Beyond All Doubt (In watty awards 2011!)

Making it over into Obertrange

We jump the fence over to Obertrange, though not before I cheek to see if there were any protectors on the other side; there weren’t so I hope that it was fine over here. Once are feet land on the soft green grass I know this village is different from the rest, just by looking at it the surroundings were so much beautiful than any other village I have seen, the grass here was bright green instead of the brown muck we have at home, the trees were also bright green from the amount of care and love given to them, the birds were happily out singing unlike in Kingston the noise drew them away. Things must be pretty different here, the president must be a lot nicer and as I think of these things I wish I grew up here. I smile at Daniel and we walk on through to the main part of the village, it was quite a long walk so I didn’t mind the silence just because I wanted to hear the birds sing but I know we needed to know about the new drug.

“What do you think it is then?” I ask Daniel as we walk, I don’t look at him I didn’t want to see the hurt on his face of how his father lied to him.

“What do you mean?” He says acting as he didn’t know what I was talking about, I just stare at him and give him my look of ‘don’t play stupid with me’; he sighs loudly and stares back to what was in front of us. “Honestly, I don’t know. Something that kills certain people, heals them, strengthens them and their senses and well I don’t know if this is linked to it but I think it also has a hold over them, like controls them, brainwashing them; that sort of thing.”

“What do you mean by controlling them?” I ask my voice wavering, I didn’t like what he was implying because if this was true all it would take for this war to end would be to inject us with this serum and bam were all Government puppets.

“Well when Luke one of my father’s protectors went to stand up for himself, it was as if someone had switched him off it was on the tip of his tongue but than just dissolved and he turned into this obeying freak, agreeing to everything my father said it really freaked me out.” I can see it really did freak him out by the look in his eyes as he rekindles the memory.

“And had the marking changed?” He nods and I gulp, I drop the subject not wanting to talk about it no more and just enjoy the peaceful silence of the birds singing in the trees and the sun shining down. As we walk another few yards the birds stop their singing and take off in a flight of hurry, I stare at Daniel wondering what it was all about knowing something must have frightened them and then I hear it the sound of a whip smacking on bare skin and the yelp of a woman, we run the rest of the way to the opening into the main village and what I see makes me want to be sick. The reason this village looked better than the rest was because the residents were being used as slaves, rope around their necks, a protector at their back and a whip in their grip.

“Put your mask down.” I say to Daniel as I do mine and walk off into the village, I can feel him scatter behind me as we walk down into the horror of this village. My adrenalin pumps hoping we don’t get stopped and as we reach the inner circle we do and terror runs deep into my veins.

“What are you doing here? Don’t Huntsmen need you anymore?” The protector asks me, I panic and in that moment I realise Huntsmen is the village we was just in.

“No everything is running smoothly over there, they ordered us here just in case things started.” I lye smoothly he nods showing he understands.

“Well you better come with me then, we have a meeting with the Government on how to defuse this any further.” We follow the man, he was in about his early thirties a black bushy moustache on his top red lip, and the same bushy eyebrows above his black eyes. His uniform was different than ours and I guess that is how he knew we were from Huntsmen. He leads us through a church and under one of the pews were a ring of stairs led down, we follow uneasily and at the end of the stairs is a room pact of the twelve Governors from Obertrange and their protectors, the twelve men sit at a long oak table while the protectors stand suit in line against the walls, we join them and wait for the hearing to commence.

“We all know the ordeal going on in our fellow regions, but that doesn’t mean we are going to have them here. We have order here, we have defiance here, we have discipline. They will know not to mess with us, unlike the other countries we have shown our leadership and they will not reckon with it.” Says the head Governor and all I want to do is laugh at his stupid analogy, his people would fight back worse than the others, because of there so call ‘discipline’.

“Where are the wars at Joseph?” Asks one of the Governors, I see terror in Joseph’s eyes as he stares at his colleague, he was scared of this war.

“Kingston was where it started they somehow found out about the low supply of foods and thought if they were going to die in less than a week, now was the time to get their revenge on the Government.” I try my hardest not to speak, what was he on about low supply of food? Less than a week left to live?

“Huntsmen, Allt, Bagde, Ploy, Westin, Mertu, Rungh, Olma, Quince and Derag is all of the places in Jahamsphire. Villages in Surro, Picko, Runts, Loqui and Hasmo are also under attack.” My breath actually stops at the amount of villages under attack in Jahamsphire and how many countries are also under attack.

“So what is the plan?” Asks the same man from before, but this time he was scarred.

“We wait; we don’t want to make a spectacle out of this it will frighten them they will know something’s wrong.” I think to myself how this man became head Governor, because he was pretty damn stupid sit around and wait for an attack? Apparently I wasn’t the only one but before the other governors could voice their concerns a protector runs in frantically.

“We have intruders.” Shouts the man behind the mask of his suit.

“W-what?” Says Joseph in a worried voice, “How can there be intruders, where are they from, how did they get in here?!”

“From Huntsmen sir, killed the protectors and stole their suits sir; it could be anyone.” I see Joseph gulp.

“Code one people, code one.” He shouts and in that moment the protectors fill out the room, swords in hand. I feel my heart beat too fast for my body; we were going to die. We hurry out of the room with the others, only to be dragged behind the stairs by the man who led us here.

“You need to run! You need to save our people and the protectors something worse is happening on this planet, other than low food supplies and a war against the Government. You’re the only ones who can do it.”

“Do what?” I frantically say back to man, all the time wondering if this has something to do with the new drug.

“You need to kill the protectors with the new drug there evil now, all the rest know the plan but we can’t do it without our whole plan going down the drain. There’s a medical centre in Russie, in that centre is vials and vials of this serum that will control us all, you need to destroy it.” With that he leaves and joins the rest of the protectors and in that moment, I think about how am I supposed to save this village and the rest of them? But what I realise most is the Governors are going to use that serum on the rest of us so they can seize control.