Flash fiction thread

[James G]

Jan 12, 2021 15:01:07 GMT sandyman said:

Jan 1, 2021 14:34:38 GMT gillan1220 said:

This reminds me of Shattered Union.

Great story where is shattered union is there any chance of a link please

Thank you.
I believe it is a video game plot.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shattered_Union 

[sandyman]

Thank you looks to be an interesting game

[gillan1220]

Jan 13, 2021 13:06:38 GMT sandyman said:

Thank you looks to be an interesting game

It's vastly underrated.

[gillan1220]

The Curse of Rabies

Diseases are present wherever they are.

They are always there. From the jungles of Africa to the farmlands of China, there's always a chance of cross-species contamination.

Over the course of the centuries that passed, mankind has seen the worst diseases. The Black Death during the Medieval Ages was estimated to have killed 1/3rd of Europe's population. Initially blamed on rats, it was actually carried by fleas that had the bacteria known as Yersinia pestis. The outbreak would eventually subside before returning again in the 1660s and the 1850s. 

The second next major outbreak was the Spanish Flu of 1918. The First World War was still ongoing so it was not noticed until people started reporting of flu-like symptoms in Madrid, hence the name. It actually originated in China, which was brought by Chinese labor workers headed to Canada, then spread across the border into the United States. In Kansas, one of the soldiers headed for Europe brought the disease to his camp. He was then shipped-off by train towards the East Coast, infecting other soldiers in the cramped conditions of the container cars. Aboard the troop ships destined for Europe, more soldiers got infected. From there it would spread, becoming one of the worst pandemics of the 20th century, killing an estimate of 17 to a 100 million people worldwide.

As medicine progressed to counter diseases, the natural order of life also mutates the virus. In 1969, a bird flu epidemic was spotted in Hong Kong and then spread to the region. Just like any other disease, it subsided. Then in the 1980s, there were fears of another worldwide outbreak as HIV spread across all continents. In 2003, the world would see the SARS epidemic due to the People's Republic of China covering up information regarding the virus. It originated as early as November 2002 after a farmer caught it from a civet cat in a rice paddy in southern China. Due to the Chinese media blackout, the virus spread to nearby countries and then finally to some countries in Europe and the Americas. Again, it ended on its own on June 2003.

Then in March 2009, the world saw another virus. This time it came from Mexico. Dubbed as Swine Flu (an amalgamation of avian, pig, and human viruses), it easily spread to the United States and Canada within the Spring of that year. It presented the first challenged for the newly inaugurated 44th President. By summer, it would have spread to almost all countries. Despite this, the risk was found to be no higher than seasonal flu. So majority of the world's population went on with their own business until the pandemic was eventually declared over by the World Health Organization on August 10, 2010.

Another year into the new decade, there were already a lot of events that took the media by the storm. As early as December 2010, people in the Middle East took to the streets to protest against autocratic regimes, economic crises, unemployment, and corruption. What started as gathering turned into revolution in Egypt, disposing their president. However, it appeared Libya and Syria were about to explode into violence. The international community cautiously watched the crises unfold in the Middle East. Meanwhile, the United States was making the preparations to withdraw from Iraq after eight years of conflict and occupation.

Another event was brewing. This time however it would not be in the Middle East, not in North America, nor in Europe. It would be in a town majority of the world would not even know. A name where only the fewest would even bother.

The date was January 31, 2011. In one of the peaceful villages of the town of Argao, located in the island of Cebu, Philippines, things went on as normal. The town was another Arcadia in the middle of the Philippines, surrounded by lush green hills and unpolluted by the modernization of the country.

That night, a man went to see his friend named Dario. Dario was a simple farmer but was a happy man. He was married to a woman named Yenna. Both had a son named Nat-Nat. Dario's friend came to his house for a casual conversation. They talked about what was going on locally and around the country over some beer. The conversation lasted until midnight when Dario's friend left. He walked into the dark forest path alone.

As Dario was preparing to sleep, he heard the barks of several dogs in the distance of the forest the same path where his friend left. Disturbed, he called out to the dogs telling to them to keep quiet.

The next day, on February 1, the radio was blaring about how a bizarre case of domestic violence that rocked a nearby neighboring barangay. Three were dead including one of the assailants who was shot by police for being unresponsive. Reports stated the man was "eating" the face of his wife and child, causing the police to open fire at him. A single shot to the head took down the suspect. Dario ignored this news as he worked in a nearby rice paddy while his wife tended to do the laundry at a nearby river. There was the rustling of leaves as if someone was approaching. Yenna by instinct looked over shoulder to see her husband's friend approaching her. However, he looked rather peculiar. His eyes were red while his mouth was foaming. The friend, or what was their friend, pounced on her. Hearing her screams, Dario rushed to help her wife. His wife was bitten in the arm by his former friend. He tried to pry his friend from his wife but he was unusually strong. Seeing no choice, Dario unsheathed his bolo and hacked at his friend. He was horrified on what he-did: he had killed his best friend albeit in self-defense. He decide to report this to the local authorities while his wife was treated for her wounds. They later went home. His son Nat-Nat was concerned of what would become of his mother.

On February 2, the barangay captain, affectionally known by his nickname as Cap, was called in to see another case of domestic violence. This time, a husband bashed his wife's head with something heavy. The husband claimed he done it in self-defense, evident by the bite mark on his right leg. He further added that his wife became inexplicably mad and lunged at him. He was then held into custody in to the local town hall while the main police station in Argao was going to pick him up for processing within the week.

By then until February 8, bizarre cases of random attacks done by dogs and "crazed" individuals began occurring in the town. The local barangay health center - which is just the equivalent to a basic clinic - was getting full of patients with bite marks. Some patients started to fall into coma while others started having seizures and excessive foaming in the mouth. There were calls to have the patients transferred to nearby San Fernando or even to Cebu City, which was a two-hour drive away. None of these happened due to the lack of transportation.

The local priest, Father Jose, was then begged by one of the mothers to "exorcise" an evil spirit that entered his child. Entering the house, the child was gagged in bed. Upon seeing the priest, the child hissed like an animal and tried to reach for him despite being gagged. The priest then said a prayer and doused the "possessed" child with holy water. When that did not work, he went closer to put a rosary on the child's forehead. That's where he made his mistake. He was bitten in the arm and had to withdraw to tend to his wound.

In another part of town, Dario's son Nat-Nat was exploring the woods on his own. For a 10 year old, he showed bravery. Back then when he was a younger child, his mother would tell him not to venture into the forest alone for the supernatural elements of nature might take him to their unseen kingdom. These may be the engkantos (fairies), tikbalangs (half-man, half-horse), or the dwende (dwarves). In addition, the mother warned of indulging the wrath of these elementals that may see unfortunate consequences for the townspeople. In a sense, the mother was correct. The town was suffering from a strange disease that turned people into foaming maniacs. The explanation was scientific in nature but one does not expect to find a reasonable cause for it did appear very supernatural. Nat-Nat witnessed a group of bloodied men shamble towards the town. Luckily, he wasn't spotted as he smartly hid in the undergrowth. He then went back to his house to warn his father. Upon returning, he saw the horrible sight of what had become of his mother. Her mother became one of those foaming maniacs. She was tied to the bed to prevent any harm. Dario stood there, armed with a machete. He ordered his son not to look. Nat-Nat understood why. His mother was no longer like them as his father explained. She was one of those infected by the whatever curse those nature spirits put on this town. Dario put his wife Yenna out of her misery.

The Infected assaulted the town, bringing more into their ranks. Father Jose, who was still tending to his wounds, was overwhelmed by the horde. The other townspeople - those generally apathetic to what was going on - were killed as the Infected stormed their houses. Others tried to fight back with whatever weapons they have ranging from farming equipment to homemade PVC marble guns, but only those with blunt force trauma to the head killed their attackers. In the barangay health center, the bitten patients turned and overwhelmed the nurse. Cap saw all this unfold before his eyes. He ordered the the health center to be barricaded. One of the men who was placed into custody turned out to be correct. Before he turned, he was mercy killed by Cap. Cap and his daughter then went back to their homes to get weapons. Unfortunately, they only had a Glock pistol and a bolt action with a handful of rounds. It was not much but it was something to keep the Infected away as possible. However, it was not enough take on a swarm should it come. In the other part of town, Dario and his son Nat-Nat began hiking towards the town hall, where they may be able to call for rescue. They managed to bump into Cap's group composed of the local shaman armed with a bolo and Cap's right-hand man. Their plan was to head to the nearby barangay with a decently-armed Regional Mobile Force Battalion that would give them edge on firepower. They informed the police station of the incident, which would then deploy a SWAT team to investigate the area. Hitching a ride, the group drove away for the infestation.

Unfortunately, fate would barge in. The engine broke down at the worst possible moment just as a horde of monsters appeared in the far side of a coconut tree plantation. The men proceeded to take on the swarm while ordering his daughter and Nat-Nat to hide in nearby house and barricade all entrances. They took down a significant portion but in the end the horde was too much. Running out of ammunition, the fight became a deadly close-quarter battle. Limbs and heads started flying until finally Dario, the shaman, and Cap were finally overwhelmed. Their sacrifice brought precious time for Cap's daughter to hide in a house. The Infected would claw on the barricades, desperate to come in.

When the SWAT team from the neighboring barangay arrived, they were surprised to see the presence of bloodied townspeople feasting on some bodies. Armed with M16s and M4 carbines, the SWAT men opened fire on them. They were surprised to see their rounds not affecting these lunatics. It dawned to them their opponents were not normal. The gunfire attracted more of them so the SWAT request for back-up. More and more SWAT and police arrived and shot the Infected. Realizing this wasn't normal, the mayor of Argao immediately called in for assistance from the Cebu Provincial Government. When the governor of Cebu heard about this, she requested that the military must be brought in. There were strange talk of a rabies like disease ravaging this rural portion of Cebu. In order not to incite a panic, the chaos was covered up as an incursion done by Islamic terrorists. The question next was who would buy the story as Islamic terrorists have not yet made a landfall in the Visayas in the entire Moro conflict that began in 1969.

---

Cebu City serves as the second largest city in the Philippines. Located right in the center of the country, it served as a commercial hotspot connecting Manila to Mindanao. The city has a functioning commercial port and an international airport in the island of Mactan. The city is home to the Armed Forces of the Philippines Central Command (CENTCOM) based at Camp Lapu-Lapu, which houses the Philippine Army's 3rd and 8th Infantry Division. It also oversees the command over the Mactan-Benito Air Base next to Mactan-Cebu International Airport and Naval Base Rafael Ramos, both on the same island. Lastly, two major police headquarters are located in Cebu, both serving the city and the province as a whole.

When news of the violence in Argao reached the AFP's Central Command, the first thing the CENTCOM deployed was the NAVSOG and Scout Ranger Battalions. Since it was far to travel by land, these special forces were board UH-1 Hueys from the Philippine Air Force's 205th and 208th Tactical Helicopter squadrons. Back at Camp Lapu-Lapu, a truckload of regular soldiers backed by one V-150 and one GKN Simba began the long drive to Argao. The presence of military vehicles was a sight to behold in Cebu's busiest streets. Majority just ignored it, thinking it was an exercise, but others such as children were awed by the sight of armored vehicles in the streets of Cebu. The Philippine National Police would then send a team of over 50 elite Special Action Force commandos to support local police and the military.

Of course, news would eventually breakout that something was happening in Argao. However, the media was fed with the cover-up of an Islamic terror attack. It was the most talked topic both on Facebook and Twitter. Since smartphones weren't much of a thing yet, there were not much videos coming from Argao.

As the first helicopters landed in Argao, the NAVSOG and Scout Ranger operators linked up with their police counterparts. They were told about the nature of these infected. Since these soldiers were city folks, they already got the idea of how the enemy looked liked from pre-mission briefings. The commander used examples from The Walking Dead, the most famous zombie show as of the present, and Left 4 Dead. They were told only a headshot was the only way to take them down.

So they advanced into the fray shooting down more infected. The fact the area was isolated meant that the outbreak could be contained. Overhead, the Hueys provided tactical overview, informing them where the enemy was. Door gunners aboard the Hueys also opened fire with their M-60 machine guns, mowing down the horde. The military and the police they needed to find survivors from this town. No more than 15 were rescued, hiding in their homes. One of them was Nat-Nat, the son of the late Dario, and Cap's daughter.

The sound of gunfire not only attracted the Infected but it also attracted the living. Citizens from neighboring barangays went on to see what was going. Overhead, they could see helicopters open fire with their machine guns while automatic gunfire rang across the hills. Roadblocks were then set-up in Argao, causing heavy traffic in the area not usually loaded with motorists.

Hundreds of kilometers away in Manila, President Beningo Aquino III was being informed by the military of what was going in that small town in Cebu. Later, Department of Health experts from the local provincial health office were deployed to Argao to take a look at these Infected. A handful were captured, gagged, and secured under heavy guard. As Aquino was briefed of the nature of this Infected. The news shocked him as with every cabinet member and military officer with him in the Malacanang Palace. Zombie-like creatures were real and the Philippines could see an outbreak if this would not be contained quickly! However, they had to keep it under wraps. No one would believe zombies in first sight. As advised by the Cebu provincial governor, it was better to stick up to the terrorist cover-up story. Both Cebu and Manila knew they could keep covering this up for long.

Soon, soldiers from Mindanao arrived by RoRo to augment their fellow cadres fighting the Infected. Also included were U.S. Special Forces operators from JTF-510 on the request of the Malacanang Palace. These American operators were to observe on how these Infected behaved and directly report back to the Pacific Command, which would then directly report to the Pentagon 6000 miles away. Then, the information would be shared to the USARMIID in Fort Detrick, Maryland and the CDC in Atlanta. The U.S. Embassy in Manila was also slowly observing the development of events. It placed a travel advisory on its website for American citizens currently in the Visayas.

The outbreak would finally be quelled on February 11, 2011. Over 233 townspeople were dead. The casaulties also included 27 police officers and 20 soldiers. Those that got bitten were given a mercy kill before they turned. The 15 survivors were then interviewed and cared for by the DOH. They were requested not to go public though since that would cause a nationwide panic. They were promised to be compensated and to be the first to be vaccinated once the vaccine would be developed. Samples of infected blood and tissue were then shipped back to Manila for study. The U.S. government requested a sample, of which Manila willing cooperated. The local WHO office was informed. In the country, various protests rang demanding for answers of what was going in that seemingly peaceful town in rural Cebu. The government continued their statement about terrorist infiltration. Some conspiracy theorists brought leaked photos of the victims that were torn apart while those who died with gunshots to the head were clean. They were quickly discredited by the government while those conspiracy theorists received a warning from the Philippine National Police not to spread rumors or face arrest.

The WHO then issued a press release of a new variant of rabies found in the Philippines. It did not say the specific, only new name: N-RABV-11 or Novel rabies virus of 2011. However, the WHO also stated not to panic as it was contained. Around the country, stray dogs were culled for the fear of the virus while pets were vaccinated as a precaution, even if the specific vaccine of N-RABV-11 was not yet in development.

The quick response of the Philippine government, the PNP, and the Armed Forces prevented a much larger outbreak from spreading to the rest of the country and subsequently, the entire world. The outbreak in Argao would become a footnote in history, overshadowed by the ongoing civil wars in Libya and Syria, the Tohoku earthquake, the death of Osama bin-Laden, the final Space Shuttle Mission, the independence of South Sudan, and the death of Col. Gaddafi.

To this day, the survivors have kept silent on the matter. While science proved it was indeed a virus that cross-contaminated from dog to human, some of the superstitious survivors would blame the supernatural for the unfortunate events that almost saw a zombie apocalypse of fiction become a reality roughly a decade ago.

---

Author's Notes:
This is basically my take on the Cebuano zombie indie-film called Di Ingon Nato, which translates in English Not Like Us.

TV Tropes page for the film. Watch the trailer of it below.

Unfortunately, I could not find a movie with an English translation of this. This is by far the first Filipino zombie movie, even predating Block Z by seven years.



IMDB page here.

I used the world "curse" in the title alluding the Filipinos' superstitious nature when it comes to diseases.

[forcon]

Excellent writing here!

Rabies is one scary disease in its own right - amped up to a full-on zombie outbreak it's downright terrifying.

I really like how you detailed the response by the authorities as well, amping it up as the nature of the disease became clear.

[gillan1220]

Jan 22, 2021 21:50:36 GMT forcon said:

Excellent writing here!

Rabies is one scary disease in its own right - amped up to a full-on zombie outbreak it's downright terrifying.

I really like how you detailed the response by the authorities as well, amping it up as the nature of the disease became clear.

I highly recommend you watch that local Cebuano indie zombie movie. It has won various awards at film festivals in Europe and South America. It's not your typical zombie outbreak where the characters have lots of guns and plot armor that easily plow through a horde. Nope, it's those realistic ones that tackle on the ignorant and the unaware of the nature of zombie for better character development. It's vastly underrated and needs the recognition it deserves.

[James G]

Have you seen the glass in Iraq?

The British specialist holiday company Danger Tours sprung to life in 2018 as an internet-based operation offering high-risk holidays abroad for adventure-seeking Brits who wanted to see peril up close. There were promises made that danger, but a safe danger, awaited those who wished to travel to Central Africa and ‘hunt guerrillas’ or see the ‘death camps’ in the former North Korea. Exposes by certain sections of the media unearthed that the promises made by Danger Tours of what was real and wasn’t actually rang hollow. The trips to the Congo were staged-managed affairs where those reputed guerrillas hunted for by government troops were instead hired actors. As to North Korea, what was on offer to see in that Chinese-occupied region as all a lie too: the real camps had long since been demolished with all trace of them removed from the earth. Come 2021, Danger Tours ran a promotional offer for Brits to travel to a country in the Middle East where no other holiday firms sent tourists.

Under the tag-line ‘Have You Seen The Glass In Iraq?’, customers were offered the chance to go see some of the nuclear Dead Zones in the Iraqi desert. Thirty years had passed since the ultimate weapons had been employed there and those sites were very much real: Danger Tours was for once telling the truth about what was on offer. The promotion brought another uproar for the company – whose owner thrived on the publicity – with allegations made that there was a cashing-in on the suffering long inflicted on the Iraqi people three decades after that nation had been struck as devastatingly as it had been in a nuclear attack. An appearance by the owner on the BBC’s Newsnight programme where he defended what his company was doing brought back into the public eye what occurred in late January 1991.


During the early part of the Gulf War, laser-guided bombs dropped by American aircraft as part of the Coalition’s opening air attacks against Iraq killed that country’s dictatorial leader Saddam Hussein. His youngest son, Qusay, lost his life too. In a power struggle, the eldest boy Uday took charge of the fight against the Coalition – the United States, Britain, France, the Saudis, the Egyptians, the Gulf Arabs & others – and responded to the deaths of his father and brother by launching a chemical weapons attack. He didn’t just target the Coalition but also Israel too. Uday was never made to answer for his actions nor was his reasoning fully explained beyond the understanding that he lashed out after Saddam died. It was a stupid, stupid thing to do. Saddam had been warned of the consequences of using Weapons of Mass Destruction and wasn’t foolish enough to disregard that. Dismissed as a madman by so many, Saddam certainly wasn’t. He was reasonable. Uday was pretty much psychotic: Qusay surely never would have done what his brother did either.

Scud missiles were launched against Coalition targets in Saudi Arabia and also against Israel. Those were carrying a mix of both Sarin and the lesser-known Cyclosarin nerve agents. The two countries had been attacked with high-explosive tipped Scuds though had been prepared to face a chemical threat. Preparations were one thing: the reality of the chemical attack on the scale it came was something else. The nerve gases from those missiles didn’t always work as intended and the majority missed their targets too. Nonetheless, chemical agents were spread among military personnel and civilians as well. In addition, Jordan was accidently hit by an off-target missing where gases killed people in that remaining Iraqi ally. From a military point of view, the attack was not worth it. Troops in NBC warfare gear took few losses, even those furthermost from the front-lines as the protection on offer to the NATO-trained soldiers was excellent throughout. Civilian casualties, where Uday seemingly aimed to kill so many of them to overwhelm the authorities in the targeted nations, weren’t even that significant overall. A few thousand died, not tens of thousands as might have been expected. Uday wasted a lot of potent gas and capable missile units for no appreciable gain for the survival of the regime which his father had built.

A germ is a gas is a nuke. So was the saying at the time when it came to Weapons of Mass Destruction and how the US Government then under the leadership of President George H. W. Bush viewed the matter. America didn’t have biological nor chemical weapons on-hand (they had stocks of them but not the operational capability) yet plenty of nuclear weapons. Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz had been told that by Secretary of State James Baker in Geneva a few weeks beforehand. It had been made clear to him that if Iraq used chemical weapons, the response would be a nuclear one. As to Israel, any attack on them by Weapons of Mass Destruction was regarded by their government at the time as to be the beginnings of a Second Holocaust. Unlike with the First, the Jewish people were armed with the ultimate weapons of war and wouldn’t sit back and allow that to happen again.

With near immediate effect after the first missiles armed with Sarin & Cyclosarin had hit his country, Israeli PM Yitzhak Shamir had IDF/AF jets in the sky flying towards Iraq carrying nuclear bombs beneath their fuselages. Those F-15s and F-16s were American-built though their payloads were Israeli… yet only feasible with a lot of American covert assistance through the years. Bush, British PM John Major and other Coalition leaders were still being briefed on the details of what had happened when the IDF/AF began their approaches to their targets in the west of Iraq. Bush tried to get Shamir on the phone to talk to him about a co-ordinated response yet Shamir had the call kept on hold until the first detonations occurred in the Iraqi portion of the Syrian Desert. Suspected operational sites from where mobile Scud launchers had fired on Israel, and where others lay in wait to possibly do the same, were hit by nuclear blasts. Many, many explosions took place across the desert as the IDF/AF blanketed the region to not allow any more chemical strikes on their homeland to occur. When Bush got to speak to Shamir, the strikes were well underway and the US President was told they would continue until Israel was satisfied that Iraq would no longer be in a position to make a second attack. The long-held suspicion that Israel was a nuclear power – the deliberate unknown about that it had been called a policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ – was confirmed. Israel had nuclear weapons and it used them in anger.

As to the Coalition reaction, the Iraqi chemical attack might not have been entirely devastating but it incurred many casualties upon their soldiers as well as innocent Saudi civilians. To not react, to not do something when Uday had crossed the Rubicon like that, would leave them open to further chemical attacks from Iraq during that war and from other powers in further conflicts. Such was the thinking in Washington among Bush and his top people. Britain and France were asked for their opinion on whether they wished too to commit to making retaliatory action yet both Major and President Mitterrand decided against that. The United States went it alone. Unlike what Shamir did, Bush made targeted nuclear attacks rather than the ‘carpet bombing with nukes’ (Baker’s words) approach taken by Israel. He regarded the action as necessary and made no apology for it then, during the rest of his eight-year presidency, nor in his retirement either. To make sure that the action didn’t cause a global thermonuclear war, in the final moments ahead of the attack, Baker contacted Moscow to let the Soviets know what was about to happen. Then the reply of the United States was given to Uday Hussein. It was one that he should have expected… had he not been completely off his rocker to do what he had.

He died in one of the smaller nuclear blasts which rocked Iraq at American hands. Using Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from the battleship USS Missouri and ACM-129 missiles launched from B-1B Lancer strategic bombers, nuclear strikes hit the south of Iraq where there were reported Scud locations as well as heavy concentrations of the Iraqi Republican Guard armoured forces & leadership bunkers. Uday was below ground when nuclear fire eliminated his bunker. The low-yeild detonations sprinkled mostly unpopulated areas of Iraq. Tens of thousands of soldiers died and possibly only a couple of hundred civilians. The Israelis bombed Iraq for several hours while the United States’ attack was over within twenty minutes. The war with Iraq ended within days when a previously-obscure general finally took charge of the power vacuum and brought it all to a close. Rather than being pushed out of Kuwait, Iraqi forces withdrew. Most of them unknowingly went through areas in Southern Iraq drenched in nuclear fallout during that retreat. How that cost Iraq dear.

Fallout from the hundreds of nuclear strikes in Iraq was what caused the three million plus deaths which followed the nuclear strikes on January 23rd, 1991: as few as thirty thousand lives were lost directly. Those numbers stood in stark comparison to the four thousand, three hundred and eighteen confirmed casualties due to Uday’s nerve agent attack. Sandstorms from out of the desert blew radioactive particles towards Baghdad in the aftermath; in the south, the winds blew radiation down across the marshes into Kuwait and Iran too leading to many more lives lost in those countries outside of Iraq. Iraq fell into civil war. No invasion came from the Coalition despite talk in the days following the use by each side of Weapons of Mass Destruction that that would be necessary. Baghdad was eventually abandoned along with much of what was once the Sunni Triangle area too though only after the agonising death of so many due to radiation poisoning. The Israeli bombing killed Iraqi’s capital indirectly. Iran claimed the loss of many more lives than could be proved and Tehran spent the following decades claiming that the United States had purposefully killed Iranians and poisoned its land as part of a grand strategy to try to bring down the Iranian Revolution. The long-term political effects regionally and globally from what was deemed by many to be the ‘1/23 attacks’ were multiple. The whole world changed.


When it came to Danger Tours and its offer to see the glass in Iraq, that company was offering (it never did in the end) the chance for British tourists to see the patches of black glass in the desert in the south of Iraq caused by American bombs. To go to the Syrian Desert was a death sentence for anyone participating. Danger Tours had wanted to take paying customers to the American blast zones which it was alleged to be safe to visit in the ancient Mesopotamia region between the Euphrates & the Tigris. People still lived there and would have welcomed the influx of money. Their existence was tenuous, yet it had long been that way. Radiological contamination was another fact of life for those who knew nothing else but hardship. Danger Tours went bust though due to a financial scandal within. All the fuss was eventually for nothing.

The glass in Iraq was only seen in pictures rather than up close.

[forcon]

That was really, really dark. It's a great piece of writing, and very harrowing. Really good work!

[James G]

The Wolf

The woods belonged to the wolf.

His grandfather had won the territory and hunted within before passing it onto his son. Control had come to the wolf himself upon his father’s death in combat to try to defend what was his. The wolf had avenged his father when he won back what was rightfully his. He had secured the woods for himself and his son in the future too. From where there was water on two sides, to open fields on another and a steep rock face on the other, all belonged to the wolf. It was a territory marked out by the scent he laid as well as those physical features. He alone hunted the woods while he waited for a mate to come his way to continue his line. Food walked or crawled its way in. There was water to drink on the edges. Shelter from the elements was plentiful within. The wolf rarely ventured beyond the woods because there was no need. He had all that he wanted where he was. He was secure in his territory and content with what he had. Defending his territory was a skill passed down from father to son, one which he had watched with his own eyes while young. After he had taken back what was his, killing and consuming the beast which put an end to his father, the wolf had met all challengers head on. None had managed to get the best of him, none had seceded in making the woods theirs. The woods belonged to the wolf indeed.

He smelt them first, long before he heard or saw them. Creatures on two legs came towards the woods from across those fields. There were a good number of them, far more than might usually accidentality venture towards his territory before turning back once the mistake was realised. These were unlike no others before them though. Their scent was one the wolf found disagreeable and not something he’d ever smelt before. He moved from his morning shelter, where he had intended to spent the day warm and resting before hunting at night, out towards the edge of the woods. Leaving behind such a fine location which sheltered him from the rain, the wind, the cold, the heat and the sun too was for the wolf a necessity. He travelled fast, sprinting at breakneck speed through the undergrowth along routes only he knew and which only he could traverse. The wolf stopped on the edges of the treeline. He was just back in cover from sight of those on two legs. He listened. He counted out how many there were by the sounds they made. They were together, walking right towards the woods with wanton disregard for it being his territory. Their smells filled his nostrils and sickened him. Their voices caused him to wince at the harshness of their unnatural sounds that came. He looked at them. The wolf studied them to see if they foresaw danger ahead and were prepared to meet that. There was no sign of any trepidation in them. Instead, as if to mock him and all that he was, they carried on approaching with haste. Unlike those he had seen before, these were very different two-legged creatures. Where he laid hidden, the wolf had no fear of them seeing nor hearing him. Even less was any concern that they could smell him. Those who walked on two legs were nose-blind. He’d learnt that from his father and had it confirmed many times when defending his territory and occasionally straying beyond to hunt other creatures too. If he had to, he could be right in front of them, within touching distance, and as long as they could see him and he made no noise, the wolf would never be detected by the small and useless noses that the two-legged creatures had. It was an amazing weakness of theirs. How the wolf had so often exploited that to scare them off when he’d leaped from seemingly nowhere to make them flee in terror! He smiled with memories of one such encounter yet these creatures were just so different, unnaturally so. They didn’t belong near here and the wolf assumed that they had come from far away. It was unknown for others who had their own dwellings not that far off to venture towards the woods. They knew better than that but this group appeared not to.

They wouldn’t enter his woods. The wolf would not allow them to because the woods were his and his alone. He would stop them.

There was a pit among the fields where the grass grew almost as tall as fully grown two-legged creatures. In heavy rain, it filled up but the wolf never drank from there with the water not being fresh. Other creatures would occasionally blunder into the pit and become stuck. The wolf had no fear of the pit. In and out he would go, taking what was on offer there when it carelessly fell in. Only he could climb the steep sides to escape nature’s gift presented there. He watched as the group of would-be invaders moved towards the pit. The wolf imagined them falling in, all of them, and their desperate struggles to get out. His mind turned to the idea of their efforts finally failing and despair hitting them. He would end that suffering for them, filling his belly at the same time. He had little taste for the flesh of their kind, preferring that of four-legged creatures, yet the wolf couldn’t always be choosy when hunger struck and survival was at stake. They didn’t go near the pit. They avoided it and came right towards him. Closer and closer they came, bunched up together. The wolf wondered whether they sought safety in numbers. They dared to approach what was his, what he had fought for and won, like that with some thought that together they could enter the woods.

The night before his father succumbed to his combat injuries, when the two of them were on the run after having to leave the woods to that beast who held it for some time, the two of them had come across other two-legged creatures. That had been the first time that the wolf had ever smelt, heard and seen such living things. His father had told him to never be frightened of those who walked on two legs. They should be frightened of him instead. The wolf was put to the test by his father that night, to see if he had the makings of a wolf who could in time go back and take what was his to have. The challenge was to scare away such creatures then. On his hind legs the wolf had risen and up in full view. He’d let out a roar, filling the silence of the night with the most fearsome sounds he could make. It had worked. The two-legged creatures then had run. His father had been proud of him. When he’d grow big, the wolf was told, he would be capable of going back to the woods and restoring the territory to ownership of those who deserved its presence. Since then, encountering such creatures elsewhere, the wolf had done what he had done then. He had put on a show like that and in fright away had ran those who foolishly came near to him. With his territory threatened, the wolf set about repeating the well-practised manoeuvre. No doubt was in him that it would fail.

He ran again, moving from where he had been hiding. The wolf didn’t go far. It was just a short dash for him, one made at a speed he was used to running at. He stopped just short of a clearing where the grass didn’t grow high and where the an opening in the trees deep into the woods was. To there the two-legged creatures went but he reached that place first. He kept low and hidden in the undergrowth. The wolf knew the spot he wanted and it was somewhere from where he had laid in wait beforehand. The smells and sounds of those who approached never left him even when he lost sight of them. He soon found that he had eyes upon them once more upon reaching his preferred spot. Their pace hadn’t slowed, their breathing hadn’t increased. He could smell no fear in them nor see it in the way in which they moved. They bore onwards towards what was his without any concern. Every other creature which came near the woods did the opposite and either wisely turned away or foolishly went onwards. Those on four legs, even on two on a couple of occasions, had that sense of danger that these ones did not though. It was incomprehensible to the wolf for anything living to come near the woods without concern about what may lay ahead. He himself might not be known about as the defender of this territory, yet only a fool would go onwards like this group were. That they did though. They carried on with their attempt at invading what was his. The woods wouldn’t be given up by the wolf, not even to these two-legged creatures who showed no fear. He was determined to finally give them some of that.

When they were two tail-lengths away, the wolf did what he had first done as a pup in front of his father’s proud-filled eyes. He leapt out of the undergrowth into the open and rose himself up on his rear legs. The wolf let out a roar. It was one which should have frightened those before him into absolute terror. They were supposedly to scream and flee in every conceivable direction. No longer were they meant to have any notion that entering the woods which belonged to him was a good idea for them. The wolf’s roar saw birds scatter from trees and a fox a good difference off – one which the wolf had smelt and would have chased otherwise – make a dash for it in the opposite direction. He stood and roared right in front of the group of two-legged creatures. He was immensely impressed with what he did, with such haste too giving those before him surely no time to react. Panic was meant to inflict them like it did other creatures further away who didn’t have such a display of might and dominance before them as the group of two-legged creatures had ahead of their unwise decision to approach the woods.

The opposite happened. There was a noise which one of them made. It was one which the wolf had not heard before when frightening those who walked on two legs. It was one which he had previously decided, when hearing it from their young at a distance, was one of some form of amusement made by such creatures. They didn’t create that sound at times of extreme fright. Eyes were upon him, ones full not of terror or even hatred but seemingly curiosity. The wolf fixed his gaze forward as he finished with his roar and came back down off his rear legs. He stood on all four, his front shoulders forward to increase his size. His tail was up too, ready to give him balance when leaping forward on the attack. The wolf looked over those before him deciding upon which to go at first. They hadn’t run away, and that confused him, so the best option he could decide upon was to then attack. He’d spill blood and that would surely have the effect that his roar had inconceivably not had. A new smell filled him, something even worse than before. From the shortest of the group there was the removal of something hidden. It was made of metal and had a whiff of pungency to it that drew all of the attention of the wolf towards it. Two-legged creatures used tools to hunt, gather and build but this was unlike no other. He prepared to leap at that creature first, decided that that one with that in its grasp presented a threat. For the first time in a long time, not since he had retaken the woods, the wolf understood that he was in danger. Danger came from that metal thing. Behind it, those before him felt safe and had the temerity to face down his challenge. They had approached his territory with the knowledge of that thing and it had given them the courage that they had then and were still filled with. He told himself he must take away that courage by jumping at and tearing apart the creature which held it. The wolf rocked himself backwards as he prepared to jump. His balance shifted and his muscles tensed. The act was involuntary. It came for a lifetime of similar acts. Never before had the wolf met failure.

He didn’t make the leap. There was almighty roar, of far more substance than his, which came after a brilliant flash of dazzling light which had forced his eyes to shut. Pain hit him, in his shoulder. The wolf was thrown backwards against his will and into the undergrowth from where he had recently sprung. A shout, one seemingly of delight, came afterwards from a member of that group of two-legged creatures. His ears were ringing from the sound of whatever had happened but he heard that loud and clear. Then there was the smell. It lingered all around him in the still morning air. As his head turned towards his wound, with his tongue out to seek the source of the pain radiating outwards, he smelt something so horrible. His eyes watered not at the pain but whatever that was which had come from the thing in his hand of the creature that had attacked him without striking him. The wolf fought through his disgust, and the pain too, as he licked at his wound. Hurt at other times, though never in such a terrible manner, the first lick would at once sooth a wound. This time it didn’t. Strength drifted away from him. He tried to get up and walk so he could disappear from those who had hurt him. He couldn’t. He tried to crawl away. Again, he could not. He could only lay where he was with the pain and the stink which would fade as well. The wolf closed his eyes. He thought of his father. Moments beforehand, he had been sure his father would have been so proud of him. Now, he knew that there would only have been disgust at how quick the wolf had given up the fight. It saddened him, right before there came only darkness.

The woods no longer belonged to the wolf.


The gunman put away his weapon. He turned towards his leader and posed a question: “What the devil was that thing?”

“Some kind of dog but… well… like a little wolf, I guess.” The woman with them spoke up instead as she stepped forward to where the gun-blast had thrown the shoot creature.

“Stop.” Their leader spoke the authority he had, one which stopped her mid-stride. “It might nip at your ankles.” He let out another one of his famous belly laughs.

The fourth member of the group cast a furtive look back over her shoulder before pointing ahead. “Are we still going in there? We can’t stay here because…”

“They’re still following.” He cut her off, knowing what she was about to say. “We go onwards, into the cover. Watch out for any other silly little dogs trying to scare us off but, Paul, don’t use your gun again. We need the bullets.”

His son nodded at him and then set the lead by walking forwards into the woods. The party he travelled with, which his father led, sought shelter in the woods from those following them who had chased them this far. No further thought was given to the strange little creature which had tried to stop them. The woods were now theirs, if only temporarily.




The Wolf and the woods

The woods belonged to the wolf.

His grandfather had won the territory and hunted within before passing it onto his eldest son. Control had come to the wolf himself upon his father’s death in combat to try to defend what was his from attack. The wolf had avenged his father when he won back what was rightfully his. He had secured the woods for himself, and, hopefully, his son in the future too. From where there was water on two sides, to open fields on another and a steep rock face on the other, all belonged to the wolf. It was a territory marked out by the scent he laid as well as those physical features defining its extent. He alone hunted the woods while he waited for a mate to come his way to continue his line. Food walked or crawled its way into the woods. There was water to drink on the edges. Shelter from the elements was plentiful within. The wolf rarely ventured beyond the woods because there was no need. He had all that he wanted where he was. He was secure in his territory and content with what he had. Defending the woods was a skill passed down from father to son, one which he had watched with his own young eyes. After he had taken back what was his, killing and consuming the beast which put an end to his father, the wolf had met all challengers head on. None had managed to get the best of him, none had seceded in making the woods theirs. The woods belonged to the wolf indeed.

He smelt them first, long before he heard or saw the approach. Creatures on two legs came towards the woods from across those fields. There were a good number of them, far more than might usually accidentality venture towards his territory before turning back once the mistake was realised. These were unlike no others before them though. Their scent was one the wolf found disagreeable, not something he’d ever smelt before. He moved from his morning shelter, where he had intended to spend the day warm and resting before hunting at night, out towards the edge of the woods. Leaving behind such a fine location which sheltered him from the rain, the wind, the cold, the heat & the sun too was for the wolf a necessity. He travelled fast, sprinting at breakneck speed through the undergrowth along routes only he knew and which only he could traverse. The wolf stopped on the edges of the treeline, where the woods ended and the fields began. He was in perfect cover from any observation made by those on two legs. His ears angled forward and he listened. He counted out how many there were by the sounds they made of their footsteps and their breathing. They were together, walking right towards the woods with wanton disregard for it being his territory. Their smells filled his nostrils and sickened him. Their voices caused him to wince at the harshness of their unnatural sounds that came. He looked at them, his eyes narrowing. The wolf studied them to see if they foresaw danger ahead and were prepared to meet that. There was no sign of any trepidation in them. Instead, as if to mock him and all that he was, they carried on approaching with haste. Unlike those he had seen before, these were very different two-legged creatures. There was no apprehension in them. Where he lay hidden, guarding his territory, the wolf had no fear of them seeing nor hearing him. Even less was any concern that they could smell him. Those who walked on two legs were nose-blind. He’d learnt that from his father and had it confirmed many times when defending his territory and occasionally straying beyond to hunt other creatures too. If he had to, he could be right in front of them, within touching distance, and as long as they could see him and he made no noise, the wolf would never be detected by the small and useless noses that the two-legged creatures were adorned with. It was an amazing weakness of theirs. How the wolf had so often exploited that to scare them off when he’d leapt from seemingly nowhere to make them flee in terror! He smiled with memories of one such encounter yet these particular creatures were just so different, unnaturally so. They didn’t belong near here and the wolf assumed that they had come from far away. It was unknown for others who had their own dwellings not that far off to venture towards the woods. They knew better than that because there was an unspoken agreement made about what belonged to who. This group either didn’t know or didn’t care.

Nonetheless, they wouldn’t enter his woods. The wolf would not allow them to because the woods were his and his alone. He would stop them.

There was a pit among the fields where the grass grew almost as tall as fully grown two-legged creatures. In heavy rain, it filled up but the wolf never drank from there with the water not being to his liking as it was never fresh. Other creatures would occasionally blunder into the pit and become stuck within. As to the wolf, he had no fear of the pit. In and out he would go, taking what was on offer for a meal there when it carelessly fell in. Only he could climb the steep, treacherous sides to escape nature’s gift when it was presented there. He watched as the group of would-be invaders moved in the direction of the pit. The wolf imagined them falling in, all of them, and their desperate struggles to get out. His mind turned to the idea of their efforts finally failing and despair hitting them. He would end that suffering for them, filling his belly at the same time. He had little taste for the flesh of their kind, preferring that of four-legged creatures, yet the wolf couldn’t always be choosy when hunger struck and survival was at stake. They turned away at the last moment and avoided the pit. A change in direction saw them came right towards him. Closer and closer they came, bunched up together. The wolf wondered whether they sought safety in numbers. He could understand that. Yet, they dared to approach what was his, what he had fought for and won, as they did with seemingly the thought that together they could enter the woods in safety.

The night before his father succumbed to his combat injuries, long ago when the two of them were on the run after having to leave the woods to that beast who held it for some time, the two of them had come across other two-legged creatures. That had been the first time that the wolf had ever smelt, heard and seen such living things. His father had told him to never be frightened of those who walked on two legs. They should be frightened of him instead. The wolf was put to the test by his father that night, to see if he had the makings of a wolf who could in time go back to take what was his to have. The challenge was to scare away such creatures then. On his hind legs the wolf had risen and up in full view. He’d let out a roar, filling the silence of the night with the most fearsome sound he could make. It had worked. The two-legged creatures had run from him then. His father had been proud of what he had achieved. When he’d grow big, the wolf was told, he would be capable of going back to the woods and restoring the territory to ownership of those who deserved its victory in battle. Since then, encountering such two-legged creatures elsewhere, the wolf had done what he had previously done. He had put on a show like that and in pure fright away had ran those who foolishly came near to him. With his territory threatened, the wolf set about repeating the well-practised manoeuvre. No doubt was in him that could fail to work.

He ran again, moving from where he had been hiding. The wolf didn’t go far. It was just a short dash for him, one made at a speed he was used to running at. He stopped just short of a clearing where the grass didn’t grow high and where there was an opening in the trees giving entry into the woods. To there the two-legged creatures went but he reached that place first. He kept low and hidden in the undergrowth. The wolf knew the spot he wanted and it was somewhere from where he had laid in wait beforehand. The smells and sounds of those who approached never left him even when he lost sight of them. He soon found that he had eyes upon them once more upon reaching his preferred spot. Their pace hadn’t slowed, their breathing hadn’t increased. He could smell no fear in them nor see it in the way in which they moved. They bore onwards towards what was his without any concern. Every other creature which came near the woods did the opposite and either wisely turned away or foolishly went onwards. Those on four legs, even on two on a couple of occasions, had that sense of danger that these ones did not though. It was incomprehensible to the wolf for anything living to come near the woods without concern about what may lay ahead of them. He himself might not be known about as the defender of this territory, yet only a fool would go onwards like this group were. That they did though. They carried on with their attempt at invading what was his. The woods wouldn’t be given up by the wolf, not even to these two-legged creatures who showed no fear. He was determined to finally give them some of that.

When they were two tail-lengths away, the wolf did what he had first done as a pup in front of his father’s proud-filled eyes. He leapt out of the undergrowth into the open and rose himself up on his rear legs. The wolf let out a roar. It was one which should have frightened those before him into absolute terror. They were supposedly to scream and flee in every conceivable direction. No longer were they meant to have any notion that entering the woods which belonged to him was a good idea for their survival. The wolf’s roar saw birds scatter from trees and a fox a good difference off – one which the wolf had smelt and would have chased otherwise – make a dash for it in the opposite direction. He stood and roared right in front of the group of two-legged creatures. He was immensely impressed with what he did, done with such haste too giving those before him surely no time to react. Panic was meant to overwhelm them like it did other creatures further away who didn’t have such a display of might and dominance before them as the group of two-legged creatures did. They were supposed to finally regret their unwise decision to approach the woods with what the wolf showed them.

The opposite happened.

There was a noise which one of them made. The wolf had heard that noise before but not from those scared into panic. It had been one made by their young, who he often watched at a distance, rather than coming from those who he leapt out in front of to frighten away. Those who walked on two legs didn’t create that sound at times of extreme fright. Eyes were upon him, ones full not of terror nor even hatred, but seemingly curiosity. The wolf fixed his gaze forward as he finished with his roar and came back down off his rear legs. He stood on all four, his front shoulders pushed forward to increase his presence. His tail was up too, ready to give him balance when leaping forward on the attack. The wolf looked over those before him deciding upon which to strike at first. They hadn’t run away, and that confused him, so the best option he could decide upon was to then attack. He’d spill blood and that would surely have the desired effect, one that his roar had inconceivably failed to bring about. A new smell filled him, something even worse than before. From the shortest of the group there was the removal of something hidden. It was made of metal and had a whiff of pungency to it that drew all of the attention of the wolf towards it. Two-legged creatures used tools to hunt, gather and build but this was unlike no other he’d seen nor smelt. He prepared to leap at that creature first, decided that that one with thing in its grasp presented a threat to him. For the first time in a long time, not since he had retaken the woods, the wolf understood that he was in danger. Danger came from that metal thing. Behind it, those before him felt safe and had the temerity to face down his challenge. They had approached his territory with the knowledge of that thing in their possession and it had given them not just the courage that they had then but were still filled with as he stood in front of them. He told himself he must take away that courage by jumping at and tearing apart the creature which held it. The wolf rocked himself backwards as he prepared to jump. His balance shifted and his muscles tensed. The act was involuntary. It came from a lifetime of similar acts. Never before had the wolf met failure in that.

He didn’t make the leap. There was almighty roar, of far more substance than his, which came after a brilliant flash of dazzling light which had forced his eyes to shut. Pain hit him, suddenly his shoulder was seemingly on fire. The wolf was thrown backwards against his will and into the undergrowth from where he had recently sprung. A shout, one seemingly of delight, came afterwards from a member of that group of two-legged creatures. His ears were ringing from the sound of whatever had happened but he heard that loud and clear. Then there was the smell. It lingered all around him in the still morning air. As his head turned towards his wound, with his tongue out to seek the source of the pain radiating outwards, he smelt something utterly atrocious. His eyes watered not at the pain but whatever that was. He could only imagine that the source of it was the thing in his hand of the creature that had attacked him without directly striking him. The wolf fought through his disgust, and the pain too, as he licked at his wound. Hurt at other times, though never in such a terrible manner, the first lick would at once sooth a fresh wound. This time it didn’t. Strength drifted away from him. He tried to get up and walk so he could disappear from those who had hurt him. He couldn’t. He tried to crawl away. Again, he was unable to. He could only lay where he was with the pain and the slowly fading stink. The wolf was forced by the pain to close his eyes. He thought of his father. Moments beforehand, he had been sure his father would have been so proud of him. Now, he knew that there would only have been disgust at how quick the wolf had given up the fight. He had failed his father. That saddened him yet the shame didn’t last long. Darkness arrived and the wolf had no more thoughts.

The woods no longer belonged to the wolf.


The gunman put away his weapon. He turned towards his leader and posed a question: “What the devil was that thing?”

“Some kind of dog but… well… maybe a little wolf, I guess.” The woman with them, Sarah, spoke up instead as she stepped forward to where the gun-blast had thrown the shot creature.

“Stop.” Their leader spoke the authority he possessed in abundance, one which stopped her mid-stride. “It might nip at your ankles.” He let out another one of his famous belly laughs. Frank always found himself hilarious even if others certainly did not.

The fourth member of the group cast a furtive look back over her shoulder before pointing ahead. “Are we still going in there? We can’t stay here because…”

“They’re still following, Marie.” Frank cut her off, knowing what she was about to say. “We go onwards, into the cover. Watch out for any other silly little dogs trying to scare us off but, Paul, don’t use your gun again. We’ll need the bullets in the future.”

His son nodded at him and then set the lead by walking forwards into the woods. The party he travelled with, which his father led, sought to hide in the woods from those following them. The others had chased them this far but there would be places to hide in the woods Paul knew. No further thought was given by him to the strange little creature which had tried to stop them and he had killed. The woods were now theirs, if only temporarily. They’d find shelter there, water and maybe food too. As his father had told him it would be, Paul went into the woods first to make it somewhere that they could all be safe for the time being and survive the terrors outside.

[James G]

I've made some changes to the short story I posted yesterday, towards the end especially. What the wolf wanted the woods for is shared by those who take it from him.

[gillan1220]

I'll be posting some one-shot snippets from my other story on the other forum co-written with ukron

Paradise Beach

October 18th, 2018
Miami, Florida

The cruise ship was moving slowly as the soothing reflections of the turquoise sea could have made passengers forget the alarming situation of the city, in the throes of flames and chaos. The view of the skyscrapers of Downtown Miami, wrapped in a thick smoke confirmed the captain's words about this "global epidemic". Many passengers had tried to reach their families and friends to discover that communications had been cut off, the situation will get worse with the arrival of several warships belonging to the Coast Guard and the United States Navy, which would frame the ship.

"This is the USS Milwaukee. In accordance with martial law and maritime laws, all ships are forbidden to dock. You are quarantined."

The captain's response was not long in coming: "Our reserves of diesel and food are not inexhaustible and there are dozens of sick and injured people here, we must dock."

"Any violation of quarantine will be accompanied by real shots, we are sorry!" The captain of the Milwaukee repeated.

"Look Captain". Shouted one of the crewman, the ensign. In the distance, a rubber boat could be seen falling into the water. The boat was full of refugees.

"This is the USS Milwaukee. We do not accept refugees, I repeat do not accept refugees!"

On the boarding deck, crew members helped by passengers were doing their utmost to try to recover the shipwreck, but what they did not know was that the virus had a less variable development time and that one of the passengers of this makeshift raft was definitively infected. In this case, it was little a girl...death had an angelic face that day.

The only reports we received about the Costa Luminosa tragedy were the work of many people including survivors (there were less than five) and the Milwaukee officers (before the latter destroyed the ship with a MARK 50 torpedo), all testimonies agree on the total chaos and the bloodshed, the cruise had definitively taken a bad step.

[sandyman]

Gillan1220 nice story which other forum if I may be so bold to ask

[gillan1220]

May 17, 2021 16:50:21 GMT sandyman said:

Gillan1220 nice story which other forum if I may be so bold to ask

Alternatehistory.com. If you click the title of the story, it will link you there to thread.

[Zyobot]

Here's another one, this time something I submitted for my college creative-writing class. Maybe I'll write some follow-ups in the future, depending on how things go.

Scrapyard Treasure

Jaiden shut her computer down, clutching her head with both hands. Exams were a real bitch, especially the history one she’d finished just now. Hopefully, she’d at least get a B, depending on which of the professor’s assistants graded it.

A sudden buzz interrupted her thoughts, and she reopened the holo-screen with a brisk hand-wave, a fresh wave of annoyance washing off of her. Seriously, what part of “Please don’t bother me on Exam Day. Thanks.” did people not understand? Sure, maybe her delivery was such that lesser acquaintances would call her out of spite. But judging by the caller as Jaiden peered at the screen, this one was just calling to annoy her.

Running a hand through her violet-highlighted hair and accepting that it’d keep ringing until she gave in, Jaiden opened the screen anyway, glaring at the boy on the other side of the line. She couldn’t see it directly, but the look in his eyes gave away the smirk behind his mug of coffee. How he had the energy to call her after completing his own wave of exams, Jaiden couldn’t begin to understand.

“Hey, Leng. You’re looking well.”

Or, for that matter, be such a smartass after knowing her for all these years. What a weird set of friends they made, though she had better things to do than take the bait this time.

“Hello to you too, Zach,” Jaiden drawled, blowing a stray hair out of her eyes as she rested her cheek on her knuckles, not caring how tired it made her look. “How’d your exam go?”

“Well enough,” he replied with a shrug, stirring his coffee as if the last few hours were nothing to sneeze at. “Needed to study a bit more, but nothing serious. Prodigy’s gonna’ prodigy, you know.”

In other words, Zach barely lifted a finger, and would still coast to an A. By now, Jaiden was used to his I.Q.-touting, though now that she had to work harder than ever before to keep pace with him, it stung more than it used to.

“We’re both prodigies, ya’ pale freak,” she jabbed back as she rolled her eyes. “That’s why we’re graduating from college at eighteen instead of starting it.”

Nineteen, in Zach’s case.

He shrugged again, that smug look still plastered on his face. Sometimes, Jaiden wished she was as un-reactive as him, though she’d never admit it for fear of yet another thing for him to brag about.

“Eh, you’ve called me worse,” Zach said after a few seconds, glancing down and back to find his mug empty. “Anyway, I called to ask if you wanted to head to the Scrap Zone with me? Denise is still in school, but she’ll be out in time to join us.”

“That abandoned junkyard?” Jaiden asked, nose wrinkling as she recollected the last time he dragged her there, kicking and screaming. “Yeah, no. Hard pass.”

For a mechanical genius like him, swimming in a sea of rusty gears, sprockets, and other metal parts she couldn’t name was heaven on earth. For a computer nerd like her, not so much. If he wanted to set up a garage near the entryway with enough food and furniture to practically live there, though, that was his funeral. She, being a civilized individual, preferred her townhome.

“C’mon, J! I found something cool there, you should come and check it out.”

“Zach, I swear, if it’s another—”

“I won’t shut up until you say yes.”

At that, Jaiden closed her eyes, cursing under her breath at the fact that he actually went there. On second thought, maybe she shouldn’t have taken the call, and just let Zach nag her so that she’d at least head to the Scrap Zone when she was fresh later. Still, seeing as time travel wasn’t a thing—or at least, wouldn’t become one without Zach’s all-important say-so—undoing her mistake wasn’t an option.

Sighing as she heaved her shoulders, Jaiden re-opened her eyes, her pointed look a marked contrast to the resigned expression on her face.

“Fine,” she forced out, almost cringing as the word left her mouth. “But I’m driving there myself, so I can leave on my own terms this time. Cool? Cool. Bye.”

Jaiden hung up before he could protest, briefly relishing his shocked expression before hauling herself off her bed. Checking the time on her communicator, she shoved it into her pocket and trudged over to the bathroom. If she went out tired and into something she’d regret if not for Zach’s nagging, she’d at least shower first.

----------

“Well, well, well. Took you look enough to show up.”

Zach spread his arms in welcome, seemingly not noticing the greasy smudge on his cheek before wiping it away with a licked hand. Jaiden winced, but didn’t comment. After all these years, he still refused to carry a rag with him.

He shrugged again, that smug look still plastered on his face. Sometimes, Jaiden wished she was as un-reactive as him, though she’d never admit it for fear of yet another thing for him to brag about.

“Had to freshen up,” she answered, one hand on her hip as she looked him up and down, gesturing at his dirty grey jumpsuit with the rusty zipper in the middle. “Couldn’t go around looking like that, now could I?”

“Hysterical,” Zach deadpanned, resting the wrench in his left hand over his shoulder. Jaiden swore he was trying to come up with his own fashion-themed retort, but given how innocuous her purple hoodie, cargo shorts, baseball cap, and red beanie were, he had nothing.

“Where’s Denise?” he asked instead, peering over Jaiden’s shoulder.

“Didn’t bring her,” she shrugged, motioning over to her empty scooter, parked right at the entrance of the Scrap Zone. Which, not so coincidentally, was as far as possible from the piles of trashy, broken-down machinery sitting all over the place.

“I texted her to let her know, though,” Jaiden continued as she followed him towards his makeshift garage, pretending not to notice the drones circling the perimeter and what looked like pop-up turrets hidden under certain piles. “She said you already called her, and that she’d be there around 6:30.”

“Well, it’s 6:29 now,” Zach replied, glancing at the watch on his free hand. “Knowing Denise, she’ll be here right on the nose. When she can’t be somewhere half an hour early, she’ll be there just in time.”

Jaiden nodded in agreement at that, but otherwise followed him silently, hoping she’d be there soon so that Zach could just spill the beans already. Considering what a sweet and excitable girl Denise was, she’d probably be more enthused by Zach’s discovery than Jaiden. For an impressionable high schooler who excelled in neither engineering nor computer science, she was surprisingly easy to get along with.Indeed, she was one of their key lifelines to what “normal people” did and thought, considering how tiring it became to hang out with the smug eggheads at the University of Magnus Park. Hopefully, when it came time to apply for college and move her stuff into her dorm, she wouldn’t become one of them. Losing someone who talked to them like they were people instead of budding Einsteins wouldn’t be fun to deal with.

A buzz sounded off in her pocket, and Jaiden retrieved her communicator to see a new text come in.“Looks like she’s here now,” she commented, looking up to see Zach’s holo-screen open already, showing Denise’s car pulling in from multiple angels. She resisted the urge to comment on his overkill security measures, simply nodding at him when he acknowledged her. For a guy with such a relaxed demeanor, Zach could sure be paranoid.

“Hiya’!”

Both heads turned to the seventeen-year-old fashionista as she strode into the entryway, smiling enthusiastically. “Haven’t seen you guys all week! How’d exams go?”

“Good,” they replied simultaneously, Jaiden adding “enough” under her breath, too quietly for Denise to hear. No need to demoralize the heart of the group, who was a year and a half away from heading off to college herself.

“Cool, cool. So, Zach, you wanted to show us something?”

“Yep. C’mon, I’ll take you there in my ride.”He motioned over his shoulder after changing out of his jumpsuit and putting on his black, heavy-duty hooded jacket, its endless pockets having yet to be zipped shut. Again, Jaiden resisted the temptation to snark. Denise, who was bouncing with excitement, didn’t seem to care.

“Nice! You wouldn’t mind if I drove back after you’ve shown us, would you?”

“Not happening, McBride.”

“Aw!”

----------

“Ugh! Okay, remind me again why we agreed to follow you down here?”

Jaiden flicked what seemed to be a dead worm from her hair, reaching into her pocket briefly before withdrawing her hand, suppressing a grunt of frustration at how she left her hand sanitizer at Zach’s garage. Not that it’d have been enough, considering how bug guts were bug guts, no matter how many germs it got rid of.

“Because I threatened to nag you all the way to the grave if you refused,” Zach replied, using his handheld telemeter to scan the tunnel for signs of valuables in the rough. Or, more likely, scrap metal that had a mind of its own, to use one of his euphemisms.

“Starting to think nagging would’ve been better,” Jaiden deadpanned, plucking a stray beetle from Denise’s jacket while she wasn’t looking, deliberately making sure she didn’t notice. The girl may have been their lifeline to average-I.Q. people, but she lost her shit more easily whenever her look was “messed with”. Probably something her modeling job hammered into her over the years, if Jaiden were to guess.

Zach shrugged, turning away from her and swinging his telemeter to a light at the end of the windy tunnel, the illuminating cerulean a strong contrast to the darkness and dirty greys and browns that surrounded them.

“Eh, you know not to underestimate how persistent I can be,” he remarked, smirking to himself as Jaiden’s frown deepened while his back was turned. “Besides, looks like we’re here, and will get this whole excursion over with in time for your hot date.”

“Ha-ha. Let’s just get 'your precious' and G.T.F.U. while we’re still young.”

Jaiden motioned subtly over to an antsy Denise, silently asking Zach if he’d like to deal with her. He was the one who got them into whatever mess would come of this, after all. Not Jaiden.

“Fine,” Zach said curtly, not willing to challenge her there. “We can slide our way down the from here, just like if we were snowboarding on a windy pathway. Had my bots scan the place and bring back some samples to analyze, so I’m 99 percent sure it’ll be fine.”

At that, the three skidded towards the light—Zach first, Jaiden second, and Denise last. Given her choice of footwear, Denise cringed slightly as pieces of debris brushed against her boots. Jaiden, for her part, just wanted to get the hell out of there. And knock some sense into their suicidal friend, once they clawed their way out.

Skidding slightly before regaining their footing at the bottom, the trio walked their way towards the light as soon as the ground flattened, the girls shielding their eyes at the bright cerulean that flooded their vision. Zach, on the other hand, stared straight at it, his eyes widening and body stilling as he basked in his first personal look at the artifact he had been looking for.

“Well, we’re here,” Jaiden spoke up, snapping her fingers in front of his face to refocus his attention. “Why don’t you just grab it already so we can skedaddle?”

Denise seconded that with a nod, wringing her hands together anxiously.

“Fine, fine,” Zach conceded, holding up his hands defensively before walking towards the artifact. “Geez, you sure know how to ruin the moment.”

Placing his hands at the metal display in the middle of the elaborate border flanking it, its alien writing flashing brighter now that someone was touching its central component, Zach strained slightly before pulling it out with a grunt. Stumbling back before regaining his footing, he gazed at the artifact in his hands, his grin the widest that Jaiden had ever seen.

“Hah! Got i—”

A rumble shook the room, nearly causing Zach to drop his new possession and forcing Jaiden and Denise to their knees. They barely had time to exchange glances with one another, before the whole cavern began to quake, chunks of debris beginning to fall from the misshapen ceiling. The border holding that once held the artifact, its alien writing now bright red with warning, began to crumble, the frame breaking into multiple pieces before collapsing in on itself.

Zach felt a sharp pull on the hood of his jacket, and Denise on her wrist, both struggling to regain their footing before they realized who was dragging them.

“Run!” Jaiden roared, throwing them in front of her and shoving her hands into their backs as the trio bolted their way out, not glancing back at the cave collapsing behind them.

----------

“Right, so let’s get this straight.”

Jaiden pointed an accusatory finger at Zach, her glare practically hot enough to smelt metal. He flinched slightly at the edge her voice had taken on, but otherwise showed no signs of regret or shame. Which he would’ve outpoured in spades if anyone had died a few moments ago, though thank the Gods that prospect didn’t come to pass.

“You,” she continued, “had some of your drones prod their way into some abandoned tunnel-thing under the biggest pile in the Scrap Zone—”

She gestured wildly to the collapsed pile in the junkyard’s center, the dust it kicked up having yet to fully settle.

“—found your weird platform-thing—”

Her arm swung to point at the metal display sitting on the floor, a spherical device floating in the middle of its metal prongs, thanks to the built-in anti-gravity technology. To most, it would’ve been something too arcane and obscure for all but a few archeologists and historians with too much time on their hands to care about. Given how much trouble he went to obtain it for himself, Zach clearly thought otherwise.

“—and was so excited that you had to grab it yourself and drag us along with you, me by the back of my shirt, and put no thought into how you could get us all killed—”

“But I didn’t!”

“You almost did!” Jaiden shouted back, not done with her rant, but beginning to run out of steam. “And, if that wasn’t enough, go against all your training as a double-major in archeology, ’cuz reasons, so much that you could get expelled if anyone finds out about your little stint!”

She closed her eyes, face downcast as she released a breath she didn’t know she was holding. After a minute, Jaiden reopened them, steely resolve replacing her indignation and previous urge to strangle Zach half to death. Then, she spoke.

“You’re lucky, though, that I’m not telling anyone. And Denise won’t either, yeah?”

Denise, who sat at the table as her wounds were being tended to by one of Zach’s robo-doctors, nodded aggressively. Besides how unbreakable their friendship was—beneath all the snark and Zach and Jaiden pushing each other’s buttons twenty-four seven, anyway—it’d have also incriminated Jaiden, as well as Denise herself, for going along with Zach’s recklessness. Considering how her rich-bitch parents flipped out the last time she did something daring, she didn’t need them finding out about this. Jaiden, though an adult who lived on her own, didn’t need it, either.

“’Kay, good,” Jaiden replied after flickering her eyes over Denise, before shooting another withering glare at Zach, who totally wasn’t trying to avert eye contact with her. He may have lived and breathed the word smartass, but even he knew to keep his mouth shut when Jaiden got really angry. As in, pissed-enough-to-dislodge-someone’s-jaw angry.

“Now.”

She clasped her hands together, giving Zach an expectant look.“This sort of drag-us-into-your-suicidal-adventures habit of yours stops today. Isn’t that right, Zachary Francis Anderson?”

He nodded, hesitantly.

“Which means,” Jaiden continued, “that if you decide to test fate again and collapse a tunnel onto yourself, it’s strictly your business. Meaning, Denise and I don’t have to help you out. Right?”

He nodded again, a bit more slowly this time.

“And if, by the Gods’ fickle whims, we somehow wind up on another fun outing that you absolutely, positively, did not force us into,” Jaiden interrogated, fire in her eyes as she leaned forward, her spittle almost flying into Zach’s face. “You’ll explain everything we need—and want—to know as soon as possible, without holding back. Right?”

Zach nodded again, answering with a hasty “Yes, ma’am.” before she could demand vocal affirmation from him.

“Good, then it’s settled,” Jaiden declared, clasping her hands together again. “So, with that out of the way, I’d like some medical treatment. My adrenaline rush is wearing off, and I swear I broke a bunch of bones whose names I don’t know.”

Zach waved another robo-doctor over, who promptly sat Jaiden down to examine her injuries. Denise, on the other hand, was almost completely healed, though that wasn’t the end of her problems for the day.

“Oh, man,” she moaned, glancing at herself, “How am I gonna’ explain my clothes to my folks? Look! My jacket’s ruined!”

Denise held up her black leather jacket, dotted with frayed holes and one slightly ripped sleeve from Jaiden pulling her wrist too hard.

“And my skirt, too!”

Which, unsurprisingly, also had multiple holes in it, the hem similarly torn-up along with the rest of the purple-pink fabric. She was lucky to have had fairly sturdy boots, though her knees—bare and scuffed-up from the tunnel Zach had dragged them into—still hurt from kneeling on debris, despite having been healed a few moments ago.

“Ditto with my missing earring,” Denise added as she gestured to her left ear, “which my mom will kill me for losing.”

“I gotcha’ covered,” Zach said, calling over another robot holding a tray. “We can 3D print you some fresh clothes and replace whatever you lost. Just drop your earring in the tray, and you’ll have a new one in five minutes, tops. It’s the least I can do for dragging you into that.”

“Great, thanks,” Denise replied, dropping her earring into the robot’s tray and getting up to head to the changing room. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some new clothes to wait for, and will need to make up a story as to what I was doing with you guys.”

With that, she turned on her heel and walked out. Zach didn’t comment on the hole on the bottom of her left boot, seeing that in a few minutes’ time, it’d no longer matter.

“On that note,” Jaiden added after watching Denise excuse herself, “I should be going, too. There’s a laundry list of little adventures I’d prefer to forget you ever dragged me into, but this one takes the cake, by far.”

She gathered her things and slung her pack over her shoulder, silently grateful that she left it in Zach’s garage, despite his ability to replace all her stuff easily. Once she was finished, Jaiden fixed her beanie on her head and starting to walk past him, before facing him to make one last remark.

“Oh, and before I forget.”

Smack!

Zach dropped onto the floor, clenching his stomach and holding back tears of pain. In hindsight, he probably should’ve expected that stomach punch, though he deserved it for almost leading them into an early grave for something only he cared about.

“That’s for what happened today. I’d smack you a whole lot more if I wasn’t tired.”

Jaiden turned around and walked away, grumbling under her breath about why she was still friends with a genius-I.Q. idiot who never used his gifts to think things through. Despite her warnings, though, she had little doubt that—someway, somehow—he’d get into trouble again. It always found him, no matter how hard he tried to avoid it.

----------

Zach’s fingers flew over his holo-screen, directing his best repair-robots as they circled around the unearthed cargo. He had planned to unlock its secrets as soon as his drones fed the video back to him but didn’t have time to explain what it was about, since Jaiden and Denise left before he could elaborate.

Right now, it was painfully clear they didn’t care to know, since they were recovering from today’s misadventure, and would probably tussle with nightmares for the next few months. Yet another discrepancy Zach had to make up for, though he was sure he’d figure out a way. It may be buggy and tedious to maintain, but when it really counted, technology hadn’t failed him yet.

“Processing download,” the computer announced, its monotone feminine voice interrupting his thoughts. “Estimated time to completion: T-minus thirty seconds.”

Like he said, it hadn’t failed him yet. Although, he did wonder if Jaiden could’ve unlocked the thing in maybe an hour or two, rather than in five hours. Between recuperating from the day’s events and decoding all the alien text and schematics that trickled into his feed from the device, that was how long Zach needed to crack the code.

Now—new firewalls, self-destruct mechanism, or other advanced security measures notwithstanding—his work looked it would finally pay off. Good timing, too, as Zach checked his watch to find 12:30 A.M. displayed. At least it was Saturday.

“Database unlocked. You may proceed.”

Zach acknowledge the message with a swipe of his finger, ready—at long last—to dig through the treasure trove of science and mathematics left behind by the Ancients. It’d take a while before they were willing to speak to him again, but once they were fresh, he couldn’t wait to show Jaiden and Denise everything.

[James G]

I was making notes in my story idea book last night, updating an idea which I have had before. There is a story outline in my head where a nuclear blast in London - and I have written that terrorist attack in this thread - wipes out almost all of the UK Government. The story outline is that of a surviving politician who finds themselves thrust into the position of power because there is no one else. They have to put everything back together again. I have no name for the story nor an idea where to start until today. Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall gave me the idea of Timmy falling out of the tree.
Should I ever get around to writing that story, and I have many other ideas for others more appealing to me, it would likely start similar to this short piece below. But there is no plan at the minute to write that story.
So... just what there is below is all that there is at the minute.