The Price of Freedom

Altan looked around to find that Brian wasn’t here right now.

It would have been nice to see his friend after so long in seclusion…

“Where’s Brian?” Altan asked Oliver.

“In Cru…He is trying to contact Dallas.” Oliver answered, looking away from Altan.

Altan narrowed his eyes and put a hand to his head.

Dallas was his spy that had been positioned near the King of Cru about ten years ago. What would be the reason that Brian was trying to get on the inside for? Why would he go as far as potentially ruining the plan?

“Boss, he had found enough evidence to support that Dallas had changed sides. He was going to see with his own eyes.” Oliver stated, sighing, with a hand to his own head too.

Altan sighed too. “If true, we’d lose out on information…Lots of information. If false, then Dallas is doing a great job!”

Putting down his arm, Altan let his instincts take over and went to find some food…Real food!

He had taken food and water in with him when he went into seclusion but it was food that would last months and not something that would change in taste.

Over the time that he had been in seclusion he may have perfected a few crafts, got some answers on how things were absorbed or given but…Food had been not so satisfactory, so it was another good reason to come out!

Not even caring that something was different and new, he put it into his mouth and ate.

Even worrying about Brian could wait until he filled himself up with food!

Their organization had been known of for nearly fifteen years now but was formed closer to twenty years ago when they had seven people that had the Craft of Thinking. Before Altan went into seclusion they were already been known as ‘killers’ and ‘rebels’ from all four countries Kings. It became an interesting turn of events because, for a while, the Phasers had easy access to almost everything that they were trying to find or do to bring down each King and each country but...It didn’t take long before the King’s worked quickly upon getting people to stop the Phasers.

If they had been able to continue to get everything they wished done, the countries would be different by now!

Sadly, things don’t always turn out the way you want them, and the plan ended up going backwards as knowledge was either lost or changed and had to be recollected.

Altan had remembered back then, when his organization was suddenly known throughout all countries…He remembers feeling like it was a bad thing that his people were now targeted…That his people were being known as criminals yet the people chasing after them didn’t even know why they were chasing!

Puppets chasing after people that wanted to free them didn’t bode well in Altan’s eyes and he really did want to strangle each and every one of the people who were cluelessly following orders!

What a predicament though, it wasn’t like they could kill them without thought because…The people who were chasing after the Phasers may be getting threatened and probably had no choice but to do as they were told…

We were all victims!

The Kings must have gotten together somehow and come up with strategies because each and every country were after the Phasers and so there was a period of time that the plan completely stopped and they were to go into hiding for a while.

The King’s used the people and how they didn’t ‘think’ to their advantage. They told their puppets to get a Phaser, so that they would get their family back. They put up pictures of the Phasers with just simple words, where thinking wasn’t needed for them to report if they see someone. The worst of it was the King’s stating lies as facts, so that the Phasers would not be seen in any good light at all. Whether through emotions, through instincts and plain actions without thinking, the Phasers were rebels…Phasers were killers…Phasers were going to take families and ruin them, torture them…

Why did the King’s have so much power to make all this real? Was it because they had been in power for a lot of their lives? How did they sleep at night knowing that they were using families and torturing people? The puppets didn’t even think to retaliate like…Like go against the King’s on their own. They didn’t think that maybe they could save their families or…Or…Something!

The puppets just felt forced to do something simply because their life had changed to something that wasn’t ‘right’ or even ‘routine’ and so they had to do as they were told to make it go back to normal! What sucked is if they would do this action if they were able to think?

To the puppets, the Phasers were known as ‘rebels’, but if they had their own opinions, their own thoughts, would they think the Phasers as rebels in the first place?

Altan hated this! The puppets didn’t even know how to fight back! It would be nice if they would join the Phasers secretly and they all fight back together but there was no chance they would join when they weren’t able to think!

It had been an idea, to try and capture a few of the puppets that were chasing after the Phasers but too much seemed to be at stack at the time, so, as far as Altan was aware, they had not ventured into making that idea real…

Nonetheless, it wasn’t easy to go against four countries with only one organization. It wasn’t easy to be known as something that would get you killed. It wasn’t easy to live and try and keep in mind that the puppets chasing and wanting to kill you, are just that…Puppets!

Do you kill someone that is being used? How can you give them a choice, when they don’t even think? It was always trouble to be in this position, a position of wondering whether to kill a puppet or not…It all boiled down to what the Phasers themselves were capable of themselves. Some were not killers, some didn’t want to do anything but pass information or stand in for someone else where no one should get hurt. Some Phasers were killed because they couldn’t kill first…Were the Phasers really rebels? Where they really killers?

They wanted to bring people freedom and they were able to think, which gave them a conscious. Having killed someone brings someone reflection upon what they have done and so some Phasers don’t kill again or go as far as leaving the Phase and trying to live a peaceful life…

This is just one reason why Phase has taken so long to achieve their goal of freeing the people…Because, as much as we hate to admit it, death is a part of the freedom, as it seemed one cannot be obtained without the other…And, being able to think about how you feel, then knowing that killing someone actually makes you feel bad, makes it harder to obtain a goal that already feels so hard to obtain, especially after all these years and very little change. Yet, there are those that can handle killing mindless puppets better then others and also see change over the years or months, simply because they know how important their role is in this plan for freedom…

There really was indeed a scary price to pay to obtain freedom for the people, especially when the people you are fighting for were chasing after you! Using the reason for fighting in the first place as an offensive measure against the Phase was a good strategy indeed…

('It's war'. Looting, pillaging, forcing others into sex, killing children (as in innocence), blowing up thousands of homes, hostages in camps, torturing the enemy, etc...Does saying 'It's war' really cover all that or is it just an excuse? Where people looked down upon if they didn't do that kind of stuff? Did they know that they could be signing up for that if they go to war? Is it just something 'we' do when we 'conquer'?)