War of Ages
Many years from now a war will arise from anger and hate. Countries and continents will turn against each other and the world will fall into chaos. Eventually, we will begin to resort to older, stronger and more destructive weapons, nuclear bombs. The world today is the result of that war. Civilization must learn, many generations later, to learn to trust one another to rebuild our world.
Chapter 1:
Demons
Nothing. I hope it's nothing. The constant pain, sharp on my shoulder. My eyes opened as if I was reborn. Glittering walls of crystals rose around me and beautiful stone cave walls surrounded me.
All of a sudden, the moment was broken by a piercing shriek. I turned my head to see what was behind me. It was a giant beast! Looking around, I saw that the shriek had come from a woman lying on the ground just a few feet away. Finally, I noticed that my shoulder and my shirt were covered in blood. My memory was fuzzy on what had happened. Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing here?
Suddenly I was scooped up by the creature and taken away. The burley scaled beast leaned over me with a warm look about it. With a snout that narrowed to almost a point with sharp teeth extending from the closed mouth. It seems familiar. What is this thing and why is it carrying me? Where are we going?
Back to base, of course. The words came to mind as if someone was talking to me. Are you all right? Your shoulder got trashed. Oddly, the creature looked down at me gingerly. Don't you remember me?
"What? Who's there?" I exclaimed in surprise.
It's me. Calm down. I won't hurt you. To my surprise the creature seemed to understand me. Looks like you were hurt worse than I thought. Hold on tight. Here we go! Looking up to see what was going on, I saw that we were going to run into a wall!
"Are you crazy! Stop! What are you doing?" I franticly hollered as I flailed about.
Quiet! Do you want them to hear you? You must not remember that a pressure switch opens the base. I also scans for retinal patterns and your DNA. Only you and I can open it. You invented it, you know. All of a sudden we rammed into the rock face of a cliff. Following the loud thud of the weight against it, the stone began to hiss and clank. Finally a small metal room opened and a small opening in the wall revealed a panel with a binocular-like interment protruding the sleek metal face. The creature bent over, placed its eyes into the appropriate spots. Suddenly, the panel flashed a green light and a door on the other side of the room opened with the same gear-like noise. Surprisingly, we were greeted by at least a dozen men and women.
"Welcome back, Captain," welcomed one. "You too, Moro," nodding to the creature. Tenderly, the creature, Moro, stood me up. Glowing computer monitors surrounded a main center with chairs scattered about. To my surprise, the men and women lined up and began calling names out one by one.
"Squad leader, Red Hawk, reporting," began one woman as she stepped forward.
"Premises surveillance, Blue Fox, reporting," inserted an Asian man as he too stepped forward.
"First aid, Silver Falcon, reporting." The list continued for another two minutes. Finally, the last one was called.
"Heavy weaponry, Brown Bear, reporting." After the man had stepped forward all the eyes in the room turned to Moro.
Special operations, White Fox, reporting. Following the others, she stepped forward. Now, everyone turned to me. Many thoughts rushed through my head.
"Commander, White Dove, reporting." I recalled. "Operations, dismissed." I didn't know what came over me. It all felt so familiar. As everyone went back to their routine, my head began to swim. Against the wall, I felt myself sliding slowly as my eyes closed and everything went black…
* * *
As I regained consciousness, my eyes slowly opened and I was almost blinded by a bright light. Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the intensity of the beam. "I see you are awake, Dakarri," announced a voice from beyond my vision.
"What?" I replied confused.
"You were injured pretty badly this time around, Commander," continued the voice.
"Right. Could you explain this to me?" I sheepishly inserted, still vary confused.
"What do you mean? Oh, yes, I almost forgot. A toxin was detected in your system. That would explain it," she began to trail off as if I couldn't understand her or I wasn't even there.
"So, let me get this straight, I'm drugged," I tried to draw her attention to me. The light switched off and a familiar face bent over me.
"Bingo. Right as always," she complemented. "The test results just came through on the network. It says that the drug is a new one. The components show, however, that it would induce a faint case of amnesia," she informed me. Then, I realized what was happening. My name is Dakarri Danes Wills. My town was taken from me. I will fight to take it back from the Khons. My family was taken from me. I will avenge their deaths. I had said these exact words to my fellow citizens when we were finally forced to leave the Boneyard.
"Dakarri? Commander?" the voice called me back to reality.
"What? I'm sorry."
"I pulled the bullet out of your right shoulder. Hopefully, we can find the make and pinpoint the attacker. You'll be able to start helping out around here again in a week or-"
"I have to go," I stated, cutting her off.
"No, you have to stay and rest, Dakarri," she demanded.
"I started this fight, I have to help." At that I got up and grabbed my jacket from the table. Looking back at Silver Falcon one more time, I left the infirmary.
* * *
Metallic plated walls lead down a labyrinth of hallways in the end was a small door with a keypad next to it. Warily, I approached the two paneled door, a sign next to the door read "Commander Wills." Five buttons extended from the dark metal face of the wall console. Almost shaking from the strain from my shoulder, I reached out and pressed the single button on the bottom. Reacting quickly, the door opened to a lightly decorated room with a few pieces of clothing scattered on the floor. It had been a hasty packing when I left the city. Through the tears and the pain of seeing my family killed before my eyes in a display of order, I managed to grab the few things close to my heart and headed for the vault just outside of town.
Quickly, I headed to my bead along the left wall. At the head of it was a photo in a slightly cracked frame. Four people gathered around a young girl, only fourteen years old. Her brown hair was pulled back and a smile was proudly worn, it was her fifteenth birthday party. Although her birthday wasn't for three more days, it was a sunny day and all the commerce in town had been stopped for Independence Day. That was one of the happiest days of my life. My family was happy then, free from all worries of attack. Florence, Danshel, Romero or "Rom", and me, all a little less than one and a half years ago. Danshel, the mayor of the Boneyard and Florence, the daughter of a merchant were my parents. Rom was my older brother by eight years, helping dad in business. The corner of the photo read:
Happy Birthday, Karri!
Love,
Mom, Dad, and Rom.
The mirror next to the photo was in pristine condition and as if to try to reconcile myself I looked into it with trusting brown eyes. My brunette hair framed my tan face and flowed down on to my camouflage jacket and black shirt. The wear and tear of living in these pressed circumstances was showing. Although I was much younger in the picture, I was an extremely different person. No longer a girl, but a young woman trying to avenge her family. Suddenly my mind was pulled from my reminiscing and into a rage when I recounted the past few events. Klain was waiting for my move.
* * *
As I entered the bustling operations room, the team stood and greeted me. Blue Fox, who's real name is Jacob, stepped forward to welcome me. After his third strong and purposeful step, a siren sounded and the red warning lights began to flash.
"Captain, we're under attack!" informed an operator beside me over the siren.
"Special ops team report to briefing room," I announced over the base wide intercom.
* * *
Once I reached the briefing room, the whole team was there. The whole special operations team was gathered around the large map of the base. Red Hawk was in the center briefing the team on the mission ahead.
"We are surrounded. Don't use exits 1, 4 or 8. Go suit up and wait for my signal," Red Hawk prepared them for the battle all around us. Slowly, I walked over to her. "Captain, I thought… never mind."
"No, go on," I encouraged.
"It's just that I thought that you were going to be in the infirmary resting. At least that's what Silina said." Silina's code name was Silver hawk.
"Well, here I am. Looks like I'm going after all," I mentioned as I headed for the weapon storage area to suit up.
* * *
After we had gotten our gear on and quickly went over our objectives, we hurried over to the exit. Silence swept over us as we opened the hatch. Our opponents had disappeared like banshees. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a bush move.
"Enemy at 4 o'clock!" I hollered. As the words rolled off my tongue, a squad of infantry ambushed our group unexpectedly. Reacting to the situation, my troops entered a defensive formation to hold off the attack from the base. Thoroughly, I searched the faces for their leader, Klain. Silently, I crept away from my group to search further. Just as I realized that I had wandered almost too far, I felt something hit me in the back. Helplessly, I fell to the ground, paralyzed. Klain bent over me observantly.
"This is the one. Put a blind fold on her and follow me," demanded the vicious raider leader. Following orders, the solder put a cloth over my face and grabbed my arms to hold me hostage as he followed Klain to an unknown destination. Finally, I regained use of my legs and began to kick. Instead of hitting me, the footman rummaged through his pack. Surprisingly, I felt the prick of a needle on my shoulder and slowly, I fell asleep.
* * *
Slowly, my senses returned to me. Odors of decay and other revolting scents filled my nostrils. Cautiously, I opened my eyes. Darkness surrounded me. At that moment I realized that I was bound to a chair. Heavy metal cuffs clamped my hands together and my legs were chained to the legs of the cold metal chair. Cool air blew through the loose flaps of the raider camp tent. Unexpectedly, a light blinked on. Klain's familiar and devious-looking face entered the circle of dim light that the newly lit lamp created.
"Well Dakarri, long time no see," he mocked.
"I'm glad," I bluntly remarked.
"Let's see… I believe that the last time I saw you was… Oh yes… You were wreaking havoc on my weapons depot,"
"You're smarter than you look, but not by much," I continued.
"And I'd like to thank you for leading me to your base."
"What?" I exclaimed.
"The bullet that my assassin is sitting in your medical bay with your doctor, Silver Falcon. Her skills are greater than I expected from someone under your command. She detected the drug that the bullet injected into your blood stream. Too bad… that was my newest invention. I was going to let you test it for me. It's like a computer virus. It deletes all information and memories that you have. It's an incurable amnesia basically. However you got it out of your system before it took full effect. Darn," he informed me.
"Too bad."
"You aren't getting away that easily, White Dove. I need some information," he pushed.
"I'm not telling you anything," I hollered hoping someone would hear me.
"We'll see about that." From behind him I could hear another person approaching, a guard. "I'm tired of your games. Guard!" At his command, a large rugged man entered the small tent. He walked up to me and pulled out a syringe. After he pulled off the safety lid on the needle he shoved it into my shoulder directly onto my bullet wound. After that everything went fuzzy…
* * *
Dakarri, where are you… Dakarri?
"She's over here!" a voice rang out. Slowly, my eyes opened. Warm desert air blew through a long corridor. It was now daytime. I don't know how long I was asleep. Bars barricaded me inside the small room. Shadows ran along the walls. Finally, I realized that those shadows were my team. One by one they rounded the corner.
"Dakarri, are you all right?" questioned Red Hawk.
"I'm fine, I think," I responded.
"Keep away from this side, we're going to blast you out," she informed me. Suddenly, I saw Brown Bear, who's real name is Bryan. He reached into his pack and grabbed a small package. Carefully, he set up a plastic explosive on the bars of the small room.
"Here we go," he announced like a small boy going on a roller coaster. As the switch was pressed, I shielded my eyes as a large explosion ran through the hallway. Apparently, this had triggered some sort of alarm because a brigade of raiders came charging up from both sides. Using the newly made exit, I stepped out of the cell and grabbed my pistol from the shelf outside.
"Do we have more people here?" I wondered.
"All three squads from ground tactics are here and us. We sent them to-" She was cut off by a flying knife. Regretfully, I still had a large wound on my shoulder. Using my left hand, I began to fight. After many of their men were down, I followed my team to what looked like a control room. Quickly, we disposed of it. Leaving the smoking machinery behind, we continued on to find the leaders and win back our town.
After we searched many rooms and tents, we finally found the leaders of the group. Klain was sitting at a large, broken down table with many other members of his band. Silently, I crept over to the side of the tent that aligned with where he was standing. Holding up my gun I fired one shot through the thin fabric. Cautiously, I looked underneath the tent to see if I had hit my mark. I had. Finally, we had won.
In the end, we returned victorious to the base. Citizens of the Boneyard could finally return home. Although we had started weak, we came out strong. As for me, well, with a heavy heart I left town. I wanted to know more about the world, but I also had no choice. The mayor of the town said that I was too violent and a bad influence to the younger citizens. Many begged me to stay but I didn't want to cross the mayor. Now I am a wanderer, a nomad of the desert. Moro came with me however. You are the only one that understands me, she told me. To this day we search for a place to call home in this twisted world.