Echoworld

Once seated, he gazed up at the sky. It was the color of molten lead. Wren followed his gaze and shuddered. She turned her look back to him. "Well?"

He reluctantly turned his eyes to her. "Okay, okay. What's the political situation on your world? I need details," he added, forestalling her protests. "Names, dates, and so on."

She stared at her hands, trying to put her thoughts in a logical order. She let out her breath through clenched teeth, creating a whistling noise. Her hair fell about her face, a curtain of auburn hair hiding her face from him. "All right. The year is 2008, mid-Spring, May 13, if you care. At the beginning of the year, around January 13, a small uprising in a little town occurred. Eight people were killed, but nobody really thought anything of it. A little later, February 5, a city called Nyrna had a revolution of its own, and it ended with several hundred people dying and half the city in flames.

"There is, was, one government on my world, and it had several names. The official one was the People's Republic. The people elected this group of five into the council and they made the big decisions. They came from all over the world. Phillip Clarke, Xiang Zhao, Hans Friedrich, Josef Kavinski and Jean d' Reneau.

"On March 13, Kavinski, Clarke and Zhao were assassinated by a group of rebels that called themselves Freedom Fighters. D'Reneau and Friedrich were injured and sent to the hospital, where they remained, undisturbed. Everything calmed down, except the media, of course. The Freedom Fighters had the publicity they wanted and they'd given their message - 'WE ARE BUT ONE GROUP. BEWARE; WE WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING.' Or something to that effect." She absently tucked some hair behind her ear before continuing.

"Not long after that, other rebel groups, copycats, started destroying buildings. Mostly governmental buildings, but stores and homes too. Thousands died across the world from these attacks. On April 11, a small band of rebels, terrorists, snuck into the hospital where d'Reneau and Friedrich were recovering. They were going to be discharged the following day. Anyway, the group managed to get into their respective rooms and killed them." She shuddered. "It was not easy, quick or painless. The group left their mark in blood on the wall: FF."

"April 23, a large office building on a continent far from where I lived was bombed." Her voice shook as she remembered the day. "Even though it happened so far away, I'd been sent to that building for a conference on our discoveries on the Heisenberg Project. It was a tall building, very tall. Our meeting was on the 67th floor. Anyway, it was lunchtime and I was being stupid. Everyone was going down to the cafeteria to grab a quick meal, but I joked around, saying how gross cafeteria food was. I told them I was going down the street to get food. I promised to be back before the meeting picked up again. I checked my watch to gauge how much time I had. It was 12:41. I was well down the street by 12:45, when the building exploded. I turned around and all I saw was smoke and flames and debris. A chair leg caught me in the arm." She pointed to a long, fresh scar that stretched across the entire length of her forearm. A tear slipped down her cheek. "I remember seeing people jump out the windows, from the really high stories, because they couldn't reach the stairs." She angrily brushed the tears from her cheek before continuing.

"That was a major event.