The War of 2020
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The summer air swept clouds of thick black smoke through the grassy hills. In West Virginia, the air was hot and polluted enough already. His eyes stung, watering as he turned away from the fire. Pulling out a bandana, he spit before covering his mouth.
Another crop was lost to rival looters, the third one this week. They'd taken as much corn and soy as they could before setting the bare fields ablaze. We have been at War for over 5 years now, with no signs of it ending anytime soon. He had seen it coming for years and was prepared for it, as were several million others that collectively joined their side. When the time inevitably came for War, he was already positioned to be a Captain General in the National Conservative Army.
He was very successful so far, the Nationalists were winning over states because of some of his more ruthless strategies. Indifferent to the politics of his side, he enjoyed winning and shared the same basic values as his brothers. He wasn't racist per se and didn't really care much for religion. He was against the federal government, his efforts focused on dismantling it. By late 2021, he watched the last politicians flee Washington D.C, the Military having fractured into two sides, neither willing to protect them.
Asking soldiers to shoot their neighbor was just the first trigger. In 2020, the country fell victim to the worst domestic terror attack in human history, the Maryland E-12 Bunker Bombings.
A failed chemist with too much time and money on his hands, a private jet and 48 minutes was the second trigger. Having taken it upon himself to kill the politicians riding out the civil discourse in the E-12 Bunkers, he decided to drop over 34 tons of his own homemade bio-agent, an uncontrolled Virus that was able to target the brain stem, causing permanent brain damage within hours.
The bombs were dropped along the steep mountain side by private jet, meant to affect the immediate area. Unsurprisingly, it was engineered incorrectly and ended up killing almost the entire population of the East Coast, over a third of the country. Spreading hundreds of miles within days, the E-12 Virus was highly contagious. It has only recently been brought under control with a new vaccine. His name was Dr. Thomas Pelosik and he started the end of America as we knew it.
Having access to the vaccine or a natural immunity are the only way to even travel through some parts of the East Coast right now. It hit women and children especially hard causing ongoing reproductive failure and birth deformities.
Now that the Nationalist held 30 out of 50 states, he was strategizing the next steps needed to gain total control of West Virginia. It was barely considered their territory, the liberals were putting up a stubbornly long fight for this state.
They were getting desperate.
The Nationalist believed a key strategy to long term success was rebuilding the nation in their image. Total control over the enemy was necessary for that. Whether by accident or design, the Military Arm of the Nationalists had very narrow views for building the future. Their current orders were to kill any UPP member on site and enslave every woman found healthy and fertile. The latter mattering significantly more than the former.
The soldier to woman ratio was almost 25:1, with less than 50 healthy children born from thousands of troops this past year. Some states were better than others, his happened to be particularly hard hit from the fallout of the bombings.
All the strategy and experience in the world could have never prepared him for the moment he saw her though.
He had been walking through the thick forest behind his Compound, just getting some air before turning in for the night. The towering evergreens opened to a small clearing of tall pale grass, probably no more than a few feet high. In the amber glow of the sun, he could see three of his soldiers. Dead.
They appeared to have fallen around a single, much smaller body. He took out his pistol feeling for a clip in his pocket. Looking closer, he realized the small body lying between them was a woman. The white of her t-shirt was covered in blood and dirt, her dark blue jeans torn up and down her curvy thighs. Her hair was in a loose bun with wisps of curls falling onto her face and strapped to her back was a bayoneted M4 Carbine. He hadn't seen skin her shade of light brown in a very long time. Every soldier in his command was white. The few dozen women they had captured were almost all white as well.
Quietly, he stepped over dried leaves and twigs, trying to stay on the soft grass. She appeared to be asleep and didn't move as he approached. Now just a few feet away; he could see her soft features, the high cheekbones, a pert nose and plump lips.
She was beautiful.
Before he could move any closer, her eyes flashed open, sending a pulse of adrenaline through him. Her eyes, large and catlike, were the color of milk chocolate. He froze remembering what felt like a lifetime ago.
An entirely different world.
"Morgan?" he whispered.
He shook his head in disbelief, he didn't think he would ever see her again. They had gone to University here together, over a decade ago. Complete opposites in just about every way, she was an idealist while he was pragmatic. But she was surprisingly open-minded and easy to talk to. Oblivious to his advances for the most part, she was happily married to her husband Rick last time he spoke to her.
He never thought he would see anyone from the past again.
Especially not her.
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Jolting awake, she opened her eyes to a man standing above her. Blocking out the last bit of sunlight, she couldn't make out his face. Crawling backwards, she could feel her body ache. 'More soldiers already?' Gasping, her mind registered who he was.
"Joe?" she said breathless.
"I ... I can't believe... , " she stammered looking up at him.
Before he could respond, he heard the faint roaring engines of his soldiers Humvee's, returning from a routine scout. Without a word he picked her up, pulling her soft body into his, she tugged away from him twisting against his grip. "What are you doing Joe?!"
Discarding her bulky rifle, he glared down at her. "Shut up, Morgan."
She glared back at him. "You shut up."
She was exactly as he remembered. Carrying her back into the forest, he moved quickly trying to get away from the clearing. He couldn't let them see that she had killed so many soldiers. "Why did you kill my men?!" He hissed into her hair, more frustrated than upset. Taking long deliberate strides, he made it a few hundred meters before she started squirming in his arms again.
"Put me down Joe, I don't need you to fucking carry me." He stiffened but held onto her. He hadn't heard his name in such a long time, he didn't go by Joe any longer. "Listen to me," he said lowering his mouth from her hair to her ear. "I could have killed you right there, if my men find out you killed their brothers, they will not hesitate..."
"They came for me first, I didn't have a choice," she huffed into his shoulder.