Nuclear Winter

Betrayal is Hard to Swallow

Juliet was escorted back to her room by the ever vigilant Captain Jager. She didn't speak until they got back to the room.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked.

"With the fragile state you were in, the information could have compromised your healing. I couldn't risk it, and I also felt like you needed a chance to be happy for a while before you were told the news."

While Juliet understood his decision, she was also hurt that Jager had kept this from her.

"Straith has asked me to use the machine to go back, and try and stop the nuclear war from happening. What do you think I should do?"

An emotion flashed across Jager's face, she didn't know whether it was anger or horror, and this confused her terribly. His answer was direct, lacking emotion.

"You must do what you feel is right."

Juliet got angry.

"What kind of f*****g answer is that Captain? You don't seem to want to be a part of this! What are you not telling me?"

Jager's features softened a bit. He realised that he had pushed Juliet too far and he felt bad.

"Straith is in this for glory. If you go back and warn everyone, Straith will want the credit. He is a career officer; he wants to climb even further up the ladder. This will give him an opportunity to do so."

Juliet looked at him in a condescending fashion.

"Again captain, what are you not telling me?"

Jager looked away and Juliet realised that she would have to be very careful with what she said next, as it would make or break the answer that she would get.

"If I am going to help you with this I need to know all the facts. I trust you Captain, you need to tell me what is going on here."

Jager looked heartbroken, but only for a minute. It was a strange expression; he seemed to harden himself against her words.

"The world was destroyed for a reason Corporal. They fired nuclear weapons all over the globe. The human race lost their way, they became greedy. I feel terrible that this happened, but it has happened and there was a reason for it. This was our fate, going back to change it will just delay the inevitable."

Juliet's expression changed from one of understanding to one of absolute anger. She stood and came right up against the tall captain's body.

"Are you telling me that we shouldn't even bother to try and stop a nuclear winter? Are you insane?"

This time Jager didn't try to hide the hurt.

"I have my reasons Corporal reasons that you will not understand."

"You are damn right that I don't understand. Get out of my room captain. I no longer want to talk to you."

Jager didn't need to be asked twice. He turned and stalked out of the room. Juliet went and lay on her bed, trying her very best to hold back the tears.

* * *

Juliet took up Straith's offer without consulting Jager again. Straith, beaming with happiness, led her to the chamber where the machine was. Before he let her in, he got her to suit up in body armour, a helmet and handed her a sidearm.

"You never know when you are going to need these." He had said as she put the gear on. It was an odd comment to make but she let it slide and allowed Straith to lead her down into the pit that contained the machine.

The room was round, hollowed into the bedrock. There were boxes of stored military equipment, as well as a large circular platform in the centre of the room. On top of the platform was an archway. The archway was macabre, black with upturned edges, there was a panel on the right-hand side, and this was where Colonel Straith led her.

They climbed the stairs of the platform and the Colonel pointed to the panel.

"This is what controls the portal. We have no idea how to use it, so I will leave you too it. We will be watching from the balcony, if you get into trouble or if you need anything we will be here."

He smiled at her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"You are doing the right thing Corporal, your country will be proud of you."

Juliet tried to smile back but found that she couldn't do so.

"Thank-you sir!" she managed.

The Colonel turned and strode from the chamber, leaving Juliet to contemplate how to figure the archway out. She pulled up a box and sat staring at the archway, trying to remember how on earth the machine had worked.

* * *

It was another flashback that helped her to work the panel, a memory of passing a hand over a panel. She got off the box and passed her hand over the side panel. As she did so a holographic panel leaped out in front of her. The panel had all the instructions needed to work the machine.

She pressed the "on" holographic button and there was a short power surge, a voice announced 'welcome back Corporal Cullen.' The lights flickered and the power drained for only a few seconds, then a strange humming sound began to emanate from the machine. In a few seconds, a wall of liquid mercury spread through the middle of the portal, between the two arms and top of the arch.

A new panel arose next to the one that had just opened and flashed in red. There was writing on it and it said. 'Open a previous link?' Juliet was unsure of what this meant but pushed the 'yes' button.

The quicksilver in the middle of the gate shimmered for a moment and then became a tunnel with swirling sides; she could feel air passing through it. Juliet smiled. She had done it. She had remembered how to work the machine. She had given them a chance.

She stepped in front of the portal and the grin which had been spreading since turning the machine on suddenly faded with a scene that took her by total surprise. Her brain had imagined an infinite number of things that she would see when she looked through the portal, but what was in front of her now was far beyond anything she had ever imagined.

Staring back at her on the other side of the portal was a team of Special Op soldiers in a perfect defensive formation. There was a barrier behind them and attached to this barrier were auto turrets.

The look of surprise on both the soldier's faces and her own was like a mirror. It seemed that no one was expecting to see what they were seeing. Both sides of the portal stood looking at each other momentarily before one of the soldiers on the other side lowered his weapon and stood up.

"Juliet?" he questioned. "Is that really you?"

Juliet c****d her head to the side quizzically.

"How do you know my name?" she asked.

The soldier looked a little hurt at this comment, and instantly the faces of the other soldiers hardened, they kept their weapons raised.

"Juliet, it's me, Xavier. Do you not remember me?"

Juliet stared at the man and thought hard, but she could not place his face anywhere in her memory.

"No," she said.

One of the other soldiers standing close to Xavier turned to him and said.

"It's a trick, Xavier. They are trying to get back the same way they did last time, only this time they are using Juliet."

"Last time...?" Juliet murmured. She was getting confused. What was going on here?

The soldier named Xavier appealed to her one more time.

"We were together Juliet—we were to get married!"

A snapshot of a memory suddenly flashed through her mind. In it she was standing in front of this very portal, but this time she was on the side where Xavier was standing. She was looking back at Xavier as a group of soldiers entered the portal in front of her, their green camouflage khaki uniforms being swallowed by the liquid metal. Xavier had a concerned look, and Juliet remembered feeling anxious. However, she had turned and walked through the portal...that was where the memory stopped.

"Xavier..." she sighed. A light of recognition sparked in her eyes, and the soldier across the mercury recognised it as such and smiled.

"Come home, Juliet!"

Xavier beckoned Juliet to come through the portal. Juliet took a step forward, and as she did so she heard a crash. She looked around and saw a large group of soldiers, led by Colonel Straith, leap the barrier to the pit, landing fluidly on the concrete and continued to run towards the portal. Juliet's eyes widened, there was no way a man could have done that without breaking all the bones in his legs. What was going on here?

She was pulled out of her shock by one of the soldiers yelling from the other side of the portal.

"Open fire."

There was no hesitation from the soldiers. They depressed the triggers of their weapons and a hail of gunfire cracked through the portal. Juliet had just enough time to lock eyes with Xavier, whose gun was also firing before she was hit with four bullets right in the middle of the chest. She flew off the platform and hit the concrete ground hard; her shoulder took most of the impact. Thankfully, she had been wearing body armour. As well as taking the hit of the bullets, the helmet had also protected her head from impacting the concrete floor which could have been rather devastating. Her neck, however, had made a cracking noise as it had hit the edge of the body armour.

Juliet slid for about a metre and then came to a stop. Her chest was on fire, and she couldn't move her neck without pain. She lay there quietly drinking in the scene around her. The soldiers from the other side of the portal were firing everything they had at Straith's soldiers.

They were taking a hail of gunfire and being knocked down, but they were getting up as soon as they were down and running once more back to the portal. She saw Jager hit by a flurry of bullets and he went down like a sack of spuds, only to get up again and run back into the fight.

Juliet closed her eyes. The body armour had saved a kill shot from the bullets, but it still hurt like hell and she would have bruises there in the morning. Her breasts were just a thumping mass of pain at this point of time.

Around her Colonel Straith, and the other soldiers moved fluidly towards the portal. Surprisingly, Captain Jager had joined them. The gunfire from the other side of the portal was deafening. They were unleashing everything they had. Juliet grimaced, obviously they felt threatened. The gunfire from the other side of the portal was not holding Colonel Straith's soldiers back.

Juliet watched as the pale soldiers took hit after hit from the bullets coming through and not one of them died. From the human side of the portal, Juliet suddenly heard the whirl of the auto turrets as they warmed up. The room was filled with a fury of bullets which drove the creatures back from the portal and off the platform. As soon as that happened, a grenade flew through the portal and rolled towards them.

Juliet stared at it as it came to a stop beside her. Her eyes widened as she heard the click, but instead of being shredded as the grenade exploded, a pulse of energy radiated out from the grenade like a stone thrown into a pool. Everything suddenly went black and the mercury in the portal shuddered once and then disappeared. An EMP grenade, Juliet sighed in relief and closed her eyes, drifting into an uncomfortable sleep.