Twilight of Innocence

spake759

Literotica Guru
Joined
Dec 1, 2009
Posts
3,419
'Twilight of Innocence, Prologue'

When did the world die? This is a question many people have asked over the past three years since the first nuclear exchange that changed very shape of the affairs of the world. The year is 2009, and the world has been locked in a horrible world wide war that many would like to say started in 2000. But others with much better memories say it started in 1989. Back when it really looked as if the Cold War was about to end with the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe…

But that was not meant to be. A coup in the middle of 1989 saw the Gorbachev regime brought down, and the end of the Sinatra Doctrine when the Red Army units garrisoning East Germany and the rest of Eastern Europe put down pro-democratic protesters and reformers. During that horrible winter of 1989 the West watched in horror as the Soviet Union reinforced its hegemony with a brutal iron fist that would inspire the Peoples Republic of China to follow its example in 1993 to put down nearly three hundred pro-democracy demonstrators at Tiananmen Square. In comparison, the world would say that the thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) who went missing during that 'Black Winter' that saw the gentle thaw of the Cold War turn once more into an arctic blizzard.

Thanks to the Black Winter, the first half of the 1990s became the tensest during the history of the Cold War. Even tenser than the period of the Berlin Airlift, a feat that NATO had to be repeat throughout the months of the Black Winter. In August of 1990 Saddam Hussein's Republic of Iraq invaded the Emirate of Kuwait without the approval of the Soviet Union, whom did nothing to stop the US-led coalition of forces to liberate the small oil-producing Persian Gulf country.

The election of Bill Clinton as President of the United States in 1992 saw the continuation of the 'Peace through Strength' policy that had originally been started by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. But President Clinton also pursued a policy of economic engagement with the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact. Trade with the Eastern Bloc allowed limited capitalist economic and cultural reforms that greatly benefited the communist countries behind the Iron Curtain.

During the early-1990s saw the creation of a grassroots political organization in the United States based upon progressive populist beliefs that would become known as the Union for a Progressive New America sponsored by an extremely wealthy international financier. Throughout the 1990s and the first years of the early 21st Century the Union for a Progressive New America rapidly grew in power and scope allowing the new political party to win many local and state elections by 2004, including the election of several prominent members to the United States House of Representatives.

NATO found itself spilt over how to deal with the Black Winter, something that had long lasting effects and saw the birth of the Mediterranean Alliance in 1992 during the aftermath of Operation Desert Storm by the French Republic, Italian Republic and Hellenic Republic. These three nations would be joined by Portuguese Republic in 1994, Peoples Democratic Republic of Algeria and the Tunisian Republic in 1995, the Kingdom of Spain in 1998 and finally the Peoples Socialist Republic of Albania in 1999. While initially allied with NATO, the Alliance would slowly start to develop a much more distinct foreign policy. Especially with their policy with the continent of Africa. The African states and the order they joined the Mediterranean Alliance; the Republic of Chad in 1994, the Equatorial Guinea in 1994, the Central African Republic in 1994, the Republic of the Congo in 1995, the Kingdom of Morocco in 1996, the Somali Republic in 1997, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in 1998, and the Great Socialist Peoples Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in 2000. It was the rapid growth of the Mediterranean Alliance in Africa prompted the United States to create the African Unified Combatant Command.

By the end of the 1990s, luxury goods such as McDonalds, Starbucks, Pepsi, Levis and even Victoria's Secret could be found in stores throughout the Eastern Bloc. But the prosperity of the 1990s led to decadence in the East as well as the West. A brewing border dispute between the USSR and PRC spurred on by leaders dissatisfied with the changes and reforms exploded into the Sino-Soviet Border War in August of 2000. The Sino-Soviet War would end up drawing the rest of Warsaw Pact when the fighting turned against the Soviet Union mid-2001. By early 2002 the Sino-Soviet War had become a meat grinder for the Pact forces (especially the units of the NVA der DDR) whom where finding themselves being used as cannon fodder.

The DDR and other Warsaw Pact countries started to turn against their Soviet masters, and covertly opened negotiations with their counterparts inside NATO.

In 2003 the Soviets demanded another round of reinforcements from their Warsaw Pact allies, who balked at the thought of sending more troops into the Sino-Soviet frontier. 9 September 2003, three nearly bloodless coups where carried out. Overthrowing the Soviet sponsored governments that controlled the German Democratic Republic and Hungarian Peoples Republic. But the coup attempt in the Polish Peoples Republic failed thanks to the Soviet KGB intercepting the majority of conspirators allowing the majority of Poland to remain in the hands of the Polish central communist government and Soviet Occupation forces plunging the country into chaos as local uprisings go off without central authorities while government opposition maintained a cohesive control that nearly stomped out the rebellion. If not for the successful uprising in the DDR with the aid of the Federal Republic of Germany (and having the support of nearly every level of the East German government) pushing the occupying Soviet Forces in Germany out of the nation, the Polish uprising would have been a total failure.

The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic feared the possible reunification of the two German states swore its continued allegiance to the Warsaw Pact, and launched a major offensive to support the beleaguered Soviet forces. The entrance of Czechoslovak forces into East Germany prompted the US and British forces in West Germany to launch their own counter-assault against the Czechoslovak and Polish forces currently engaged in combat.

The Peoples Republic of Bulgaria and the Socialist Republic of Romania mobilized to reinforce the Soviets and Czechoslovak forces fighting against NATO and the turncoat German and Polish forces in the German Democratic Republic and the Polish Peoples Republic.

After the mobilization of their Balkan neighbors to enter into the conflict in Eastern Europe prompted the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia joined NATO alliance. Which along with skirmishes between Bulgarian and Turkish forces would prompt the Mediterranean Alliance to at first to enter a state of armed neutrality that would become a state of war when they refused to allow NATO to reinforce the Republic of Turkey in the early part of 2004 after the Soviets started to appear as if they where going to prepare to launch an all out offensive into Southwest Asia in an effort to cut NATO's access to Middle East Oil Fields.

Thanks to this, the war in Europe and Central Asia had spread to the Middle East and Africa prompting the United States Congress to authorize the reactivation of the Draft and the creation of the wartime Army of the United States to defend the country. All throughout the later years of the 1990s political pressure had created the Evaluation of Female Combat Personnel Program to test the possibility of American women in combat or combat support positions that had proven successful. Thus when the Congress passed the new Draft legislation in 2004 both men and women between the ages of 18 to 35 had found that they were eligible for the draft equally. This gave a grassroots support for both protestors and political pundits whom where associated with the 'Union for a Progressive New America' to speak out, support and organize groups whose only reason to exist was to resist both the war and the draft.

By mid-2006 the first uses of nuclear weapons was reported during the Sino-Soviet conflict in Central Asia and quickly followed when the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan went nuclear when the two states decided to finally end the nearly-half century state of war that had existed between them that left both states desolate wastelands that would soon be mirrored in other parts of the world. The use of nuclear weapons in the Western Hemisphere was much more limited, with the unspoken agreement between the three superpowers limited themselves to the use of only tactical nuclear warheads on the battlefields.

In mid-2007 the first and only use of strategic nuclear weapons occurred on the early morning of Wednesday 4 July 2007 with the launch of a surgical strike by the Soviet Union in an attempt to knock the United States out of the War. The surviving media would call this surprise nuclear attack that hit Washington DC and select military targets in the Continental United States as the 'Independence Day Massacre.'

Throughout 2008 the war continued in sporadic offenses and counter-offenses that occurred between attempts by the participants in an effort to regain internal control over their homelands. Back in the United States the Union for a Progressive New America had launched an attempt to overthrow the surviving federal and state governments using the distraction of the nuclear exchanges of the 'Independence Day Massacre' as cover for their attempt. Many elements of the surviving media conglomerates at first ignored the activities of the 'Progressive New America' but would soon find themselves even focus of the organizations attempts to assert complete and total control over every aspect of the day-to-day lives of the areas under their control.

The Federal Government attempted to keep the fighting between it and the 'Union for a Progressive New America' from getting to much coverage fearing that it would weaken its ability to maintain control over those areas still within its sphere of control and influence. But after reports of the atrocities that where being carried out in the seat of the Union's power (Seattle, WA), the Federal Government had to go public with the covert war that had started in the aftermath of the 'Independence Day Massacre'.

By mid-2009 the war had finally ground to a halt on all fronts as all of the participants where just too over extended, and incapable of even keeping their own homelands secure from domestic outlaw elements. Thus when the final offensive of the war fizzled, and many found themselves cut off and stranded as strangers in strange lands having to find their own way home.

And this… This is the story of two such people.

One is a soldier, and the other a field correspondent of one of the last operating international news agencies. Two very different people thrust together during a chaotic battle. Forced together with each other's lives in the others hands. They have said that Love has been born from less...

Dramatis Personae:

CW3 Nathaniel Hale Spaight, US Army Special Forces Warrant Officer
Angylina Sharareh 'Shar' Teymūrtāsh, WBN (Westinghouse Broadcasting Network) News Channel Field Correspondent


'Twilight of Innocence'

The chaos that ensued as the Fifth Infantry Division (Mechanized) Headquarters was over run was horrendous. CW2 Nathaniel Hale Spaight was running through the area as Soviet forces had rushed into the area, gunfire and explosions where all around him. Men and women were trying to fight for their lives. He knew that this might not be hell...

But it was very close.

He looked around as he sprinted for the Landrover Defender 130 jeep that he had been spending the night stockpiling and preparing for the run to the allied lines, and that was the most important thing he needed to do. Because that was his lifeline to get back to the 'real world.' He was furious, the Commanding General for the 5th ID hadn't beleived him when he and the suriving members of his team had reported that the Soviets had gotten their hands on a steady supply of petrol. And had mobilzed a sizeable force that they where about to launch a major offensive against NATO forces in an attempt to knock them out of the war. Basicly, the Soviets where about to launch an offesnisve for the exact same reasons that NATO was about to launch Operation Butterfly.

As he made his way across the field he had ended up stumbling over one of those damn news correspondents and the body of her cameraman whom had been hiding behind a stand of barrels of drinking water.

"What the hell?!?" he muttered as he looked up into her Azure eyes. "You aren't fucking suppose to be here. They put you and the other embedded journalist on a damn transport yesterday morning..."

He squatted down to check the body of her cameraman, he was dead. From the way he read the scene, it was obvious that he had been killed taking the bullets that had been meant for her. He took one of the dogtags from around his neck, and inserted the other into the man's mouth and slammed his jaw shut around it.

He looked at the woman and shook his head. "Look," he said shaking her in an effort to get through to her. To bring her out of the shock that she was in. "Your cameraman is dead, grab your gear and follow me if you want to live!"
 
Grabbing her gear, and the camera, she began to follow the warrant officer.

Shar and her cameraman had jumped off the transport as it was moving out as they wanted to get as close to the action as they could. In the past it had gotten her Pulitzer prizes for broadcasting excellence.

Her eyes showed fear in them. Her cameraman, had taken a bullet that would have otherwise killed her. She was used to taking chances; however this time she may have gone too far.

As she walked she said a silent prayer that she make it out alive.
 
Nathaniel guided the stunned woman to the Landrover and quickly got her into the passenger seat and through the gear that he had been carrying into the back of the jeep. He looked her over and shook his head. She was definately showing signs of shock. And who could blame her, she was covered in the blood of her cameraman.

"Stay here," he said looking back over his shoulder as he checked the area.
He ran back to where he had found her, and grabbed the bags that it appeared that they had been carrying. Once he got back to the Landrover he tossed them into the back along with the rest of the supplies that he had loaded up over the past twelve hours.

He spun around and fired a quick burst of shots from his M4A1 5.56mm carbine into the chest of an attacking Soviet infantryman. "Shit," he muttered when he recognized the insigna on the man's uniform. "Guards Motor Rifle infantry have moved up and are hitting the command post. That is going to make the breakout even harder. Fuck."

"I don't know who you are," He said climbing behind the wheel of the landrover and shook her again. "But I need you to listen to me. You're going into shock. If you don't talk to me, I'm going to have to slap you. And I really, really don't want to have to do that."

"So please tell me your name," he said looking into her eyes. "We really don't have time for this... I need your help in getting us out of the hell we've found ourselves."
 
Still dazed, she watched as he ran back for the items she left behind. When he got back to the vehicle, he put those items and some additional items in., before turning around and firing his rifle.

He then got in the driver's seat and started talking to her.

With her brain still in a fog from the shock of what was happening around her it took her a moment to realize what what happening and that he was talking to her. It was beginning to register that he was asking for her name.

Just as he was beginning to think that he was going to have to slap her she replied, "My name is Angylina Sharareh Teymūrtāsh. But call me Shar, please."
 
"Angylina Sharareh..." he said looking at her and rubbed the back of his neck before he started the landrover and pulled out of the area. "You're the reporter with the WBN News Channel, I thought I recognized you... I'm Cheif Warrant Officer Three Nathaniel Hale Spaight. I'm the man who tried to warn everyone that this was coming. But MG Callaway didn't want to listen, he couldn't believe that the Soviets had gotten their hands on a steady supply of petrol."

"But you really shouldn't be here," he said as they sped along, swerving to avoid burning vehicles. "I need you to keep your eyes open, and if you see anything following us let me know!"

"It's 0120," he explained. "And if we can get as much space between us and here as possible... The better. If we can get to the village of Brzeziny we've got a chance to hold up during the day. It's a completely dead zone, and the Soviet's hit it with chemical weapons during the first time we fought our way through here to punish the townsfolk for 'collaborating' with the enemy."

"Traveling at night is our best chance at avoiding hostiles," he said as they drove past a stand of trees. He was careful to make sure that the landrover and the trailer it was towing wouldn't get caught up on anything, before turning onto a southbound road. "As much as I hate to drive on the roads... We've got to make as much distance as possible right now."
 
She kept her mouth shut about Callaway. She had her own opinions about Callaway. Every war had it's share of fools in high-level positions. However, her job was to report the news, not give opinions.

She just nodded taking in the information. Brzeziny was a few hours drive from here; the sun would be starting to rise when they arrived. She hoped that they could make it that far.

As Spaight drove, she kept her eye on their surroundings; their lives depended on making it to their destination.


She also knew that the M4 carbine he had wasn't going to be enough, especially once he ran out of ammunition. They were going to have to get their hands on some of the enemy's weapons.
 
CW3 Spaight looked at the well-worn map he had carried with him each and every time he had crossed this territory over the past four years. All of the scrawled notes detailing the things they had discovered, or the supplies they had cached for emergencies was what he was the most interested in right now. He did a quick mental inventory of all of the supplies he had stored in the Landrover Defender 130 and high mobility trailer behind it.

"When the Soviet's shelled Brzeziny with nerve gas," Spaight said aloud, shattering the silence of the tense past half-hour. "It pretty much froze the town as it had been before the war started."

"We've used it three times as a rally point if we got seperated," he said softly. "We have also used it to hide weapons and equipment in case we needed to reequip and rearm... But that's not the best thing about Brzeziny."

"It's been untouched by marauders since the gas was dropped on it," he explained in a tone that could only be described as almost... sad. "Anything you need, we'll be able to get from there. They had alot of stores, and very untouched. They have a couple of electonics stores, clothing stores, a McDonalds... Hell, even a damn Victora's Secret."

"What we are heading for is a Communist Party retreat that is on the edge of the town," he said grinning. "It's got everything we need to hold up for a few days. It has its own generator, several solar panels and batteries to keep it powered if anything went wrong. It's got a small medical clinic, and a nice stockpile of drugs kept in freezers... That's the biggest reason I've got the trailer."

"When Calloway wouldn't listen," Spaight said looking at Shar and grinning. "I ordered everal of the men of my team to get to XI Corps headquarters and relay the information we have gotten. Including the digital pictures and videos of the Soviet convoys of tanker trucks hauling petrol."

"Petrol fueled vehicles have so damn much better performance," he said frowning. "It's not even funny. They can travel further and faster than vehicles burning alchol-based fuel."

"But Calloway felt that they where full of the same distilled alchol-based fuel that we've been using," he said shaking his head. "That we where just being overly cautious, because the guys in the 105th Military Intelligence Battalion were so damn admant that the Soviets couldn't have gotten their hands on that much petrol."

"They kept totally ignoring the damn oil fields in the Soviet Union," Spaight said agrulally. "They've had close to a year to get the fields back into production, rebuild the damn refineries, and to stockpile enough petrol to carry out a major offense. Just like we spent the last year stockpiling enough alchol-based fuel to feed Operation Butterfly."

"Hell," he said through clentched teeth. "We have been getting avgas from CENTCOM to keep what aircraft we've still got operatial in the air. So why the hell couldn't those damn squints wrap their heads around the fact that the Soviets have been doing the SAME DAMN THING."
 
Shar just listened to what Spaight was relaying to her. Much of it was old news to her that she had learned through her various sources over the last few years.

She perked up a little at the mention of a Victoria's Secret and some clothing stores. It may be four-year old styles, but right now she could use some new clothes, underwear and a shower. Definately a shower, she thought looking at her blood-covered clothes and arms.

She was used to getting dirty for some of her stories, occassionally blood, but never the blood of a friend before.

She began to pray again that they made it to Brzeziny without being caught by the Soviet troops.
 
CW3 Spaight looked up and smiled as they approached Brzeziny. He stopped the Landrover and lifted the nightvision goggles he had been using to see in the dark so they could turn the headlights off. He checked the map and then double checked to see the best route that they should take.

"We can get to the retreat by going straight through the center of town," he explained showing Shar the map, and tracing the route with the tip of his finger. "That would allow us a little time for you to do some shopping, before we head to the retreat. Hopefully it will only take five to twenty minutes to get the generators running. But I'm betting that the batteries are fully charged, since the solar pannel system is automated..."

"We've just burned 125km getting away from Kaliz," he said showing her the route they had just travelled. "We've had to go east to avoid the Soviets, and their allies. And I am hoping that we'll be able to spend at least a day in Brzeziny, so I can monitor the radio... And hopefuly for any other survivors to meet us. When he leave Brzeziny we will head 211km due south to the Free City of Krakow..."

"Is there anything you want to check out first?" he asked her.
 
"I could use some clothes and some underwear. Since you know this area better than I do, lead the way. We'll hit the stores in order from here to the destination."

They stopped first at a clothing store where she quickly found two outfits and then to Victoria's Secret, where it took a little more time.

After finding what they needed, they got back in the vehicle and continued on.
 
Spaight watched as Shar disapeared into the shops and decided he'd check into the electronics store. He grabbed a couple of cameras, MP3 players and a few other gadgets he felt that they could put to use. Of all of the different countries behind the Iron Curtain, Poland had allowed it's people alot more leeway than anyother. While the handful of cellphones he was grabbing where not really worth that much, he did know that they would be an excellent source for spare parts for what he was planing on using them for.

After he had put his 'purchases' in the landrover, he took the time to double check the weapons and ammunition that he had already stored earlier. He really should have mounted the M2 .50 cal. machinegun on the turret ring-mount on top of the Landrover. But instead he had used that time gathering more equipment.

When he saw Shar coming out of the Victoria's Secret, he couldn't help but smile as he opened the passenger door for her. "I hope you found everything that you needed," he said as he closed the door for her. "Our next stop will be the retreat... Unless you think you might need something else."
 
She returned his smile politely, thanking him for allowing her to get a few things. While in Victoria's Secret not only did she find underwear she was able to find some shampoo and body lotion.

She asked, "I hope it has a shower or a place to clean up? I must look horrible."
 
"I've seen worse ma'am," he said as he got behind the steering wheel of the landrover. "But have no fear... the retreat has full bathroom facilities. In fact they are the same level that you'd find in the best hotels in the world."

"I just have to double check all of the equipment before you use the facilities," he explained as he put the nightvision googles on and started the jeep and began the last leg of their journey. "When my team was here the lasttime, we where told to give the place a major examination. The idea was to use the retreat and its grounds for setting up a Combat Support Hospital when the 5th Infantry Division had secured the area."

"But the place has a secured water resevor underground," he said as they continued through the township. Shar could see the skeletons and other remains of men, women, children and their pets all around them. "The resevor also has extensive water filters, so we don't have to worry about contamination."

"It's a damn good location," he said grinning. "It's surrounded by a four foot thick and twelve foot tall wall, that has only one entranceway that is sealed with a very beautiful cast iron gate... The guard gatehouses are very good."

"The place has been equipped with video surveillence and everything you'd expect for a modern security checkpoint," he said as they apporached the retreat. Shar could see the white wall and the gate in question. And it was beautiful, and looked like the kind of estate owned by European nobility in some kind of romantic novel or movie. "T/Sgt. Diggs said that the gear in the gatehouses needed to be given a once over and possibly refurbished, but they'd be quite useable. The secrity office and command center in the basement is still completely ready for use."

"The Combat Engineer platoon that had come with us," he said as they stopped at the gate. "They cleaned the place out... So you shouldn't have to worry about coming across any remains. One of the Mourtuary Affairs guys helped us buried them in the back garden with full honors and respect."
 
She understood that he had to check the equipment first.

When they got to the compound the gate was indeed as beautiful as he described.

When the got to the gate, he mentioned that the remains where cleared out. Of course the newscaster in her came out with that last statement. "Did you know who they were? The ones you buried in the back garden?"
 
"A couple of them," Spaight said softly as he glanced back at where they had been buried. "They had idenity tags, and other papers that told us who they where."

"But most of them," he said sadily. "We couldn't find anything that identified them. but we still treated them with the upmost respect that we could."

"When the 5ID got here," he said. "LTG Hannity had ordered MG Calloway to have the men and women of the division assist in the clean-up of the township. He even ordered other mortuary affairs personnel from other commands to be prepared for being transfered here to organize the enterment of all the dead. To try and identify as many of the remains as we could."

"We'd have to cremate the dead," he said as he gathered up some of the supplies from the back of the Landrover. "Because burying all of them might not have been fesible. I don't know. It was a decision way above my paygrade. Burying the people we found here... That was something I could do. So I did it."

"Our trip here last year wasn't pretty," he said as they entered the main building of the retreat. "But we spent two weeks here, going over everything to provide as much information on what was here... My team was supported by a platoon of combat engineers, a couple mortuary affairs specialists and a few intelligence specialists. We went through the town, cateloging as much as we could."

"LTG Hannity had great plans for Brenziny when we got here," he said as they crossed the grand foyer. It was obvious that the communist party had wasted no expense to make this retreat filled with everything that they had decried about the wealthy upper classes in the western world. "Setting up a combat support hospital here, reoping the shops, and setting up the town as a place for R&R and a morale, welfare and recreation center for the entire front."

"He wanted to create a place where we could get away from the war," he said as they entered the basement so he could check and make sure the batteries where fully charged and that the water would work. "Looks like you'll be able to get a hot shower or bath right away ma'am."

"We'll stick with rooms that don't have windows," he said as they headed upstairs. "That way we won't let anyone notice that we're here... Lights can be spotted for a very, very long ways away."
 
"Sometimes, for large-scale burials cremation is the best way to go," she commented.

His statement about staying away from the rooms with windows, made sense. She was well aware that lights, and also, with the right equipment, sound, could be heard from miles away.

With that in mind, she found an acceptable room and showered as quickly as possible, despite wanting to relax away the tensions under the showerhead.

After drying off she dressed in the items she was able to find in town and began to look around the building.

Noticing Spaight at a table with the items he picked up in town, she just stood, and watched him for a while, taking her first good look at the man who rescued her.
 
As Nathaniel sat at the table she could see that he had put on a pair of eyeglasses as he was going over each of the various electronic gadgets he had 'acquired' during his quick shopping trip. Shar was able to tell that he had long delicate fingers, as he took the cellphones apart and started to work on repairing the satellitephone that her cameraman had been carrying when he was killed. His reddish brown hair was cut short on the sides, but he had allowed it to grow longer on the top. A fact that had been hidden from view by the tan beret that he had been wearing when she had first saw him.

His ACUs where clean, and well cared for. Without his combat vest and bodyarmor she could see that he had an atheletic build to go with his height. Along with the fact she could tell that he was wearing a pair of knee braces underneath his ACU combat pants, something that most wouldn't have noticed thanks to the knee and elbowpads that where part of his bodyarmor.

After repairing the satellite phone he checked the battery and frowned, it would need to be recharged before he could make sure that the repairs had worked. With a sigh he rubbed the back of his neck and took the small bible from the pocket on the sleeve pocket on the upper left arm of his combat shirt. And turning to a passage that he had bookmarked, he read it and gave a silent prayer before returning the bible back to its pocket. He looked up and saw Shar and smiled.

"Feeling better ah hope," he said with an easy smile in his southern accent.
 
She replied, "I feel clean at least. It will probably be some time before I'm feeling better. John was a good friend. He was my camerman for several years now."

She walked into the room and looked at the sattelite phone. "Were you able to repair it?" she asked.
 
"Totally understandable," nathaniel said softly as he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out the dogtag he had taken off of John's body, and handed it to her. "You should keep this then. It's his ID tag, you'll need to give it to your bosses when we get back to NATO held territories."

"I think I was able to fix it," he said as he hooked it up to the battery charger. "But we won't know for at least twelve hours, when the new batteries are fully charged. Then We can try it, and find out if it's working... And just how much of 5th ID made it out of Kalisz..."

"If you're hungry," he said smiling. "I have plenty of MREs, and a few civilian equivilents... They are quite good actually. But I've actually liked the taste of MREs..."
 
She took John's tag and put it into the pocket of the pants she had on. "Thanks."

"Although MRE's aren't my favorite, right now, they sound perfect. I haven't eaten in almost two days."
 
"Have a seat," He said smiling at her. "I'll grab a couple of MREs, and something from my private stash that you might really enjoy.."

Nathaniel squatted down and dug around in the dufflebag he had broght in while she was showering and pulled out a couple of MRES and a small bag that looked as if it was a toiletry kit... But it was larger and had alot more padding. "I hope you like Beef Steak and i've got myself a pork patty with applesauce. My favorite!"

He opened them MREs and pulled out the heaters to warm the meals entries. Once they where ready he carefully handed them off to Shar and took a seat and opened the padded bag and pulled out a couple of snickers bars. "For desert," he explained. "I know it would become next to impossible to get candy... So i had stockpiled alot of candy before the war, and the nuclear exchanges."

"Hell, I even stockpiled cigarettes dispite the fact I don't smoke." he said grinning. "They make wonderful trade goods. Better than money most of the time. If you want a couple packs, just let me know. I've even still got several bottles of whiskey and bourbon if we need it. And this place has alot more luxury goods we can get if we need it."
 
Shar sat at the table opposite him, and picked at the MRE he provided her. Right now it was sustenence.

She absentmindedly ate the food. When she was done she reached for the Snickers bar. Now that tasted good.

"Thanks." she replied. "Its been a long time since I had any chocolate."
 
"Wow," he said grinning as he broke the dry pork patty and used it as if it was a spoon. "I would have thought the WBN News Channel would have been able to keep it's people in all kinds of luxuries. I've heard stories where some of the correspondents for CNN and MSNBC had all kinds of damn luxuries... I know one of them had a damn luxury RV, that they had to keep puling it out of the mud..."

"I've got several pounds of chocolate left," he said. "I keep it in those boxes marked 'traning supplies' with the rest of my tradegoods and pogie bait. So if you want some just let me know. I've got all other kinds of candy as well. Even a few stuffed animals. Mostly beanie babbies. Kids really love those things"

"The one thing that really pisses me off about wars," he said shaking his head. "The damn leaders never think about how they're going to affect the people we're sworn to protect and defend. Especially the children."

"Kids should never have to see anything like this," he said stuffing more applesauce in his mouth. "Childhood is suppose to be a time of wonder and amazement."

"Not fear and starvation," he said frowning as he finished his pork patty and applesauce. "I've seen to many chidlren killed by stray shots. Or worse, killed by... Damn chemical weapons. The worse... The worse was seeing all those people killed by the bioweapon attacks on Isreal before they transfered me up here."
 
"I certainly understand your fustration. I hate seeing the effect this war is having on the children, too.

"Unfortunately, seeing some of the aftermath from the attacks in Isreal, I have to agree. I can't tell you how many times before I went on air that I would throw up from all of it. There have been times I've wanted to hang it up."
 
"Been there," he said softly. "Done that. When this war was over, I planned on retiring. July 10th was my twenty year mark, and if we hadn't been at war... I would have been allowed to retire."

"But," he said grinning. "I'm needed until the state of emergency is over. And with the latest reports we've gotten from Northern Command and Southern Command... The Bolivarian Alliance is on its last leg. The Mexicans are the only ones still hanging tough right now."

"But it's from what info we've been able to get," he said smiling. "There is alot of tension in the Mexican Army, espeicaly between career soldiers and their political officers."

"Africa Command reported that the fighting there has burned itself out," he said sighing as he pulled out a small notebook and looked at the notes scribbed therein. "Central Command has secured the oil fields, and is still fighting against Soviet, Baghad pact and Med Alliance forces. But the steady supply of fuel has really been a major boon for us there."

"They've really been kicking ass," he said frowning. "I've not heard anything about what's happening in Pacific Command since we learned that North Korean government completely collapsed. I've been able to find out is that South Korea annexed their northern neighbor, and have been getting alot of technical support from the Japanese since most of the US forces in Korea have been transfered to the Pacific Rim."

"Have you heard anything about whats happening back home?" he asked.
 
Back
Top