Post Apocolyptic Fantasy

I know it's been a long time, and I'm really sorry. But I got married and went on a month long honeymoon in Europe. So for a long time my life has been all about that. Now that I'm back home and it's all done, I'm doing a lot more writing. To celebrate this new phase in my life, as a happily married women with plenty of time for writing, I've started a new project. I may one day finish the other story, but probably not in the near future.

To start you off I'm posting what I've written so far in this new story. Also as part of this special promotion (he, he, he, sorry but I feel like I'm writing an add at the moment) I will be posting at least an additional 100 words per day.

Now be warned, before we begin... this is a work in progress and as part of my new philosophy I am going to finish this project before bothering with any editing or re-writing. The reason for this is simple, what's the point in spending hours editing and revising something if I don't finish it. Also I think there's a better chance of my finishing if I just keep writing! So it is very rough! Of course any comments and constructive criticism is more than welcome. You are also more than welcome to just heap praise on me in encouragement!

So here we go installment numero uno!

Draft 1

Dear Amy,

I miss you more than I miss solid ground beneath my feet, but maybe you’d have to spend weeks at sea to really understand that. We’ve just reached Rome today and the Colonel has ordered reconnaissance, we have to wait for them to get back before we decide how to go into this. I thought I would take the opportunity of writing to you now before we head into the fire, once we go in there who knows when I’ll have a chance to put pen to paper again.

I have to tell you that I’m a bit shocked with Rome. I think sometimes, in the daily humdrum of life in Melbourne, that all other cities of comparable size have been destroyed gets a bit lost. Not that you ever forget of course, we both know that the wars are not something you can ever forget, but more that it gets pushed to the back of your mind that there were ever other cities even approaching the size of Melbourne. To see one of them and to see the kind of condition it’s in, gives you so much more of a sense of everything the war destroyed. I’m torn between wishing that you could see this and being glad that you can’t. This could have been our town, we could have been that generation of Romans that will now never be. It’s a sobering thought. Especially when you consider why we’re here.

I know you’ve always said I should have been a politician rather than a soldier and I never disagreed with you, if we still had elections I probably would be, but I’ve never realised until now how ill suited I really am for this job. This entire situation makes me furious. Firstly, why, after all the destruction that has already occurred here, are people attacking the Vatican, one of the few strongholds of civilisation left? Secondly, why are we being dragged into it? Don’t we already have enough dead of our own? Finally, what on earth am I doing here? I joined the guard to serve the city of Melbourne not to travel halfway round the world and kill people!

The speech that Edward Kennet made to us before we left Amy, you wouldn’t have believed it even if you’d heard it. Full of all the old propaganda style rhetoric, ‘We must stand together or we will all fall’, ‘Your duty is to your country and your country has a duty to it’s friends’. I can’t believe that he thinks no one has ever seen those exact phrases printed on all the faded old war propaganda posters that are still all over the city! His arrogance knows no bounds, I’m certain of it. I’m just as sure that he was behind me being sent here, probably hoping to get me out of the way. He obviously didn’t like how quickly I was promoted, especially after I married a known dissenter. Still as we both know, you can never predict what the consequences of your actions will be. You only have to look at the way we met, if someone had told me that day, when I led my squad out to arrest protesters, that I would end up marrying one of them I’d have thought they were crazy. and I know for sure that you never thought that not only would you not get arrested at the rally but you’d end up marrying one of the soldier!

Anyway, as much as I could spend another hour writing you all the thoughts in my head I can’t. One of our recon squads has returned and I have to get to the debriefing. I’d ask you to pray for me, but I know you already are.

I love you.

Jacob.

Jacob put down his pen and scratched his head, then he stood, stretched and picked up his helmet. He’d been waiting all day for this debriefing so he had been ready to go. He had told his wife the truth in the letter, that he was taking the opportunity to write while he had it but even more than that he was writing to calm his nerves. The reconnaissance team had left early the previous evening and should have been back by dawn, but dawn had come and gone without any sign of them it was now early afternoon and, if his Lieutenant was correct, one of the squad had now returned. Only one of them returning was a bad sign, but not as bad as none of them returning would have been.

His boots clacked against the steel deck of the aircraft carrier as he walked, his stride quick and determined, he was anxious to know what kind of report the man would give. He reached the door of the Colonel’s office and gave a firm rap and when he heard the Colonel’s terse ‘Enter’ he opened the door and stepped into the room. It was a handsome room for all that it was just a shipboard office, many of their meetings were held there so it was large enough to accommodate several officers sitting down and even more standing. At one end, in front of a large window, was a handsome oak desk that Jacob knew to actually belong to the Colonel. The Colonel was not presently seated behind his desk however, he was seated at one of the chairs in front of it, the other Captains stood behind him, and in front of them sat the most distraught and dirty soldier Jacob had yet seen.
‘I came as soon as I heard, Sir’ he said touching his hat in a brief salute. The only acknowledgement was a nod.
‘Well private, tell us what you saw.’
The Colonel and all of his Captains waited, their eyes fixed on the young soldier whose own eyes, wide and still showing the fright from his ordeal, never left his shirt buttons.

‘We’d only just made it over the rise, sir, when we spotted them. They didn’t see us at first and the Sergeant told us to keep low to the ground, you know to keep ‘em from seeing us and then, I don’t know.’ The young man shrugged looking distraught, ‘One of them must have heard us, or something, though I don’t know how they could have but all of a sudden they were charging at us. Course there’s not much point sending us if we don’t come back so we all scattered. I don’t know how I got away, but I could hear others screaming behind me and I just ran as fast as I could. I nearly ran straight into another group of them but I hid beneath some ruins and they just passed right by me. I was careful not to make a sound but I saw them well enough, there were hundreds of them and I don’t know what they were but they did not look human. They were like the worst kind of mutants, like devils or something. Anyway, so around dawn things started to quiet down a bit and when the sun was out they all seemed gone away somewhere so I came out from where I was hidden and found my way back here. I didn’t see any of the rest of the squad.’

During this recital the Colonel had paced the room and now that the Private was finished he was standing facing the window, his face hidden from view. When he spoke his voice was flat and hard,
‘This man will need to be sedated and I want him to be isolated.’ He turned to, Captain Longstaff of the C company who was his ever-hovering assistant, ‘see to it that he is tested for radiation poisoning and I want him to be kept away from the rest of the men until further notice.’
‘Yes sir.’ The faithful assistant, given his marching orders, gave up his hovering instantly and hustled the soldier out of the room.
The Colonel turned to the other officers then, but his eye was fixed on Jacob, ‘Well, you’ve heard the mans tale as well as I, Captain Clark what do you make of it?’
‘I’d like to believe that the terror of the night played tricks with his mind sir, but I have to say that I think it more likely there’s men out there suffered from radiation poisoning. Probably so mutated can’t even be called men now sir. Though it’s likely the truth could even be some combination of the two.’
The older soldier sat down at his desk and swivelled his chair around to face the window.
‘I believe you are probably quite right,’ he paused for a moment looking out over the harbour where they were anchored.

The silence stretched between them as they all contemplated the implications of the soldiers report and the conclusion that had been drawn. After a few moments the Colonel spoke again, his voice no longer hard and stern but distant.
‘We’ll travel by day to reach Rome, if the scout is to be believed these monsters were everywhere by night but during the day he seemed to have no trouble returning to the base here on his own and while wounded.’
Jacob considered this, surprised that not only had he missed this vital piece of information but also the implications this seemed to have.
‘Yes, perhaps their mutations make them unable to venture into the light of day.’ He replied speaking before he thought. The Colonel immediately swivelled round in his chair and the contemplative mood disappeared like flower under a soldiers boot.
‘There’s to be nothing said to the men about any mutants or radiation or any of it. All they are to know is that the squad was ambushed and only one made it back alive and that he is badly injured, not to be disturbed.’
‘Yes sir.’ The Captains all said in unison
‘I shall give orders to keep the scout under sedation and we shall move out at first light tomorrow. For tonight we’ll stay anchored a little further out to sea, just in case they can pick up some trace of our man coming back.’
‘Shall I give the orders sir?’ Jacob wanted to know
‘Yes, see to it Captain Clark, you are dismissed Captains.’

As soon as Jacob left the Colonel’s office he hurried to the bridge, thinking about the order’s he’d been given. He didn’t agree with the Colonel’s stance that the men shouldn’t be told. Unfortunately as only he and the other officers knew the substance of the Scout’s report there didn’t seem to be anything he could do about it without openly violating his commanders orders. With these thoughts rushing through his head his quick step seemed to get him to the bridge faster than usual. A feeling of urgency had descended on him and he couldn’t seem to shake himself free of the fear that it was extremely important that they move further out of harbour as soon as possible. On entering the bridge the crew there saluted him promptly and he ignored them making straight for the navigators. It was easy for him to see now, with all the windows of the bridge before him, why he felt this pressing need to move further out to sea. The sun was slowly setting on the horizon and, even as the clouds were turning brilliant shades of orange and pink, darkness was creeping ever closer and Jacob realised with a start that he felt some fear of that darkness and what it might bring with it.

‘Sir’ the bridge commander said as he approached.
‘We’re to head a bit further out to sea for the night before deployment commences at first light.’
‘Yes sir’ replied the bridge captain.
Jacob did not stay to see these orders carried out, he knew they would be. Before he had gone more than halfway back to his cabin he could feel the familiar motion of the ship beneath his feet. By the time he got back to his cabin he could see that the coastline was a much more comfortable distance away. Jacob sat at his small writing desk and folded the letter he’d been writing to his wife, he knew that it wouldn’t be long before his Lieutenant showed up wanting to know the details of the meeting and he didn’t want it lying around for him to see. Kyte was an excellent Lieutenant, extremely loyal and trustworthy and Jacob was certain that should the need ever arise he would do anything he could to help anyone that he cared about. Unfortunately Kyte was also a terrible tease and when he got hold of something it would be months before anyone heard the end of it. Kyte always said it was part of his charm, Jacob always said that it was the reason Kyte was still unmarried.

The letter now safely tucked away in a desk draw, Jacob removed his helmet and re-spiked his short brown hair. Having to wear a helmet whenever on deck was one of the more irritating shipboard rules, in his opinion, but like a good soldier he still followed them all to the letter. No sooner had this been done than anticipated knock on the door came, despite knowing exactly who it would be Jacob decided to tease his friend.
“Who is it?” he asked. Kyte was only allowed address him informally when they were alone, if they were in a public place (like a ships corridor) then it had to be Sir. Jacob knew that this often annoyed Kyte and therefore put him in situations where he had to do it whenever possible.
“Lieutenant Peterson, Sir, requesting permission to enter?”
“Come in.”

Kyte entered looking disgruntled, with Angus by his side who was trying not to look too amused.
“Was that really necessary? You knew it would be us!” He demanded as soon as the door closed behind them.
“I didn’t know that, despite the fact that I am your superior officer I am actually not all knowing.” They had all three joined up as infantry together and it was only recently that Jacob had been promoted above the other two.
Kyte scowled briefly but would not be distracted from the purpose of his visit, “Right but there are some things you know that we don’t, like what the scout said?”
Jake sighed but he knew that this question had been coming, and he knew what he had to do.

“They were ambushed, only one of them returned and he’s injured and pretty badly shaken up. We think the trauma of being the only surviving member of his squad has gotten to him because, well, he seems to have cracked completely. The only useful information we got out of him is that the enemy is everywhere by night but no-where to be seen by day, and the enemy are savage. Probably they were driven mad by the wars, but who knows.”
“Right, well that’s not much to go on.”
“No but it’s all we’ve got and the Colonel doesn’t want to risk any more troops on reconnaissance.”
“We could be risking more if we don’t have proper reconnaissance, we could stumble into nest of the buggers without even realising it”
“There was no evidence of them having any kind of weaponry, the scout couldn’t recall hearing any shots fired, so as long as we stay in our planes till we reach Vatican city and go there and get back while it’s light….” Jacob let his sentence trail off unwilling to give them any more reassurance than he felt.

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