Dru slowly opened her eyes and glanced about. She had no idea where she was or how she had gotten there. She shut her eyes, the light coming from somewhere hurting them. There had been cars involved, hadn't there? There must have been. She risked another peak but it didn't bring much insight. From the looks of things she could just as easily be in a house basement, a small warehouse room or a shop stockroom. There was no window, only a bare bulb in the centre of the ceiling. The room was tiny and carpeted. The floor and ceiling seemed to be made of concrete, and maybe bare plasterboard for the walls. She shut her eyes again and assessed her own condition. Her head throbbed like the worst migraine she'd ever had, her mouth tasted like the worst hangover and she had the desperate urge to empty her bladder. Dru sincerely wished she could just go back to sleep, but the chair she was sat in was extremely uncomfortable. Being bound to it wasn't helping either. Then voices began to filter through to her from behind. Dru sat forward, eyes open and alert. She strained to hear, trying to ignore the nausea that act caused.

“I can't let you see her man, you're not in a fit state.”

“For Fricks sake! Don't try and tell me I can't see my own wife. Move!”

“He's right Dark. You should let us handle it.”

“I want to find out why. Now get out of my damn way.”

Silence. Dru hadn't recognised either of the voices that weren't his, but they must belong to other protagonizers. Then:

“Dark, come eat first. Please?” That was Teuthis. So she'd gone back to the other side then. It figured.

“I'm not hungry.”

“Dark.” That was the male voice again. “You haven't eaten since we arrived. You need food.”

Silence again.

“Fine.” He sounded grudging Dru thought as the voices faded away. She relaxed back into the chair. Hearing his voice again, it didn't fill her with rage. Just a sort of cold grey space, no feelings one way or other. Perhaps Milton had been right all along. She smiled grimly to herself. Ironic that she would never have read Paradise Lost if it wasn't for the barbarism of book burning. Dru shut her eyes and leant her head back. Except, if he was, what had she to live for now?

RATE THIS CHAPTER!

Author guidance for This story

This Author's Guidance is updated continuously... please take the time to read it as there is VITAL information there. Who is who, who is where, that sort of thing.

********BEFORE POSTING*********
**READ THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS**

This helps you get a feel for the story. I know there's a lot, but if you don't you're going to miss stuff and we will loose the flow of the story. Until now we've done a good job and there haven't been too many glaring errors and they've generally been fixed quickly.

The basic premise is similar, creative/artistic minds are the outcasts of society. They're shunned, even hunted by the rest. And we, a literary society known as the Protagonizers, have formed a resistance movement.

Come as you, come as your protag-self, and let's stick it to the man!

********SOME SUGGESTIONS********
---> Mark all the posts relevant to your particular storyline as you go along.
IE: Asheyna and Afroferret are travelling together, I've (Asheyna) marked all posts written by us so I can find them easily and refer to them when writing.
---> If you're going to write and include other characters in your chapter there's two great options:
* Leave the ending open, allow them to respond to what you've introduced
* Confer with them before committing them to a course of action
* Neither of these are necessary, just something to consider when writing as you may be unaware of an ongoing plot-line that is developing behind the scenes between other authors
---> Last but not least, aim for continuity, whether it's character personality or events in the story.

*************************

The Story So Far (July 2)

Sly - on the move with Pvt Addams

*Unknown Hideout - New Safe?*
Darkliquid, Robyn, Kai, Gwen, Archi, Druidx
-Dru appears unable to speak... is she having a change of heart?

Raven - formerly Bluejay, met up with her father, heading to Eastern Canada to get new ID?

Asheyna and Afro - trapped by LitPol on a train
-Afro just revealed to be former agent, has be betrayed them?

*Bard's Hidout*
Brenden, Spockeh and crew
-the Bard has been helping Spockeh et al? can he be trusted? is he really the Bard?

*In a hospital*
Faltarego - unclear as to what's going on around him... no ID to tell the hospital staff who he is.

*RIP*
Bluejay's guard
Eloosive
"Bluejay"
Jack

**************************

Further Guidance:
The Protagonists are a non-violent group. They stand for creativity and free expression. While they have no clear set "mission" they are attempting to remind people what it used to be like. Showing people beauty in art, literature and music.

After their main meeting place, The Safe, was compromised by Spockeh he was instructed to blow it up (taking a few LitPol with it). A new building is now needed for the Safe, as well as a method to alert other Protagonists as to it's location.

updated Jul 2 '09 by Asheyna