The Penalties of War:
#1 - Memories
Mists were encircling the camp of the dead. The sun was mockingly smiling on it but even his watchful rays could not keep out the mists of sorrow that had encompassed the town. It had been laughing, active and carefree but now all that joy had been silenced. It was dead. Not a single creature had survived the explosion. The explosion that had ended a thousand lives in one second. The technology of man designed to help the weaker survive, destroying for no reason what so ever. Hypocritical isn't it?
Yet, as it is with all tragedies, one was left to mourn over the lost and the forgotten. In this case a girl, scarcely more than 15, walked through the carnage littered streets, a flutter of movement being the only sign to give away her ghostly presence. A tear trickled down her colourless cheek, colourless apart from the scarlet of three burning scars that almost flickered with the anger embedded in her heart.
She stopped outside the ruins of a redbrick building. She paused then suddenly leapt up and scrambled over the smouldering framework. Then just as suddenly she bent down, shoving aside the rubble till she had dug a tunnel through it, large enough for her to squeeze through. She bent down and leapt into the blackness beneath her, ripping her trousers on a metal pole, falling then landing in a confused lump on a dusty floor. She stumbled around, trying to make the most use of her mere shaft of light. The would-be room stank of mutilated flesh but the girl merely held her nose and searched on, returning every now and then to gasp at the fresh air supplied by her flimsy entrance. Under the form of an upturned desk a striped paw caught her eye. The girl moved closer, stroking the corpse's head and scratching behind its ear.
"Bazil," she whispered, as she untangled the squirrel like body from a protective arm and held it tightly against her chest. Her tears were streaming now, matting the squirrel's fur. After a moment she replaced the corpse and peered more closely at the figure behind it. Its body seemed to shield the squirrel, its face a mixture of anguish and sorrow.
"Yuumei. thank you," the girl stammered. "I know you would have given your life for my brother but alas that was not enough." She stood up and turned to address the room, "may you all rest in peace, my friends."
With that she sat down on a broken chair leg and scribbled a message on a piece of paper. Finished, she stood up and attached the paper to the metal pole that was responsible for the tear in her trousers. Taking one last look around her she climbed out of her skylight doorway. The scrawl read as follows:
"My friends,
If you ever read this either you have been brought back from the dead by a miracle of science or I have succeeded in my quest. Firstly I thank you Yuumei for looking after my brother. Secondly I have gone to the past to change the future, I will probably end up changing the course of history so whether you remember me or not is another matter. My aim will be to stop this disaster in whatever way I can. Having gone to the past I will be unable to return to the present and therefore I doubt you will see me again in this lifetime. Please don't try to follow me; your place is now in the present.
Yours truly,
Chikara"
#1 - Memories
Mists were encircling the camp of the dead. The sun was mockingly smiling on it but even his watchful rays could not keep out the mists of sorrow that had encompassed the town. It had been laughing, active and carefree but now all that joy had been silenced. It was dead. Not a single creature had survived the explosion. The explosion that had ended a thousand lives in one second. The technology of man designed to help the weaker survive, destroying for no reason what so ever. Hypocritical isn't it?
Yet, as it is with all tragedies, one was left to mourn over the lost and the forgotten. In this case a girl, scarcely more than 15, walked through the carnage littered streets, a flutter of movement being the only sign to give away her ghostly presence. A tear trickled down her colourless cheek, colourless apart from the scarlet of three burning scars that almost flickered with the anger embedded in her heart.
She stopped outside the ruins of a redbrick building. She paused then suddenly leapt up and scrambled over the smouldering framework. Then just as suddenly she bent down, shoving aside the rubble till she had dug a tunnel through it, large enough for her to squeeze through. She bent down and leapt into the blackness beneath her, ripping her trousers on a metal pole, falling then landing in a confused lump on a dusty floor. She stumbled around, trying to make the most use of her mere shaft of light. The would-be room stank of mutilated flesh but the girl merely held her nose and searched on, returning every now and then to gasp at the fresh air supplied by her flimsy entrance. Under the form of an upturned desk a striped paw caught her eye. The girl moved closer, stroking the corpse's head and scratching behind its ear.
"Bazil," she whispered, as she untangled the squirrel like body from a protective arm and held it tightly against her chest. Her tears were streaming now, matting the squirrel's fur. After a moment she replaced the corpse and peered more closely at the figure behind it. Its body seemed to shield the squirrel, its face a mixture of anguish and sorrow.
"Yuumei. thank you," the girl stammered. "I know you would have given your life for my brother but alas that was not enough." She stood up and turned to address the room, "may you all rest in peace, my friends."
With that she sat down on a broken chair leg and scribbled a message on a piece of paper. Finished, she stood up and attached the paper to the metal pole that was responsible for the tear in her trousers. Taking one last look around her she climbed out of her skylight doorway. The scrawl read as follows:
"My friends,
If you ever read this either you have been brought back from the dead by a miracle of science or I have succeeded in my quest. Firstly I thank you Yuumei for looking after my brother. Secondly I have gone to the past to change the future, I will probably end up changing the course of history so whether you remember me or not is another matter. My aim will be to stop this disaster in whatever way I can. Having gone to the past I will be unable to return to the present and therefore I doubt you will see me again in this lifetime. Please don't try to follow me; your place is now in the present.
Yours truly,
Chikara"