight are now being convicted of being Could’s!  And we stand idly by while they do it.”  She then looked toward the groups of men who were gathering together.
     
    “Do you remember when your mothers and sisters could walk the streets freely?  Tell me, when last did