Mark sat there for a while. stareing at the citadel, a sleeping monster at this time. Breen sitting in his top floor office, probably ploting some other way to exploit his Earth. The city still quiet, no sound of any combine monstosities could be heard. Mark felt at peace for the first time in two days. And he relished in that for a few minutes. then a thought came to his head.
"Josh, why did you call the general Mr. Deuce when you asked if we wanted to go see him?"
"Well, its his middlename, and officaly hes second in command after Eli. But our higher command stucture isn't really well set. Right now I would call freeman our leader, I think most people would do what he says over anyone elses sugustions. And Barney Calhoun for example, he's technically a Captain, but he really has more power then us."
"Ya, its really..." Tom began adding, but cut himself short. he paused for a minute looking up at the Citadel. Mark followed his gaze and saw that a buzz of activity seemed to be radiating from it, even though its apperence hadn't changed. "...Something is very wrong"
The sky lit up, a bright orange, almost white. Mark jumped up, grabbing his MP7 off the armrest. The .357 he had stuffed in his pocket fell out. What mark saw in the distance was giant. A mushroom cloud of dust and debris became visible at the source of the light. The sky returned to black, but the cloud was still visible as a dark shape in the night sky. The ground shook, as if a small earthquake hit, and a light breeze seemed to pass over them as if fleeing from the cloud.
"That came from Nova Prospekt. Its over 30 miles away, nothing near there could have possibly have survived. Freeman..." sputered Jessica.
The Citadel sprung into life, the giant wall covering two of its side moved up, and from behind them came a spew of Dropships and Gunships. Mark heard bits of Gunfire coming from the City, which had also come alive with lights and movement. Mark looked over to the three others he was with. Jessica had run over to the other corner, and was playing with a panel there. The old roof started slideing down the roof to close off this loft from any outside gazes. Tom had taken out a pair of binoculars and was scaning the area near the Citadel. And Josh had taken a radio out of his pocket and was talking into it franticly.
"Close the exits, we can't let everyone out to scatter throughout the city. We can't let the War start till dawn, we need the few hours of preparation....Well don't let them go, tell them to go get ammo while you get the damn doors closed...I told you, If we let them start a full war tonight we will get our asses handed to us. So just keep them in." Josh put the radio back in his pocket, and quickly moved to the door with Jessica behind him. Tom continued looking out through the shrinking field of view that the roof was covering. As it narrowed to a crack he spoke up.
"I think its begun, you ready to win it Mark?"
"Ya"
Tom turned to walk out, Mark began following him, but his foot hit the .357 and he stoped for a second to put it back in his pocket. he took three quick steps to put him behind Tom and they both walked out together. They were almost moving calmly, but as Mark started walking down the stairs he saw the comotion that had erupted on the ground floor. The lights had come back on and at the far end weapons were being passed out like candy. Tables were being set up and having ammo and medkits droped on them. There was a line forming in front of a structure down below as well. A man at the door of it was handing out vests, heavy vests by the look of them, the kind that would maybe save you from a glancing hit from combine bullets, but not much more.
"you should get some rest. there still will be plenty of supplies around in the morning. You look like you could use it. Nothings going to happen until dawn anyway."
"I guess your right Tom, how far away is dawn anyway?"
"Pro'ly a few hours at least, its sometime around midnight now. And Josh and me are going to be giving a presentation before we all move out, so be up for it."
"i'll be there" Mark finished, he walked over to the cot storage rooms to find that among others there, were Dan, Fitz, and Amber. Mark through a quizical look over to Dan, who saw it and spoke up.
"Josh told us to bunk here for the rest of the night. So since we had already grabbed some stuff we came over for some sleep, same with you."
Mark nodded, seeing the cots lined up drained the remaining energy from him, so he grabbed some water from one of the Water cooler things that were all stored against one of the walls. This quenched his thirst, so he turned of his flashligh, dropped his stuff, and fell onto a cot between Amber and Fitz. He was asleep the instant his head hit the rolled up piece of cloth that was ment to be used as a blanket.
He awoke the next dawn, The lights were on and he assumed it was the sound of a radio playing loudly that had woken him. the radio was letting out some old music that Mark remembered from a few years ago, Mark thought of what Josh had said about whatever Eli had made for the watter countering the Combines memeory stuff in it. And so he mumbled the words to himself as he grabbed his stuff and tie his shoe, which he had just noticed had come undone. "...Think about the chance I never had to say, Thank you for giving up your life that day. Never fearing, only hearing voices calling out. Let it all go, the life that you know." Mark considered waking the other 3 up, but saw that Amber was already doing so, so he continued giveing the song some lip."...You were strong and you belived. Everything is going to be alright, Everything is going to be alright, be strong Belive...Think about the love inside the stength of heart. Think about the heros saving lives in the dark. Think about the chance I never had to say, thank you for giving up your life that day. Be strong belive..." The music was turned down and Mark stopped voiceing the words. Then Josh's voice came over the noise and everyone quieted down. A great Exuberance in his voice.
"Thank you Andrew, that was a very fitting song for this occasion. Now, if you would stop hording all the cds, like the Yellow Card one you just played, that'd be great." This drew quite a loud chuckle from the gathered. He continued "As we all know, or at least should know, Breen really likes curing the pain his ass complains about by inflicting pain on us. But we shall soon remedy that, at least our part of it, Breen can continue with his end." This drew a laugh from everyone.
Tom added more "And guess what breen is saying right now." A screen above them flicked on depicting the whitehaired Dr. Breen, still spewing propaganda to no end. The figure was mute though, and after a second of silence Tom began speeking again, with a clearly half-hearted prod at imitating Breen. Mark also saw that Tom was synching his words to breens mouth. "My fellow Citizens. It has recently come to my attention that a group of highly edujucated insergents have decided to besiege our city. Myself, Im scared shitless, I have infact soiled myself in fear. As im sure every other combine soldier has done. I am sincerely in dought that we will win, so I urge you do not look at my soiled pants for an answer." By this time everyone was laughing heavily, but Tom didn't let up. "If all you good citizens would cease staring at the rebels for an answer to the problem of my soiled pants. These people are nothing but people who have decided to be Trick'sy and make me scared." The entire congregation of people was emptying their lungs quicker then they could brethe. Breen turned as he ending his accuall speach, but Mark noticed that the screen frame froze once Breens face wasn't viewable anymore.
"What is that smell?" said Tom, still in his Breen voice.
"Sir I think you should see this!" Replied Josh
"What is it?" Shot back Tom
"Its a big'un sir!"
"My God, flush that thing down the can already!"
"I tried sir, it just clogged, so I tried a few more times!"
"What do you mean, how the hell did this happen?"
"I think its the rebels sir, they must have sabotauged it."
"the Rebels! here? Oh damn, I think I just soiled myself again..."
"don't wory sir, i'll get you a clean diaper!" Finished Josh. The screen went dark, and the sounds of laughter died down in the croud.
Tom and Josh spoke up together. "Thank you, Thank you, now may we give you our great general, John Stalin."
John walked up onto the stage. His tone was more somber then the twins, but still quite uplifting. The last of the laughter died down almost immediatly after his first word.
"Ok...The day has come for us to finish everything we ever started. There may be failures of some of us, but we would emerge victorious under any conditions. Now I need you all to get In your assigned squads and get your orders from your squad leaders. After that well open the doors and we can all go on our passionate way. And make sure to grab any supplies you don't have on the way out."
Mark had no clue what squad he was in, nobody had told him.
A) Ask, Amber, Dan, and Fitz if they know.
B) Follow the three, and just stick with them.
C) Wait by the exits and just join a random group.