The government promised us the war would be over within weeks. That bastard, the bastard on television, the bastard who kissed babies in order to get my parents votes, that bastard promised us the Helghast would never step foot on earth. The funny thing is, everyone believed him. All the kids, all my friends were out playing basketball five minutes after his announcement. Two weeks later we see on the news that the Helghast were putting up a fight, a real fight. Days pass. I forget how many days, they passed so quickly, but it was only days until they were here. Nobody was playing basketball any more. We were all scared. We all knew it was only a matter of time before they were in our home town.
My name is Ricky Denver and I am seventeen, my birthday wasn't too long ago (I got basketball shoes and a new guitar.) and I still live with my parents. We live in a small town in Vekta. By "we", I mean my parents and my little sister Sarah. Sarah is only six years old and she is beautiful, blond hair and bright, bright blue eyes. I'm only telling you about my sister because the story that you are about to hear is about her. It's about me. It is about survival against all odds. It is about my mother being killed, but to start off I will tell you about the night they arrived.
The Night They Arrived.
I strummed my guitar along to an old classic. "Placebo" is the bands name, and they are about as retro as they come. All my friends love Rap-fusion music, but that shit doesn't appeal to me. I love all the oldies, Placebo, Queens Of The Stone Age etcetera, etcetera, etcetera... Not many people have ever heard of them, which makes me feel special. I was too tired to stay up and do any home work, so I logged off my guitar lesson and went to bed. I still remember what I dreamt about that night. A girl at my school, a beautiful girl, a girl whose name I have long since forgot.
A loud bang outside woke me up. The noise was followed by many more. Gun shots, unmistakeable gun shots. They are here. It's dark and I step on my new guitar. It's not like I care right now. I'm instantly awake and full of fear and adrenaline. My bedroom door creeks when I open it so I slowly ease it open. Its cold in the hallway, the air feels good against my bare legs. I walk calmly to the stairs. My mother is at the bottom of the steps, "Shh, Check on your sister." she whispers up to me. I don't say anything, but I want to tell her to be careful. I continue along the hallway. My little sisters door also creaks, so I get ready to open it slowly. First, I need to wipe the palm of my hands. Dry up the sweat. I slowly extend my arm to her door handle. I touch the cold metal, which makes me jump. Although the sound of my house front door blow open makes me jump more. I hear my mother scream as I stand frozen, frozen like the door handle I hold on to. Gun shots. She is dead, I know she is. Hesitation no longer seems to be an issue. I open the door and rush in. I flick the light switch. She's still asleep. Thank god. As she lays sleeping like an angel, I begin to cry. My mothers dead and I don't know where my father is. As long as my sister is okay, I need to be strong. I approach her bed and give her a little shake. She mumbles incoherently. "Hey", I say, "Hey, wake up Sarah. It's Rick." She shows me the blue innocence and serenity that is her eyes. "We need to go." I say, trying not to sound alarming. However, she can see my tears and I think she can hear the gun shots. She doesn't say anything, she just nods and gets out of bed. At her closet I grab clothes. Tiny jeans, a tiny shirt. She gets socks and shoes. I let her dress with the light on, but I tell her to hurry up. I flick off the lights. They are already up the stairs. I think the Helghast are in my bedroom. "Come here Sarah, come here." I whisper. She picks up her doll, "Lisa-doll" I believe it's called, and moves over too me. "Right, this is what we are going to do." I softly tell her ear, "We are going to run my bedroom." The Helghast are now in my parents bedroom. "Ricky?" She says to me. "I love you." Damn her. Damn her, why did she have to make this harder? Why did she say that? "I love you too." Out the door - Across the hallway - In my room - At my bed - Opening the window. It's freezing outside. I pick up Sarah and sit her on the window ledge. I reach over to my bed post and grab my hoody. It's not for me.
I sit next to Sarah and hold her hand. I tell her it's not a big fall (which it isn't, I jump out my window all the time when I'm grounded.) and it won't hurt. I don't know if she believes me. "Okay... Three, two, one." Then we fell. We both bounced forward a little and stumbled. She seems fine and begins tugging on my arm, She wants to head out to the main road but I pull her back. "We can't go that way," I tell her, "Come out back, to the forest." We run to the end of the back garden and I help her over the fence. As I climb over the fence, I remember that I have not dressed. I'm wearing my underwear and a shirt, it's damn cold. We travelled into the tree's, we went further that I had ever been before. I didn't know if they would ever end, but they did. We came to the top of a large hill. Almost as far as my eyes could see was fields. Fields of nothing. In the distance however, a city. I've never been there before but I know it's called St. Andrews. Sarah and me sat at the top of the hill. Tree's covered us from any battle crafts flying by. Sarah asked, "Is mummy okay?" How could I do this. How could I tell a six year old? I sat silent. She understood. She knew her mummy was dead.
A few hours later and it is light. Sarah and Lisa-Doll are sleeping, Sarah is wearing my hoody which is like a duvet on her. I never slept, instead I watched the black sky change red. The sky is still red, if I wasn't so terrified, I would say that it is beautiful. It's now day time officially. I'm freezing cold. Sarah and me have a long day a head of us. Walking to St. Andrews and getting help.
Nostalgic Psyches Gives Us Hope.
I'd say we were about half way from St. Andrews and the sun was beating down. Out here there is no sound. I can't hear gunshots, explosions or vehicles. I suppose it's a good thing. Maybe not, I don't know. "My legs hurt." Sarah whines to me. I ask her to get on my back and I will carry her for a while. It would take another hour or so to get to St. Andrews. I liked walking across the field. The long and uncut grass felt nice on my feet, shins and calf's. It tickled. Not far now, the City looks large from where we are. Just when I thought Sarah was asleep she asks, "Do you think Daddy is okay?" Our dad is in the ISA as a gunship pilot and too be honest, I don't know if he is okay. "Yeah, of course he is okay. He's fine!" I lie to her.
St. Andrews. It's a ghost city. Nobody is around. They have most likely evacuated after hearing what happened to my home town. I wish we had a warning. I wish me and my family had time to run. When the thoughts of how lucky this city was, I see something which turns my stomach. A dead body and a wrecked car. Maybe the Helghast came here and attacked first. "I need a pee." Sarah says to me. I forgot she was still on my back. I can't let her see the dead body. It would traumatise her... Even more. I slip her off my back and tell her to go over by the lamp post. Walking over to the body I can see it is a man. There is bullets holes in his chest. I feel sick. Glancing over his body, I notice his jeans are the same size as mine. I am cold. Very cold. I should take them, I thought to myself.
"Where did you get those clothes?" Sarah enquires about my socks, shoes and jeans. "From a clothes shop" Is the lies I feed her. I don't know if there is anybody left in this city. Around a few corners it is clear the Helghast have been here. There is no bodies about, just bullet casings, bullet wholes and fires. What have they done with the bodies? We come to a small park. "Can I go on the swings?" Sarah asks. She asks too many questions. "Of course you can." For the first time since I woke her up, she smiles. I sit on one of the many benches and close my eyes. My hands on my forehead – Neck – Shoulders – Chest – Stomach – Hips – In his pockets. My eyes open. There is something in his right pocket. I pull out a piece of paper – A leaflet;
"This is OUR faith,
This is where WE stand"
The words of that bastard.
That liar.
Where is he now? In a bunker in Vekta city. This bunker could be called a "Secret bunker" because even though it was indented for the public, he never had time to aware everyone. Now its too late. Now the Helghast are attacking. These space monkeys are murdering us like sitting ducks, because our president never warned us! I say we leave before it is too late. I say we leave before this city is attacked. I, for one, am on my way.
By your secret saviour, Nostalgic Psyches.
A bunker? In Vekta City? We need to leave as soon as possible. Vekta isn't too far from here, just over a bridge in fact. I will push Sarah on the swings for a bit, then we will try and find that bridge. I can't help shake the feeling that I have heard the alias "Nostalgic Psyches." It sounds like a hacker alias or, or something. Maybe my minds just playing tricks on me.
"You hungry?" I ask Sarah, we haven't ate in about eighteen hours. "Yeah. Pizza?" Pizza? Yeah right. I think she will like my idea better... I wrapped my shirt around my right fist and hooked the window pane of the door. I then punched around the edges to get rid of any extra glass. An alarm did go off, but even if there was people around no one would care. I climbed inside and found the light switch. "Here." Sarah's innocent voice spoke from outside. "Take Lisa." She handed me the doll from outside and I sat her on the counter. I was surprised to see Sarah climb in the window by herself. Although it was dangerous, it was amazing. "So, dig in." I say. I think it's every kids dream to be aloud in a sweetie shop. We both tucked in to the assorted rainbow of sweeties.
A Bridge Too Far?
In the town square we found a map. From the map we found the bridge. It was dark and I didn't know whether to cross it or take shelter. Sarah was very tired and it would be smarter to travel by night. Under the bridge there was a small sandy area. A small beach where we could sleep.
In the morning, another red sky. This sky, was beautiful. The cracked lines of soft blue and sharp red created a pattern which I could stare at or hours and hours. If it wasn't for the sound of tanks. I sat up straight, jelly babies fell out of my pocket, and tried to listen. Helghast or ISA? Sarah began to twist and turn. The sounds were directly above us. Sarah mumbles incoherently, she shows me the blue innocence and serenity that is her eyes. "Shh." I hush down to her and her Lisa-Doll. The rumbles above seem to be going into St. Andrews. They begin to get fainter and fainter. They're gone. "Get up. Lets go."
We climbed back up to the bridge. We held hands and walked forwards. It was a large bridge, very nice (aesthetically), apart from the tank tracks. At the end of the bridge as sign read: "Welcome To Vekta City. Capitol Of Planet Vekta." Well I certainly feel welcome. The silhouetted skyscrapers were masked by a sky of red, a beautiful sky of red. Sarah is munching on something sugary, she'll not sleep tonight if she keeps this up. At the end of the bridge we stop. Its eerie. Silent. Sarah pulls Lisa out of her pocket. A gun shot in the distance, a sniper has fired at us. The bullet ripped through her soft little head, tearing her neck clean of her shoulders. Lisa I'm talking about, the bullet hit Lisa. I pull Sarah off to the side, another shot, miss, we hide behind a car, another shot, ricochet. My dad was right: Snipers like to show off. That is why he shot Lisa-Doll instead of us. Behind the car Sarah and I crouch. "I just want to go home!" She yells. "I want to go home and go to bed! Go to school! I'm too tired!" She continues. I try and hush her. "Sarah listen, I'm sorry! Please don't cry. She ignores me and begins to sob. The sigh of this makes me fill with rage. I wanted to stand up and run towards him. That plan would fail within seconds. Deus Ex Machina. You know what that means? I do. I was reading about it. It is a phrase used for books or films where the ending has nothing to do with the plot. Instead of the protagonist sorting out everything in the end, something stupid would happen. Something that is unexpected. Like, God coming down from earth and stopping a bomb. Anyway, before I stood up, the ISA tanks stopped me. They came over the bridge, towards me and Sarah. They must have seen the sniper on the roof or something, because the front tank fired a shell. I heard the explosion. The building collapsing.
There was only two tanks, the rest of the cavalry were military ambulances. Filled with innocent corpses. They stopped a little up the road and collected several corpses laying on the road. Many of the dead bodies were ISA soldiers who had come to protect the innocents. They began piling the bodies onto the ambulances and Sarah stood, watching them. I didn't want her seeing so much blood, but I was busy talking to the tank commander. He kept telling me there was no secret bunker and how our president wasn't hiding. I think he thought I was crazy. "But here," I said, pulling out the leaflet, "This says there is." I handed him the piece of paper and his eyes scanned it rapidly. There was a few seconds of silence, then, "Where did you find this?" He asked me. In a dead guys pocket. He looked at me even more queerly than before. "Was it Nostalgic Psyches body? You know, that writer? He is wanted by the government. He has been spreading conspiracy theories." Oh. I never knew whether to believe him or not.
He gave me a description of this writer, and it was true. "Look," He said, "There is a chance he only wrote one of these and kept it to himself." Yeah. That is a possibility. God I feel so stupid. I looked over to Sarah, she looked like she had seen a ghost. The tank commander said to me, "I'll give you a lift back home kid." Yeah. Okay.
Epilogue/ The un-perfect ending.
It wasn't until I got a letter home, a death letter, that I understood why Sarah looked so pale. You know the bodies? The bodies that were being piled up? Sarah saw out dad. It was a hell of a week.