Omega

Chapter One

omega       /əʊmɪɡə/
noun.         the last letter of the Greek alphabet
meaning:   great

...

A world war is a global conflict which involves most, if not all, of the world's most powerful and developed countries and is widespread in its battlefields, consequences and casualties. In human history, there have been a total of  three of these wars. The first of 1914 to 1918, World War I, otherwise known as 'the war to end all wars'. The second, currently the deadliest in history, existing between 1939 to 1945. Finally, the Third World War or 'The Nuclear War', of 2016 to the present. Although all these have many similarities, each one has a distinguishing trait unlike the other. The most devastating, the deadliest and the most catastrophic/apocalyptic, respectively. The impact and effect of the world wars on society and Australian culture is of indisputable importance in considering...

Ellena Samson groaned as her brain suffered a temporary mental blank, and the words she had literally just been about to write, disappeared into thin air. Impatiently, she tapped her pen against the desk in the hopes that maybe it would return to her, before she quickly became fed up and threw it to the other side of the room. Maybe it was the fact that it was currently midnight, or that she had been working on writing the same 132 words over the past two hours, but she found that she just couldn't take it anymore. As most teenagers her age were so want to do, she had managed to procrastinate writing her 1000 word Modern History essay until the night before it was actually going to be due. While she hadn't felt any form of stress over the past two weeks, it was all beginning to pile up, wearing at her nerves and shortening her attention span. Stupid essay, she thought to herself bitterly, repressing the urge to ball it up and throw it away as well, I need a break.

There was a soft knock on the door, breaking Ellena's thoughts again and she growled softly, whirling around in her chair to see who had dared interrupt her writing. "What do you want?" She asked, tone lifting when she saw her younger brother open the door a smidgen and poke his head through. Luke's answering shrug was accompanied by a half-arsed 'I don't know' sound. "It's the middle of the night. Go back to sleep." Ellena continued.

"Why are you awake then?" Luke replied, obviously stalling as he nudged the door further open and proceeded to lean his weight against the frame. His hands fidgeted with the bottom of his shirt and Ellena's brow furrowed as she wondered what the real reason was for why he was interrupting his sleep time. 

"Mum said I could. I have to finish my assignment that's due for tomorrow. You, however, still shouldn't be awake." Ellena pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "Either go back to bed, or tell me why you're really here."

Luke paused for a moment before glancing up at her. "Maybe you'll get lucky and the school will be bombed out tonight. You won't have anything to hand into then." Ellena sighed, realizing that although he hadn't directly answered her question, he had still managed to tell her.

"Right, come on in and shut the door behind you. I don't want Mum coming in and finding you're awake and I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing." Ellena replied, standing up from her chair and moving over to perch on the edge of her bed. Luke followed her orders and then did exactly the same. "Are you scared?"

"No." He replied, as though she had just suggested that maybe his head was actually a fishbowl.

"Are you nervous, then?" She continued, tilting her head slightly to get a better look at him. "Nervous about going to school? Nervous about the war? Nervous about Dad?"

There was a long pause before he made the same 'I don't know' noise as before. "Maybe." He finally whispered, never looking over at her or meeting her gaze. Ellena reached up a hand and smoothed away some hair that was hanging in front of the eight year old's eyes. He batted her hand away, but there was no dedication in the action and it only proved to her that something was definitely troubling the young boy.