Chronicles of Lazarus






I wake up, screaming from the adrenaline pumping through my body. I have had that dream every night for the past ten years. I got up and started to pace in front of my bed. Just do what the therapist told you to do, I think, just go through the things you know. My name is Lazarus O’Neill. I am 5’11, 150 pounds, and my parents were captured by the Dictator. What I don’t know is how, when, and why they were captured. That’s what I dream about. I contemplate possible ideas how they got captured. I walk to the bathroom, get changed, and look at myself in the mirror. I wasn’t the hottest coal in the firepit, with my dirty blonde bangs covering the top half of my ice blue eyes. The ringing phone shook me from my thoughts. I pick up the phone and my friend, Clea, is on the other end. “Hey L, the captain wants you in his office, says its really important.” She said in her mildly british accent.

I groaned as I looked at the clock. It was barely six thirty in the morning and the sun hasn’t risen yet, so I thanked her, hung up, grabbed my jacket, and walked out of my apartment door. I looked down the long hallway of the compound. No one was out of their rooms, I thought. I started walking through the labyrinth of hallways in the residential area at the compound I was currently enrolled at. There are beautiful walls with mysterious stains streaked across them, completely ruined sections that fell victim to the bombing runs that riddled Utopia a couple years ago, and the insistent banging sounds coming from early morning shooting practice; such a great place to call home.

After what felt like hours, I finally reached the captain’s office. I opened the door to find Clea waiting for me.” Hey, he’s waiting for you.” I walk into the double doors into his office, which would be a sad excuse for a bathroom if there wasn't a desk shoved in with a chair behind it. Stacks of paper lined the walls, and the floor was a complete mess. When I sat down on the chair, the legs creaked under my weight.”So, I have some good news, and I have some horribly disfiguring news that might kill you. Which one do you want first?” said the Captain with a slightly off putting voice.
“I think I should have the good news first,” I said.
“We know where your parents are,” he said plainly.

The world around me freezes. The thought of seeing my parents again made my head spin. What would they look like? Would they be happy to see me? I had barely any memory of my parents, just a vague memory about my birthday party eleven years ago. I had turned five and it was the happiest day of my life.

“What’s so bad about that?” I said, slightly offended.

The Captain contemplated, and said, “Your parents are being held in the most secure place in the western hemisphere. And I think you know where I am talking about.”

All the elation that I had just experienced just went *poof*. Why, of all places, did my parents have to be at the Dictator’s mansion? I thought about the torture they must be going through at such a horrible place. After the bombings stopped, forty of our most highly trained operatives had stormed that mansion, and not a single one came out.

“What do you want me to do about it?” I asked, trying to hide my emotions.

“I was thinking that we can hit two birds with one stone. We assemble a team, with you leading it, to complete three objectives. The first, and by far the most important, is to figure out the status of the missing troops that were sent last month. The second, if you choose and if they are still alive, is to rescue your parents. The third, and possibly the most dangerous, we have to assassinate the Dictator. You will then come back here and we will act like this never happened. Do we have a deal?”

I thought about how impossible this adventure of death and destruction would be. He knew I couldn't turn away even the slightest chance of me finding my parents alive. But, he also knew that what he was asking for was a death sentence.

“Who would be going on the team?” I asked.

“There would be you, Clea, Avery, Mike, and Ryan. You would be leading the most advanced team in military history.” he said persuasively. I was a black belt in Taekwondo and I was quite a shot with a pistol. Clea was awesome with a Katana and was going to be our pilot. Avery and Mike were soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ryan was insane in more ways than one and was the only sniper in the compound. It would be an all star group.

“Okay, I’m in. When do we leave?” I asked.

“In about two minutes. All the stuff you and your team will need is in these duffel bags.” The captain throwed a duffle bag at me and we walk to the hangar bay. I follow him there to find my team waiting for me. Clea smiled at me as I passed by her and my heart trembled. I told everyone to get in the helicopter. We would fly for about three hours to Maine, land, and then hide the chopper.

Once we started flying, I started thinking about the problems we would encounter at the compound. We didn't know a whole lot about it, other than it’s general location. We didn't know how well guarded it was, or if the Dictator was even there. We were under equipped, with only the clothes on our backs, a few dusty old rifles and pistols, and about a hundred rounds. We stood no chance.

Three hours later, we landed in what looked like a small clearing in the middle of a giant forest. We got out and hid the chopper in some foliage and started walking with our guns drawn. We call a huddle to figure out how we are going to do this.“Alright,” I said,”I will go in the front, Avery and Mike will cover us in case something goes wrong, and Ryan and Clea will stay by me. Are we clear?” Everybody nodded.”Alright, lets go!” We walked for about an hour, and we went over a small cliff and saw the mansion. I got the binoculars and looked through the viewfinder at the mansion. It was huge, with spires on each of the four corners and an uncountable amount of windows. There were guards posted around the building, and snipers in the windows and on the spires.

“This isnt going to be easy. Anybody got any ideas?” I said.

“Halt!” an approaching guard said,”Hands up!” I turned around and shot the guard in the leg with my silenced pistol. He screamed in pain and fell down. I put pressure on the wound.”Tell me how to get into the mansion!,” I inquired quietly, and the guard whimpered in pain.

“Don’t hurt me, please! You want to get into the base right?”,we looked at each other and nodded.”Well, its impossible on this side of the base, but there is an air duct entrance on the other side of mansion where you can get in! I have a map of the system right here!” The guard drew out a hand-drawn map of the mansion and points to a small tube going into an underground section of the base. It would save us time and bullets to get in that way.

“If you raise any alarm or alert anybody that we are here, you can kiss your life goodbye. Got it?” I whispered loudly. He silently nodded in reply. Suddenly, Ryan shoots the guard in the head, instantaneously killing him. I looked at him and rolled my eyes.

I motioned the group to flank around to the secret entrance. When we got to the vent, we entered inside, one at a time. Once inside, I took out the map. We had to crawl about fifty meters to get to the other end of the duct. As we reached the end, we encountered a problem. If there were patrols in the hallway ahead, we would be spotted and captured. As soon as I thought that, Ryan said,”I have an idea guys! We can get captured, break out, find our weapons, and save the rest of the people inside the jail!” We looked at each other in serious doubt. Ryan was right. It wasn't a sound plan, but when we looked at our situation, it seemed like the only way. We would hit two birds with one stone. We would find the detention area, along with the prisoners, my parents, and possibly the Dictator.

“That was the first thing you said that actually made sense, so I’m in. I will be the one that gets captured, and you guys will get me out. Is everybody okay with that?” I said solemnly. Clea looked at me with a mixture of pride and disbelief.”Are you sure you are okay with that? I believe that you can make it, I will support you, but I don't want a world without you.” I was about to say something, but Clea shut me up by kissing me. It was the best feeling in the world. When she leaned away, she was crying. Everybody else, however, were staring at the two of us like we both had two heads.”Goodbye, Clea.” I said.
“Bye, Lazarus.” She said, choking back tears.
I turned and opened the grate. I was then greeted by the barrel of an Ak-47.”Nice to finally meet you, Lazarus.” I gasped as I was hit in the head with the butt of his gun, knocking me out.
When I woke up, I was on an operating table, strapped down by my hands and legs. I pulled at my hand restraints, but they wouldn’t budge. ”I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Lazarus.” a voice said. A man walked up. He was british, with long black hair and a scar across his left eye. He was tall, with a thin build and bulging muscles I could see through his shirt.”Why, what are you going to do?” I said confidently.
“This.” he said blankly as he pushed a button in his hand. I sudden, agonizing pain jarred across me. I screamed out, and he let go off the button. I panted, sweat pouring down my forehead, and I looked at him, with the intent of choking him to death with my bare hands.
“Now, you will divulge all the plans that you had for my mansion and then I will kill you, is that understood?!” the man roared.
“Screw you and your little mansion, you worthless piece of crap! You took my parents away from me and you will pay for what you have done to them and everyone else you have done evil against!” I bellowed, and I pulled at my hand restraints so hard that they shattered and I was on top of him in a second, with my hands around his neck. He kicked me off of him and threw a punch at me, which I blocked with my elbow and countered with a punch to his right temple. That left him dazed, and I kicked him in the head, knocking him down.
I got on top of him and put my hands on the back of his head and his chin and snapped his neck. He looked at me, and went limp, he was dead. I got up, adrenaline pumping through my body, and sprinted outside the door. I found a gun lying on the ground, and I ran to the armory ,which was right around the corner, to get my gear. I turned the corner, and my team was there waiting for me. “The Dictator interrogated me, and I killed him. Grab your gear from the armory, and get to the detention block!”
We sprinted down the hallway and came across a guard, which we shot and killed. We rounded the corner of the cell block, and the prisoners were in the first cell to the right. Clea got to work picking the lock while we covered her. Guards started funneling down the hallway, and we riddled them with suppressing fire. After a minute, Clea got the lock done and the prisoners were freed.
I ran through the remaining cell blocks, frantically looking for my parents. I came to the last cell block, only some of the prisoners were there, probably captives from the invasion. I looked inside the cells, struggling to see through the crowds of people in each cell. I came to the last cell in the detention. I looked inside to find a cell, and I saw them.
I knew instantly that they were my parents. My mother had the same blue eyes as me and my father had my dirty blonde hair. “Do you know who I am?” I asked curiously.
“I think we have an idea, Lazarus. How did you find us?” My mother asked.

“Call it a gut feeling.” I said jokingly. I break the lock with my foot, and my parents both gave me a hug as big as the world. Suddenly, Clea’s yelling woke me back to reality.”Lazarus! We can meet and greet later, but right now, we have to get out of here!” Clea screamed.

“Right! Come on, to the air duct!” I said to my parents, and we all sprinted to the vent that we came in. Once we got out, we ran to the chopper. I was thinking what an awesome life I would have now that my parents were here.

Once the chopper took off, my parents started telling me about the day that they were captured by the Dictator. They were drugged unconscious and stolen from their beds late at night. When they woke up, they were tortured into telling the Dictator where the resistance was camping out. We lost almost everything during the bombing runs, including the 1.5 million who killed or captured afterwards. I wasn’t thinking about that at the time, though. I was just glad that my parents were alright and that we could be a family again. And possibly the second best thing of the day…Clea didn’t let go off my hand for the entire ride home.