John sat in the hidden cave on the rough pine tree mat with his nine conspirators and friends. The hidden cave had been inhabited by a bear until several days ago, and now that bears head over the entrance is the only sign that John or anyone lived in the cave. John wasn’t the only one among all of his friends that kept thinking “How did this happen to me?”.

It all started June fourth of the year two thousand twenty four, when Chinese forces used their manpower and ability to make cheap warships to invade the United States. There was one other reason that the Chinese succeeded in conquering over half of the nation. They had paid Ireland a huge sum of money to use their country as a base and out-maneuvered all defenses the United States had put in place for such an event. With the never-ending forces attacking from both sides, the government retreated to the Mississippi River and attempted to stem the tide. It was a bloody war in which neither side could take more than 5 miles of land before being pushed back.

It had been John’s idea to start the group, they could no longer join the army of the United States, so they formed a group that would be known simply as “The Resistance”. Spreading the word had not been easy, but word spread slowly by whispered words in the corners of abandoned houses or dark alleys, everyone from old servicemen, to loyal but untested young slipped away to this cave in the middle of nowhere. In all there were 50 servicemen and 175 others loyal to the USA and, all under the leadership of John, his best friend, and his uncle. They had all come to do one thing: destroy the Chinese before everything they held dear was taken from them.

For the time being no other country wanted to help the U.S. because the war had been bloody and the Chinese said they would declare war on the country that even accepted a U.S. dignitary in its borders. However, if the Resistance could sneak a few of the more respected veterans and a couple of people who had a basic understanding of the country’s native language out they might be able to surprise the Chinese.

The farewell party was one to remember, yet despite the bonfire in the cave and the singing and guitar playing, there was a grim atmosphere hanging over the group. John was staying with all but three of his friends to lead the resistance group alongside his uncle. However, those three were facing the same dangers as John. It was really a terrible feeling for both groups, neither knew if their own would succeed and the chances were some of their friends might not come home alive.

The next morning passed like a fuzzy TV image for John. He hugged his friends and wished them the best of luck on this journey.
“How isn’t this a nightmare?” wondered Mellisa from John’s right.
She was right, and despite the fog over his mind, a new determination gripped John’s mind. John watched the slowly fading forms of his friends walking to the east.
“Okay, listen up!” he screamed at the rag-tag bunch of fighters with a fire in his eyes looked like that of a dragons. “The only help we can be to our friends is to fight bravely and distract the enemy! We fight, against a better equipped enemy, but that enemy is preoccupied by our armies of the West! The enemy is numerous, but they lack the talent and fire that fill our hearts.”
The Resistance cheered and whooped for they knew that they were fighting for their homes, their freedom, and their loved ones lost. The enemy fighters were often beaten by their commanders, and were forced to fight even if they were peaceful. Also they found something that even the new Chinese federation had overlooked. The Chinese had all they could handle fighting the superior United States troops. They could only dispatch a couple hundred soldiers to deal with disorder in conquered territories.
The simplicity of the plan was ingenious. How else could they get the firepower they wanted, how else could they destroy a whole unit of Chinese troops. It had been Athena’s idea, the night before they left, she called John over to a quiet edge of the camp.
“John, I’ve found an answer to our problem.”
John smiled as he thought of that. For a genius Athena never wasted words. It was always direct and right to the point.
“We call the Chinese and tell them we heard there was a powerful resistance group forming at these coordinates. As long as we stay to the trees and caves, we can force them to send troops. Then we ambush them and take their weapons and supplies”
So that is why the sweat coming off of John’s shaggy head was landing in a ditch in the cornfields. His squad was lined up single file, along a 100 yard section of the cornfield. With his ADHD, it was nearly impossible to sit still for this long. The August sun beat down on his back; the flies buzzed around his head. He wondered if his aim was good enough to shoot one of the flies, he was quite liking the idea until he heard the noise, the tap tap of boots from about away. The plume of dust meant they had brought a tank. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t seem to moisten the roof of his mouth. Their only plan for a tank was risky at best, and it meant his best friend was going to be in extreme danger.
So he gave the signal and everyone went still and quiet. Heads turned to the plume of smoke and watched its progress. He gave John a last thumbs up before scrambling up the tree, he would rely on the cover of smoke to remain hidden. Will then scrambled up the tree and onto one of the branches that hung over the lake.
As the first head appeared over the hill, confidence soared through the men in John’s squad. Herds of cattle looked on these soldiers with pity. They must have marched in haste from Philadelphia, and their commanders all carried wips. Everyone knew the plan, aim for the generals, the Chinese soldiers were a dime a dozen and would run if their commanders fell. They sat unnoticed for the first five minutes, then one of the Chinese seemed to notice something was wrong, but he was too late.
“FIRE!” screamed Sarge, John’s uncle.
The first volley took out all but one officer, the tank’s gun rotation system, and a third of the soldiers.

Then as the fight broke out and the soldiers broke one by one, within two minutes only the tank, officer, and about 25 soldiers were left. Then, the Resistance advanced and the will of the Chinese broke. Everyone of them turned and ran, except the tank, it inched forward and then Will flew out of the tree. He landed with the grace and balance of a deer, and in one fluid motion, he opened the hatch of the tank, loosed a stun grenade and captured the two people operating the tank.
“USA, USA, USA!”
The chant rang through the valley, it came from the members of the resistance. Filled with confidence and elated, they danced and sang into the night. They had captured over 400 guns and a tank, and only had suffer several minor gunshot wounds and a couple shrapnel pieces were found in shoulders afterwords. It was a great victory. However, all good things must come to an end. For at that very moment a car screeched to a halt along the old logging paths. In it came Sam, and Megan along with several of the members of the foreign team.
“Athena is captured!” said a meek Sam
Then he fainted.