The Red.
By Yak.
In Loving Memory of Kindness.
Prologue.
The mud sucks at his boots as lighting runs across the humid Georgia sky. We
The rain soaks his cloths, washing the blood into the swamp. He wheezes for breath. The thought of blood filling his lungs from his previous gun shot, haunts his mind. He thinks of his mother. He remembers her smell and her soft touch.
In the distance a small flash light dances across the night sky like a fire fly.
A shot rings out silencing the screams of the crickets. The bullet rips through his shoulder causing him to fall into the mud of the swamp. His gasp bubbles in the thick black mud.
The military training, he received rings out in his head,
“If you cannot blot it out with your thumb, you are dead!”
With fury, he stands up again and runs. He gasps for air as the blood fills his lung. Holding his breath, and covering the wound with his left hand, he pushes a little harder.
A second bullet breaks through the mist of the hot Georgia swamp.
He hears it wiz by his ear and sees it cut through a few cat tails. Looking back, he can tell they are catching up. His heart pumps faster, his lungs fill with more blood. Breathing is becoming impossible… He finds the banks of the swamp.
The banks are wrapped like a spider’s web in kudzu vine.
The climb starts with a ten-foot cliff, straight up. Making his way up would be impossible, but if he had the heart to do what he just did, he would try. With his last bit of gumption, he burst up the bank, grabbing and clawing at every vine. He smiles, he can see the top.
Another shot…
The bullet rips through his right leg. it breaks out from under him. As the man tumbles back down the steep banks of the swamp, the kudzu vine wraps him like the web of a hungry spider on a fresh kill.
With a hard jerk he stops, hanging upside down, above the swamp.
His pursuers stand beneath him,
“Boy, do you realize where you are at? If you don’t die here, you are going to die in jail. What are you do…”
With a large crack, the night sky instantly fills with a light comparable to the sun.
He can hear the alarms sound. The animals, who hid in silence, clamber in fear. Blood runs into his eyes, stinging them. A mushroom cloud consumes the horizon. He marvels at the sight of what he has done.
His pursuer falls to his knees,
“What… What have you done? You have killed us all!”
He speaks up, as they feel the heat from the nuclear fire begin to consume them,
“I have given her to the future. For 10,000 years no man shall walk her lands in Georgia, or the other 48. If we can’t keep her, the can’t have her.”
“You are a fucking monster! You blew up the nuclear plant!”
The pursuer raises his pistol, firing into the man’s neck. His body jerks at the kudzu as the last of his blood drains out and his body begins to go lifeless. Again, he thinks of his mother,
“Mama… I can hear you, Mama…”
He passes on.
His pursuer screams his death curdle, as his flesh begins to burn from the explosion.
With a tear in his eye, he catches fire and burns to ash, along with everything else in Georgia…
Page Break
Chapter 1.
Little Maria.
Colombia, 2046.
A small white truck, driven by a short Colombian man, accompanied by his eight-year-old daughter, wraps around the cliffs of the Colombian jungle.
“Maria! My little beautiful daughter! It is a beautiful day! Today we get to meet people from all around the world! Are you excited?”
“Yes, Papa!”
“These are probably archaeologist! They normally have candy from all around the world!”
“Do you think they will give me candy, Papa?”
“Yes, my baby! I think they will give you lots of candy! Archaeologist are nice people! Do you like your ne new dress my sweet princess?”, He jokes as he tickles her.
“Heeeeeee! Stop it Papa! I love my dress! It has white roses, and pink ribbons! It is the most beautiful dress in the world! Thank you, Papa!”
He bounds down the side of the cliff and into a jungle filled valley. The roads are dirt and spotted with mud bogs. The truck becomes stuck. Papa gets out and begins to pull out the wench on the front of the truck.
“Stay in the truck, Maria. Papa will get us right out! Sing me a song! Sing me a song so I know where you are!”
“Ok, Papa!”, She begins to sing, “Myyyy Mariaaaa! She is my girl for me aaaaahh! Cause she is my baby Maria!”
He chuckles as he wraps the winching cable around a tree, “That’s my song! Is it the only one you know?”
“No. It’s my favorites song!”
“What other songs do you know? Sing me another song!”
He starts the winch, pulling the truck from the mud. As Maria thinks of another song, the truck comes out, he returns to the truck, rolls up the winch cable, and begins to drive.
“Well, what is the other songs?” Papa ask Maria, while smiling at her.
“Uhhh. I know… Uhhh… Uhhh”, she starts to mumble her song, “My Maria… She is my girl for me aah…”
Papa smiles as the jungle filled valley opens up, revealing a beautiful grassy area and sporadic Mayan ruins. He notices that the vehicles are not archeologist, but military. Military that he has never seen. This mad him nervous because he had heard stories from the coast about cargo ships that were supposed to be digging a tunnel. What locals had seen was not workers. They had the machines but were military.
Papa comes around the largest ruin and sees what looks to be thirty Soldiers. Some were huddled around a table with papers on it. All the people in the huddle had the same uniform, except one. He was a tall, blonde, white man, wearing what looked to be Mexican Military.
“Maria, sweetie, these are not archeologist. They probably don’t have any candy. You should stay in the truck”.
“Look at their clothes Papa! They are not from here! They have candy!”
“No. They don’t have candy. Don’t get out”.
He stops the truck a few meters away from the men in the huddle. Maria looks at the floor. All she could think about was the candy her and Papa talked about on the way there! Papa gets out and approaches the men.
“English?”
“Yes. These are the beginning of the Mayan tunnels?”,
General Li, a younger Chinese man, speaks up.
“No, rahaha! These are Quimbaya where are you from?”,
Papa asks.
” China”,
he looks over at his subordinates,
“We will dig from here. We will get the tunnel boring machines started right here”.
He points toward the shaft leading down into the tunnels
“HA! HA! HA!”, Papa’s belly jiggles as he laughs, ” This is a temple, thousands of years old! You cannot dig here! You are not archeologist!”
“I can’t?”
“No!”
“This shaft, where does it go?”
“Down about 50 meters, and then goes north. This is the tunnel I told you about, but you can’t dig”.
“Have you been to the bottom?”
“Ha! Ha! Ha! No! I’m in no shape to climb! Ha! Ha! Ha!”
“You will get to see the bottom, today. Jump”.
“You can’t be serious!” He laughs.
“Jump, now, or I shoot you and throw you in anyway. Suffer as you fall, or just fall. I don’t care”.
“I can’t jump, I have a family!” Papa yells as he realizes he is in a situation he won’t be coming out of. His hands begin to shake.
Maria notices here Papa was laughing and thinks these strangers must be nice. She fiddles with the truck’s door handle until it opens. She jumps from the seat and runs toward her Papa and the men.
“Maria, no! Run Maria, run baby girl!” Papa yells as Maria runs up to a tall German soldier.
“Hello! I’m Maria! Who are you?” Maria asked as she looked up to the towering German soldier.
“COME HERE, MARIA! GET AWAY FROM HIM!” Papa screams.
Maria looks at him, being from the jungle and not meeting many bad people, she didn’t understand why her father was acting the way he was. She turns back to the German.
“Do you have candy?”
The white man bends down and begins to speak in Spanish.
“Yes, sweet girl. I am German. I have the best chocolate in the world!”
“Can I have some of your chocolate?”
“What is your name little jungle princess?”
“Maria, I am my Papa’s Maria! Can I have some of your candy?”
“Maria, no! You come here! Come to your Papa!”
“Hold her,” the Chinese general speaks up, in English.
“Here little Maria,” The German pulls chocolate, wrapped in a handkerchief and foil, out of his pocket. He snaps off Maria two squares and gives it to her, “This is German Chocolate little Maria! The best in the world!”
“Thank you, sir!”, Maria exclaims as she snatched the chocolate and begins to eat it, “It is good! It is the best in the world!”
German smiles and picks her up, as Li starts speak to Papa,
“Why would you bring a child to this place? Why would you bring her here, now?”
His face changed from serious to a mix of anger and heartbreak.
“It’s safe here! We come here all the time! We live there! He points to a small stream of smoke rising from the side of the mountain. That is my family home! My family has been here since this shaft was first dug! The visitors we get are archaeologist, not… YOU,”
Papa explains.
“You have made a serious mistake in judgment. We are not here to play in the dirt, but take war to America. You were never to leave this place. This was always the end of your path in life. Now you must jump, or watch your daughter be thrown, and then be thrown after her. What choice do you make?”
“Wait! Wait! Wait! Maria knows her way home. Let her go! She will walk! I will jump but please let Maria go! Please! She is only 8!”
He begins to cry.
Maria, eating at her chocolate, keeps hearing her name, but not understanding the English, she asks,
“Papa? What is wrong?”
“Maria!”, He yells with a crack in his voice.
The Chinese general becomes angry and clinches his teeth,
“German, throw his daughter in the shaft.”
German, knowing they are not going to throw Maria in the shaft, steps up to it and turns his hips so Maria is over the drop. German is amazed at how deep the hole is. He knows Maria is fixing to have to watch her father jump, or be thrown in the pit, but sees no reason for them to kill the child. The man must go, he would go and tell the locals that they were destroying these temples. The Columbian Government was ok with killing a few to dig the tunnel, but not starting a war with them. This man said they couldn’t dig, and acted as if he would try and stop them. It was better that he died now. If the General could talk him into jumping, neither of them would have to throw him.
“Maria! Papa cries out, “please don’t drop her!”
“Drop her,” the General says through his gritted teeth.
“Wait! I’ll jump! I’ll jump now just let me…” He begins to speak to Maria ” Maria! I love you my baby!”
“I love you, Papa!” Maria smiles and wipes chocolate across her face. “They do have candy Papa! It’s Chocolate! Here Papa, you want some of my chocolate? German has more! This is German!” She pats him on the center of his chest, he starts to feel the situation, “It will make you not cry!”
“Bury your head in German’s shoulder! Papa is going to hide! Let’s make it fun! Sing for me! Sing for me, so I know where you are! So, if you can’t find me, I can find you!”
Germans starts to become uncomfortable.
“Ok, Papa, as long as you don’t cry anymore!”
My sweet princess, Papa won’t cry anymore! Sing for me now!”
“Papa…” She puts her head on German’s shoulder and begins to sing, “My Maria! My girl for me ahh! My baby Maria!”
Papa looks back toward the small tower of smoke on the side of the mountain, and thinks of his wife and sons. Then begins to sing with Maria,
“My baby Maria…”
With a swift jerk of his arms, Papa flings himself into the shaft.
On the way down he says to himself,
“don’t scream, she doesn’t have to hear you die…”
With a hard thud, on the rocky bottom, his life comes to an end. The sound echoes back up the shaft and Maria does hear her father’s death.
“Papa!”
She snatches at German to get down.
“Owww!” German shuffles back from the edge, “I hoped she wouldn’t see him!”
The General turns and looks at German. Germans sees it on his face.
“What? I’m not doing that!”
“You will. If you don’t, I’ll have you two, then all fifty of your men thrown down there. I will then drill my machine through your corpses. We are here for war. What do you think, we can have a day care?”
“We can let her go, we can tell her he fell. We will help the family get the body. It isn’t a big deal. Just let her go”.
German knows they can’t. He knows all of his men will die, and so will little Maria. He makes the choice to save his men. German stands Maria on her feet.
“Papa!”
She turns and runs for the shaft.
“No!”
German pulls her back with his left hand, reaching for his chocolate with his right.
“Come here little jungle princess! Your Papa is ok! Come here! Let me wipe your face!”, He unwraps the handkerchief from around the chocolate, and wipes away the chocolate mixed tears. “Her, Maria. Take my chocolate. There is enough for you and Papa”.
“And my Mamma, and brothers?”
German looks at the General, he looks as broken as German feels,
“Yes, baby Maria! Yes!”
German loses a tear from his right eye,
“This piece though, it is for you. Put it in your mouth and suck on it. Be quiet…”
“Ok, German! I won’t talk anymore!”
She slurs from the large piece of chocolate. German looks down at his messy handkerchief, and begins to roll it from corner to corner. Slowly, he rolls it up, and smiles at Maria. German reaches out and begins to put the handkerchief around Maria’s mouth,
“Maria… I’m going to tie this around your mouth, so when I drop you..”
Maria let’s go of the chocolate bar with one hand, and snatches at the handkerchief,
“Don’t drop…”
German snugs it tight, so she can’t speak anymore,
“Don’t worry little Maria. Papa is down there. He will catch you. I’m going to put this around your mouth so you don’t spit your chocolate out when Papa catches you. Ok?”
Really, he didn’t want to hear Maria’s screaming in his nightmares this would bring. She shakes her head yes. German cradles her in his arms and finds it hard to move. He looks over at General,
“I’m going to sing to her”.
General’s mouth hangs open and his eyes swell. He closes his mouth, sucks in air, and shakes his head yes. German can hear the heartbreak in the General’s deep breaths,
“You sing, and we will honor her”,
with a loud crack the General brings his men to attention,
“ATTENTION!”
Maria hears the commotion and raises her head to look over German’s elbow. All the soldiers jump up and run forming five rolls of six. The men see her face and know what is about to happen,
“BOW!”
The General exclaims. The men pull their feet together, put their hands down to their side, and bow to German and the general.
“Maria, would you like to hear a song from my country?”
The chocolate has almost dissolve in your mouth, she’s tries to speak but still can’t so she shakes her head yes. German begins to sing and old German lullaby,
“Good evening, goodnight,
Watched over by angels…
In a dream they show you
The Christ-child’s tree…
Sleep blessed and sweetly
Look for paradise in your dream!
Sleep blessed and sweetly
Look for paradise in your dream”,
Maria lets go of the chocolate with one hand, and rubs the rose on her dress in between her thumb and index finger. German notices this and starts to sing another song…
“Good evening, goodnight,
Covered with roses”,
Maria eyes light up, German can tell she is smiling,
“Adorned with thorns
Slip under the covers
Tomorrow, if it is God’s will,
Will you wake again…”
Her chocolate bar begins to hang from her hand and she starts to fall asleep,
“Tomorrow, if it is God’s will,
Will you wake again…”
German chokes up, and drops Maria down the shaft. She opens her eyes and watched as German gets smaller. She thinks about how soft her new dress is, being back with her Papa, and sharing the chocolate with her family. she smiles up at German as she hits the bottom, landing beside her Papa.
German’s knees start to buckle, he watches as the flowers on her dress flows like the pedals of the roses of mid-May in Rhine. Her black hair flows up around her face almost covering her eyes. even though it was only a few seconds, German feels as if she is looking into his soul. His mind begins to scream. He cannot believe what he has just done. Then she smiles…
German’s heart races, he can feel his blood getting hot in his face, the anxiety of a panic attack sets in. He puts his left hand on his knee and begins to reach for the ground with his right,
“why would you make me do…”,
he blows slobber out of his mouth as he tries to talk to the General.
“I haven’t made you do anything”.
“You told…huuu… You told me I had…”
German begins to dry heave.
“And you did”.
“She didn’t have to die like that!”
“Stand up straight! You are now a leader. These men see you will do anything for this war. Stand up!”
German, becomes angry, but wants to live. He stands up straight, composing himself.
“Yes… Yes, sir…”
“Get the bodies out of the hole. Take some men and get some gear”.
German turns away from the shaft, and begins to walk back towards the supplies.
“Two of you come with me,”
He grunts, in English, as he motions to the Chinese troops.
Nobody moves. The troops are frozen and do not know what they just witnessed. These were boys, they had not witnessed death or real war. German scares them. None of them wanted the job.
“I don’t think any of them speak English, German,”
Li speaks as he looks up from the shaft.
German looks back at Genral Li,
“These are your men. You spent all that time with them on that damn cargo ship, inside a container, coming to a war in a country that speaks English, and you don’t think to ask…”
General Li snaps into a fast pace toward German. He pulls his pistol and points it toward his face, German takes a step toward the pistol.
“German. Why do they call you German?”
He regains his composure, putting his pistol away.
Chapter 2
The bleeding of America.
“My fellow Americans, we are faced with the great evil of our times! Crime is ripping at the fabric of our country! Racism is out of control, causing the minorities to destroy our cities. The word sees us as weak! As , president, i will do as i said, and return us to “America, the Strong”! And you can trust that it is “In God We Trust”, at all cost!”
President Hendry pumps his fist toward the sky, as the crowd screams,
“Only the strong! Only the strong! Only the strong! Keep your tired! Keep your hungry! Keep your poor!”
Hendry begins to speak,
“Yes my brothers and sister! We shall remove the filth of the lower Americas from our country! We will send back all the illegals! We will offer no more visas, and as of this morning, our boarders are closed! If they cross them, we will kill them! We will stop the spread of heathenism, and return the bible to our classrooms! This is a Christian nation, and we will make it so it stays that way! Sins will be punished! Those that stand up, will be knocked down, never to raise again! We will reclaim our country, and our ways of life!”
The Chinese Army made her way into America through the back door. They will begin their plan to move their war machine through Central America and into Mexico, who are all their allies.
Mexico wanted their land back, and to stop the mass migration coming from America. China what was owed, and America’s resources for their dying country. China made a deal with the Colombian government to bring their army straight in their front door.
They would load their army into cargo containers, then put those containers on ships that can hold eighteen thousand containers. The containers would hold six men, each. The cargo ship would hold over one hundred thousand troops, and their gear. Ten ships, and two weeks China would have one million troops hidden in the jungles of Colombia. The promise made to get Colombia to hide their troops, a highspeed tunnel from Colombia to America. They would supply everything needed, as long as they got the tunnel, Chinese money, and the right to grow the food for China’s new “One America”. First, they had to build the tunnels.
Chapter 3
(German buries bodies, caught by big brother. Tell him to leave. Brother sees what happened, troops and machines digging. Heads back into jungle to find people to stop them. 2 year span. Switch between brother and German. German starts to crack. Tell German’s past)
Chapter 4
The world had had enough. They had watch The President round up immigrants, treat them like animals, that he said they were, and then force them on Mexico.
(Dialogue between leaders of countries and sporadic terrorism and violence)
In 2029, The President told all non-Christians to find somewhere else in the world to live. By 2031 he had formed his own party.
(Hitler style speech)
The world watched as he and his American Christian Party turned on all Non-party members, forcing mass immigration to Canada.
(Describe the trip. Introduce family of American migrants. Basic 4 son daughter parents. Real Christians. Start with Lord’s prayer. Daughter won’t say it.)
Chapter 5
When he turned on the Constitution’s guaranteed religious freedoms, the rest of the world turned on him.
(Describe American ships being turned away from All European and Asian countries. Violence, shortages. Follow government aids. Start small armies across country.)
In 2023 Canada opened their boarders to any American who could make it past the American Christian Party.
(Speech, war at boarder. Family runs back down into America)
Then they declared they would not help America anymore. Most of America’s young, when asked, they checked the “other” box as their religion. They had proven to the American Christian Party who they were, and their only choice was to run.
(Describe, explains why the family ran daughter checked other)
The President did not expect to lose what should be his army for the war that had arrived from Mexico. His American Christian Party would fall. This wouldn’t be the end of the 3rd War.
(Explain)
Chapter 6
The Second Civil War.
(Introduce story teller, and why they are telling this story.)
The Red Army got here because we were fighting amongst ourselves. The 2nd Civil War started when the ACP opened fire on the Americans trying to make it to Canada. This causes a serious fracture in America.
( describe. Lose all of family but mother)
Slowly armies of Americans started popping up everywhere. You had, “The Texas Fathers”, “The Free Californian Liberal Army”, “The Northern Army”, “The Middle Militia”, and a few more.
Chapter 7
“I was in the Second Confederate Army. We were not like the First Confederate Army. We were Americans. Black, brown, Republican, Democrat, most of us just checked the wrong box on the census. It was diversity, but it took war to have it.
The American Christian Party wanted me dead, I checked the “other” box. Running was not an option. I had to go through the heart of their capital to get to Canada. I wasn’t even going to try. The rifle was my only path.”
Our first fight was, “The Battle of Greenwood Lake”. It was a small battle. We won, but they blew the dam. We lost all of our water. They went up river and turned off the flow from the dams.
As American Christian Party fell to the Red Army, their attention turned to us. They would not negotiate, and we being Americans, would not either. these are our lands, they cant have them.