Coalition of Hope, a five minute freewrite

For years the government had been pouring doubt on its population. It had drained the energy from the people.

He was sitting in a cafe drinking a coffee, slowly, because he could only afford the one a day. He knew he should give it up, this one little pleasure he had left. But it wasn't the coffee that he enjoyed most. It was being with other people.

Sometimes, he would see people he knew from the time before. They would sometimes nod, or smile at him. But more often than not they would look away.

You never knew who was watching or who was listening.

The last thing you wanted to do was have a hushed conversation in a cafe that could lead to an arrest.

Or worse.

At first, he had wanted to build a coalition of hope with his friends from before. There were things they could do:

Don't obey in advance.

Resist.

But after he had been arrested and beaten, and after he had seen so many of his friends vanish from the streets and his life, he had given up on that.

That was the plan, of course.

...