One last Year (chapter 2) I remember coming off the train for basic training, all of us had received "the call of service" the British government needed soldiers for the coming war and the 29 other men on the tracks had all been selected for one reason or another. I'd been selected because I worked with the NHS when I was 18, I had experience dealing with trauma after volunteering for a first response service. It was 8 years ago but they didn't want to take paramedics off frontline duty so they were left with me. I was to be trained as a front line medic. Funny thing is, when I was 16 I wanted to join the RAF as a medic but they offered me something different. I guess I got what I wanted in the end. Anyway, basic training was 4 weeks, it was shorter than what the "real" soldiers received, I guess they wanted us stationed as soon as they could. I won't go into much detail, suffice to say I missed my girlfriend, I missed home, and I missed watching my brothers son grow up. Any money i was to be paid was paid straight to the little lady back home, the army gave me everything I needed. After 4 weeks of training I was able to visit home, if only for a short time, I was to be deployed in Poland. If the Russians did anything crazy, such as launch a nuclear missile at the last reserve of oil, they figured a lot of fighting would be done in that area. They were wrong but that comes later. Michelle hated the idea of me being deployed but she stood by me, the moment she answered the phone to the Army is burned into my memory. She picked up the phone, the beautiful smile she wore faded almost instantly, tears began streaming down her cheeks. She handed the phone to me and I was told to be at the station by 160 hours. That gave us 4 hours together. We spent those 4 fours lying on the living room floor, I tried to be strong but I was scared of what was to come. Michelle spent the whole time holding back tears and my opinion she did well until the news recapped the the death-toll of the Antarctic drilling rig. I hugged Michelle for what would be the last time, I kissed her soft lips I told her that I loved her, then I left. "Are you ok Ryan?" Mr Blake asked, already knowing the answer. "I don't want to talk about Michelle, if it's all the same to you" Ryan said, holding back tears. "Yes, I understand. Please continue from when you arrived in Poland" There's not much to tell about the first couple of years, most of the conflict up until the last Great War was either cyber warfare or border skirmish. By 2018 all fuel was being sent to power the coming war. Rationing had been implemented back home, that included; fuel, food, water, energy and medicine. The general population was unaware of how severe the problem had become. Production had all but halted and due to anti-terror laws the government was able to censor the internet and they had complete control over the media. Freedom had been traded for safety but people were no more safe then before, rumours were flying around the base that the Chinese had sunk a Japanese survey ship and sparked a conflict that was mostly fought on the Chinese coast. I know what thinking, ohh but china had the biggest army in the world. What good are thousands of tanks, planes and ships if you have no fuel to stick in there? I'll answer that for you. Not very good. I don't know the details leading up to the china - Japanese war, the media were told not to report it. I guess they didn't want to fuel panic of the coming war. That brings us to 2021, my unit was pushed forward with French and German armies. If you'd told a 24 year old version of me that we'd have live translation within 9 years I probably would have believed you but it was still pretty cool. I knew this was boiling point, there were thousands of us lining the Russian border. I think it was July when we were given anti-radiation pills. That was when I stopped sleeping. I had no idea what was going on outside my base. My orders were to treat injured soldiers on the battlefield. Since there was no battlefield there was no one to treat. That never changed. In December, looking across the Russian border something changed. We began seeing flashes of light. Bright lights. This happened for about a week and then they stopped. We assumed the fighting had spilled into the Russian main land, partly right. In the last week of December, my #life changed forever. Since I stopped sleeping I spent a lot of time on top of the barracks watching the stars. For past week I'd seen a lot of shooting stars, more than I thought I could see in a week. They kept getting brighter and brighter as if they were getting closer. Then I found out why. From what I could tell the Americans had the fantastic idea to arm the Armstrong defence system with ICBM, the very big kind of nuclear missile. They must have made some kind of mistake. I followed this one star down to the horizon. I was blinded by the flash, I even covered my eyes with my hands but I could see the bones, then I watched shock wave hit the sentry tower, about a half mile away from the base, then I remember being pushed back over the side of the barracks then nothing but black. The Great War had started and I was buried under what was left of the barracks, every second I laid there I was being poisoned by the nuclear blast. I lost both of my arms that night plus my right leg. If that was my only loss that week I would have counted myself lucky. But it wasn't. The UK had been hit. Michelle was killed instantly. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter, I focused more on Ryan this time but also tried to keep building the tension for the war. I will revisit the war in future chapters but I'll say nothing else. I hope you enjoy the world I am building for you. There is much more to come and the world will be looked at in much more details. Once again, thank for reading and good night. Tim.