CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Sapphire’s voice was a muffled noise in the hazy darkness as I fell backwards awkwardly into the dark stairwell, my shoulder crunching into the centre railing that creaked under my weight. There was no telling how many floors down there were still, if I were to fall, I wouldn’t survive, my luck couldn’t be that good.
Hydraulics screeched dryly in front of me as the Jackhammer made its death dance, the barbed sphere shot out at me and hit me flush in the chest. The creaking of my ribcage could be heard echoing through the darkness, only muffled by the screams of the marauding robot in front of me.
I was dead…
The pain was overbearing as the world around me spun and faded into a darkness that wasn’t due to the lack of light, my world faded to black.
Then my eyes opened, and I tried to lift myself in shock that I had survived the Jackhammers wrath, the muscles in my chest clearly refused the action and I didn’t move an inch. Pinned to the floor, my eyes began to focus on the ceiling…
I could see the ceiling?
It couldn’t be, I was sure that I was dead, but here I was, laying on my back, the pain pulsing through my limbs and torso. I was very much alive. So where was I? Managing only to raise my head I looked around to see exactly where that was, the room around me appeared to be different from any other I had seen so far.
For one thing, there was a makeshift chandelier hanging from the ceiling, with two old oil lamps dangling from it, the draft making them sway left to right. The four walls around me were covered in newspaper clippings, some of them that I was able to focus on were dating back to before 'The War' started. Some were even optimistic reports that the delegations of the United States and Peoples Republic of China had been successful. How wrong those reports were, as far as I could recall that was reported six days before the first rockets were launched, many of the first reports of the attack stated that it was North Korea that had launched the first ballistic missile towards its northern neighbours Russia.
Then all hell broke loose.
The Son of Star Wars missile defence program was a success, initially, but no one would have forecast the invasion of the countries harbouring those systems.
I recalled a day during the initial attacks, just after TSSW systems had proven successful, the phone call that I made to my friend Derrick in Edinburgh, Scotland at that time, the call would be engraved on my memory forever.
“Well things are a little tense over here, what was the story about London?” I said to Derrick, the static on the line was present right after the first bombs hit Russian soil. He was working for the Lothian and Borders Police force at the time, his wife Nyree was having their first child, everyone – including myself – was pretty emotional about it.
“Apparently Kings Cross Station was obliterated by a dozen suicide bombers, hundreds of people are reported dead. I really can’t believe it, we’ve just come back from there.” His voice was a little strained, Nyree was due in the next fortnight, but with things escalating on all borders, everyone was trying to make arrangements for emergency scenarios, Derrick was on full standby when he wasn’t working.
“What about the flights out of Edinburgh? Toronto have stopped allowing planes to head out, even the short domestic flights.” I knew that because I had just tried hopping on a flight to Winnipeg in Manitoba. All flights from Canada other than military flights were suspended.
“It’s probably a precaution against terrorism, everyone and their aunt is looking to stick it to the States.” He replied over the crackled telephone line, it was likely that this call was being recorded, the keywords traced by word recognition would have the federal service people working overtime listening to calls, because quite simply, there was nothing else on peoples minds these days.
“I guess, but how the hell am I going to get to the folks?” It had been bugging me all morning, if I was to set out now, it would take me two days driving at full speed, on clear road to get to Saskatchewan. Then I’d have to take the long way around to avoid the congestion around Winnipeg, heading north to Teulon, some fifty miles north of there. To top things off I hadn’t heard from either mom or dad since yesterday, to say I was worried was an understatement. I longed to be away from this city before it starts to tear itself apart, signs were already beginning to show that the civility of the local people was freying.
“Kobin, you there?” I had been daydreaming, ignoring my dear friend, his voice sounded slightly different.
“Yeah, sorry I was miles away, what’s wrong?”
“I just got a call on my mobile from headquarters, they want all emergency service workers to report to Dreghorn, immediately.” He sounded alarmed, and that got the hairs to stand up, I got off the sofa and began walking around it.
“Did they say why??!”
“No, it was very abrupt, they said drop everything that I was doing and to get my ass over there now, I’d better go,” there was a beeping in the background, and a few moments of silence on the line, “That’s Nyree just sent me a message, she’s already on her way there now! What the fuck!” he was almost crying the words over the phone to me, my heart began to sink. With Derrick being called over to the Military Barracks next to the Pentland Range, he would have understood that as some sort of preparation for martial law in the countries capital.
But Nyree being whisked over there as well, that made the situation more alarming, my legs began to shake uncontrollably but I didn’t want to sit down, she was a qualified Doctor in the Burns Unit at St.Johns Hospital, some thirty miles west of Edinburgh.
“Maybe it’s just a precaution Derrick, they’ll have her as an adviser if the city goes to shit!?” I tried my best to reassure my friend even though I was unsure of the situation myself.
“What’s that?” I heard him say distantly on the phone, so I tried to repeat what I had just said, this time sounding even more unsure of myself than before. There was a noise on the line, in the background it was loud, like a car going past Derrick, but he was in his apartment.
“Jesus Christ…” Derrick said absentmindedly, a loud noise clattered through my earpiece as he dropped the phone at his end, the noise in the background grew louder and louder, then faded before returning again stronger.
My right ear was burning as I pressed the receiver hard against my head, with the added static on the line it was hard to make out much of what was going on in the background, a few moments later, Derrick came back on the line, the noise continuing in the background in waves.
“Kobin, I have to go… I’ll call you back once I get to the barracks.” Derrick sounded more worried than I had ever heard him before, I was almost in panic.
“What is it? What just happened?”
“There are jets, dozens of them, flying across the Forth.” The Forth River was north of Edinburgh, the famous Forth Road and Rail Bridges, alongside the newly and controversially built Forth Tunnel, opened the gateway from the bustling capital city into the open beauty of its countryside and northern towns. The Rosyth Naval base wasn’t too far away from there, from what Derrick said, the planes were heading in that direction.
“Are they British?!?” the question really surprised me, I wasn’t even thinking of anything other than U.K. Fighter jets flying over the Scottish capital.
Derrick dropped his phone again, and the faint sound of his front door slammed, the noise of the fighter jets in the air faded to the noise of the faint static on the line.

It was the last transatlantic call I’d ever make, or receive…