Virus

Twenty Nine

The fires blazed bright. The war had been waged and the first battles have been fought.

The fringe of the eastern edge of Canadian territory was completely consumed with a large, monstrous line of fire. Girida was not going to go through what he did with Holler. He was not going to pace the war strategically. This was his country, he was going to burn his enemies until he got it back. He was going to throw in everything he had.

It was like making soup. Canada was the soup and the U.S was the stove burner in which the soup cooked on. With every degree the burner was turned up, the more the soup boiled down. The idea was to make the burner so hot, the soup dried up in the pot.

And I was ready. The first mission was to sneak into the heart of the Canadian territory. Montana.

That was the first state the Canadians had captured and that's where they set up everything for capturing Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah.

The planes were packed with a thousand soldiers. Every soldier from Washington Fortress was on the fourteen planes, headed for Montana. Washington, Oregon, California, and Arizona would join rebel forces to attack through Idaho and into Montana. And then all the rebel bases on the east of the boarder would come in and help us slowly shrink Canadian territory. And China, France, and Germany and all their allies were on their toes to jump in and help us.

As the planes neared the fiery line, stretching for miles, the heat in the aircraft grew more intense. But that didn't phase me. Every soldier in the planes had and exoskeleton military suit.

It took three months to plan this attack. And during those three months, Theodore, the military engineer, has had a massive and fatal heart attack the day he finished making all the exoskeleton suits. I guess his only life purpose was to build those suits, and as soon as he accomplished it, it was bye-bye for him.

The planes veered a bit to the left, heading for the militant capital of the Canadian Territory.

The blazing fire moved fast, heading deeper into Montana. Inching closer to burning the Canadian capital. To the ground. But the jet that flew next to us beat the fire.

The jets missile chamber in the wings opened and two large missiles launched.

The massive city's inner core erupted in flames and cleared a charred price of land for all the soldiers to land.

Even from inside the plane I could smell the awful burning odor of the midnight air.

But the flames gave the night a beautiful, menacing glow.

"JUST JUMP!!" Andersen yelled as the hatch in the back of the plane opened.

Sara grabbed Travis's hand. I grabbed her hand, Kelso grabbed my hand and Dharma grabbed his.

The linking between us showed the true power of war. These were the only people in the world that I trusted, and I'd have never met them if it weren't for that first bomb back in Yakima. The one that tore apart Safeway.

We were the first off. We held onto each other tight as we fell and just before we landed, the links broke.

The land the missiles had clear stretched for about a mile. If was circular shaped.

Soldiers around us began pouring down like rain. I only wish Amberley were here. She'd make this battle a Hell of a lot easier.

With our superhuman speed, Kelso and I sprinted to the edge of the cleared land and into the remaining city. Canadian soldiers with red-leave badges on their chests fired at us. The bullets bounced harmlessly off of our steel shells.

I raised my wrist at the group of soldiers. Four little barrels protruded from my knuckles. With rapid fire, bullets flew from the barrels into the soldiers chest, each one piercing the center of the flag on their chest.

Within and hour, the city and half of Montana was ours again.

No fatalities, no mess-ups, just victory. It felt nice to have an ensured win for once. No more guessing and waiting for the outcome and then adapting.

After we took finished the first battle, the President, Sara, Kelso, Dharma, Travis, and I found the fanciest house left in the capital and stayed there.

President Girida poured everyone a glass of Chablis. "A toast to our first victory against Canada," he said raising his wine glass.

I didn't even bother raising it, I just went bottoms up. I didn't realize how long it had been since I had a drink. It had been months before the war began. It felt as if everything was Noah and happy again as the alcohol coursed through my veins.

"We have one hundred exoskeleton soldiers at the southern edge of Montana and a hundred more still fighting for the last of the state. With all the rebel force and U.S Army we have surrounding the territory, I say they con conquer it with two hundred exoskeleton," Girida continued. "We have about eight hundred exo-soldiers in the capital alone. I think thanks enough to conquer Ontario. I know it's bending our national traditions, but, we need to show the world that Americans aren't pushovers. We are the strongest country in the world at this point."

"Shouldn't we start with one of the more difficult provinces," Kelso said, "like Nunavut?"

"We have a eight hundred immortal soldiers, my boy," Girida said. "Attack wherever you want."

I'd never seen Girida so wound down before. Maybe he was just really, really sensitive to alcohol.

"We can't attack anything east of Quebec besides Nunavut, because we don't want to seem merciless."

I smiled. Sara and I decided that we'd stay in the capital and oversee and fight the war while the four of them were off conquering Canada. It felt good to be on top of the throne of the world, to feel so powerful. It was like we were gods looking down on our enemies with pity.