A World Apart (5 page)

‘Kerry…dinner’ said Anna softly, watching Kerry leave her story with her dolls and walk eagerly to the back door. Their kitchen had four French doors that led out onto the garden, of which Kerry was entering through to attend dinner. The kitchen had a dining area attached to the work surfaces offering an area to eat maybe alone or at breakfast. Kerry located some items promptly, obviously having done this regularly at dinner. She picked up the sauces, spices and a loaf of freshly baked bread, straight from their oven this morning. They both sat at the dinner table in the attached room, looking onto the garden and the distant hills. Anna placed the mats and other dinner items onto the wooden table along with knives and forks.

Anna is a well-educated individual, gaining a first class in Business law eventually at Harvard; soon after graduating she met Tim, a year younger journalist and author with routes from England, where they had Kerry. The family formed, and to ensure a good standard of living they stayed to New York to carry on with their careers, with the intention of moving to Illinois later in life to settle down. Tim had the idea of persuading Anna to try England, as he could see his family a bit more and basically he had always had a soft spot for England. However, Anna thought that England was a bit gloomy; although she did think the people were overly kind and generous.

Kerry twitched as she sat transfixed in the grey and blue seat of the aircraft
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The surrounding passengers all attended to their food, magazines whilst connecting their music and video devices. She reached for her rampantly coloured blanket and gazed out of the vivid window, peering from above on all the miniature houses and ant-like people. Kerry felt a tinge of nausea as the aircraft began to turn on its side, shortly being replaced with a cool cast of calming complacency, enabling her to drift off into the past.  

‘Come along now bunny we don’t want to miss the flight now do we’ spoke Anna directed at Kerry taking a while to pack her belongings into the petit tattered suitcase that had been passed down. Bunny, a nickname Anna still uses, even though Kerry gets embarrassed on occasions, especially in front of her friends. As Kerry stuffed her clothes, toys and books into her suitcase and forced it down using all her might, resulting in sitting on it and finally clunking the attachment into place.

‘Ready Anna’ declared Kerry short of breath and an unbalanced pitch. Kerry had always referred to her parents by their first names instead of using mum or dad like her friends. Kerry bounced down the stairs clutching her suitcase in one hand and a magazine ‘pop mania’ that was particularly popular at the time in America. As they all placed the luggage into the boot of their ford, Tim assisting with the heavy items. Her father leaded over and said to her rather unusually ‘If it crashes I’ll make sure they get you…If it crashes I’ll make sure they take you’ said her father’s voice as he looked over her with no remorse.

Rupert opened his book looked at Kerry and placed his hand on her arm, clutching slightly and looking at her eyes. Noticing her eyelids moving slowly he gathered she was tired and was resting, so he retreated to his book, unfolded the corner fold down and started reading.

There was a judder of turbulence; Tim and Anna grabbed the hand of Kerry as the plane began to shake franticly, creating a sense of panic and despair for the passengers onboard. Passengers’ belongings flew angrily around the room as the plane jumped and dived, children screaming. Tim and Anna crouched down with their hands above their heads below their seat. The screaming increased, piecing the plane as the plane dipped helplessly like paper caught in an updraft. The very next second there was quiet…

‘You have it…use to avenge the very thing you desire’ said a broken deep voice. Kerry heard the voice and looked to her mother and said ‘who was that?’ whispered Kerry. ‘Who was what Kerry?’ replied Anna confused and shaken, unaware of where they were and what they were doing. Kerry looked around the room of the craft, where she is greeted to complete desertion, no one to be seen. Seats and rubbish along with shrapnel of the plane crumpled around them and covering the rear of the plane, making the area invisible. Kerry looked down to find a cut about a few centimetres above her knee. She wiped the cut and placed a sheet of cloth from close by, giving it a wipe from all the dust that coated everything, making her face look a pale brown and grey colour, accenting her eyes to an illuminating white.

‘Come with me!’ demanded a tall figure emerging from the rear of the craft. Kerry soon realised she was alone and called out her parents. The figure approached, getting nearer and nearer, as Kerry felt more anxiety, loneliness and very frightened.

Kerry looked behind her and the figure had disappeared, reassuring Kerry and making her feel a little bit safer. There was a cold draft of wind behind her, parts of the aircraft were everywhere, as she turned she froze. A tall figure with their face invisible slowly emerged in front of her as she turned around. Kerry leapt into the seat behind her, catching her elbow on the metal divide.

‘I can show you things you have never seen before’ said the voice hanging over Kerry’s head. ‘Nooo!’ replied Kerry in a rather scared but brave tone. The figure’s presence made Kerry’s hair unfold down her neck, sending an electric pain down her back. The figure leaned in on her, as she screamed with all her might.

‘Noooo, leave me, get away from me I want Anna and Tim, where are they?’ said Kerry with urgent aggression and a confused complexion.

The images of everything suddenly became like a view from a far, getting further and further away. She felt like she was floating away, although she could see herself down below, gradually getting smaller as clouds approached and everything turned black…

‘Kerry…Kerry…wake up’ exclaimed Rupert, shaking Kerry also. Kerry awoke looking shaken, eyes tearful and bloodshot and sweating profusely.

‘Are you ok?’ enquired Rupert as Kerry noticed that everyone around her was concentrating on her behaviour, and inciting panic among the few. Kerry took a few seconds to gather her thoughts and soon realised, she apologised to surrounding people, all assuring her that it is not a problem. Rupert placed the blanket around her shoulders, which slipped down moments before.

‘You were shouting out, something like no I don’t want to and where is…’

‘Anna and Tim?’ said Kerry inquisitively in slow motion.

‘Yeah, that’s them, you sure you are ok?’ said Rupert with care.

‘I’m…I’m fine thank you, I just had a bad dream…I just need to sleep that’s all’ said Kerry nervously, looking more drained and finding it hard to fulfil a conversation.  

The ocean water clattered against the side of the English military vessel approaching Southampton docking bay. Fighter pilots, signal men, office workers and others were scurrying around on the deck as the planes came from the skies to land on the ships deck.

‘Sir, we have received intelligence that they are launching a night attack’ said the young assistant general Hopkins. The cabin that they were in was marble floored with a wooden counter finish with elegant décor on the ceiling that bore a knight on a stallion in red.

‘How long does that leave us?’ prompted General Goodman, looking disconcertingly at his assistant adjacent to him.

‘Two and a half hours’ sir’ replied Hopkins gleefully, not moving his head from the floor as he spoke. The general walked over to the coordinates of the ship, withdrew a map from his pocket and began deciding on what move to make next. The general placed pins where the enemy was and coins where the intelligence suggested the Iranians were stationed, in order to surround them.

The ship is around half a mile long, with the deck covered in planes, boats, helicopters, glide boats and normal cars. Guns and armory were placed at the tip, the sides, on the deck and rear. This contained machinery such as automatic guns, rifles, missiles, rockets, electro Macs, which sent electronic diversions to the enemy’s controls, causing them to wonder into dangerous territory, along with the normal handhelds. The distant wonder of the sea was apparent at the very front edge of the ship Frankie thought. He recalled the telephone call that had brought him here, and he thought rhetorically to himself why he was there, then the thought was picked from him by the sea’s crash around him, making him lose balance for a second. The dark pattering calm sea at night was slowly picking up into a state of uncontrolled aggression, as the waves battered against the side of the boat, impacting on the ships course. By now the sun was just settling and a quarter was visible that cast a murky orange path along the bed of blue tempting sea dwellers to follow.  The vessel was heading to Rome, Italy where missiles were the perfect range to send from, allowing protection for the British and American soldiers. 

As day became night the thought of what was about to come from Iran was spinning inside Frankie, creating a piercing pain in his stomach. The British army is preparing for the attack as well as the USA, covering the coasts around Northern England and fleeing people that are in danger from Britain as intelligence has uncovered England is the first line of attack.

‘To the people of Britain, we are facing uncertain times with Iran, concerning the country’s nuclear capabilities and plans. There shall be agreement talks running through the night, I want to assure the people of Britain not to panic. What is belief and what is right will prevail from this meeting, to only meet in the middle and promote equality will allow universal collaboration and conformance from the east with the west’
said Angelina May Evergreen, the prime minister of Britain addressing the country in the bars, clubs, cafes and restaurants all around the UK.

The perfect white overalls shone infectiously towards the workers of the inspection and examination team for the London Intelligence Alliance, clocking off and entering their cloakrooms and decontamination pods. Frankie entered with another colleague Stephan, his half Italian lunch buddy shortly after their arrival holding a clipboard and what looked like a box of something wrapped perfectly. They were just about to start their shift, retracting their keys and inserting into the provided blue lockers. Stephan reached inside his locker and s [elected a bag of lunch that appeared out-of-date, he picked them out with caution, using the edges of the plastic bag to avoid any juices that may leak and placed into the faded black rubbish bag by the door they had entered.

‘I see Wendy’s been making you lunch then?’ said Frankie hastily, eying up the disgusting contents of Stephan’s bag.

‘Ha, yes I don’t have the courage to tell her I hate mayonnaise, even thinking about it now makes me cringe’ replied Stephan shivering at the thought of the sauce anywhere near him.

‘What we got on today then?’ said Frankie changing the subject slightly before Stephan talked for an eternity about his relationship.

‘Errm, I’m not too sure, I think it is looking at the documentation from Iran, the samples from the nuclear finds’ said Stephan in mid-thought.

‘I really hope there isn’t anything in there over the guidelines or we are, well you know what’ said Frankie gingerly. Both of the men walked to the clothing chamber and began putting their protective suits on, all in white they walked through the security clearance doors and into the invest room A. A loud hissing noise hooked Frankie’s ears on entering sending him to a crouch.

‘You ok Frankie?’ replied Stephan reaching down with a hand implying an uplift.

‘Sorry folks, we have new equipment and I haven’t got used to it yet’ said an automated voice, that of the examiner viewing and recording the events of the investigation and filming the proceedings for legal protection and evidence. Frankie found his feet and became upright once more, his sight slightly blurry, seeing clear and black spots as he returned to normal level again. Frankie gave a sharp look over to the women behind the glass, only to replace that with a weird sort of grin that confused the woman, giving a miniature frown from the forehead and then carrying on with what she was doing. Frankie returned to the room, perfectly lit in white along with them both wearing an all-in-one white suit with helmet and a clear eye slide for them to operate. Stephan looked down onto the table in front of them, where there was a mass collection of the findings from inspection in Iran’s on their nuclear division.

‘Looks like we will be here a while’ claimed Frankie selecting the items on the table, looking quite obtrusively at them despite their vulnerable appearance.

‘Certainly does my friend’ said Stephan part under his breath. As the time passed by, which Frankie eyed obsessively wanting to finish early as he detested this type of analysis due to the amount of weight is would carry on a worldwide scale. What he was investigating would save or jeopardise lives, homes and even countries. Frankie glanced up at the clock just above the viewing screen, swearing to himself that would be his last time he looked, it was thirty-five minutes past four and he finished at half five. Returning back to his work he discovered a turquoise liquid resting on top a microscopic piece of metal out of his electronic lens attachment. He carefully used his right hand to switch the spectacle microscope lenses to record. He then reached for an extraction pen, which slowly withdrew liquid. Frankie positioned the pen next to the liquid, sweating at an alarming rate. He moved the instrument in closer anticipating three times, before he made contact with the liquid.