Torturous: Prologue

By Jesse D. Duffy

Once I thought I understood the difference between right and wrong. I believed
that as long as I followed my heart that I would end up in the right place, regardless of
the challenges that I would face along the way. I mean, challenges is what life was all
about was it not? People did not exist to simply oat through life, eating their weight in
fast foods and mastering pointless games that expensive companies produced. No that
cant be the purpose of mankind.
But maybe it was. Maybe mankind has reached its limit in life, forever trapped
by their own greed and selshness; maybe thats what mankind deserves. It seemed so,
even now when I turned on the TV at night to observe the newest travesties that were
happening around the globe. One pale dramatic woman after another displaying large
bambi eyes to the lens of the camera as she expressed sorrow for her fellow kind, a stern
face of a man popping in now and then to discuss the loss that we had all suffered.
As usual no one seemed to focus on the bigger picture of this time, instead
personalizing every small detail to themselves until they were lost in a bias speech
depicting how they personally felt in these times of hardship. Thats what the news was
these days; a mess of people thrown together and presented with the violence of today
to make sense of. I didnt blame them for being scared and opinionated. It was only
natural for someone to try to make sense of something that frightened them, to stand up
against it, to solve the problem. Anyone with any sense of self would want to be heard.
Thats what the problem was these days though. Everyone wanted to be heard
and no one wanted to listen. While people of the same side thrusted their heads together
in meaningless arguments about how to feel about the mutiny that had befallen the
country they were all forgetting that the enemy was still within its boarders. And every
day wasted on breath to argue cost more and more lives.
It had been subtle at rst, hardly noticeable as a few spare people began to
disappear on the sides. It had started with nameless people that no one paid any mind
too; passed by like the dirt on a sidewalk, no one cared to notice they had been swept
away. When the numbers increased everyone began to turn a blind eye to the protests
that broke out amongst the streets. People who did not contribute did not deserve the
protection of this country.
Hows that for irony?
Of course the enraged cries of the poor couldnt be ignored for long when it
became backed with the thunderous voice of the mid-class. It seemed that more people
had begun vanishing day after day. Some from their very beds at night. Of course it was
now a far more pressing matter now that it wasnt just some homeless guy.. these were
actual real citizens being taken, from all over the country!
 We lost dozens more people before a civic announcement went viral across all the
cities of the country;
Those responsible for the disappearance of our people have been caught and prosecuted
to the fullest extent of the law. Details of the investigation and arrest remain condential and a
matter of the government. Anyone who attempts to discover government information will be
prosecuted and handled as seen t.
A nice way to tell everyone to shut up and drop the issue, dont you think? Of
course the disappearances came to a stop right after the announcement; to be expected.
The families of the ones lost stopped searching, stopped talking all together, hiding
away in their homes. How were they able to avoid the public you ask? Well most of
them expressed having just gotten into home jobs just before they retreated. Others
merely moved away, stating a change was needed to restart their lives and though
many remained suspicious they moved on, letting the whole thing go easy enough.
What the government had failed to count on was one of us would escape our
capture and return to the states and that is exactly what I plan to do.