Destiny's Faults-Prologue/Chapter 1

Prologue1

The air was damp.  The cold waves of sweat hit him hard.  He knew that time was moving on him fast and only he could save himself.  His decision was easy but the questions were not.  He knew one thing:  what he would do would cost him.  The reward was not enough to pay for the debt; however, his destined duty seemed apparent and he knew that this was what he was meant to do.  He stood up, ran, and jumped.  He hoped he didn’t miss…2

Chapter 13

The foul smell of death filled the air.  A smell that he was all too used to, it seemed.  As he picked up the spare limbs and insides littered all over the countryside, he couldn’t help but notice the uniformity of it all.  They all had different dreams; different goals and ended up in the same place with the same fate.  They had one order: to defend their side without questions that they surely had asked themselves.  However, they knew what they had to do and did it with honor.  “What good that did them,” he thought as he threw a scorched female arm into his bag.  4

The brutality of plasma was evident by the scorch marks along the ground.  The Brutaliters knew what they were doing and took bodies with them on their quest to conquer the Earth.  They have already failed twice but for them, they hoped that 3 times was the charm.  He couldn’t stand them; the Brutaliters and their outright indignity.  They killed innocents, destroyed homes, and for what?  “A crappy planet with a species that is hell-bent on extinction by self.  Idiots….,” he thought to himself as he finished cleaning up his section of the battlefield. 5

It was meaningless work considering the soil would clean up soon enough; however, it was meant to restore the country after WWIII and the government had ordered the massive cleanup.  Considering that a group actually listened to the government anymore was a surprising thing, the fact that the cleanup job was done so efficiently was even bigger.6

“Hey! John!  Are you done?  I need a little bit of help on my section”.7

“Yea…sure, let me finish cleaning up,” he responded with a scoff.  Big Jack was a big, lazy man who always “needed” help to finish a job he didn’t feel like doing.  That was pretty much any job that he worked at.  Chuckling, John threw the last few intestines into his bag and walked over to Jack’s big section which was about 90% cleaned up.8

“Thanks, man, you are a life saver.  Seriously, can you believe this?” remarked the obviously intrigued Jack as he and John cleaned the large acre of land,” It is amazing what peoples can do to each other.  It’s like they think their enemy is less than human”.9

“Well, Jack, the Brutaliters do think that everyone is beneath them and no one deserves to walk the Earth while they are on it.”10

“Well, man, I think it’s stupid; all this shit makes us look real bad.  You know, I wanted to do something different with my life.  Every time I get a job, some shit like this happens; two countries fighting or arguing.  All the workers switch to war duties and I get stuck doing this,” said Jack, showing his subtle distaste with being there.  They both fell silent after this thought and finished cleaning up the section of land.  Most people didn’t like war and being shipped to clean-up was considered by many as damning, even though Josh didn’t feel hampered by the image at all.  It was perhaps because he never even paid it attention.11

* * * * * * * * * * *12

Later in the afternoon, John had returned home after a long, dirty day of cleanup to a surprise in his v-mail box. 13

“Hey, John.  This is Katie, calling from Neo York.  I just wanted to check in and see if you are ok.  I am doing fine, just helping out my mother as I can.  Hope you image back.  Bye.” As the message shut off, John sat down in his long, black couch and sighed. “I want to respond but the girl has never seemed to care before.  Why all of a sudden is she concerned about me?” he thought to himself while reaching over and turning on the T.V.  He flipped past home shopping channels, sports, v-ball, etc. until he reached a news channel displaying news on the war.14

“...A total of 135,000 causalities in the last battle of WWIII between the United States and the European Empire.  The Treaty of New Beginnings was signed in London, promising a new path towards peace between the long time rivals.  As you may know, these two countries have been fighting since the mid 22nd century, when the Empire became into prominence as a world power.  Both countries blame each other for the rise of the Brutaliters, the latest attempt by the Hi-Ilin clan to reclaim world dominance.  A statement from the President states, ‘Thankfully, the war has been completed and peace will finally reach the hungry citizens in need for democracy.’  Now for sports with Lee Unlees…”  John turned off the T.V. and sat there wondering how long this peace would last.  He figured at least he would have a job if they began battling again.  There was a sudden knock on the door.15