CHAPTER HUNDRED AND FIVE
At first, everything was covered and it was like we’d met a green wall filled with tall trees and shrubbery that I wondered if they’d missed their way. Until Jamal pressed a button and it moved aside, opening up a dirt path that led into a small village.
“Wow,” Anna whispered in awe, echoing what I felt. It was a shock when we saw the amount of young people that were in the resistance but seeing what they had achieved was amazing.
Small tree houses built into the forest covered as far as our eyes could see and it was obvious that they’d been doing this for a while.
‘How..” I whispered, wondering how they’d been able to do all of this without being discovered.
I could see the security mechanisms in place and as we drove down into the town, guns poking out of several spots. Whoever was getting them these things must have opened their minds a long time ago.
“We have our ways,’ he whispered cryptically.,
“You gotta give us more than that buddy. We've lived with the illusion that the resistance was something insignificant and easily snuffed out but look at all of this!” Anna exclaimed.
“Look, we keep things that way for a reason. If we make too much noise, we’d have humans of all types trooping in here and we’re not ready for that. It’s best to recruit as much as we can gradually through a process that ensures we don’t allow traitors in our midst,” he replied
“And it helps keep the eyes of your husband off of us. We're building this resistance brick by brick. We don't need anything to stop it,” Katie added.
“That's really smart,” I commended as we stopped by a parking lot that was made with raffia leaves and bamboo sticks.
It was obvious how much they were trying to infuse themselves into the trees to avoid detection and it was working.
“Hopefully, whatever secret you have will speed things up for us,”
“It's quite important and the more people know, the better for us. There's no time,”
As we walked into the village, people began coming out, shock etched across their faces. I tried smiling at them but I felt very weird. I've never been a true queen to them and from Katie's attitude, I had a good idea how these people felt about me.
I didn't really want to start explaining myself to everyone I came across. None of this was my fault and deep down, ninety percent of the people here and everywhere else would never have done what me and my sister and Roe had done.
So I carried my head up, looking straight into their eyes and showing them how much I didn't care for their opinions.
“What is the queen of the aliens doing among mere mortals?” A gruff voice spoke up from Jamal's side and we paused to watch the older man approach us, his stare one of irritation.
The way they acted around me made me feel terrible; both humans and aliens hated me and I didn't do anything to deserve this.
“Good evening, Tom; how are you holding up?” He greeted him and I watched them shake hands like old buddies before turning to me.
“Everybody, please gather around. This is the breakthrough we've been looking for and it's quite shocking,” he announced to the crowd.
Which was Weird because we haven't even told him what it was. I knew it was huge but still, what if they already knew about it and were keeping it a secret? They shocked us a lot already and could still do more.
He walked close to me and whispered;
“Everyone in here is trusted, so you can share the secret and we'll see what happens next."
“Like, right now? We're not even given a chance to shower?” Anna asked and I could see how tired she was.
“I'm afraid you have to prove yourself or we throw you into the river over there. I doubt if you can swim," Tom snapped making me look at him with equal hostility.
“I actually can but that's beside the point,” I said, struggling not to roll my eyes before stepping forward and facing the crowd. This wasn't my first time talking to many people who didn't like me, only I didn't have a prepared speech this time around and I needed to convince these people that I was one of them and not an enemy.
“Good evening, everyone; you all know me as Tessa, Queen, and all of those insignificant titles, but what you don't know or fail to realize is that I was forced into that marriage,” I heard loud gasps all around. “Yes, and at first, I resisted, but when it became obvious that I didn't have an ounce of a choice, I decided to use it to our advantage. If you noticed, there were a few developments in the human side of the capital for a while before it all stopped," I began, trying to clear the air about their perception of me first.
“That was you?” Tom asked, furrowing his brows.
“Yes, I thought everyone knew that but that's by the way. I'd committed to gradually making changes since these aliens were so confident in their control over our planets that they openly asserted that we were here for their own gains and that we don't get a say in anything that happens. This meant that if I'd taken the active role of enforcing drastic changes like you all expected, I would have been dead by now,” I saw a few head nods and I stood an inch taller, “I was looking for ways to make these changes when I discovered something drastically heinous. The former King, who was dethroned for trying to kill me, and his son, the present king, were carting off humans to space. I have no idea why, and I don't even want to assume anything, but I'm very confident that it's not for anything good. I planned to find a way to end this terrible act but that was before the former King escaped and threatened to expose this secret that I'm about to tell you. The current plan right now is to take their people and go back to their planet, wait, don't rejoice yet. That's only for them to send back the vile ones on their planet so those ones can continue where they stopped. He planned to take me along with him, which was why I ran. I wanted to find the resistance so we can make an impact so loud that they and every other alien out there becomes aware that humans are not meant to be trifled with and I'm pleasantly surprised that this structure already exists,”
“So what is this big secret?”
“Anna?” I called my sister forward.
“It's something in the water, it makes everyone unable to say no to their commands. A compulsion of some sort, but there are some of us who are immune, but you'll never know if you don't seek knowledge. I'm going to give a wild guess here and say a lot of you here had access to a private, forbidden library?” She said and the looks on the crowd's faces confirmed this.
“I know it looks too good to be true and honestly quite ironic but have you ever wondered why they clamp down on these books so much? It's because the moment you begin to give your brain the task of questioning the things they tell you, the rest of their control snaps,” I continued, holding my sister's hand. “Everything they tried to lie to us about, we know it's wrong and we need everyone else to know it too. So we need to find a way to push these books in people's faces so they can start thinking for themselves instead of doing what they're told."
“I know a way,” a young guy spoke up from the crowd.
“Yes, Taiwan?” Jamal called to him.
The scrawny guy with glasses came out with a device in his hand.
“It's this secret social media app that my friend and I designed. It can not be tracked and nobody will even notice this information getting through to the people until it's too late,” he explained.
"That's perfect! They'll try to censor it though but just one book is enough to get people to start asking questions and that's all we need," I added, relieved that all of this was coming together.
“Then let's start working on it immediately, we don't have much time," Jamal said and rushed off to answer a call.
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