The Court of Lanka: Chapter 1
Earth 19.
31st December 2008
It was dark and cold. Cold that crept under the skin, into the flesh and right into the soul. The night never seemed to end. Neither a ray of sunshine nor of hope ever gleamed. The darkest and longest night ever witnessed was cast upon our earth. A night that had lasted 39 years and about to be 40 years the next day. A night that consumed everyone from within. A night everyone knew they had no escape from. How could there be any light among smoke, dust and death? Screams echoed, mortars were spitting havoc, soldiers fought a war with no cause but for the sake of those in power, airplanes dropped bombs over villages, children were caught on fire as their moms desperately tried saving them as everyone watched the plight of mankind they were filled with dread everyone but the root cause of it. They sat in mansions and ordered the ordinary around.
For thousands of years humanity prevailed. It survived the harshest of conditions it was exposed to. They survived the angry oceans and raging temperatures. They just couldn’t survive amongst each other. They fought for a millennia. But none of that was compared to what happened to the globe since 1970.
The only difference between your earth and mine was Saddam Hossain never got defeated. A small dictator of Iraq who annexed Iran and Kuwait was not of small ambitions. He was a force not to be reckoned with. Never could a glint of human emotions be seen in his eyes. He ravaged the armies of the west. And went into an all in rampage for global domination. Wars were fought for pride, Death for freedom, Children born in the midst of the ashes of their own parents. A dark age is an understatement of what it was. Violence, agony and fear widespread into everyone’s hearts. Every man killed for the sake of his family and his freedom.
The earth needed cleansing. An order. A reform.
If you thought a protagonist would pick up his rifle and put a bullet through Saddam Hossain's thick skull, even though it’s a long night don’t dare dream anymore. Dreams and hopes have killed enough of us already. We will not head into that maze of foolishness. We’ll survive, that is our only goal.
Everyday at 5 am the Sergeant got a radio message to take position at specific spots of the terrain. A call that was dreadful but inevitable. We would as instructed take our places and fight till Sundown and wake up and fight at 5 again. An inescapable cycle engulfed upon us since years. Today like any other day we woke up, we fought, we slept.
January 1st 2009
We woke up as usual, cleaned our rifles and got ready to fight. The clock hit five and we waited for further instructions. But we never ever had to wait. it was fifteen minutes past 5 and still no sign of any message from the military headquarters. The troops were getting restless. They were surprised as this hadn't happened anytime since decades of fighting. We waited more.
When the clock hit 5:45. The golden fiery beast began to rise in the sky with him the chill beneath our skin that lasted for decades grew thin. The enemies should have closed in on us now. They would have torn through us like cake as all of us were standing unarmed and gaping at the sun. Warmth began to flow through our blood and then the radio chatter began. And a voice spoke "team 7, do you copy?". Our hearts shattered and hopes died and we thought the delayed call was just a setback. Our sergeant replied " Roger team 7, Team standby, awaiting orders" the radio voice now said "FiCoW and SiCoW are down I repeat first-in-command of west and second-in-command of west have fallen. The war is over soldiers". As I heard this my heart pounded with excitement and brain flushed with joy. Like a phoenix, our hopes rose from the ashes. We walked across to the nearby villages and found enemy camps rejoicing. Mysteriously Everyone seemed to rejoice today. After sneaking around and eavesdropping I got to know all prominent warlords, business tycoons, generals, commanders, rulers, parliament heads and all the nuisance causing rich unemphatic mayhem causing people were m.i.a. they had disappeared off the face of earth. Bodies were never found. No covert operations, no surgical strike, no collateral damage, they all mysteriously miraculously disappeared from all corners of the world.
Happiness had no bounds. Everyone pledged to never wield a weapon again. A mood of harmony was created overnight. Ultimately the people who harnessed violence and destruction disappeared off the face of earth. Crime, unnatural cause of death, weapons, terror, armies and other cause of havoc disappeared. To an extent where the world existed in eternal harmony. A utopia. A society you would deem impossible.
