CHAPTER ONE
The weather was the not-so-unusual gray in the middle of the day with a light downfall of drizzle. Melissa MacNamara carried a large umbrella covering a rain coat to dissuade an occasional breeze from getting to her long skirt. Waterproof boots were generally worn by women when they were out of their modest apartments. Melissa was proud of her stature of nearly six feet. Being 140 pounds was not a detriment to her looks, nor was her blond hair and blue eyes. Her pleasant face topped off a nice picture. Both she and Allison Andrews, her best friend, were rather happy-go-lucky since they had only a minimal employment push from their parents. Life, even though not financially rewarding, was good, and they saw no reason to advance themselves. Allison, though not so tall or attractive, was quite muscular for a woman, something she was proud of. She enjoyed that fact that few would care to mess with her; regardless of their sex. Melissa and Allison had known each other since their early days in high school. Allison was the more intelligent of the two, but neither of them were particularly stellar students. Yet they some how managed to get by. Allison had the more interesting demeanor about her. She appeared to have a pleasant disposition, but the barely detectable truth was that she had a tiger in her tank. While she did not have the imposing stature as Melissa, no man or woman would hold a candle to her in a confrontation. She had grown up around boys and early on had learned her life lessons well from the more aggressive sex.
The population had long-since become as accustomed as one could be to the lightly tinted moisture that fell from time to time. It was due to a lack of pollution controls being placed on businesses throughout the US and Europe. It had been a while since people had seen a bright sunny day to lighten their spirits. Most of them had acclimated themselves to this situation as well as possible, but the lack of bright sunshine led to a mild or persistent depression.
For years the people endured this lack of concern for the population by the politicians, except when it came time for their reelection. At that point they expressed a multitude of concerns on populous issues; that is until the elections were over. The winners of those elections were usually those who made the most believable promises, although they were seldom kept by either party. The politicians saw no need to change that status quo which had survived essentially unchanged for some time. It had become the norm in spite of occasional demagoguery professing that the contrary was in play. The system was content in its control of the naïve electorate, and they saw no need to change their winning habits. The world was stuck in the abyss. Someone had to step forward if this situation was ever to improve.
Both Melissa and Allison had started to become discontent with the government and its policies. Their dissatisfactions and several conversations with others eventually prompted them to form a resistance group which they named The Association. It came to be made up of like-minded people who would see what could be done about the oppressive state of politics. None of the people who joined the group used their last names any more. They were abundantly cautious so that those who they loved or associated with would not come into jeopardy from either state or federal administrations. The members were instructed to destroy any papers that could lead the governments to identify them.
The parties in the administrations were named the Politicos and the Dominion, but they were called The Dictators by The Association. The primary mission was to overthrow these political parties by any means at their disposal because neither party truly worked for the people. That would of course involve not small amount of risk. Cautious stealth was their watchword, and it was working well at keeping its members safe and anonymous. They became incognito in order to survive.
Both parties in the governments had very little tolerance for distention, and The Association knew it. On the other side of the coin, if people did not disrupt the system the system would, for the most part, ignore them. Surprisingly that strange lack of people’s confrontation with government was thought to play well into The Association’s game plan. It might even become The Dictators Achilles heel if a map could be developed to use that information effectively. Only time would tell if that shortcoming could be used against The Dictators. But it was something worth look into.
