Almost a Martyr, Submission 2 by Lee Martin

----

"Hola chica!" "Hey, baby!" "Wooo WOOO!" Sara stood facing the brick wall in the dim and surreal orange streetlight. So far everything had gone to plan. She closed her heavily black-rimmed eyes and took a deep breath. Her hand closed tight on the black handle sticking out of a long cardboard box. Striped socks, spiky black hair, buttons. She was the bait, and about 50 men had come to take a bite. She was ready; they all were.

----

They had planned it for months. Their plans evolved, their numbers grew. Kids had come from the cracks in the walls it seemed. Mexico City in 2044 had become a SuperCity, just like all the sprawl areas in North America. No place was untouched by the fingers of progress...they worked their way across continents and across oceans to completely cover the world with Progress. So there they were...TNY kids in "Conservative" Mexico City. Sara had known Tim and Matt since the Breakdown. They frequently made trips to ForbiddenCity, Buenos Aires, Genesis...anywhere to escape then crushing foot of the prevailing sentiment of Mexico City. Two of Sara's friends from before the Breakdown had been kicked to death in front of a Bar by a cheering mob...and she got to watch from the safety of a dark alley. Too fragile to act, she just hid. But she didn't know that hundreds of others like her were doing the same, and they didn't know that they weren't really hiding...they were waiting. For Her.

They all new her name, but out of respect they referred to her as "Her" or "She." They came to secret meetings with colored hair and strange bracelets. She was surprised how quickly things evolved...changed...grew. The New Youth grew from the ashes of the burned dreams that Progress had torched to pave the way for Tomorrow.

-----

His dark and heavy hand squeezed her shoulder. His grip tightened. Sara's hand clenched on the black handle. "Aren't you in the wrong part of town, chica?" He asked with ethanol breath.

"Yes. And so are you."

-----

"Just try to stay sober tonight," begged Sara. Tim stood glaring at Matt. Sara looked at the concrete floor of the TNY meeting room, a dank hole forgotten during the Conversion under a luxury hotel. "Try."

Matt had a penchant for drugs. E2E, Meth, pot, whatever. He was probably the only real addict in TNY. Sara recalled Tim telling her that the only reason he didn't throw Matt out was that he was with them from the beginning. "It just takes the edge off!" he'd say while hitting some E2E before a practice session, or before doing a line off his sword before a recon.

"We're depending on you," said Sara. "We all are. I am."

"I can. I will," said Matt. Sara looked back at Tim, who was draped in the shadow of the corner. She couldn't see his face but she knew what he looked like right now. She always could tell.

------

The steel of Sara's sword flashed like a strobe. That was the signal. The man's hand fell to the ground. He raise the stump to his face; Sara turned to see his body silhouetted in the orange streetlights, 50 men behind him. She was ready. The pink highlights of her black hair glowed. She plunged the sword right into his stomach. She exhaled, and through the hilt of her sword she felt him do the same. It was just like she imagined it.

He fell to the ground. At 5"5" she craned her neck up at the men slowly advancing toward her. Any second now. She could feel their breath on her from 10 feet away. They growled. They hated her kind...strange hair, strange music...strange ideas. Any second now. Her eyes flicked left, then right, rimmed in black. "Matt..." she breathed.

The men advanced.

They practically piled on her, which is probably what saved her life. She felt her leg break...a knife across her back...her shoulder. She could hear the flapping of the sneakers of her friends finally arriving. 30 kids, 30 swords...only 30 of the kids had progressed to the level where they felt comfortable taking on this large of a group. Blood dripped onto her face in the dark, surrounded by the men. Was it her's? She could tell she was suffocating...after what felt like days she felt the weight fall away and the darkness came back to life with the golden streetlight. Triumph. Tim picked her up.

"Matt..." she whispered. "No, it's Tim. Matt didn't show. I am glad I had decided not to trust him. I sent lookouts watch you tonight. But we came out ahead. We got all but two...we want the story told to the rest of them, so we let them go. This is the beginning, Sara. This will be a blow they won't soon forget, let alone recover from.” She passed out in his arms as he walked past Genesis Club toward the meeting room under the hotel.

------