Cloud Cent Chronicles: Part 2 Chapter 6

Yun

    “I was a Sergeant. When I said earlier that I’d been to The Village before, it was on an assignment. I didn’t recognize him, but I assume Clyde was the one who I confronted at the gate. Cloud Cent wrote an article on The Village. I saw the unredacted version of the article. He interviewed Clyde. The way Clyde talked about us...talked about me...it hurt. It was just a job. I was told to intimidate the people of The Village. I didn’t know why, but a job’s a job, y’know? That’s how most Sergeants think. They work their shift then go home to their beautiful houses. Some to their families. I didn’t think we were doing anything wrong! I mean, as far as I knew, everyone seemed happy under the government! And then I read the article and they hated us so much! They hated me...

    “I shook it off. Some people hated me. Fine, whatever, I can handle that, but it got me thinking about why. Why did they hate what the Sergeants do so much? As far as I knew, we were keepers of the peace. We served the government who served the people. Yet it became apparent that there were people who hated us. I requested to be sent to The Slums on an assignment. I wanted to know why people hated the government and I figured that The Slums, the area most independent from the government, would be the best place to find out.

    “At the time, a project was being built. Cent called it ‘A project to save The Slums’ in his article about it. It was basically just a giant government owned mall. They imported stuff from the middle and inner areas and sold them at reduced rates. People from The Slums then started buying from there instead of from each other. People there became reliant on the store, and thus, on the government. Because of the success of the new government store, businesses in The Slums went under. Remember Sun? He used to run a farm, but everyone stopped buying from him. He was forced to sell it and, of course, the government bought it up. That started happening all over the outer area. Pretty soon, the government had control of the last mostly independent part of the city.  I watched as the government dismantled an entire peoples’ way of life and made them reliant on them.

    “I was supposed to leave after the assignment was over, but I decided to stay. I didn’t have a plan, but I knew that I couldn’t go back. I wandered around The Slums for a while, watching as more and more government buildings popped up around the area. Eventually, I stumbled into Sun. He asked me what I was doing out there by myself. I told him that I was lost. That I didn’t know where to go. He said, ‘We’ve got lots of people like that where I’m from.’ He took me to the rebellion. He didn’t ask who I was. He didn’t ask about my background. He just welcomed me in. It’s like you said. He didn’t care about who I was, he just cared about me. He still doesn’t know who I was before joining them. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell him. He doesn’t really like Sergeants, not that I blame him. So, that’s me. Any questions?”

    “So, that’s how you were able to get the Sergeants off our backs in the middle area?”

    “Yeah. I never formally left the Sergeants, so I was still listed as their superior officer.”

    “Alright. No question then I guess.”

    “I’m really sorry I kept this from you Shadow. This...this was a big secret. I hope you can still trust me.”

    “You did it again.”

    “Huh? What’d I do?”

    “You said sorry when you have nothing to apologize for. All that stuff with the Sergeants is in the past. As far as I’m concerned, you’re just Yun. And Yun is my friend.” Yun struggled to hold back tears. “Now let’s get going, we have some files to leak.”

    “...Yeah, let’s.”