Nuclear Winter

An Inconvenient Truth

When Juliet woke up, she found herself on a bunk. It was dark, an eerie red light illuminating everything except the shadows. Her eyes immediately flicked to all four corners, her eyes trying to penetrate the gloom. She was alone.

She was still in her body armour, but it felt as though she had been unceremoniously dumped on the small bunk she was now lying on. No effort to make her comfortable had been given.

She held her aching neck as still as she could and sat up; she was in a cell, 'the brig'—military jail. Her chest hurt something wicked. She stood, not without pain, and removed her body armour. It dropped to the floor with a thud, more concrete. She then removed her khaki top and sports bra, wincing and letting a small groan escape her lips. She looked down and gasped at the bruises that covered her chest. Her left breast had two black bruises surrounded by a purple outline. Her right breast had a large bruise in the middle and there was another one below her right breast at the bottom of her rib cage. She touched this one gently and once again winced. At least one rib was badly bruised.

"You have a nice body, Corporal Cullen." Jager's voice came from one of the corners of the cell, and Juliet jumped, wrenching her neck and cursing. She covered her breasts in embarrassment, fumbling for her shirt.

"Don't worry. I will not do anything to you. I am just admiring your beauty."

Juliet was stunned. She didn't really know how to respond. She was embarrassed, but at the same time kind of flattered. After all Captain Jager was handsome in a pale, 'vampirish' way. Instead, she settled for asking him a question.

"How did you get in here so silently? There was no one in here when I woke up."

"I have been here the whole time," Jager said. "I just have an ability to, how do you say it, blend into the environment."

Juliet nodded and finished buttoning up her shirt.

"Why are you here?" she asked bluntly; she had no wish to talk to Jager, there was something about this whole operation that gave her the creeps.

"I have come to help you."

"Help? How can you help me when I don't even know if you are human? There are some very strange things going on here, and I don't think you have been entirely honest about who you are, or what you are doing. Those men on the other side of the portal, they knew me, and I think I know them too. Why did you and Straith want to get through to the other side, and why did you not die? I saw you take a blast from the auto turret. That would have been enough to take down an elephant, but you just got up and kept going."

Jager just looked at her like she was an interesting specimen, but the friendly doctor she had known was gone. He had been replaced by someone else. Someone more desperate.

"There is a lot going on here that I can't tell you and some that you will not understand. But please believe me when I say that I am not keen for Colonel Straith to complete his plan. "

Juliet looked at him like she would look at a kid that continued to lie to her.

"You tried to warn me! You know this was going to happen, why didn't you tell me the truth? Again I feel like I need to say that I can't help you Captain Jager if you don't give me information."

The Captain nodded.

"I will tell you a little, but you must not judge us too harshly. As you have already identified, we are not human; we are called Chameleons, named because of our ability to blend into any environment we come into contact with. Colonel Straith has lied to you. When he told you the reasons behind the nuclear war he was only partly correct..."

Jager stopped talking suddenly as they heard the door to the cell block open. Jager seemed to shimmer for a moment and then he disappeared into shadow. The guard walked up the hall and looked into the cell. All he saw was a bedraggled Juliet, so he continued on his rounds along the concrete floor. Juliet heard the dull echo of footsteps as he moved through the cell block.

When she looked over Jager was once again visible, but looking slightly nervous.

"It is too dangerous to talk here. I have a plan to get you out, but you have to trust me. I will send someone to get you at twenty-two hundred hours tonight. Be ready to go! I have one more thing that I need to do, and then I will meet up with you afterward. I will explain everything to you when we meet again."

With those last words he disappeared, and Juliet was no better off than when she had awoken. She lay down in her bunk to contemplate what the hell was going on.

* * *

Twenty-two hundred hours could not come fast enough for Juliet, and she found herself sitting on the edge of her bunk, her left leg playing a nervous beat. In her head, she played over what had happened in the pit when she had opened the gateway.

She looked up and out of her cell, there was only one guard. The Chameleons seemed to class her as a threat, but she didn't know why. No one had been to talk to her, or even seen her since Jager. Every once and a while the guard would walk around, checking that she was still in her cell. When he did, the sneer on his face made it obvious that guarding her was below his status.

As he made his rounds this time, Juliet smiled sweetly at him, hoping if nothing else to stop the wicked sneer. For a moment the sneer dropped, but then it was replaced by a look of pain. He made a silent scream and then disappeared. Where moments ago there had been a sneering soldier, there was now a human man in military fatigues; he was holding a very shiny white knife in his hand that had a fading blue aura. The man looked at her and smiled, unlocking the door to her cell.

"Corporal Cullen, am I glad to see you?" He smiled at her.

Juliet stared back at him blankly.

"Of course you won't remember me. I am PFC Davis; I was in the team that came through the portal with you. Captain Jager told me you were here. I have come to help you escape."

"Portal?" Juliet questioned. "I haven't been through the portal. I have just come from there. I was attacked!"

Davis smiled.

"Oh, you have definitely been through the portal. They have just played around with your memories. These Chameleons are a nasty piece of work, but I will soon have you feeling back to your normal self again. Come we need to leave."

Davis held out his hand. Juliet just stared at it blankly. Davis beckoned.

"Corporal Cullen. We have a very short window to get you out of here. If we don't leave now, we may never get you out."

Juliet stared helplessly at the hand Davis offered her, her brain had gone into overload and was having trouble processing what was being said. Thankfully, moments later Davis' loud roar snapped her out of it.

"ON YOUR FEET SOLDIER! FRONT AND CENTRE, MOVE YOUR ASS."

Juliet was instantly standing. Years of military training kicked into gear.

"Good." Davis beamed. "Now, let's get out of here."

Davis took off at a medium jog. Juliet followed. She had no idea where they were going, but anywhere was better than the concrete cell she had recently been confined to.

* * *

Jager stood in front of Colonel Straith.

The Colonel looked very unhappy as if he had come to a conclusion about something and hadn't liked what he had found.

"Three times we have tried to get through to Earth, Captain Jager, and three times we have failed. Now our corporal has vanished, escaped, and killed one of our own with a spirit knife, we have the ash to prove it. It seems that we have a bit of a mystery here."

Jager nodded. He didn't like the way that this conversation was going.

"You will investigate the escape of Corporal Cullen, and find out who has helped her."

"Helped, sir?" Jager feigned ignorance.

"Yes, helped. Do you really think she could have escaped by herself? Our guards would have overpowered her easily. The death of two of our most senior soldiers is no mean feat, especially seeing that their life essence was sucked out of them. There is only one weapon that is able to do that, and we keep them on us at all times, don't we Captain."

"Of course sir, the spirit knife is nothing to be trifled with."

Colonel Straith clapped Jager on the shoulder and began walking him towards the door.

"Correct Captain."

Jager grinned.

"Do we have any leads sir?"

"Yes, we have one, but you have to be careful Jager. Our enemy has one of our spirit knives. If you get too close to them they will destroy you, do you understand?"

Jager nodded and they stopped walking. Straith turned and looked him in the eye.

"Speaking of spirit knives Captain, you seem to have misplaced yours."

Jager looked down at his belt, knowing full well that he would see the Colonel was right. He looked back up and saw the fire in Straith's eyes. Jager paled, the Colonel had known all along. He had been foolish to think otherwise.

There was a lightning-quick movement and Jager felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down and saw Straith's spirit knife plunged to the hilt inside his chest. Jager fell to his knees. He felt his essence being sucked through the knife and into Colonel Straith's body.

"They usually say that betrayal is hard to swallow, but I am going to enjoy swallowing yours immensely Captain Jager." Straith hissed, his lips inches from his ear.

"I will enjoy it even more by telling you that this little stunt of yours has played exactly into my plan. We will get to Earth, Jager. It is our destiny. It always has been."

Jager's eyes widened, how had he had failed? He heard Straith roar with power as his own body yielded centuries of his own. The last thing Jager saw was the floor as his body toppled towards it.

* * *

Juliet sat quietly eating a tin of shredded chicken. It was the texture of wet cardboard and had a similar taste. Juliet chewed and swallowed—the action was more robotic than enjoyable. Davis had told her that it had been from the packs they had brought through the portal with them over a year ago now; she could tell.

They were waiting for Jager in the air conditioning tunnels; Davis had said that this was the best place to hide as the Chameleons hunted by smell and that being in the tunnels allowed their scent to be spread all around the building. It also allowed them to travel without detection pretty much anywhere in the building. Davis had told her that he had been living like this for over two months now, and had not yet been discovered. Having his scent spread everywhere stopped the Chameleons pinpointing exactly where he was.

They were currently holed up in a coupling tunnel where all of the tunnels connected in one big area. It was windy and a little cold, but Davis had said it was safe.

Davis sat in a corner watching her eat. He was fiddling with the white knife he had used to kill the Chameleon guarding her. The blade looked wrong like it wasn't really supposed to be held in his hands, and Davis had a look in his eye that Juliet didn't like. It was a similar look to the ones she had seen in Jager, and Straith's eyes. A hunger of sorts.

Juliet finished her can of chicken and placed it down beside her.

"Thanks for getting me out of that cell." She said graciously.

"No problem!" Davis said. "It was getting a little lonely without the team here."

Juliet furrowed her eyebrows.

"What is this team you keep talking about? I don't remember being a part of a team."

Davis looked up from where he was picking his fingernails with the point of the white knife.

"That is because they inserted a chip into your brainstem and recalibrated your memory."

"What?" Juliet said. "That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard."

Davis stood suddenly and walked over to her. When he got to her he knelt down and showed her the base of his neck.

"You see that scar?" he stated.

Juliet looked at a nasty red scar, which had healed over.

"I thought exactly the same thing as you did until Jager cut out my chip, and I remembered everything that happened to us."

Davis turned and faced her once again.

"You have the choice, Corporal Cullen. You can either remain the way you are and have no memory of what has happened to us, or I can release you from the stranglehold they have on your memory."

Juliet looked at him.

"How do you plan on removing the chip?" She didn't like the way this conversation was going.

Davis withdrew a combat knife from his belt.

"This is the only thing that I can use. I promise that I will be gentle."

Juliet nodded.

Davis smiled. There was that glint again in his eye again, the one that Juliet did not quite trust. She wondered if he had an ulterior motive. But she knew that when it came down to it, she only had one option.

"Alright Davis, but make it quick."

* * *

Davis had been right. Once the chip had been removed from her brain stem, her memories flooded back to her all at once.

She remembered Xavier, and saying good-bye to him, promising they would get married when she returned. She had been part of a RECON team that had been sent through the portal once it had been opened. It was a tremendous honour for all of them; they had been well armed and well provisioned. No one had known what they were going to find.

The team had been told that once they were through they would be on their own. They were given orders to scout through the other side for twelve hours, if they weren't back by then they would be assumed dead and the portal would be shut down. The General running the operation was taking no chances with this new technology; he didn't want anything to come through the portal that hadn't been invited. If the team came back before then and gave the General the all clear, he would order the setup of a forward positioning base and they would put some permanent staff there and do more research.

Juliet remembered being nervous but excited at the same time as she stepped up to the portal. She had turned once and waved to Xavier, and had then followed her team through the quicksilver portal and appeared on the other side to a totally new world.

The machine had transported them into the very chamber that Juliet had been in when everything had suddenly gone wrong. They had met Colonel Straith as soon as they had come through. He had been welcoming then, friendly even, and the colonel's soldiers had clapped when they had come through. Behind them, the portal had shut...

* * *

"Can you hear me, Corporal?" Davis asked.

Juliet blinked a couple of times and then nodded.

"Yes." She answered, feeling like she was in a dream. Was she?

"Good, how are your memories?" He asked.

"Coming back slowly." She stated.

Davis smiled, but not with his eyes.

"I have stitched your wound up as best I can, but come; we need to find some antibiotics and another bandage, I sterilised the combat knife as best I could, but we can't risk an infection."

"What about Jager? Where do we meet him?" Juliet asked.

"He said that he would meet us here, he also said that if he wasn't here within the hour he wouldn't be coming at all."

"You mean that he is dead?"

"That would be very likely, he was meeting with Straith, and had a feeling that the Colonel was onto him."

Juliet sat stunned, but Davis got up.

"Come, we can honour his memory by getting rid of these bastards, but we can't do anything until you have medicine." He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet and began walking through the ducting system. Juliet followed him, they got about three hundred metres up the eastern tunnel when Davis stopped. In front of him was a vent and he was looking carefully down into it.

He did this for about a minute, looking from different angles, making sure no one was around. He then removed the vent and vaulted down into the room.

There was a window in the medical bay; the view was very similar to the one in Colonel Straith's office. It was dull, there was no blue sky, and there seemed to be a haze in the air that couldn't be blown away by the wind. Juliet stared bug-eyed at the view. Somehow it seemed a lot worse from this window. There was nothing there, no streams, no grass, no trees, no life!

"Welcome to Earth, it is the year of our Lord 2161!" Davis said.

"Oh my god!" Juliet's voice cracked.

Davis frowned.

"God?" he queried. "God has been gone from this place for a long time."