involuntary soldier

Charles looked at his father across the table after the rest of the family had gone to bed, and asked nervously “now can you please explain what the heck is going on?” his father shook his head wearily and said “I can’t just tell you straight away these things Charles not after all these years. You don’t understand what the government would do if they found out the information that I know.” Charles looked at his father in a whole new light now. He didn’t think of his father as just a grim farmer any more, or as a parent. He thought of him as a stranger. Charles had always known that there was something different about his father compared to all the other boys his age at the village. Their fathers had always come to his dad for advice but at the same time never looked at his father in the eyes. Charles had always thought that was just because they respected him, but now he knew the truth. They feared him. They feared him because they knew what he was and what he could do. They had always looked at my father in a cynical way. They never could accept what happened with out really knowing what happened. Neither could Charles. His father finally started talking. Haltingly at first but gaining steam as he went along.



         Charles’s father looked at his son grimly knowing that no matter what happened he would still love his son. Even if he didn’t love him after it was all done. His father spoke quietly “ we never knew what exactly we where doing at the labs, they never told us what the research we where doing was going towards, but me and my correspondent both knew that it was for something big. You see I had chanced upon a little known virus, it was such a radical virus that it could actually alter the human DNA. I found that if I changed the way the virus worked I could change any life form as I saw fit. In the early years all we altered was insects and smaller creatures. Then the government saw what I was doing, at the time the war was at a stale mate neither side could prevail over the other because they where so evenly matched but then the democrats found me and put to work on a new strain of protein built of the one that I had discovered. They put to work with an ambitious man named Slater and I had my doubts then about what I was doing, but my discovery was just what the democrats wanted, to have an advantage over the republicans.



         To finally be able to have America back in a democratic regime, and be able to do what they pleased. As me and Slater started working on the new virus we became aware that we could not only change the physical structure of what even we wanted, but the very basis of that life form. Able      to change it in any way we desired and see what happened. Able to enhance brain activity previously not in use and enhance muscle mass to a greater degree and create smarter beings. The virus could enhance any number of things. We had no idea what would happen. It could do practically anything. Eventually Slater came to and said that the democrats wanted to put in their nuclear bombs. I was forced to give them my data and my first engineered virus and like a mother watching her baby grow I watched my monster manifest into what we have today. They put in the bombs and they told me it was just supposed to kill faster. What they didn’t tell me was they where meaning to do. They wanted to make mutants Charles. They wanted to because they could have the advantage and find these mutants and destroy the republicans.”  Charles sat in numb silence not wanting to speak for he didn’t trust him self right at the moment to say any thing. Then he asked “well couldn’t you just take your data back and or something?” Charles’s father looked at his son and said “why else would I leave the army? I took the most crucial data that I could and I fled hoping against hope that Slater hadn’t figured it all out by then. I deliberately kept Slater in the dark about my research because I knew to what ends he would use it, so I took all the data that I could and fled, but the damage was done, by the time that I had gotten away, the bombs where away and I was an accessory of murder.”



          Bill Mossberg let out a pent up breath and looked at his son. “Well you asked Charles I didn’t ever want to tell you these things but sometimes life isn’t fair.” Charles shook his head and said “no dad I know that you meant well by what you did, it’s just that the democrats where bloodthirsty animals!” Charles said with finality. Bill looked at his son and asked “do you really think that they where any different than the republicans? Do you really think the republicans would have done any different? The government has always been corrupt but it was just underneath the surface of it all.” Charles shook his head and said well “why doesn’t some one change it? Was America always like this?” bill looked at his son and in a trembling voice said “it wasn’t always like this you know. There used to be a time when we had a voice in the government, we didn’t have to be afraid. There used to be a time when we didn’t have corrupt leaders and the two parties could co-exist in peace.” Charles shook his head and got up from the table and went to the door. He opened it roughly and said “I have to get some air; this is just too much to take in right now.” Bill called to his son and said “Charles it can’t always be like this trust me. You never know there might be some one out there who can put an end to this madness.” Charles shook his head at his father’s stupidity and walked out side closing the door with a bang.

      Charles walked down his gravel walk way, the gravel crunching under his feet as he went and with his thoughts heavy he set out to his destination. Well what ever his destination was. Charles walked aimlessly thinking to himself “what crucial data did my father take?” Charles walked on dreading the answer. What if his father was a mutant? How could he be sure of any one any more, knowing what he now knows. His brain almost seemed to be yelling at him with its persistent throbbing. He didn’t even understand what was going on. Could all of his life just of been a cover? Could his father only have had a wife and kids to hide from the democrats? What if they find us? Charles was of being so confused, not knowing anything about the outside world. He felt like a child again, and he wanted answers!

         

        Charles walked along contemplating what it could all mean, when he looked up he found him self looking down at the valley he had been at early that day. The forest was eerily quite, not a sound was heard through out the valley. That what troubled him the most, the quite; Charles looked up to the distant mountains shadowed in the dark that he knew to be there. The distorted shapes of them made them almost seem like guardians of the valley and everything else besides the sun and the moon where trespassers. Charles looked down the valley to the road on the other side wondering how his aunt was doing in the village 3 days down the road. Charles had never been down that road before because his father had said that it was plagued with raiding parties and recruiting men from the militia. Also not to mention the ever new threat of mutants.



        There had also been rumors of mad men lurking in the lush forest around the road! Charles was not a timid man but when it came to that road he tended to quickly move on to something else and avoid it. The road always seemed to- A loud growl tore him out of his trance. Charles whipped his head around searching for the sound. “Who’s there?” Charles called in an attempt to sound bigger than he was. In answer to him a loud growl seemed to float out the darkness. It seemed to be coming from somewhere in front of him. Charles took a step back as he heard another growl coming from his left. Charles realized why there was no noise in the forest. There where predators about. Howls sounded down in the valley and Charles franticly searched his pockets for his knife. As he searched the growling seemed to circle around him to his right and in the gloom a cloud shifted and a ray of moonlight illuminated the valley. Charles saw the mutant dogs slowly coming up from the tree line and to his right. two of the midnight blue monsters sniffed the ground around them and they snapped their heads up as they sensed Charles looking at them. Charles felt almost paralyzed in their

hungry glare and with a hysteric thought, he knew he was going to die. He could feel it in his bones.



    The midnight blue mutants slowly started advancing on him, Charles quickly thought out his options. He could fight or he could run. Then as he began to make his choice, he was struck with a thought. “The mutants seemed to be afraid of loud noises they must associate loud noises with thunder and lightning!” Charles held up his hands and franticly said “please stop I’m not a threat!” the mutants stopped in there tracks and slowly turned to look at each other. Charles quickly searched his pockets for his knife; the dogs slowly turned their attention back on to Charles and began walking slightly crouched towards him. Charles franticly searched his pockets and was finally rewarded for his efforts. Charles slowly took his hand out of his pocket leaving the knife where it was for now. Charles slowly raised his hands; all the while the dog’s eyes never left his hands. Charles tensed suddenly and brought his hands together with a loud crack! The retort echoed around the valley. The mutant hounds cried out in fright and twisted around and tore away from him. Charles didn’t waste any time in his success. He turned his back on the freakish hounds and the valley that he had once felt safe in and pounded up the path towards his village.





    Charles ran up the goat path to his village jumping over fallen logs over the path in his frantic flight away from the hell hounds in the forest spread out behind him in the valley below. Charles looked behind his shoulder to check if he was being followed. All he saw as he whipped his head around was the luminous eyes watching unblinkingly it seemed from the darkness. Charles cringed inwardly as he ran wondering what was going through the hounds head at the moment. “Were they going to follow him?” was Charles most pressing thought at the moment as he came upon the main street of his village, to be more precise that was the only street in his village. Charles ran down the street shouting into the direction of each house he raced by “watch your selves! There are mutants that might be coming here!” Charles’s words where met with a flurry of activity as men grabbed there guns and woman grabbed there children and valuables and went to there safe places, if they had one.





    Charles ran down the main road and went left to his small earth colored cabin and bounded through the door way hollering as he went. Charles stumbled as he crossed the threshold of the doorway and he fell into his fathers waiting arm. Charles looked up at his father and said breathlessly, “those mutant dogs chased me from the valley, I think they are going to come here and try and attack!” Charles’s father flinched as if struck and stood his son up and ran to the steel door and wretched it open calling as he went “Sarah get the girls down in here right now!” Sarah came running with two scared looking toddlers gripping each hand. Sarah looked at her husband and son with a strained expression said “be careful, the both of you, I can’t lose you guys not yet.” Bill looked at his wife and hugged her briefly and tore away from her towards the gun cabinet near the kitchen the front door.  Charles followed his father to the gun cabinet and looked out the front door while his father retrieved the guns. Charles saw grim men grabbing guns and supplies as they frantically dashed through there houses across the dusty road. Charles thought to him self “what all went wrong, this madness must end!” Charles’s father thrust his gun into his hands and with a grim look ushered his son out the door and into the dusty street.



    Bill Mossberg and his son ran up the street people detaching them selves from houses as the pair sprinted up the street to the valley, a man hurried up to Bill and asked out of breath, “what the heck is going on Bill! People are saying that there’s going to be an attack!” Bill looked at the man next to him as they ran up the street and said “were not really sure what’s going on yet but there’s a good chance that we will be attacked by those mutant dogs we have heard so much about.” The man stumbled slightly at the news and asked in a panicky voice “are they dangerous?” Bill shook his head slightly and said “we will soon find out”.



  Charles ran a few yards behind his father all the while debating whether or not this feeling he had was valid or not. Charles’s gut instincts where telling him that something was amiss, that he had missed something. What was there to miss? He had seen the dogs! He had been chased by them to the village! How could he be wrong? Charles shook of his troubled thoughts with a mental shrug and continued running down the road.



  The men reached the mouth of the valley and they all stood around in a disorganized sprawl of people and guns. The men all looked around with apprehensive eyes towards the darkness just outside the light of there torches and looked for the cold gleam of the mutant dog’s eyes. The men found no such gleam and many of them started grumbling among them selves. Charles looked around and said “they where down at the tree line so they might still be there waiting!” the men looked alarmed at the news that these beast where down there waiting, biding there time. Charles and his father led the men down to the tree line to a bloody mess. The trees and the ground where slick with blood, Charles wondered what could have made so much blood and thought “maybe a dog unlucky enough to be chosen to as dinner” Charles frantically searched the darkness of the trees when a man from the back of the mob shouted “look up the road behind us! There’s a glow heading towards the village I think!” Charles turned around and looked up the hill to the left towards the glow the man had indicated.



  The glow wavered and swayed almost as if it where alive, and it seemed to grow larger as it got closer. Charles looked at it and with horror realized that maybe just maybe his gut feeling had been right. A monstrous BOOM made every one step back and the earth seemed to tremble as hundreds of shots went off under the glow and the retorts echoed in the valley and the plains on the other side of the village. Charles and the men stared at each other and when they started hearing the raw throated yells of men in the distance and the piercing screams of woman and children. The men launched them selves on the path towards the village and stumbling in the haste they come upon the scene of destruction that awaited them.





      Bullet holes where every where in the houses and there was blood dripping from one the holes to the right of the men. The glow in the distance had grown larger all the while. The men looked to the left of them and towards the glow in the dark sky. They saw a horde of men under the glow of hundreds of torches. Charles gasped as he saw a flag with the symbol of a donkey and realization lanced through Charles. They had finally come for his father. The democrats had finally found them. Charles gasped as all of the men in the village as one loosed wild battle cries and fired upon the democrats. The men underneath the glow of the torches stumbled. The glow its self seemed to writhe as its fuel was being massacred. Charles looked up the street and saw the democrats pelting down on the village. Charles stopped thinking and acted, he dropped into a crouch and brought his gun up to his shoulder and took aim. Charles looked down the scope and saw a stocky man with a stubby black beard and a wild look in his eyes, Charles suddenly realized he was wondering if the man knew he was about to die. The shot fired and it seemed to blend it with the chorus of gunshots around him. Charles saw the man running towards him. An instant later his skull was blasted apart and a spray of blood flew out from the back of his head. The man with the wild eyes seemed to fall like a puppet that had its strings cut and he fell and rolled once and was still. Charles brought down his gun, appalled by what he had just seen and done. Charles saw the man laying there with blooding trickling down the side of his head as he lay face down in the dirt. A yell came to Charles’s left and he was suddenly lifted off his feet as a solider tackled him to the ground. Charles fell with a grunt and he could smell the desperation of the man. Charles grabbed for his knife as he and the man rolled across the road.



  Charles’ hand brushed against the handle of his knife and with a furious yank unsheathed it from his belt and slashed it across the man’s chest. The man looked shocked that the boy had managed it. Charles looked into the man’s face for a second, the man had fire red hair and with an evil gleam to his eyes. This man knew what he was and he enjoyed it. Charles scrambled to his feet and sprang towards the man. The man jumped up and brought his rifle up to fire. Charles reached him just as he put his finger on the trigger. There was a bang, Charles and the man where rolling on the ground, the gun had been torn from the man’s hand when his bullet missed Charles by a scant few inches. Charles punched the man with an almighty crunch as he broke the man’s nose. Charles rolled off the man as he cursed in the dirt. Charles took off running down the road; he could hear the man getting to his feet cursing all the while. Charles ran down the street of his village watching as men fell left and right. Charles ran away from the village towards the valley.





    Charles sprinted down the path towards the river in hopes to be rid of the man in the forest, Charles had no thoughts of his village or of any one else for that matter, he just wanted to live. Charles stumbled across a branch strewn across the path. His face hit the dry rocky ground and the world went black for a second. He laid there trying to regain his senses when he heard a twig snap and a low chuckle from behind him. Charles looked over his shoulder and saw the red haired man standing there with his bare hands out stretched in preparation to crush to life out of him. Charles tried to crawl away as fast as his muddled brain could manage but to no avail. The man grabbed Charles’s foot and started pulling. Charles kicked his feet and started yelling. The man only laughed even more at his struggling and pulled out a short knife, “I’m going to enjoy this kid” the man started towards Charles’s face with a hungry look in his eyes. Charles started kicking franticly. Charles heard to his left a series of snapping twigs and growling. Charles gasped as he saw a lone mutant dog running towards them with its teeth bared. Charles watched as it slightly crouches then leaps into the air its muscles rippling as the mutant sailed through the air towards the man with the cruel eyes. The man looked up as he saw Charles looking that way and saw death. The dog rammed into the man and latching onto his throat with its razor sharp fangs the man had just enough to utter a strangled cry and raise the knife instinctively and the knife plunged into the dogs chest as it ripped the life blood out of the man. Charles saw it with the eyes of someone who now saw the world as a terror. Above to sound of death and gun fire Charles heard a rushing sound from above. Charles looked up and saw above the glow of the torches a brilliant white light with streaks of red trailing it. Charles gasped as he saw it collide with the village and the world exploded in fire and sound and something fast came at Charles’s head and then the world erupted in hazy whiteness and Charles knew no more.