Conquest
Chapter I: Only the Beginning
As I walked slowly through the hallways of the house I grabbed the flashlight, batteries, and matches from the desk, stuffed them into my backpack and opened the oak-wood desk and removed my prized “Colt .44 S&W Revolver” from the second drawer down where I kept my business papers. I looked at the walls of my house taking in every detail, the pictures of my family, the white walls, and the bug that I splattered against the wall was still there for over a week because I hadn’t cleaned it up yet. I walked into the kitchen and opened my fridge, looking at the food from last nights feast and three week old lasagna that I made on movie night. I got up and looked at the sink looking at the week’s worth of dirty dishes, cups, and silver ware. I walked up to the sink and turned on the water and began to do the dishes. I didn’t know why I was doing the dishes, but I was and I planned to make them shine like they never have before. After looking at the last dish and removed every stain off of every dish, glass, cup, silverware, and knives, I placed them into the dishwasher with the rest of them. I placed detergent into the dishwasher and you could here a small beep from behind the dishwasher, under the floor, and in the wall to the next to the front door. From there I got up and walked down the hallways of my house and into my basement. I looked around for an insignia on the floor. When I found it I reached for the shovel and dug up the area where the insignia was and found a bronze hatch. I opened the hatch that showed a newly placed ladder.
I guess it’s time, I thought to myself as I began to climb down the ladder. I moved quickly and closed the hatch behind me. Each time I had moved my feet down the ladder a thump came at the door and my mind knew that this was it, but I didn’t wanted it to happen this way. When I got to the bottom there was a door with a combination lock that I placed there a while back. The door was made of lead and was about two meters thick; it was used to keep us safe for the time required for the radiation to drop.
I began to input the combination, a strange one at that, but nonetheless, a combination. I slowly turned the knob so I wouldn’t miss a single number. The number repeated in my head six, six, and six. They played in my head so I would never forget.
The hatch opened suddenly above and feet climbed down the ladder. I rushed to open the door as the sound began to come closer and closer. The door clicked and opened and saw another lead door was in front of me. I rushed into the door and it began to shut slowly as the sound of people coming down the ladder grew and as people hit the dirt with their feet. I saw the letters “FBI” on the back of his jacket just before he turned around on his chest. He sprinted to the closing door but it shut before he got to it. There was banging on the door and more people came down the ladder.
“This is the FBI,” he yelled,” Open the door now! Or we will blow it open.”
I ignored him and began to work on the door inputting the combination seven, seven, and seven. The door open and I could here the sound of C4 being set on the door behind me. The door slid open and I ran through and shut the door as the C4 counted down.
“FIRE IN THE HOLE!” someone warned and people began to climb up the ladder.
It was quiet for a moment all I could here was C4 counting down until I heard the alarm going off for the signal that the launch was activated. I ran into the other room and was ready to hear the statement from my other comrades in other countries around the world. I began to get text messages on my cell, all confirming the nuclear weapons launching. I walked to my chair and the C4 on the door stopped, yet I heard no one coming down the ladder and no one yelling. Instead the doors opened and Sami walked through the door and shut it behind him.
I looked at him seeing blood on his face and his M16 gripped tightly in his hands. He reloaded his cartridge and wiped the blood off his face and removed the gas mask that revealed his black eyes and his lack of hair.
“What happened to the FBI, Sami?” I asked.
“Took care of them,” he said and sat his muscular body on a chair in front of him.
I knew Sami since sixth grade and he wasn’t always this muscular. He use to be kind of obese, but very fast and a good friend. I knew a lot about him; he was born in Britain after his parents moved from Africa for one and then moved to the U.S. He was always a holy man, believed in the power of God, and the path of righteousness. Yet I never thought he would resort to killing, but this was a cause that must have been carried out for the good of this world.
“I remember when we use to talk about doing this in school, but I never thought we were actually going to pull this off,” I told him.
“I know, I didn’t think we could even get the money to do such a thing. Well, it’s time to put this plan into action. Geoff how many nukes were launched?”
“About forty of them, two already hit and the rest are coming down on the other countries.”
“Err, are we really doing the right thing here?”
“I really don’t know any more, but I always believed that there will be one more war to end all wars and give us peace.”
“No doubt.”
“We might need those radiation suits over there. This is going to be a long winter for all of us,”
“When can we go up?” he asked me as I looked at the television in the corner of the room.
“About two weeks or so.”
“The FBI is in complete pandemonium as they try to figure out where all these nuclear missiles originated from. They know where the leader of this Terrorist attack is but they were incapable of bringing him in. Local authorities said that they sent in men to apprehend this man, but was unsuccessful and all forty men were brought down by this man.”
Our faces were on the television and next to it had our names, height, age, and even where we went to work at. It was on there for what seemed like a millennium and was removed from the television as slowly as possible.
“We have here Arthur Jones friends of these two men,” the reporter said.
“HA! Friend, how ‘bout traitor! Bastard…” I yelled out.
“I have known them both since the sixth grade, always talking about how they were going to rule the world, having followers that believed in their cause. They asked me to join them multiple times but I refused believing that it was just a hoax,” he told the reporter.
“Police are now sending in reinforcements to apprehend the perpetrators in the house. Oh my… We have just gotten reports that all of the police that were sent in earlier have been annihilated! Body count is twenty and rising! I don’t know how you people at home are feeling, but this is completely insane.”
“We have news on the ongoing missile strikes. Oh my god, there is one heading this way! We need to go… now!” She panicked.
They ran as the camera was facing the floor as they panicked, I heard a loud noise, then the television went out, and all was dark. My cell phone suddenly died out and everything went quiet. I heard nothing nor saw anything.
“Is it over?” Sami asked me.
“No it is only the beginning,”
Chapter II: Missing Comrades
I began to get up from my chair feeling my way through the nuclear shelter with my hands. The walls were smooth because of the lead plating we used to build the shelter. I suddenly stopped and moved my hands until I heard a “click” on the wall. The lights flickered and then the room was bright. The sound of a generator grew louder and louder and then went silent. I looked at the television screen and then to the computer monitors. They flickered then showed “Windows XP” logo on the front.
“Kind of bright, don’t you think?” I asked.
“Just be glad you have it,” he replied typing something onto the computer.
I stared interested in what he was doing. I looked at him then the screen and saw that he was typing a letter to one of the other “sleeper cells” we have set up in the other continents. Then I noticed the address of the letter and it was to Ben who lived in Russia at the moment.
Well Ben wasn’t the kind of guy you would invite to your parties, or to a club. He would say something that he shouldn’t once in a while and I would just pretend I didn’t know him when he went too far. Ben was very short man who I knew since seventh grade. He never thought we were able to pull this off like Arte did, but he was convinced after we showed him the first bomb shelter and our first tactical nuclear missile.
I walked away and went to the television, remembering that we had a DVD player attached to the television. I removed one of the DVDs from the bottom of the desk and opened the CD drive. I then noticed there was a DVD already inside. I picked it up and looked at the cover. “Seventh Grade: Zoo” it read and placed it back in the drive. The DVD player flashed playing on the screen and then stopped as a video began to play.
”Hello? Is this thing on?” a boy asked.
“Well, maybe if you looked at the blinking red light,” Sami pointed out.
“Oh! Didn’t notice that,” I then recognized the voice, and then thought back to when we actually went there. The voice was mine from when we went to the field trip to the zoo.
“Slow one,” Sami commented and walked as I held the camera.
“Okay! Michael, don’t tell anyone we have this!”
“Okay then, so where do we go?” Michael asked us little ones.
“Um, the lions first!” one of us said as the camera moved trying to locate the voice.
“Yeah the lions!” I yelled.
“How ‘bout we get a map!” Michael commanded using his chaperone powers.
The camera started moving with the group we were in and then we went to the tourist shop and bought a map.
“You bought that for five dollars!!” My younger self laughed at him,” That’s hilarious!”
“Ha very funny,” he sarcastically responded to my comment.
“Maybe we should…” I saw Andrew’s face and quickly removed the DVD.. Someone suddenly patted my shoulder and I look behind me to see Sami’s hand on my shoulder.
“Its okay, I didn’t mean for that to happen either. But it still happened and we have to live with it,” he told me as I stared at him.
“It just shouldn’t have happened, we could have prevented it, we should have known, we should have killed him when we caught him the first time!”
“We could’ve but what if we were wrong and killed the wrong person, or did we even have the guts to kill him?”
“No, I guess not, but still,”
“Still what? We couldn’t do anything we didn’t know; we were in a hurry, to busy to analyze the data, to busy to see what was right in front of our faces! We couldn’t do anything…”
“If only we listen to Andrew, if only the nuke wasn’t so important.”
“Andrew served his purpose in our cause. He knew the risks and he took them, we shouldn’t stumble onto our past problems but look to the world we created and walk on, Andrew would want us to do that, not sit here and grumble on about the fact that we should have done something. He would want us to keep on going.”
I sat still, I knew he was right but I couldn’t bring myself into believing him.
“Well Geoffrey, I planned this out until this moment, now it’s your turn.” he told me with a smirk on his face.
“Well, I didn’t think we would get this far-”
“That’s smart of you.”
“You didn’t let me finish, I didn’t think we would get this far, but I have a plan.”
“So?”
“We need to move to the ‘sleeper cell’ in D.C. We need to see if they made it.”
“But how are we going to get there?”
“We could walk, but that’s three hundred miles north from here. So I recommend that we take a car, but first we need to wait for the radiation levels to drop.” I said bringing myself to my feet. I then walked to the desk. I saw the “Radalert 50” sitting there. I turned it on as it read “15.32” radiation.
“Damn,” I muttered,” our radiation suits can only handle one point five zero. The radiation level will take two weeks to drop down, until then we have to wait.
“Well then we could just watch movies.”
“We could, but I need to find out where you put the fridge.”
“Hmm, that’s a good question.”
“Oh speaking of food, we need to conserve it, I don’t know how long this will be but we must conserve or we will die. We only get one pint of water each day and 1 meal a day for now at least.”
“One meal? That’s bull”
“Yes one meal, any problems with that?”
“Well I guess you haven’t noticed, I am a big man, and big men need to eat,” he commented.
“Okay fine, just wait until I find the fridge and then we will see how much food we can eat.”
I looked around the room for the right door. I suddenly stopped staring at a blue box like thing in the corner of the room. I ran up to it and pulled the silver handles. As it opened I saw a white frost and ice everywhere inside. I walked into the room and saw yet another door in front of me. I open that door and it led to a room with plenty of food, drink, and alcoholic beverages placed throughout the room. It was cold but comfortable (for me that is) within the room. I looked back out through what seemed to be the freezer and saw Sami standing there waiting to here my answer.
“So?” he asked.
“We have plenty of food, enough for twenty five people to last about a month. Since there are only two of us, I think it will last about a year.”
“Yes!” he cried in joy, “So how many meals a day?”
“We can have three square meals a day.”
“Thank you god!”
“Wait! Do we have microwave??”
“Err, no! But we can use my lighter!”
“Good idea! Maybe we can use my revolver to cut holes in the turkey!” I replied sarcastically, at least I thought I did.
“No seriously,”
“And I am serious too.”
He stared at me with that stare that meant that he saw an idiot, “We can heat up the food with the lighter, and all we need is something so that the food doesn’t come in direct contact with the flame.”
“Whatever you can try that, but until then I will go and eat frozen foods,”
He scurried around the room searching for an item, I saw him leave my sight as I turned around to grab some food. There was a wide variety of food to choose from, but until I can find out if his lighter would actually heat up the meal, I will be sitting here eating frozen foods.
“Ah! Here’s something!” I heard him yell from the left side of the room.
When I got outside I handed him his chicken nuggets and he placed some onto a sheet of metal. He then lifted the sheet into the air using the boxes the chicken nuggets came in. He flicked his finger and the fire glowed from the lighter. It was weird to see him do this but by the time I finished eating. He seemed to be putting the chicken into his mouth.
“So? How does it taste??” I asked waiting for his reply.
“It worked,” he told me looking at my stunned face.
“Give me some!”
“Nope, none for you,” he smirked and then laughed at me as I had just ate frozen fish.
Amazed at first but then tackled him for the lighter. As he hit the floor with a bang the lighter flew through the air and was about to hit the ammunition sitting on the desk. I raced after the lighter but then the lid of the lighter shut and I was standing still from shock.
Sami then walked up to the ammunition boxes and then picked up his lighter. He shoved it into his pocket and looked at me. He then looked at his food and then looked back at me. I turned to the food and then tackled the food grasping it in my hands. I was about to shove it into my mouth just before Sami kicked me in the stomach and I was forced to drop them. He snatched them from the air and I then jabbed him in the shoulder forcing him to open his hand.
“There! I got the nuggets! Ha-” I was about to say before I got punched in the face.
I rubbed my face excessively and then looked at him and I was laughing at my pain, “That’s not fair,”
“There’s no such thing as fair stupid boy.” He smirked and looked at me.
“You want you’re food back?”
“Of course.” He responded and I handed back the nuggets and ran into the fridge.
I looked around for something that would fill my stomach and I could sleep. I turned my head quickly saying the foods names in my mind.
Chicken, sandwich, hamburger, chili- I said then suddenly stopped and went back to the hamburger.
“Brilliant!” I yelled and grabbed the burger.
I ran outside of the fridge and grabbed his lighter from his pocket. I then took the metal plate ignoring the pain from the heat. I then put the boxes under the metal plate and elevated it into the air. I click the lighter and left it under the metal plate. I then placed the burger and watched it.
“Crap! Need the buns!” I yelled and ran back into the fridge.
I quickly came out and saw that there was smoke coming from the boxes. I turned off the lighter and then removed the boxes. I then took the hamburger buns and placed the burger on it moving my hands because of the heat being emitted from the burger.
“Ah!” I complemented on my own cooking ignoring the burnt marks on the meat, “Well done,”
“You mean burnt,”
“You’re just jealous that I grabbed the burger first,”
“No because you burned it,”
“Yeah right,” I argued and gave him back his lighter.
I ate the burger, upset that there is no ketchup, but I had to live with it. After I finished I pulled out my sleeping bag and the lights began to shut down. I laid my head onto the small uncomfortable pillow and closed my eyes. I stood up and remember that the freezer was still open. I ran to the freezer and closed the door so I wouldn’t get sick. I then walked back to bed took my revolver out of my jacket (almost forgot) and placed it on the desk near the computer. Being myself, I walked to the freezer again and opened it, I looked around and saw a Sam Adam’s and began to consume it.
“You know that’s bad for you,” Sami spoke up from his sleeping bag.
“Bah.”
“Suit yourself.”
“Fine I will.” I countered with a very childish comeback.
I walked back to my sleeping bag, laid back, closed my eyes, and moved myself in a comfortable position.
“You know,” I opened my eyes.
“What,” Sami responded irritated by the movement and fuss I have delivered through the last twenty minutes...
“I don’t think Andrew is dead, I mean, we didn’t see him get shot-“
“Don’t say anything,”
“Okay,” I closed my eyes and felt my body relax for once in a very, very long time.
Chapter III: Silent Night
I looked around and walked up the stairs. The rails felt so smooth and yet so cold. The room was also felt frozen as ice and I looked out the window where I could see snow. I rushed outside and felt nothing but the frozen air eating at my face. The clouds were over my head and there was nothing but snow all around me. Slowly I walked forward in the frozen wasteland. I could here the sound of the breeze and my footsteps hitting the floor.
I knew I was moving but every time I stepped forward I felt like I was stepping back. I turned around and saw the house in the far distant and kept trudging on. I trudged through the snow as it began to get deeper.
I heard something flying through the air and I turned around to see an axe flying at my face. I ducked and the axe flew past me. I looked up to see who threw it at me and saw a human figure dressed in a black robe about one hundred meters away. He walked closer and closer to me and I got up. I reached for my revolver and pulled the hammer back. As soon as I was about to pull the trigger he jumped into the air and landed in front of me. He took out a rifle, one I never seen before and kicked me back into the frozen snow. The snow was cold, so cold in fact that it felt like my blood was slowing down. I jumped to my feet amazed that he had moved back twenty meters, and pointed my revolver at the human figure. He shot his rifle and the sound was of flames coming from a stove. Yet the bullet glowed with the radiance of the green fire and flew at me. Time seemed to slow down around me and I jumped out of the way. I successfully evaded the shot and the bullet melted through the white snow. I turned back around and saw another green light flying at me with a massive radiance. I rolled out of the way once more and shot my revolver at the cloaked figure. It evaded the blast and through down the rifle and pulled out a customized gold “.44 Desert Eagle.”
“Where did you get tha-” I began until the gun went off and I jumped backwards to evade the shot.
The bullet barely went over my head, grazing my hair. I pulled back on the hammer and shot again. The bullet flew straight at him, he had no time to evade and I began to enjoy my victory. Yet with lighting speed, it pulled a knife and deflected the knife with skill I had never seen before. I unloaded my last four rounds and it evaded as if it could anticipate my attacks. It jumped in the air and disappeared under the cover of the moons light.
“Where are you?” speaking into the air.
I looked around and saw nothing. I began to put my revolver away until I felt a cold metal pressing against the back of my neck. I froze in shock waiting for my death. Then the world around me grew in an essence of light and then I felt a warmth, so soothing and so inviting growing throughout my body.
Use this someone said from inside my head and a katana was placed in front of my body.
I crouched down away from the cold metal and quenched the katana in my hands. I pulled the blade away from the floor and then turned to cut down the human. I sliced the sword horizontally and cut through the cloak and into the skin. The body fell to the floor and the snow became warm with blood. The sword glowed with the light from the sun. I stared amazed at the blade and the magnificent glow. I stared at the cloaked figure and removed his hood. The shadow slowly disappeared from the face of the figure and to my surprise I knew who that being was.
“Why?” I asked into the open sky and saw Andrew’s body on the floor cut into two.
“It is the way it must be done,” again the warm voice filled my body.
“Who are you?”
“I am the one that will watch over you for the rest of the war,”
“What war?”
“You will see in due time warrior.”
“But why is Andrew here, why do I have this sword, who the hell are you, and what war?”
“Very well then,” the soft voice filled my body with a soothing heat and then said, “I shall show you,”
The world grew darker and the world began to swirl in the center and I was pulled into it as hard as I resisted. The only thing I saw then was darkness and the glowing of the katana. For a moment I felt a surge of heat burning through my veins and the cold slowly lifted away from my body. It was so comfortable that I closed my eyes. Suddenly the cold frost came over me once more and I opened my eyes. Nothing but snow and scarp metal was placed about the ground.
“Where are we?”
“The world you have created,”
“I should have know,”
I looked once more at the frozen wasteland. I saw someone moving from the side of the nearly demolished car. He wore a Kevlar Vest I use to wear during the years I spent in the army. He put a “Styer Scout Tactical” over the broken down car and pointed it at me. I was shock and then he pulled the trigger with a sound breaking noise. I crouched down quickly and pulled out my revolver. I pulled back the hammer and pointed the revolver at him.
“Calm yourself Geoffrey, there is nothing for you to shoot at,” the soothing voice calmly spoke.
I turned around to see a man lying on the blood-covered snow. I turned to see another soldier come from the other side pointing his “MP5 Navy” at the man with the rifle.
“HEY!” I yelled,” WATCH OUT!”
“He cannot hear you,”
I ignored the voices remark and yelled once more. There was a loud spray of bullets flying from the sub-machine gun and into the Kevlar Vest. He was hit in the head and immediately fell to the floor. I turned to the soldier with the machine gun and looked at him with a sword plunged into his chest. The blade then ignited in flames and I saw his body burn in the hypnotic lights. The sword was pulled out and I saw a shadow covered face. Yet there was no object to emit the shadow upon his face. I was confused to how this could be until I heard the voice speak again.
“You will know who that is when the time has come, do not try to understand what you cannot,”
“But who are these people?”
“They are the ones that are involved in the final war of this planet.”
“What war?”
“The war to decide the ruler of this world.”
I faced the other direction as the flames engulfing the body. A gut retching scream came from the burning body and ran around until it collapsed to the snow. The shaded face figure disappeared into the darkness once more and appeared right next to me. I looked at him and saw his shoulder bearing a Nuclear Symbol and two rifles making an “X” shape at the bottom of it. The insignia shocked me, as it was the same one that we used for our secret nation. I stared at the insignia until he disappeared with the rest of the environment and then all was lost.
I looked around again and saw my friends lying upon the floor, Andrew and Jacob, both cut by a blade. I looked in shock as the bodies lay there motionlessly. I turn and look around me to see a bright light and a female in the center. Her hair glowed with the essence of an angel and her face was pale with white light. She opened her mouth and I could feel the soothing warmth from the last voice.
“This is what you future may be.”
“Who did this?”
“You did,” she said with a small silence in her voice.
“But why?”
“There will be a choice that you must make in the near future, to kill or lead. This war will be a long war, no matter what choice you make there will be a death of someone you know close to you. These two will both die if you make the wrong choices.”
“But how can I avoid this?”
“I cannot tell you, it is your destiny that will unravel itself on every decision you make, only you can decide whether they die or whether one lives. No matter your decision there will be casualties.”
“There are casualties in every war, but there is no way this will happen. We decided to use those nukes to rebuild our world into a loving peaceful place. We SHALL NOT go back on our promise. And this also can’t happen because Andrew is dead! We saw him punctured with bullet holes.”
“You may saw a gun in front of him, and you may have heard the gunshots, but he didn’t die.”
“This is impossible even if he did survive, he couldn’t live through the nuclear blast or the radiation.”
“There is always a way to survive.”
With that, I opened my eyes and looked into the dark ceiling and then to the side of me. The room was quiet and nothing moved. The night was silent and I heard nothing but what she had said repeating in my mind over and over.
Chapter IV: Casualties of War
I got up rubbing my eyes with the bright light shining in front of me. I turned to my left and saw Sami on the computer glaring at the monitor with wide eyes. Clearly it seemed he had been up all night. Then I walked forward to get a better glimpse of the monitor. He clicked out of a window quickly and I saw a letter displayed on the screen. The letter read:
Citizens of Divinitas
We have currently begun to calculate the damage on the city near us. If you are reading the letter I wish for you to do the same. Gather the dead then bury them, I ask that you DO NOT allow children to be involved in the burial, nor damage count. We will then establish the radar link between the sleeper cells, and then gather our people at a safe and secure location. We will then discuss what we will do with our world…
The letter went on discussing topics we would speak about when we bring every sleeper cell together. He got up after he began to print the paper. After the print had finished he folded the paper into a square then placed it into his pocket.
He then got up and faced me with a hard look on his face,” We have to go now,”
“But what about the radiation levels?”
“We will be okay for now; it isn’t that high and we can make it without it damaging us in any way,”
“Fine, but if anything happens to me it’s on your head,”
He began to explain the plan and we turned to climb the ladder outside our bunker. As we climbed the ladder my body began to feel cold air rushing through the hatch as I began to open it. As the hatch opened I saw my house was completely destroyed. The stairs to the house was damaged severely with burns and missing pieces. I began to pace up the stairs when my foot fell between the stairs and I struggled to pull it back up. I began to walk through the house and found my safe inputting the code onto the number dial. The safe clicked then swung open to reveal cases of ammunition for my revolver. I took five of the cases and placed one in each pocket. I quickly closed the safe and went outside to catch up with Sami.
“I can’t believe it,”
I looked at the world we have created, seeing the snow fall from the sky and the clouds as black as night, burned houses and charred bodies lying on the frozen ground. Through the silent I heard a voice take it all away.
“You know what would be worst then this? Zombies from the radiation,”
“Hmm, you’ve been watching to many movies Sami,”
“Errrr, Arrrrg!” he moaned and walked as a zombie.
I laughed hysterically then quickly stopped facing the skeletons lying on the floor. No blood just, a lifeless skeleton, cracks in the bones and charred skin to any being that survived the massive explosion just to get burned by the fire. It was a sad sight but it had to be done in order to make my world. We walked passed the broken down houses and destroyed vehicles on the way into the main city. Shattered glass, snow covered buildings all looked like monuments of the end of the world. Only noise heard was the sound of our footsteps and the frozen wind that ate at our skin.
“Quiet… too quiet,”
“I know, I am not use to this, I never heard such brilliant silence such as this,” I responded feeling the burns on my skin.
“Hey!” Sami pointed to a garage, “We might get a car there!”
I followed him down the ramp and watched as what little light was left disappear from my eyes. I pulled a flash light from my pocket and clicked it on. I heard a quiet noise and I shined the light on my left. To my surprise there was a man in a black suit crawling on the floor. I walked up to him and he moaned in a pain-induced moan.
“Help me…”
“Alright hold on,” I comforted the man and went to go pick him up. As I walked forward I shined the light and saw his legs were missing, no, burned badly.
“What’s wrong?” the man asked staring at me,” Is everything all right?”
“Yeah,” I swallowed.
“No its not,” I stared at stared at him,” I can tell by the look in your eyes,”
“Sami!” I called.
“How bad does it look?”
“No, no, you look great, just fine,”
“And your lying again,” I heard footsteps behind me.
“What’s wro- Damn what happened to his-“I jabbed him in the ribs.
“It’s alright,” the man told him,” I know my legs look pretty bad, don’t they, sir?”
“Yes, yes it is,” I gulped,” Help me lift him up,”
“Yeah, sure thing,” Sami responded with the same reaction I had when I had seen his wounds.
I lifted him-careful not to touch his legs-I put him on my shoulder and carried him. It was hard carrying him through the dark parking lot without having his legs hit anything.
“What is your name boy?”
“G-,”I stopped suddenly knowing that he might know what my name is, “Jonathan,”
“Good to meet you. How about you sir?”
“Err, Jacob,”
“Good to meet you too.”
“Ah, there’s a car,”
We walked up to the dark black truck and smashed open the windows. I opened the door and let Sami in the truck. He pulled down a hatch and began to work on the wires. He then took out a knife and cut the wires to reveal the copper. He placed the two bare copper wires together and the car’s engine began to roar. As he clicked them together again, the wires ignited small electrical sparks. The engine blasted and the car’s headlights flashed on. I laid him in the back of the truck and I sat next to him. As we left the garage he fell asleep and I stood sat still in the back observing the destruction from the nuclear missiles.
We came to the shelter and grab some essential supplies for the trip. We came to only gathering canned foods and water. Anything we couldn’t bring we left and locked the shelter,” Now where?”
“We shall head north for now, there is a base in D.C. Hmm, maybe the President survived,” Sami told me.
“You never know,”
It was quiet on our way north and for miles nothing but snow and frost. My face burned as every piece of snow hit my skin. It was insane to think that we created this but it was the only way, I felt nothing really, no remorse.
“Do you feel guilty?” Sami asked.
“Um,” I didn’t know what to say, for once in my life I felt confused out of it, even lost in an ocean of words and thought, “No.”
His eyes looked blank from the side of his head, but that’s all I saw was the side of his eye, “That’s good you feel no remorse, a leader cannot feel ashamed for what he has done,”
I felt a hint of anger in his voice and a slightly sharp tone came from him. I had no idea if he felt horrible or if he was just mad that I felt no pain in committing such an act upon human kind. In my mind the humans really deserved what I have just dealt them. I have witnessed things in humans that were inhuman. I have seen torture, hatred, pain, and darkness given off the human race. All they do I cause pain to one another. I went around the world looking for those who did not support that, and they were the ones who survived the war. What really brought me down was that I had to commit an act of inhumanity to rid the earth of inhumanity.
“We will stop here for tonight,” Sami told me and pulled over to a broken down house.
A scream broke through the air and I looked at the man with the crippled legs and tried to help him up as he screamed. I looked at him in shock staring at his charred legs. The screaming stopped but I heard him grunting as we brought him inside. I walked up to his leg and saw his leg begin to turn green. I looked at Sami with a grim face and walked to him.
“His legs are infected, but we can’t do anything about it because if we do he will die, and if we don’t he will still die,”
“What will we tell him?”
“I don’t know yet, I think he knows he is going to die,”
“You should tell me what going on,” a low voice said.
“Well sir,”
“Call me Frank,” he said then coughed.
“Well, Frank, we, um, err,”
“Don’t worry-” he coughed, “I know what’s happening, I am going to die,”
“Yes, your wound is infected and if we keep you alive you will die a painful death, and if we amputate the infected area then you will lose too much blood in the operation. I am sorry but it is a difficult dilemma,”
“Oh good,” he commented cheerfully, “I can finally go to Heaven with my wife,”
“That’s good to know, but what do you want us to do?”
There was a long silence and then he finally said, “I want you to kill me,”
“But-“
“No, kill me,”
I stared grimly at his legs than stared at his eyes.
You’re going to just kill this man Geoff?
But there nothing we can do for him!
Yeah I guess you’re right, you killed billions of people already anyway.
Shut up Geoffrey and let me deal with this.
I pulled my revolver from my jacket and pointed it at his head. My hand trembled in front of me and I stared at his dark eyes and then his dark skin. I wanted to let him live, if there were any way I could I would let him live.
“I can’t, I have killed too many people in my last month and I just can’t do it,”
“You must, it is the only way, or you will have to deal with the agony of my screams during the night. I know you can’t live with that; it’s better if a man dies an easy death instead of a slow painful one.”
“I CAN’T!” I yelled and put the revolver away and walked to my sleeping bag. I shoved my fist into the wall…thud…thud…thud…thud…thud…I stopped and looked up into the blank space above me watching the snow fall from the ceiling and melt as it hit my face. I closed my eyes painfully and began to cry in my rest.
The next morning I walked outside and observe the ground. I trudged through the snow. I found two cars on my walk but I couldn’t open them. I tried hard to budge them open but they just seem to be stuck by the dense snow on the ground. Yet I still followed the path of cars with some hope that I might find a survivor or something that can be of use to us. Until further along the path I had found a car with its door open and I stepped in looking for food or water. Yet when I was done I saw nothing. When I turned around there were footsteps leading away from the car. I followed them slowly and swiftly to see where they lead.
The tracks ended at a barn where the door was slid open. I stepped in consciously and pulled my revolver from its holster and walked silently into the darkness. There was a faint sound made and I turned to face an odd shaped figure in the corner of the barn. I pulled back on the hammer and a high pitch scream came from the corner. I walked to the object and picked it up and brought it outside. As I brought it outside the screaming kept going.
“Leave my sister alone!” someone yelled and jumped out from the barn.
I turned to face him but just to get a fist shoved into my chest. I struggled to regain my breath but was hit with numerous blows again. I pulled out my revolver and fired a warning shot into the air. The girl screamed again and the blows stopped. I reopened my eyes and saw a boy, about the age of seventeen, staring down at me. I pointed the revolver at him and he slowly backed off.
I lowered my weapon and closed my eyes regaining my breath. I reopened my eyes the boy was comforting his sister.
“It’s just a miss understanding, I was only trying to help,” I spoke.
He glared at me and then looked back at his sister. He picked her up and then began to walk away. I opened my mouth prepared to speak but I couldn’t find the words.
“Where are you heading?” I called to him.
“What’s it to you, you damn terrorist,”
It surprised me in a way for him to say that. I didn’t think anyone would remember or in fact know that I was the man who did all this. For some reason though, they lived and that man, for some reason they lived. For now I will have to focus on my survival if I want others to survive.
I looked at him disappear into the white snow and I turned to head back to the camp. I followed the footsteps that lead here back to the car and searched it once more. I opened the trunk and searched, only to dig up a flashlight and a tank of gas. When I reached the camp I heard a gunshot and ran inside to see what happened.
“You bastard!”
“He begged me to kill him,”
“But doesn’t mean you should!”
“He needed to die! Either he would have died a death worst than a shot to the head!”
“Yeah… That’s your style, quick and painless,”
“Oh shut up,”
“Well it is true! You waste anyone quickly so you don’t have to hear their screams! Oh, let’s not forget about that-“
“Shut up!” he yelled and immediately removed his fiveseven from its holster and aimed the pistol at me, hands shaking, “Just shut… up”
Staring at him, I stood there looking at the man’s body and just walked right past Sami to the lifeless corpse. I picked up the body and brought the body outside.
I took the gasoline and doused the body. I took out a lighter and dropped it on the corpses. I would never had cremated the body, but we were running out of time and if I did not do this quickly more lives would have been lost as we sat here arguing. Dropping to my knees, I prayed looking at the heavens.
“Grant this man passage through your gates and into the new and better world. I cannot bear to have him witness the horrors of hell. We are falling apart… I doubt this is going to work anymore. God! Help me and I will help my people. I did this to create a peaceful planet, and I still see evil, tell me what to do next…God, please.”
Chapter V
“Damn guards,” I spoke to myself.
“Hey traitor, get off your ass and get your meal,” one of the guards spoke to me in a crude manor. He turned and dropped a plate on the floor. The food was repulsive but I must eat or I would have died in the cell.
The guard walked away and I scrambled to the food eating it like I haven’t eaten in days. After I had finished I examined my cell, white walls, and steel thick bars stood vertically in front of me.
Is this what I put myself into? I thought to myself and shoved my fist into the ground, Thos bastards, they got me into this. They ratted me out I could’ve gotten away but Arte…Arte, he left me there to die, I thought he was there to support us! He tried to shoot me! Then handed me off to the CIA and now I have nothing but a chair or a long time in prison.
I sighed and then started pacing around the cell. This isn’t working. I can’t stay here for the rest of my life! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! I stick my neck out for them and all I get is a room with four walls and a tray of crap for every meal. I feel like I am in an Insane Asylum! No matter what, when I get out of this hellhole, I will kill them, and give them the same relentless torture they left me to deal with. I will make them pay.
Staring into the steel bars that kept me confined in my new home was a rat. The rat looked at me then twisted its head, watching my movements, observing my rage. That moment made me go insane, that I was being looked upon by a lesser being. Like I was the lesser, and he was the one who can move about as free being as I am contained in a place for my wrongs. I then walked to the rat and placed it in my hands. I put it on the ground and took my plastic bowl. I jabbed three air sockets with my fork and put it over my new captive.
“Welcome to my world.”
I walk to and fell into my white bed and closed my eyes going over my cruel position.
“LET’S GO! We can’t stay here much longer! The FBI is on to us!” I complained to Arte.
“Alright, alright, come on.” Arte spoke
“This is the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Come out with your hands up and we will use little force,” a women ordered into the loud speaker.
“Crap their already here!”
“Well then,” Arte quietly said and pulled out a nine millimeter, “I am sorry for my treason against Geoffrey and Sami, but for you… I don’t really give a damn.”
“What the hell? But why?”
“Easy, if I ratted you and the rest out I would be pardoned from every act of treason I have committed. And I also get placed in the witness protection program. This little for so much huh?”
“Why don’t you just shoot me then?”
“Fine… I will,”
He began to pull back on the trigger as the FBI swarmed in and tackled him. The shot went off and I saw Geoffrey run out the secret entrance and close it behind them.
Everyone left me…
Sirens blared in my head and I quickly opened my eyes to see the room. I saw nothing but the red lights spinning in circles. Hypnotic. I got up as my cell open and a guard picked me up and shoved me out of my cell. He pushed me up the stairs slowly and I struggled to move.
“If we die under the fault of your friends, you are going to die as well,” the guard told me and shoved once more.
I glanced at him in shock and walked slowly up. Another guard at the top opened the door and I saw the bright light fill my heart with warmth.
“NOT YET!” I yelled and shoved the guard outside and kicked the other guard down the stairs. I pushed myself down the stairs and jumped onto the guard’s skull. I heard a hideous crack and then turned to grab the key. The rattling of the keys came as I rushed to unlock my handcuffs. The other guard rubbed his head and got up. I blitzed myself up the stairs and dropped kicked the guard. He flung outside and I saw a bright light begin to fall from the dark sky. I slammed the door shut and locked it.
I ran down the stairs and to the television, “… heading here now! We need to get out of here!”
The camera shook and you could see the concrete as the camera blurred out and all you would see is nothing but the hypnotic noise and look of the blurry screen.
“I guess, it’s already here,” I smiled, turned to the television hearing nothing but the silent screams…
Chapter VI: The Fallen
I stood up and walked around the small prison, glancing around for food I haven’t eaten yet. I squinted my eyes, struggling to peer though the pitch-black room. I stumbled seven or ten times lost count after there first few since they happened so often.
I couldn’t tell whether or not the radiation levels were low enough for me to walk into the light so I stayed in the cell. Only one noise stood out from everything, and that was my feet smacking into the ground as if they were heavy with chains. The complex was huge and I had not gone through it all from account of the darkness. But I traveled for what seemed like days until I heard a faint sound. I crawled upon the wall to find my way to the noise. The sound grew louder and louder as I came closer. I suddenly stripped and fell face first into the floor. My noise was overcome with pain and I clutched my noise within my hand and felt something warm fall on it. A loud groan came from behind me and I stood up quickly. I turned to face an odd bump laid against a wall. I walked up to it and felt it. There was a rag tide firmly around the top. I now knew this was human and removed the rag from its mouth.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to trip you…” she apologized.
“It’s alright, only a nose bleed,” I told her, “what are you doing down here?”
She paused a moment, “I was part of the group that was arrested in Alexandria a while back.”
Of course the incident that leads to the capture of fifteen of our people because someone had leaked the ideal of this so-called terrorism. I was one of the first to join, but I did not know every person within our group. Only Geoffrey and Sami had recruited and, well Jeffrey had a part in it. Jeffrey had picked out people within our coming years growing up under the direct order of Geoffrey. Geoffrey approved most of his suggested candidates, but even if you were qualified, you would be kept in the dark about our operations and future operations. All you were told is that “We are a group of people who will vanquish the evil within the human culture.”
“What is you name?”
“I am Andrew and you-”
“Andrew? Andrew… I haven’t seen you since seventh grade.”
It was true; after Geoffrey moved we had separated and lost contact with most of the recruits.
“Now who might you be?” I asked with curiosity.
“Wesley…”
“Wesley? Um? Who?”
She sighed, “seven-four…um Ms. Glover, Ms. Dille, Mr. Eanes-“
“Oh! Seventh grade…”
“Stupid,”
“What was that?”
“Nothing… So how are you doing?”
“Well let’s see now… I was left for dead, killed five people, fell on my ass, and haven’t had food for days, how do you think I feel?”
“Sorry I asked…”
“Now how’d you survive without food?”
“There was food, just saved the food they gave me before it blacked out,”
“WHAT? That little food and you survived just on that?”
“Um, yeah…”
“Wow, I am still hungry…”
“Well can you help me move get up?”
“Sure,” I replied and lifted her up to her feet, “So now what do we do?”
“Maybe we should try to get out?”
“I could have thought of that…”
“Right…”
So from there on out I had found someone else to talk to then myself, because the facts are that talking to yourself becomes really annoying. Feels like listening to your personality talk for mindless amounts of hours! God… help me… but anyway I had found a companion to converse with now.
Then she followed me through the pitch-black hallways that seemed to get longer every turn. I felt as if we were going to walk forever in the labyrinth of a dungeon that lied under the ground. As I was walking I heard Wesley scream and she fell to the ground.
“What’s wrong?”
“A…body!”
“Not surprised…”
“Why not?”
“Because…check him for a flashlight…”
“How do you know it’s a he?”
“Just check the damn body!”
“Wow…tense…”
I shook my head and than turned to face the darkness once more.
“No don’t… please, I have a family…” the guard pleaded.
“Sorry sir, your family’s already dead…” I grinned and squeezed trigger.
“Hey!” a light shined in my face.
“Ouch…”
“Sorry,”
“You go ahead, I will catch up.”
She shook her head and walked forward with the flashlight shining on the walls. I bent down and looked at the man’s neck. I reach into his jacket and yanked the dog tags from his neck. I attached them on, and hid it under my shirt so it would be unseen to the human eye. I turned my head and followed her through the hallways.
It was quiet most of the night as I sat on the uncomfortable and cold floor that lay below my back. I stared at the ceiling and then turned to face the wall to my side. I closed my eyes waiting for something to happen, hoping something would repent for my actions that I have committed against the people of this world. Looking for some strand of redemption between my sins and myself.
Wesley sat at the other end of the room, I don’t know why, maybe she knew I was a murderer, or maybe, she just didn’t like me, but any way she was over there sound asleep. I got up and began to walk around the small room. My eyes half open and you can see the pupils of my eyes widen as the room was engulfed in the darkness. In my mind I can see the downfall of my once allies, their men falling to the ground, every gunshot piercing their skins, a satisfying revenge is what I saw it as.
I realized what my part in this world, to take the world for my own, to annihilate my enemies and conquer what is left, this world will be mine and no man will stop me from getting what I deserve.
“Freeze!” he yelled and cocked his weapon.
My pupils grew smaller and I charged him with everything I had. He squeezed the trigger and I saw the bullet fly at me flying above my shoulder. He fired again and I ducked as the bullet just grazed my hair. He began to pull the trigger but I hit his chest with my elbow and plunged my fist into his stomach. The gun went off and the bullet clearly missed me. He swung his arm at me but I evaded with swift movements and used by palm to dislocate his wrist. He screamed as I removed the pistol from his hand. With that he began to draw another from the other side, but I used his pistol and shot him through the wrist and pulled his hand off. I kicked his legs and when he fell to the floor I aimed my newly found pistol and pointed it at his lungs. He stared in agony but all I did was watch and smile. I squeezed back the trigger-
I heard a footstep and pointed my pistol at the opening. I waited there and then holstered the pistol and looked straight ahead. My thought began to converge upon my recent murders and carnage that came over me. It all overwhelmed me, the screams of pain, the gunshots… the look in their eyes…
I closed my eyes, listening to the sound of screams piercing my mind…
Chapter VII: Mirror
I woke with a bright light in my eyes and my arms immovable. My eyes were burning with the light shining into my eyes. A struggled to move my arms, but was unsuccessful.
“Where the hell am I? LET ME GO DAMNIT! LET ME GO!” I yelled out, but no one responded and no sounds were made.
I frantically tried to move, spinning my head trying to get the light out of my eyes. To no prevail I sat there breathing fast… my heart increasing speed dynamically. Fear overwhelmed me as cold steel touched the back of my neck. My eyes widen and I waited for the violent blast of noise and blacken my mind. My arms shook nervously until I stopped and closed my eyes about to accept my death. I feel the trigger being squeezed and-
I opened my eyes and yelled at the top of my lungs and pulled the nine-millimeter pistol and yanked back on the trigger. I stared, breathing roughly and my arm shaking. My eyes widen as I saw the light shine upon Wesley clutching her chest and her hand on my shoulder. She looked down and then looked back at me, her mouth open and blooding running down from her mouth and stomach. She began to fall backwards but I got up and ran to break her fall. I caught her just before she hit the ground and tried to think of a something to say.
“I am so sorry, so sorry…” I cried as tears rolled down my eyes, “DAMNIT! Someone help me! PLEASE GOD!”
I panicked, swaying my head to and fro; looking for something to remove the bullet with. I got up and ran out of the hall with the flashlight shining all over the walls as I sprinted down the halls. I broke into one room and look for something, anything. I saw a supply box and ran up to it I tried to unlatch the lock with no prevail. I took my pistol and shot at the latch breaking the seal and I immediately opened it panting. I moved my eyes frantically back and forth, looking for something, until a pair of tweezers caught my eye. I grabbed the tweezers and a rag that I thought might be useful and sprinted back toward the room. I turn left and with my mouth wide open I stared at the empty room.
“Where the hell are you!”
I sprinted out of the room and went to the room across the hall. I went in and saw a body on the floor. I ran to the body, shining the light on the dying woman. My hands were shaking trying to figure out what to do. I took the tweezers and moved the flashlight to face the blood drenched shirt.
“DAMNIT, I CAN’T SEE!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, and move her shirt to expose the wound. I took the tweezers and gently placed it into her stomach.
“You’re going to be all right! You’re going to be all right! Don’t die on me, just don’t die!”
A metal clicked against the tweezers and I frantically tried to get hold of it. Tears began to fall of my cheeks as I held the bullet in the palm of my hands; I began to smile as I ripped of my shirt to cover the wound. I pressed down hard onto the wound as she lied there in my arm. I smiled as the bleeding stopped and was about to open my mouth to say sorry. Her arm fell to the ground and I went to place it back on her chest. When I touched the arm the feeling of frost swelled up onto my arm and I could feel nothing but cold of the floor under me. I opened my eyes hoping, just hoping, that my mind was lying to me, just this once. The rag across her chest was now smeared with blood and her eye empty with the sign of death consuming her mind and all was dark. I closed her eyelids and gently placed her body onto the floor.
I got up and walked mindlessly through the corridors of the maze like bunker, searching for some reason to justify my current action, the action that’s just made me taking another life away from the world and into the hands of God or Satan. I limped as I walked with the weight of murder on my chest once more… watching me pull the trigger over and over in my mind. The pain surged through me… every time my finger pulled back… every time I heard the bullet exert itself through the barrel. Seeing the look on her face when the bullet went into her chest… seeing what is now a haunting image in my mind.
I continued to walk through the dark hallway smacking into the wall at every turn, but I couldn’t feel the pain, the thought crippled me as I just killed the only person who hadn’t tried to kill me, arrest me, or leave me for dead, no… I had to put a bullet in her chest… just for being alive.
My arms banged against the wall and stumbled into a room. I went numb as my head smacked itself into the floor and blood came down my head, but I didn’t feel it… I didn’t care either. I crawled to the wall and pulled myself up. I removed my pistol from my holster and put it to my head. I squeezed back the trigger just to get a click. The pistol’s safety was on and I immediately turned it off and put to my head once more. I began to ease back the trigger-
Chapter VIII: Where We Are Now
I opened my eyes, staring at the bon fire as it stilled roared through the night and into early morning. I glared at Sami still sleeping inside the buildings entrance. I got up and walked towards his resting body. I crouched down in front of him and anger welled up inside me as if a volcano exploded, I rage inflamed my body to where I pulled out my revolver and pointed the barrel towards his head. I cocked the revolver and prepared to release the demon which lay inside the barrel.
“Are you in this?” I asked Sami.
“All the way.”
I froze on the spot as the flashback appeared in my mind and put the revolver in my jacket and stormed off in the opposite direction. The snow crunched under my footstep as each foot hit the frozen ground. I stopped, leaned on a tree, then slip to the ground in a sitting position. I move one of my legs towards my chest and looked to the sky. I then looked back down and started to pull the hammer back on my revolver and pushing it back in place, click, as it snapped back in place. Click, click, click, it went over and over.
I sighed, my breathe became visible in the frost and I looked at the air and watched it disappear. A bird chirped and I turned my head left and smiled. I began to laugh as I drew my revolver and pointed it at the bird. I pulled back on the hammer than laughed at the bird. The bird stood there frozen in curiosity as my gun was pointed at it.
“Bang…” I spoke then laughed some more.
The bird took off faster than it had landed and disappeared off in the distance. I was still trying to figure out why I was continuously laughing as I sat there watching the bird fly off into the distance.
The frost burned against my cheeks as I laughed under the tree. I took my revolver and unloaded all the rounds except one. I spun the barrel and slammed it back into place and put it to my head.
“This will do, a little game of Russian Roulette,” I laughed and put it to my head. I began to pull back on the trigger and the hammer flew back and I closed my eyes and began to say a prayer, click.
“Damnit! You frakking revolver, I can’t just die, huh? NO! I have to sit here freezing my ass off and listening to myself laugh like some psychotic maniac! ARG! I need a beer.”
I got up and walked some more back to the barn where I had found that girl. I scrounged around the floor looking for something to drink, nothing. I went outside and looked for a house; chances were that there is one somewhere around here. See it wasn’t that I needed a beer, I just didn’t know what to do with myself, I was lost, confused and now I needed something to do or I might have to go back there and shoot Sami or something.
I went behind the barn and trudged off in the snow looking down at my feet. I held my revolver close by in my right hand out of the holster, I didn’t know why, I just did. For some reason it made me feel more comfortable to have it out.
“You know what?” Sami asked with his voice that meant he had something to say, like an idea or something negative. Couldn’t tell when he used that tone.
I hesitated, “No, what?”
“We can do this,”
I raised my eyebrow, “Do what?”
“Take over the world, dumbass,”
“Eh, I knew you were going to say that,”
“Really, then why didn’t you say something then?”
“Forget it, just tell me what you have planned and I will think about it.”
“You’re not taking me seriously,”
“Of course I am.”
“See there you go again with that tone.”
“Just tell me already.”
“Okay fine, well this is how it works, if recruit enough people from now and when we get out of college we might have enough ‘Followers’ to achieve our goal. We can use them to make weapons for us and we will fund them with whatever we can think of.”
“Eh, that can work, I suppose, but, how are we able to fund them when we don’t even make the sufficient amount of money to pay for these people.”
“Hm, leave it to me.”
“Damnit Sami, this is all you fault, if we didn’t do this I’d be home right now drinking coffee and eating waffles…” I sighed, “I can’t believe I let you drag me out here to do nothing! How the hell are we going to get to the other members anyway, we are bound to run out of gas before we make it there! Or we can get in a car crash, what happens then, WHERE THE HELL CAN I GET A BEER!”
“Oh what the hell… I am frakking talking to myself! I am going crazy! AH! Wait… can crazy people even know they are going crazy? Hm... DAMNIT I AM DOING IT AGAIN!” And I stormed off keeping myself thoughtless and I trudged in the snow.
Timed passed slowly and the snow began to melt into my shoes. My toes began to grow numb as each second passed. But I didn’t care, I just walked and I kept walking until the barn was not in eyeshot.
“Damn it’s cold…”