The Uprising

When one attempts to wield the power of creation,

They sometimes forget that all things have an order.

To disrupt that order means to add an unknown variable to

 The Equation of Life.

D. Lazerous

Chapter 1

          The rain was falling softly through gray skies that morning.  The softly blowing wind wended its way through the trees causing there green canopies to sway and bow.  It was if the world itself was weeping over the processions that were being silently carried out.  The doors to the Cathedral opened slowly and the priest walked down the steps first, followed by the coffin bearers.  I and three of my closest friends, John, Scott, and Idin, bore the coffin upon our shoulders.  The weight of the casket was not the only weight I bore that day.  It had taken me more than a lifetime to find my precious Dian.  Those few years we had together were among the greatest I had ever experienced.  One of the first things we did was get married.  I had always promised to make her my wife and finally I was able to make good on that promise.  To loose her like this, to have her ripped away from me again so soon by a careless drunk driver was almost more than I can bear.  As we made our way to the grave, the world looked bleak and faded like a painting left out in the sun. 

          The procession continued down the walkway behind the church lined by some of our friends and colleagues.  The small graveyard behind the church was reminiscent of something a person would see in a poorly made foreign film.  The tombs were arranged in order of age with a mausoleum scattered here and there through the nearly perfect rows of headstones. Nearly each grave was unique.  Some headstones were grand and impressive, other small and humble.  Too many were little more that small weathered bits of granite or limestone. I had picked out a special site for the woman I loved.  Slowly, the procession made its way to a fenced off grave below a dogwood that grew tall and imposing in the northwest corner of the cemetery.  It was a small ceremony, like our wedding, very few people knew it was taking place and even fewer were invited.  We arrived at the grave site and placed the casket on to the rungs that would lower the coffin into the grave.  As we took our place at the side of the casket, a troop of Scottish pipe and drum players marched to the grave in somber ritualistic fashion.  Their buttons and buckles polished, their instruments gleaming in what light was present, and there uniforms, brushed and pressed, they had an imposing presence.  Taking up their predetermined marks around the foot of the casket, they began playing Amazing Grace.  The music haunted the procession that stood in silence.  Each note played by the bag pipes and beat from the drum, hung in the air, refusing to be denied its significance.  In the background, members of the crowed fought hard to keep back the tears that the music and the event provoked and some could not help but weep openly.  I wish I could say that I cried but that’s not what happened.  I stood there in silence, waiting for the priest to begin the service.  “It’s never easy to loose a loved one.  So fleeting is our time upon this earth that we rarely recognize the life and joy around us before it’s gone.  This was not the case for Dian Lazerous.  Dian was a woman who loved every minute of her life; no more so than when she met and married her husband David.  Many would be sadden by her untimely departure but this is not a time for sorrow.  This is a time for rejoicing for she is with God in his kingdom of heaven.”  I couldn’t listen to the man’s drivel any longer.  I walked forward interrupting him and laid a single crimson rose upon her casket. 

“I knew her in a way no other could, and it was I who loved her in a way no other could understand.  Go home, all of you.”  Without another word, I picked up the plugged in hand set that controlled the motors and pressed the activation button that began to slowly lower the coffin that held her ashes into the ground.  Kneeling down, I ripped the plug from its socket and threw the handset far off into the cemetery.  I was rewarded with the sound of a crash as the handset was destroyed against the side of a mausoleum.  Turning, I slowly walked away from the resting place of my love. 

          Ten feet from the shocked onlookers, my business partner Jonathan Brown caught up with me.

“David, I know you’re upset.  The partners and I can hold things down for a while.  Go home and take all the time you need.”

“I don’t know John, I just got this thing off the ground, and I don’t want my business to fail in the same month I got it started.”  I told him plainly.  “I’ll be in tomorrow to make sure everything works out.  The last thing I need right now is for the shipment to get screwed up and loose the few customers that we have.”

“Please tell me you’re joking.  Damn it man, you just buried your wife, and you need to take the time off.  You can’t just shut this out, you need time.  Don’t worry, a business never ends that quickly, just take all the time you need.  The first shipment is due to go out tomorrow; I’ll personally make sure everything runs smoothly.  You need to take some time for yourself.  Hey, I know what you’re going through.”  I whirled around and looked at him, fiery hate burning in my eyes.

“How could you possibly know what I’m going through?  Your wife is still alive you son of a bitch!”  I yelled. 

“David, I was only.”  I walked away before I did something I would regret.  The rain started to beat down harder with the wind blowing in more powerful gusts.  A streak of lightning traced its way across the sky.  The light June sprinkle had grown into a storm.  I found myself walking through a gardened area of the cemetery with nothing but my own thoughts to accompany me.  Row upon row of headstones were laid out in front of me.  Each one ornately carved with their own design but all I could see was hers.  The woman I loved more than life itself had been taken from me.  I was lost.  Without her, my life had no meaning, no purpose.  ‘Why,’ I thought to myself. ‘Why did she have to die?’  I could hear the thunder rumbling across the sky.  Looking up, I watched the clouds move slowly across the sky, obscuring everything above them.

“You son of bitch, show yourself to me!  Why, you bastard, why did you have to taker her?  I’m the one you want, I’m the threat, why didn’t you take me?  Why did you have to take her?”  I screamed, shaking my fists at the heavens.  “Wasn’t the rest of my family enough for you?  My father and mother, my grandfather, my son!  Don’t you have enough?”  I fell to my knees, grasping the mud and grass in my hands.  I couldn’t stop myself from crying.  It took me a moment, but I composed myself.  The rumbling in the sky had increased.  “She and I were happy, we were going to live our lives out and die.  To stay as we are and not continue.  That wasn’t good enough for you was it?  You had to be sure!  Well, you can just go to hell now!”  I pulled a Glock nineteen from my shoulder holster and loaded a round into the chamber.  “This is war!  Do you hear me up there you bastard?  You’ve thrown down the gauntlet and I’m going to shove down your fucking throat!”  I started to walk to my car when a lightning bolt came down from the sky and turned a tree fifty feet from me into kindling.  I leered back up at the sky.  “You missed.”

          The car I drove that day was old and beaten up.  Nothing special, just and old, half rusted out Ford LTD, the most basic of transportation.  For what I was about to do, the less conspicuous I was, the better.  I got into my car and drove off into town.  I knew exactly where he’d be.  This time of day he could always be found at the same run down bar.  My hand rummaged for a bag behind my seat.  I fumbled around for a moment when my fingers brushed the brown leather bag.  I pulled it forward setting it on the seat beside me.  Cruising through town, I made my way to the seedier neighborhood I knew he hung out in. I slowed down, carefully scanning the store fronts looking for a particular address.  Sighting the bar I was looking for, I pulled the car into a near by alley.  I grabbed the brown bag on the passenger seat and pulled out the anthropomorphic fox costume it contained.  Acting quickly, I pulled on the costume.  Making sure that the seams were straight and hidden when I began to put on a spare set of clothes that I had brought with me.  With the head piece on, I looked at myself in the side mirror of the car.  The suit fit so well I was almost indistinguishable from the real thing.  I stashed the gun under my coat and walked to the end of the alley, being cautious so that no one would notice me.  This was the bad end of town.  Few morphs were welcome here and I was parading around like one.  The neighbor was essentially a no mans land, even humans tended to avoid the place.  Garbage littered the street and the paint of the surrounding buildings were covered in gang tags and slurs spray painted across the walls.  Drug dealers did business in the open, hookers walked up and down the street looking for their next trick.  It didn’t surprise me all that much to find him is this type of place.  Looking around, I saw that there was very little sidewalk traffic and even fewer cars.  I casually walked across the street to the bar.  The bar tender stared at me for a second then nodded toward the back of the bar.  This place was even more run down then the photos I had revealed.  The bar itself was nothing special, a ply wood box for the most part that wrapped halfway around the east wall.  Various tables and chairs, not a matching set anywhere, were strewn about in a haphazard arrangement.  The few things they looked like they belonged were the old jukebox on the west wall and the few booths that took up the back south east and southwest corners of the building. I started walking back when I heard the bastard talking to another man from one of the booths on the east wall.  “Yeah, but I got out of it.  It doesn’t bother me really.  That’s what the bitch gets for getting in my way when I’m driving.”

“Damn straight.” The man he was talking to said.

“As far as I’m concerned, she got what she deserved; I mean it’s not my fault she was too damn stupid to get out of the way.”  I walked up behind him.

“Richard Sorenson?”  I asked.  He turned around and looked at me.

“Yeah, what’s it to you, you fucking morph?”  I pulled out the gun, leveling the barrel against his forehead and pulled the trigger.