The Invasion – part six

The Invasion, part six of my short story.

The Invasion – part six

Changing direction, Elayne and Mat hurried through the forest, past their school and on to Uncle Tom’s house. They made sure to remain near the tree line or under the cover of the forest at all times. He was standing at the front door when they arrived; it was like he was waiting for them.

“I’ve been expecting you two,” he grunted in greeting. Never one for ceremony he walked inside and into the kitchen where he sat down.

“You want me to tell you about your dad!” It wasn’t a question and he continued, “well, when he first came to me three years ago and told me his theory, I thought he had lost the plot, a total fool and I told him so. But he insisted on giving me this letter for you in case ‘it’ ever happened, that’s what we used to refer the attack to.” He sighed. “I’ve re-read it so many times over the years since the accident but it all seemed a tall tale until this morning’s announcement. He was right damn it. I have no idea how he figured it out, but he was always too smart for his own good, that dad of yours.”And with that he handed Mat a rather dog-eared letter. “Oh and I found this note in the old tree house this morning. We used it as our communication site during the last invasion and after the strange happenings over the past few days, I decided to check it, just in case. It’s not signed but it has his old signature at the bottom, that’s how he used to sign his instructions off.”

Mat, looking increasingly confounded took both letters and sat down on the kitchen bench opposite Uncle Tom, Elayne remained standing behind him.

 

‘Dear Mat,’ he read in his deep voice so similar to his fathers.

‘There is a lot that you don’t know about the previous invasion, I know your mother and I have never really talked about it, however, if you are reading this my worst fears and suspicions have come to pass and I must tell you a bit about what happened.

The leader of the invasion was a man called Johann Berlitz, he was a foreigner, a narcissist with very lofty ideas of his own self-importance. Prior to invading our valley, it was rumoured that he successfully invaded and took over another valley, closer to his homeland. Intoxicated by his success and power, and growing increasingly deranged, he decided to move on our valley as his second conquest, why he picked us we never found out, but it was reported that his ex wife had distant family in our valley.

We started a revolt against Berlitz, which after a few weeks resulted in his death and our victory. Among his personal effects was a lot of copied paperwork with detailed information on the attack and a few backup plans, including one which I’d almost forgotten until recently, detailing a plot to stage an explosion at the local mine in order to capture as many miners as possible. The plan was crossed out as if dismissed, which is why I’d almost forgotten it. The papers were locked away somewhere safe and out of mind and only a few people, myself included ever read all of them.

With the recent unrest at work, there has been a lot of talk. One recurring name that keeps cropping up is that of Johann Berlitz. I’m unsure what will happen but something is definitely brewing and if anything happens at the mine and people go missing I have a feeling that they will be used against the valley in some way. If my theory is correct I’ll try and get a message to Uncle Tom as soon as possible, he was the main communication man during the last invasion.

I know this all sounds crazy but after leading the resistance in the previous invasion I got to know the enemy pretty well and I can read signs. I haven’t said anything to anyone else yet as it is a very tenuous assumption and I’m not sure anyone would believe me but I’m trusting my instincts.

Take care my boy and look after your mother and sister, I’m relying on you.

Dad’

 

The room was so quite you could hear a pin drop, Mat continued to stare at the page, disbelief on his face. “Dad was the leader of the resistance? Why did he never tell me?” It wasn’t really a question, Uncle Tom looked at him before answering.

“A fine leader, a very fine leader indeed,” he was lost in the past for a minute. Shaking his head he continued. “He was the brains behind our ultimate victory and I was his right hand man. I dealt with all the communications; passing on instructions from your dad to the rest of the men and women in the resistance. We were a good team, I guess that’s why he entrusted the letter to me and told you to come to me.”

Looking increasingly dumbfounded and overwhelmed, Mat re read the letter to himself, after which he opened the second note. It was hastily scribbled and brief, instructing the reader to secretly gather the valley’s able bodied inhabitants as well as all the available ammunition and weapons and to assemble in two days time. Map coordinate were given for somewhere deep within the valley. He warned them to be wary of sentries and noted that they were a big group; including all the missing people from the past two days and that they were heavily armed. At the end was a strange symbol, this must be what Uncle Tom had referred to as his father’s signature.

They all sat in silence until Elayne finally broke the quite. “I guess we should get to work” she said straightening up.

Nodding in unison Uncle Tom and Mat rose and Elayne headed out the front door after them; they had plenty to do and not much time.

Over the next two days the three of them spent all day recruiting people, sending them on errands and gathering everything they could find in order to fulfill Mat’s father’s instructions. As it turned out Uncle Tom seemed to be held in high regard by everyone, all the older inhabitants fell quickly into their old roles from the days of the resistance and they were all eager and co operative in carrying out the directive.

 

To be continued …

The Invasion – part five

Part five of my short story.

 

The Invasion – part five

Ben lowered the microphone as the echo of his voice slowly faded around the valley. He looked back towards the base they had set up in a clearing well away from civilization. Most of the people here were men, kidnapped, like himself in a staged mine explosion three years earlier. Since then they had spent countless days in solitary confinement, beaten and brainwashed until the memory of their previous lives and who they were had become a distant recollection. However, what their captors had not anticipated in their grand scheme was the effect being back on home soil would have on the men.

Since their arrival a week earlier, there had been rising tensions in the base. The men from the valley, who had been separated for the majority of their captivity, began to seek each other out, including Ben, and they had began their own plotting. To Ben it felt like a fog was beginning to lift and memories were slowly trickling back. For the first time in a long while he thought of his family, his wife Anna, son Mat and daughter Aisha.

A few of the men, including Ben, had heard a few rumours in the weeks leading up to their capture. Talk of an uprising, of recruiting inhabitants of the valley and using them against their family and friends. Most of what was said was dismissed as over the top gossip that had been blown out of proportion, as tended to happen in small communities. Yet some of what he had heard had made Ben weary, and as it turned out, rightly so.

Marla, one of the leaders of the attack walked over to him her AK-47 swinging almost seductively at her hip. “We need you over with the new captures Ben” she drawled in her foreign accent, which even after three years Ben could not pick, “they are being uncooperative again.”

Nodding, Ben walked beside her to the ‘prison’ as the men were calling it. He had recognised all too many of the men they had picked up, including his daughter’s boyfriend, Carl, at least that’s what he had been three years earlier. Ben had not yet managed to speak to Carl alone, his insight and cooperation was crucial to the plan that he and the men from the valley were formulating.

The men who had been picked up from around the valley in the raids over the past two days were all foreigners, like Marla. The idea of the attack was to use the new captures as a decoy when the time was right, more information than that was not imparted to the likes of Ben who were merely tools, brainwashed instruments to be used to terrify and destroy his home. But they would not let it get to that point, their plan had to work.

 

To be continued …

The Invasion – part four

Part four of my short story.

The Invasion – part four

They sat for a while before reluctantly getting up, the sun was reaching its zenith and if they didn’t leave soon they knew their families would start to worry. On any normal day, the two of them would be away and unmissed all day long, but not today. They gathered their bits and pieces together, Mat went to check the gun was carefully stowed away in the cave, and they reluctantly left the tranquility of the lake.

They hardly spoke as they walked quickly through the woods. As they neared the clearing by Mat’s house they heard a slightly metallic voice begin to speak across the valley, it sounded like it was being projected from right beside them. They both stopped short, Mat reached for Elayne’s hand, gripping it so hard his knuckles went white. His face had gone deathly pale. The only word he managed to utter was “dad!”

Elayne stared at him and then listened again to the voice which was talking across the valley, it had a very distinct intonation. She would have known that deep, melodious voice anywhere, but how?

Mat and Elayne stood rooted to the spot listening as Mat’s dad’s voice boomed out across the valley to tell all the inhabitants that they were under attack and another invasion had begun.

“Why? I don’t understand. How can that be my dad, he died three years ago?” The questions kept coming,  Mat had so many but Elayne had no answers, she was as confounded as he.

As they stood together listening to the silence after the voice had finished speaking, Elayne knew that their world as they knew it would never be the same again. But somehow she knew that they would figure this out, they would get to the bottom of this unfurling nightmare.

The first thing they they had to do was speak to Uncle Tom and find out what he knew about Mat’s dad and the mystery message.

 

To be continued …