Running Silent (working title)

Chapter One: First they came for the little girls
by Floyd Geron Looney





Debra didn't know if anyone could see or if they cared what she was writing, she only cared that it was out there, however ephemeral that might be. She had found a falling down hulk of a building and deep inside a room with a working, if ancient, computer.

Debra did not have a government authorization permit to be online but the computer had somehow gotten online. How? Was this a trap?

The thought that this might be one of those bait terminals she heard about was frightening but she weighed that against telling her story to... somebody. Anybody. She was scared of the silence and the solitary life underground. The undesirables did not spend time together because it made it easier for them to be caught.

This old flickering computer monitor was the only light source in the entire building and outside the only nearby light was a dim streetlamp across the street on a pole, tilting toward the empty two-lane road.





It occured to Debra that this person could very well be an informer or an officer hunting for her kind. Was she so scared and lonely that she could really blow her cover? How long would it take to trace her to this location? Five minutes max, she estimated.

How long would it take to get an officer here? Maybe five or ten minutes from the local constabulary. If she wrote it down and touched the ENTER key, she could be in chains or dead in less than twenty minutes easily. For all she knew this person had already tagged her as suspicious and started the auto trace.




Not what she meant to say, she was too certain that the police or the civilian security force, she shuddered, was on their way at that moment. She closed the ancient notebook computer, it creaked and groaned, wiped off some dust and slid it into her large pink bag.

Then she looked around at the dark room before retracing her steps outside of the building, ran across the street and into the wooded area. She wouldn't stop moving until just before daylight returned and even then she would make sure she was safe before sleeping.

It all started to unravel years ago when the world body had declared a dire emergency on population. It had already been done every quarter century or so and had never been true before. What was different this time? This time the fools had the power to do something about the faux crisis they had dreamed up.

There were debates, speeches and committee hearings for months all over the country, everyone thought it was all a bunch of useless political talk. Everyone was a bit surprised when they actually introduced the first bill on the floor of the House of Representatives.

It was like boiling a frog, you had to turn up the heat slowly or the frog would simply hop out of the pot. The politicians knew that it would be impossible to pass their ideas all at one time.The idea of a crisis had already been planted by the world body and the world population agencies were warning of the dire consequences of overpopulation.

The politicians grabbed hold of this and used it themselves, soon the 'crisis' was all over television and the news feeds. There was very little dissent from the politicians party-line push for the answer to this percieved crisis. The dissenters were called names, they were impugned, they were called extremists and a danger to the nation by some.

To the political middle the first bill would sound oh so reasonable, it wasn't a political thing they were told, it was practical. It had to be done and everyone that mattered in politics and media and academia agreed, as a matter of course. The opposition faction was dismissed as fools, simpletons, partisans who did not have the interest of the country and future at heart.

Resolved, underage girls would not be allowed to have a baby. If they had a baby it would be taken from them and given to a state-approved couple to raise in a state-approved manner. Everyone agreed that minor girls had no faculty or ability or funds to raise a child and that her parents were not likely to raise the baby better, look how the daughter turned out after all.

This was the compassionate thing to do, what kind of life is it to be raised by a mother who had no education or funds to raise a baby? Of course if the girl decided to get an abortion this would be paid for by the state and her parents would never know, they had no right to know. After all who would want the state to support out-of-wedlock births and for girls who were not able to be given the responsibility to raise a baby?

Those people who did not care for the girl, of course, the media exclaimed of all opponents of the bill. They did not care about or have compassion for the poor or less well-off. What kind of evil person punishes a girl with a baby and lifelong poverty?

Everyone knew this bill was simply a stepping stone to more drastic measures, a foot in the pool. Everyone knew that they could not trust the news that was spoon fed to them from the television and the news feeds. Everyone also knew there was not another source of news and information but those same untrustworthy sources.

Thats when the underground started forming. At first they simply met once a month for coffee and donuts or for tea and sandwiches and made sure each other was still around. They wanted to know if someone went missing, they wanted to know if the new Civilian Security Force had taken them away.

Around the same time as the first bill other bills were being passed by the Congress that were just as bad. The Cyber Security Act to make sure the government could stop hacking, those who made viruses and those who peddled child pornography. Everyone knew it was to keep an eye on those with different opinions though.

Everyone knew the Civilian Security Force was created as a codification of the thugs the President had formed to demonize and politically destroy his enemies. They had the national media on their side. They would make fun of them, minimize them, portray them as rubes. If it didn't work well enough they would even make dirty jokes about their children on the late shows.

Soon those who opposed the policies being promulgated were called extremists, racists, haters and roadblocks to "getting things done". The federal government soon made this official with their reports, memo's and rules for the policing agencies. Those who opposed the policies of the government were now considered potential terrorists.

Debra had been happy when she had found out she was pregnant, her boy friend proposed on the spot when she told him. He had a good future ahead of him and her parents approved of their seventeen year-old daughters choices. She had already graduated from school and had even gone for a semester of college, but being a mother was what she looked forward to.

Sunday night dinner was a big event for both families that night, they would dine together as a future family. Her future husband had even worn a tuxedo as had both fathers, they were celebrating their futures. He was to be an accountant and even had a job lined up with a top firm. It was supposed to be one of the greatest nights in their lives.

The front door shattered in a spray of wood and splinters, men dressed as soldiers entered the home and held them at gunpoint. The first law was being violated they announced, they said the law was very clear on the matter. Her father stood up and protested and was told he had no right to protest, this was settled law. He was told the crisis made these laws a necessity and they would be rigorously enforced.

She watched as the love of her life stood and tried to reach her, to take her away from the men who held her against her will. She saw the butt of the gun swing and slam into his head and his collapse onto the floor. Her future father-in-law stood up angrily and grabbed the first thing he could find, a spatula. They shot him in the forehead.

She could not hear the screams as they pulled her out of the house, the blood had splattered all over the white tablecloth. She saw the goons threatening her parents if they did so much as stand up. They pulled her into a van and drove away from the house.

The next thing she remembered was being forced onto a table, she tried to fight them but it was to no avail. They tried to make her shut up, they told her it was all for the best and that this was the right thing to do. They told her to stop being unreasonable as she resisted the man trying to put tongs inside of her, trying to kill her baby.

She remembered the blood, she remembered the dismembered little body parts, she remembered the looks on their faces as she screamed. They did not think anything. They did not care about what was happening, they approved of it. They had killed her baby and she felt like dying.

They dragged her back outside. She didn't resist, she was nearly a rag doll. She remembers the building, the sign. The sign that said: Ruth Bader Ginsberg Center for Women.

At least she could go home and find some little comfort with her parents. She was tired and wanted to sleep in her own bed, dreaming of revenge she was sure. Then she noticed that the van was not going towards her home. She had to throw another fit of temper to get the armed men to tell her anything.

Detained. Crime. Dissent. No rights. "Undesirable".

Thats when the world really blacked out. Thats when nice young girl Debra Olsen vanished and Debra of the Underground was born.

First they came for the young girls...