So, Ren, you don’t have to help us fight if you don’t want to. I will understand,” I said.
“No, Zemaku,” Ren said. “I owe you my life. You changed my entire outlook on life. You see, everyone in Thumb's army are people who have been hurt and tormented by others. They have all seen such hell. It’s why they believe in Thumb's goal that removing free will and even free speech will make us all, as a society, happier,” Ren said while seriously staring into my eyes.
“So then, how exactly were you hurt?” I asked.
“To be honest, I was hoping you wouldn’t ask that,” Ren said. “To be honest, it’s a bit of a touchy subject, but I don’t mind telling you. After all, I can trust you,” Ren said, the honesty ringing home in his tone of voice.
“Why though? Even though you’ve just met me, why can you trust me?”
“Well, you see, you remind me of a friend I had before the war Thumb started. A friend who used to believe in me. A friend I trusted, and he trusted me, but… everything changed when I got falsely accused of some really fucked up shit by a girl I’d been dating for a while,” Ren said with a hint of anger.
“I can already tell where this is going,” I said.
“Yes, Zemaku, what you're thinking is probably right,” Ren exclaimed. “She accused me of assaulting her after coming home drunk from work. She said I did horrible, unspeakable things to her, and because the legal system was pretty messed up, I lost a lawsuit with her. All my friends stopped talking to me, even the one friend I thought I could trust. So can you see why I decided to believe in Thumb's ideals? He found me when I was at my lowest, made me believe in his plans, and I fell for it like the depressed man with no reason left to keep going would. I was broken, Zemaku, broken by the world,” Ren said.
Suddenly, my dad, Commander Bill, came walking in through the door.
“Quick, check the news,” he exclaimed. “You’re not going to believe it, Zemaku.” Ren and I both came to the TV. When I looked at what I saw, I was the only one that was shocked. Well, my father was probably shocked too before I got there.
“What’s wrong?” Ren asked. “I don’t get it. He’s just one of Thumb's followers.”
“No, he’s not just any ordinary follower of Thumb. He was a friend of mine back in high school.”
“What?” Ren said in complete surprise.
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Chapter 1: Joe
Joe was my best friend back in high school—well, one of them. The other two were Brian and Serena. The four of us were really close. I even had a crush on Serena; she was the only person I’d ever loved. I’ve never fallen in love since. Brian, Serena, and I kept in touch after high school, but I could never get the courage to ask Serena out—something I would come to regret, as they both died.
“So, what about Joe?” Ren asked.
“Well, Joe and I were the closest ones out of the friend group. Don’t get me wrong, Brian was a good guy, but Joe just had that vibe about him. He was way more social than me. By high school, I was just some socially awkward individual with an obsession with Monstermon. I was honestly blessed, in hindsight, that one of my friends just so happened to be the most popular girl in school. But… to get back to the story, Joe was someone who, despite thinking of me as a wimp who would never make it into the military, supported my dream. I got bullied often in high school, and Joe used it to teach me. He made every time I got bullied a learning experience and taught me ways to defend myself long before my father began my training for the military. In some ways, I guess you could say that Joe was a genius and had prepared me early. I wasn’t really allowed a phone in junior high back when I met Joe, and since Joe would often get into fights with other kids, he was forced to move schools before he ever got a phone. So I never got to get his social media. Just look at Joe on the TV, Ren—he’s lost the light in his eyes I used to see in him. Do you know what could’ve broken him?”
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“No clue,” Ren said.
“Joe has the Thumb emblem on his shirt. That emblem is a sign he’s a high-ranking warrior, higher rank than me and Goki. The only people allowed at that rank are those Thumb deems worthy. Sorry, but I don’t think I can really be of much help in this case. My rank was too low to have ever known him,” Ren said.
Here’s the revised text with improved grammar and punctuation:
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“Well, no matter what, I have to try to reconnect with Joe and figure out what happened after high school. I need to know what his breaking point was and how Thumb used that to his advantage,” I said with clear conviction.
“Good luck,” Ren said.
I’m going to look for more information on Joe,” my dad said. “I’ll keep checking the news and hack Thumb’s database to find any mentions of Joe.
For the past two weeks, my dad has been gathering information on Joe. He’s been hacking into Thumb’s database by employing advanced hacking techniques and strategies in the dimly lit room of our base, if you can even call it that. He’s searched for Joe’s past activities, any previous ranks, and tried to figure out how Thumb’s hierarchy works, as we barely know anything about it. He also looked for any records of personal events that may have happened in Joe’s life. My dad took advantage of an insider at Thumb’s headquarters—someone who had long since given up hope on my father’s cause. However, since he owed one last favor to my dad, he caved and told him that Joe is supposed to be on a new mission sometime in the next two weeks to help Thumb with a new village that’s gaining free will. Unfortunately, my dad couldn’t find any information on Joe’s past, which suggests that Thumb never really keeps records on his employees' pasts. The only information he keeps is from when people start work there.
My dad then went with me and told me everything he knew, including how Thumb’s hierarchy works. Ren and Goki are part of the group known as No Thumbs—the group that’s just known as weaklings and are the low levels, as is the other term for them. Then come the Small Thumbs. Small Thumbs are followers with a small skill level who don’t really do hard work either, but they get slightly higher jobs than the No Thumbs because they are just 99% better than the No Thumbs. Medium Thumbs are those who are intermediate and get medium-rank jobs. High Thumbs get high-ranked jobs. But then there’s another rank beyond that, which Thumb’s men can achieve—a rank known as S Thumbs or S-Tier Thumbs. S-Tier Thumbs are masters, the highest class possible. They are considered to be gods in terms of power, second to none, only being outmatched by Thumb himself. And Joe is one of the S-Tier Thumbs.
Two weeks later, I prepared to meet with Joe and try to find him on his mission. I thought I could also stop him from gaining control of the village and the resistance, but it was too late. When I got there, Joe was gone, but there were villagers cowering in fear and a dead village elder on the floor. However, there was one person still ready to fight.
“Joe, STOP!” I said. “It’s me, Zemaku. What’s the meaning of this? This isn’t like you. Back in high school, you were pro-freedom of speech. What happened?”
Joe just looked me in the eyes in shock. It seemed the light came back into his eyes for a moment, but it disappeared quickly, and he stared at me intensely. Suddenly, a strong-looking man came out of the village houses and asked what was going on. Joe said it was nothing and told him he would take care of it, signaling me to come inside with him.
I went inside, thinking this might finally be a good moment to talk, but when we got into the room, there was dead silence between us. It was really awkward, to be honest. We were in a sad, pathetic-looking room with an immense chill. It felt very cold and almost sad. I could sense that Joe, for some reason, felt sad—sad for what he’d done, maybe, or was he sad that he was meeting me like this?
“Hey, Joe, remember all those times you helped me with bullies back in junior high? Or how you stood up for me when a teacher wrongfully accused me of cheating back in math—”
But Joe interrupted, saying, “Don’t act friendly with me.”
“What? Joe, please! What was your trigger? Why did you join Thumb’s army?” I begged. No, I pleaded for an answer. Even after all these years, I still considered Joe to be my best friend. But Joe just sat there silently for a moment before saying, “You’d never understand.”
“No, I would!” I quipped back. “Please, just talk to me.”
“No,” Joe said. “Just escape through the back door now!”
“Joe!” I yelled. “But I can’t! I just got reunited with you!” But Joe just yelled at me, “So you want me to be forced to kill my best friend?” he screamed, crying. “Please, just leave!”
At that moment, the lighting in the room became brighter—kind of angelic. Joe was being genuine, and it was probably the first time he’d been genuine in years.
“Please, Joe,” I pleaded.
“Fine,” I said, before exiting through the back door and bolting. Damn, I thought to myself. What happened to you, Joe? You seemed genuinely sad, genuinely broken. How much did life break you for you to give up your own morals?
Chapter 1 End.