Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Colonial Clockwork Marine

Vol1: Chapter 2

"My name is Kevin Grimes, and on my last days on earth I find myself in disbelief on the unfolding events in my life such as being posthumously promoted to a full Colonel in the British army, after some string pulling by my uniformed friends and subordinates within my unit's peacekeeping detachment from the 16th Independent Parachute Brigade Group."

"Pretty strange to find myself unknowingly receiving a battlefield promotion hours prior to death and suddenly getting slapped again with another rank promotion after death. Truly a rare oddity and one for the historical footnotes in the military, as I watch my casket get laid to rest in a military cemetery with full honors."

"Creepy as it looks, I regret that I was not able to enjoy the remainder of my life after my discharge and wondered what would have awaited me if this did not happened? I look back at my late mother who raised me alone and thought what she would have thought of all I did. Anyways I do not feel like thinking about the lost opportunities and what if's anymore and I just like to move forward now. Wherever that now takes me, that is."

"Since I don't have any relatives left, the folded Union Jack was received by my then commanding officer and best friend, Will Robertson. Though I thought the one to receive it was the little match girl that our unit was taking care of, who we all affectionately call as Inga. Whose father, along with other male relatives who could have cared for her and their remaining family were among the unfortunate casualties during the closing battles of the war. My guess is Inga might be in a hospital still recovering somewhere. Caused by injuries that surround the events of my death."

"Oh! Yes. On the night of my death, Inga's mother came to our barracks begging for help while carrying Inga's crying younger brother, Fritz. Fritz was a very small toddler who was nested in his mother's arms as I observed at the time of my arrival. Most likely due to malnutrition and what not, that is plaguing the survivors of the war.  Now it so fatefully happened that I was returning from downtown Berlin after a night of drinks and a fat wallet full of winnings from poker at the same time. Seeing a familiar face, Inga's mother begged me for help. As the distressed mother  fired off the tale of events that happened to them as they unfolded." 

"Inga, her eldest 11 year old daughter was abducted by an angry drunken soldier. This is because the child was defending her dear mother, after the soldier mistook Inga's mother for a prostitute. Both mother and daughter tried to fight off their uniformed assailant but to no avail. Once the mother was no longer able to do anything about the situation, she tried to ask for help within their ghetto but no one answered out of fear. Inga's mother was about to lose hope in seeing her daughter again, then hurriedly took Fritz and ran as fast as she could to our barracks."

"After getting all of the information out from Inga's mother, I gave some assurances to the poor woman. I then shouted the order to the troops at the gate to take care of the pair and had the details relayed over to Will as part of my orders plus additional back up. Being drunk, angry and lonely is not a good combination for a soldier or anyone for that matter.  After putting things in order as quickly as possible, I then left Inga's still crying family at the base in a mad rush to rescue the beleaguered Inga."

"Getting to the address where the kidnapper was last seen running towards, based on the details from Inga's mother. The place was a desolate neighborhood already reduced to rubble from allied shelling a few years back and I saw a lone guard post by the road side with a light on but curiously no one was there. Running around the corner there was a steep downhill from the street corner. I saw under the moonlight and a few working lamp posts a soldier carrying a sack with a suspicious looking shape, so I ran down to get his attention. "Hey Mack, got a light?" I shouted casually. But the service man walked bristly, totally ignoring my call. I called again while drawing my sidearm with the intention to shoot, "Soldier! I'm going to count to 3 if you don't stop and care to explain yourself, I will shoot you!"