Incarna

32 - Nothing Will Ever Be the Same

“Yeah, well, that doesn’t come as a surprise!” and he and Arden sat for a quiet moment and made themselves comfortable in others company. "One thing though ..." Jim was cut off

“… boss, action stations!” came Sparkies harried voice over the office intercom. Jim jumped to his feet and rushed past Minister Barden who followed him back into the Situations Room.

The room was full of conversations and Jim couldn’t make out what was going on. He looked for Sparky who just pointed to the screen.

The interweb was collapsing all around the world as social media sites were flooded with traffic and crashing. Sparky filtered out the down sites leaving media only. “What’s the gist of it all Jim?” asked Barden from beside him.

“It appears the North Koreans are mobilising their armed forces saying it is a US attack on their sovereign territory,” Jim pointed to one of the windows showing chaos at the border near a railway station. “Thats the Donghae Bukbu crossing on the east coast,” added an operator next to them. “All the barriers and obstacles of the demilitarised zone have been demolished but all the rail infrastructure has been left intact.”

The operator keyed in new coordinates and the screen switched to Dorasan Station on the Gyeongui line near the west coast. It showed a very similar scene. “This is the problem though,” said the operator as the screen shifted to a view of thousands of people streaming towards the border.

Sparky came up next to Jim, “and this is the translation,” and separate window came up next to the view of the South Korean civilians beginning to occupy the border railway lines. Sparky held his right hand to his ear to better hear whatever message he was receiving on his headset. Sparky picked up a set from the nearest desk and handed it to Minister Barden, “the Japanese defence minister!”

Arden took the headset and Jim walked him back to his office for privacy. Jim stood at the door, with one eye on the unfolding chaos and the other on his minister. An operators voice came over Jim’s headset, “Captain, please look at the middle left window of the wall screen.”

Jim turned and saw a group of civilians rushing to the aid of a young woman sitting in the middle of railway tracks. The live feed was jerky as the owner of the camera ran with the crowd. Static blurred it occasionally as the signal faded in and out. Two women stooped to help the girl who turned and looked at them with a dazed stare. He face was dust covered and streaked by tears that tumbled down her cheeks as she looked up at them.

She mouthed something at them and the camera came in closer to pickup her voice, “Inn Karh nha, Inn Karh nha,” she kept repeating till a jacket was put around her shoulders and the girl fell unconscious in the aims of her rescuers.

Suddenly a number of other windows opened sequentially from beside the first. Each showed a young girl being comforted among the ruins of some part of the Korean wall. At Panmunjom every building had collapsed in some way and soldiers could be seen fleeing from the border of the Joint Security area as civilians again poured into reclaim what was theirs. A camera suddenly swung to show a young woman sitting on the spot where the border had been marked by concrete slabs. She sat there amid dust and looked up at the women rushing to aid her. She smiled at them and just began repeating the same words as the others.

“Inn Karh nha, Inn Karh nha!”

Jim looked around the Situations Room and paid particular attention to everyone in their was reacting. He saw Sparky doing the same and the two of them watched as everyone in the room began to weep their lips moving silently.

Jim turned to pay attention to the minister. Barden was as white as a ghost and just nodding as if his gesture would somehow be conveyed across the phone connection.

“Yes Minister Takai, I agree entirely. Yes, yes, we must contain any military reaction what so ever till we know what is going on here! Yes, I will have a joint command liaison officer with you from our embassy as soon as possible. Thank you for taking the time to contact me personally Takai, yes, goodbye!”

Arden turned to Jim, “they’re mobilising to counter any North Korean re-action!”

“Somehow I don’t think we’ll have to Arden,” and Jim nodded to the wall screen. Arden drew himself up and let out a very long breath then strode out into the Situation Room.

Half the windows of the wall screen showed the young women and the other half showed hundreds of unarmed North Korean soldiers their arms in the air running across what had been the most heavily fortified and defended border in military history. As they ran they chanted, “Inn Karh nha, Inn Karh nha, Inn Karh nha!”

Seemingly out of nowhere tents began to be put up and soldiers were handed bottled water and food parcels then directed onwards and southwards way from the DMZ. As they watched the hundreds became thousands until it appeared that the entire North Korean military that had occupied the DMZ had fled across to South Korea.

Minister Barden cleared his throat and somehow the room around him fell silent. “Remember this day my friends, always remember where you were when you saw the reunification of Korea!”

Jim smiled and gave Arden the thumbs up, “yeah, you’ll do mate, you’ll do fine!”