For a Better World

As non-consent might not be everyone's category, I feel I should warn those who stumble across this story by coincidence. But I hope you enjoy my story.

To answer a question that has come up at other stories of mine: No, I am not a native speaker of English. I hope I didn't make (too many) mistakes, but as I only finished this story at the last moment, I couldn't find an editor in time anymore, so I hope you forgive me any mistakes.

Have fun reading.

~~~

„Welcome to our group, Alex! We are really glad to have you on board. There seem to be less and less people interested in our cause, it is really good to see some are still courageous enough..."

The girl smiled as she held out her hand to Alex. He took it, a strange feeling surging through him as her long, fine fingers wrapped around his thicker, stronger ones. Her touch was firmer than her fragile appearance would have made him expect.

"You have joined us just at the right time," she chatted on happily.

Alex barely listened. He was too much taken in by the surroundings. The room they were in was huge, big enough to hold hundreds of people. He could only see a good dozen though, at the most. Everyone seemed to be busy with something. A short, sturdy man with a short beard was painting red letters onto a large piece of white canvas. Two middle-aged women were talking to each other in whispers, the serious expressions on their faces indicating that it was more than simple small talk they were exchanging. A very tall young guy with a boyish face was stirring something inside a pot that hung over a bright fireplace. In the corner he was in, in the light of the fire, Alex could see the walls of the room better. They were uneven, and seemed to glisten slightly.

The truth was that he had no idea where he was. They had covered his eyes before they brought him here, and had taken him through was had felt like a labyrinth of streets and paths, changing direction all the time. He knew they were out of the city, the noise and smell had subsided somewhat along their journey. But in which direction, he did not know.

"Usually we wait longer before we give new members this type of information," the girl said. Alex listened up. Was he about to hear something important? "But someone with your credentials... I think we can trust you. We..." she hesitated. "We are planning something big for the last weekend of the month. For when the Toad is giving his speech on the city square."

"The Toad?" Alex asked confused.

The girl smiled. "The president. That's what we call him. Don't you think he looks just like a toad with his huge mouth and as fat as he is?"

Alex hesitated. "I... well... I don't know. Whatis a toad?"

Now the girl laughed, and the bright sound of her laughter seemed to fill the whole dark room with light for the fraction of a second.

"They never told you about toads in your old group?"

Alex frowned. What was he to reply to that?

"Don't worry," the girl continued already. She had stopped laughing, and instead gave him an encouraging smile. He noticed that her lips were of a soft, fresh red that no make-up would be able to imitate. "I know it is difficult to keep up with the names of all the extinct animals. Especially if you have never seen them."

Alex was surprised. "And you have seen... toads?"

The girl nodded. "Not real ones, of course," she explained. "But I have seen photographs. My grandfather had a whole collection."

Her face grew serious. "In fact, you can thank my grandfather that I am even here with you," she said.

"How so?" Alex inquired.

"Let's sit down." The girl pointed at a few rough benches and tables next to the fire place.

Alex happily took a seat. He felt like he had walked more today than in his entire life. The smell of soup had started filling the room, and he was hoping it was time to eat soon. And really, as soon as the girl had sat down next to him, all the other people let their work be and approached the table, too.

"This is Alex, the guy Stephen told us about," the girl introduced him. "These are Karla, Conrad, Basti, Vlad, Jean, Marie, Rafael, José, Masha, our cook Tom, Liz, Lydia, Lina, and I of course am Lucy."

With everybody looking at him, Alex felt slightly uncomfortable. Some of the faces were friendly, smiling at him in the same expectant way Lucy did. Others seemed more suspicious. Particularly Vlad gave him a very distrusting look. Alex was glad when Tom went back to his fireplace and started to put big spoonfuls of stew into plates that Karla and Conrad then distributed over the table. Then, for a few minutes, there was only the sound of spoons hitting against plates to be heard in the room. The stew tasted excellent, particularly if you considered at how simple the ingredients were, Alex thought.

After a while, Lucy started speaking again.

"You wanted to know why my grandfather was the reason I became an activist?"

Alex nodded, before he put another spoonful of stew into his mouth.

"Well," Lucy said almost in a story-teller voice. "You see, he was what they called a nature photographer. Back in the old days, when there was still nature to photograph. That was of course all long before I was born. But he had hidden some of his photo albums, and when I was a child, every time I visited him, he allowed me to look at them. I loved them. I loved to see all the toads and frogs and ducks and deer and imagine what it must have been like, when they still roamed the earth. I imagined living in a forest, and being friends with all the animals, like in the fairy tales."

Lucy's face now indeed reminded Alex of that of a child that still believed in fairy tales. Her blue eyes shone brightly, and the light of the fire reflected in her wavy red hair.

"But they say these animals never existed," he said.

Across the table, a few eyes grew darker. Alex could see Vlad frown. Lucy also grew more serious again.

"Of course, they want us to believe that. They want us to think that the world has always been like it is now, and that the only things that change, change for the better. Progress. But it is not true, believe me. I have seen the photos. My grandfather has seen these animals, and forests, and meadows. Even my mom has, though she always claimed it wasn't true. She told me most of my grandfather's photos were fakes. But I know I can believe my grandfather more than I can believe her."

Alex nodded understandingly. "And what became of your grandfather's photos?"

Lucy's face grew dark. "They arrested him," she said. "They took the photos, too, I assume they burned them. That was when I was seventeen. My mother told me it was the activists' fault, they would have planted bad ideas into my grandfather's head. So I went off to find them. I was angry at first, I wanted revenge. But fortunately the first one I met was Vlad here," she pointed over the table, and Vlad's expression suddenly grew a lot less severe, "and thanks to him I learned that I had had it the wrong way. Well, since them I am in this group. Four years altogether."

"Have you ever heard of your grandfather again?" Alex asked in a serious voice.

Lucy shook her head. "From what I know, he died in prison. But who can know for sure?"

For a moment, all were quiet. Then, suddenly, Lucy spoke again, now with a much lighter tone.

"Now tell us, what made you become an activist?"

Alex smiled. "That's a much less exciting story than yours. Basically, I liked a girl; she was involved in my old group. Eventually our relationship ended, and I had to move away, but by then I had become interested in the cause, so... here I am."

***

The next days seemed to fly by; the group was busy with preparations for the big weekend.

A few of them, like Vlad and Tom, lived in the hiding place. Officially they didn't exist, or the police was searching for them as known terrorists. Others, like Lucy, lead a normal life with normal jobs, families, and friends. For them, time was something precious they didn't have much of. After a long night of working on posters, plotting everything for the weekend and exchanging what little they knew about the past world they hoped to restore one day, Alex was taken back to the city by Lucy and the others. Again, he had to wear something over his eyes, and the same happened the next times they took him to the hiding place.

Still, with the time he could guess roughly where they were. The way the walls of their hiding place looked, he assumed they were in a cave. Their walk, however, was not long enough to reach the great mountains to the east of the city, and the fact that he heard monotonous stomping noise of the Fresh Air Productions industrial ground and smelled the slightly nauseating fumes of the big FakeVeggies factory along big part of the way indicated that instead, they must be heading North West.

However, there were no mountains to the North West of the city, but Alex had heard rumours once of an underground cave system. As with everything that wasn't taught officially through schools and the media, it was forbidden to speak of those caves, and to believe in their existence. But exactly that was part of what the activists wanted: They wanted to prove that things existed, or had once existed, even if those in power said they were legends. They wanted to prove that the earth had once been a beautiful green place full of animals and with blue skies and sunshine instead of that thick layer of smog and fumes that covered everything and made you cough and made your eyes hurt. They wanted to prove, that all these beauties had been destroyed, and that the destruction was still going on.

The very existence of the activist groups -- and from what Lucy told him, Alex began to wonder how many thousands of them might, in fact, exist -- was disputed by the government. The few times one of the groups did manage to make themselves heard, its members were condemned as terrorists. The government claimed that these terrorists that were trying to destroy the world -- when the truth was that the destruction of the world was the very thing the activists were fighting against, Lucy explained. Usually, the activists were not talked about. After all, everybody was happy, the world was as good as it always had been and always would be. That's what they were told, anyway.

Still, there were rumours -- rumours also of the secret prisons members of activist groups ended up in when they got caught. Every time someone disappeared -- and that was known to happen; after all, people sometimes had accidents and died, and the authorities had them buried quickly, so no one had really seen the body; or someone was surprisingly sent to work in a different part of the world, and cut off all ties with friends and family -- each time this happened, the rumours were there. Hadn't that person seemed strangely nervous lately? Hadn't they seemed tired at work so you had to wonder what they were doing at night time, rather than sleeping? Maybe they had been an activist, after all?

***

Alex quickly fit into the group, and if it hadn't been for Vlad's suspicious looks, each time he turned up, he would have felt he had known these people forever. And Lucy... especially Lucy knew how to make him feel welcome, her face lit up each time she saw him, happily she explained everything about their upcoming action against the "Toad", about the groups structure, and about the long gone world that she still dreamed of. She hoped one day it might be possible to recreate that world, in parts at least, with the help of some animals and plants that might have survived in very remote islands, maybe.

Alex wondered, if it was the amount of attention Lucy spent on him that caused Vlad's anger against him. And at the same time he felt a surge of jealousy each time he saw Lucy speaking to Vlad. They were close, he knew. Lucy trusted Vlad more than anyone else in the group.

He, Alex, had in fact always had it easy when it came to girls. He was tall, dark haired, with a fine yet manly face. Lucy was different from other girls he knew, though. She was passionate about what she was doing. And more than anyone else even in the group, she was able to dream of a better world.

Alex was looking forward to the meetings in the cave more with every day, he found himself watching her, when she argued with others what the best procedure for their action during the "Toad's" speech would be. Rather than listening to what she was saying, he concentrated on the small line that grew between her eyebrows when she was angry, how she licked her lips when she was concentrating on something, and how sometimes her face lit up with laughter all of a sudden. He tried to reprimand himself -- this was not the right time for feelings. But he couldn't help it. Whenever possible, he sought her company, tried to be alone with her.

Vlad seemed to be always there, though. Whenever Alex hoped that he had a chance to speak in private to Lucy, ask her about all these things he still knew so little about -- learn, and enjoy her company at the same time -- Vlad seemed to show up, his face sour as always. Alex wasn't sure whether the looks Vlad gave him were full of jealousy or of suspicion. Something was strange about Vlad, he thought.

With everyone else he felt he got along fine, though, and as the big weekend drew nearer, he decided not to give it too much thought.

***

Saturday. Lucy woke up early, she felt like she had just gone to bed. Today was the big day. For a moment she lay motionless in her bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling last night's dreams had left in her. She didn't remember any details, just fear and disappointment, and a vague wish to stay right here, give up today's plan. She wasn't one to believe that dreams foretold something, though. And after resolutely telling herself to get a grip, Lucy got out of bed and started getting dressed.

Through the window of her tiny, almost bare room, she could see the dark night sky. A blurry, light spot in the clouds let her guess where the moon was -- she had never actually seen it in her life, the sky was always covered in clouds and fog and who-knows-what, but it was reassuring to know it still existed.

The streets were quiet, all windows dark as Lucy went along her way, hiding into the shadows of the houses. It was important not to be seen. There wasn't any official curfew, but being caught outside at this hour would raise suspicion, and Lucy knew that the police would take no chances the night before the "Toad" was due to speak on the city square.

There was something vaguely comforting in the thought of all the people sleeping unsuspectingly in their own tiny rooms, probably not much nicer than her own, had something comforting. None of these people knew that the coming day might decide the fate of the world. If all went well... it would be a tiny step only, of course -- you couldn't change the world in one day. But it would be a first step. It would stir the awareness of people. It might inspire similar actions all over the world.

The truth -- that was what mattered. That the truth came out, and hopefully, that it would lead to reversing a process that was destroying the world. This made it worthwhile for Lucy risking her neck, and it even made it worthwhile doing something completely against her own morals.

She had never told anyone about the doubts that plagued her throughout the last weeks. Her constant wondering whether it was right to kidnap someone, possibly kill him -- albeit someone as horrible and dangerous as the "Toad". The "Toad" was, after all, a living being. Maybe he was in person completely different to what he seemed on TV and during his speeches. As far as she knew, he had a family, children, and sometimes Lucy had wondered if he wouldn't want a better world for these children, too. The fact that he went on doing what he was doing, that he kept leading the world deeper into its own destruction, startled Lucy when she thought of these children. Wasn't it possible that the "Toad" himself believed in what he was saying? And in such a case, wasn't it wrong, wasn't it immoral to punish him for these beliefs, rather than convincing him of the truth, too. Secretly she wished for their plot to go different than planned, leading to a revelation on part of the "Toad" and him joining their cause. But she knew this was nonsense, and her fantasies in this respect just came from the wish not to do something like this against a human being which, after all, hadn't done anything against her personally.

Again, Lucy had to push these thoughts out of her mind. Today was not the day to think about this. They lived in an immoral world, and if they wanted to improve it, they had to fight. And she was confident, that they could do it. Her group was maybe the best activist group there was, she thought. Some of them had been underground for years, Vlad for example had basically grown up in their cave, and he had learned more about the world, what it was and what it could be, than anyone she knew. And Alex had participated and even led some of the most successful actions in the last years, according to the reports she had gotten about him. This was bigger than anything anyone had ever done, of course, but if someone could be trusted to do this well, it was people like Vlad and Alex.

The thought of Vlad and Alex distracted her from her worries about the upcoming day. This was something different to think about. Lucy knew that Vlad had had feelings for her for a long time, but the truth was he was like a brother to her. He was the one that had helped her understand why it was necessary to fight, he had explained to her what most likely had happened to her grandfather, and had been the shoulder she could cry on about this. He had never made advances to her, he knew that Lucy was too preoccupied with what they were planning -- but she knew that he was hoping one day, in a better world maybe, the two of them would become a couple. Lucy, on the other hand, was sure this would never happen. She loved Vlad, she knew that despite his often grumpy face and even though he rarely said a word too much, he was a wonderful person -- but she didn't love him that way.

Alex on the other hand... She had only met him recently, but sometimes Lucy couldn't help imagining being alone with him and... She had difficulties putting these thoughts into words, even if it was just in her own mind. The truth was that the fight for a better world had preoccupied Lucy that much, so far, that she never had had a boyfriend, or been intimate with anyone. She had been raised quite conservatively, and had always considered sex something that she should only do with the right person, someone she could see having a future with. But how could you have a future with anyone, in a world without future?

When Alex had approached her in the last days, when he had started making advances rather than just speaking about their cause, she had turned more distant, had tried to get away. Usually she fled to Vlad, who didn't ask questions, who was always there for her. But she was sure she saw jealousy on Alex's face each time she mentioned Vlad's name and that worried her too.

'I have to talk to him about it,' Lucy thought. 'But not today.'

She had to focus, Lucy told herself. Today was the big day; the rest of her life was what followed afterwards.

The sky had got brighter by now, soon people would wake up to go to work -- but she now had left the city and was approaching the entrance to their hiding place. A few more minutes, and she would be surrounded by the others, would have to concentrate so all would go well today. No more time for these thoughts -- she had to focus now.

***

"Okay guys, as you know, the "Toad" will be very well protected. He has more bodyguards than there are members in our group, and they are with him at all times. As you also know, the one weak point will be when he uses the toilet, which is why he avoids doing so at all cost when he is out to give speeches. We assume, however, that he will prefer to use the toilet rather than having his bowels explode. This is where Marie comes in."