Daime

War

Dedicated to Devote and Sygaila for giving me inspiration and for being friends. 

"You mean, you don't know?"

It was strange to see Leo's expression change completely because of one question. His features hardened, his eyes grew dark, and he bit his lip. I shook my head, but realized he was waiting for some sort of explanation.

"I was in a car accident before this happened." I pulled my jeans up to show him a nasty scar. "I have no idea what happened, because the last thing I remember before waking up in a deserted world was the lights of the car as it hit me. I've spoken to some people, but either they were hospitalized like I was, and had no clue, or they didn't want to tell me, and then I just didn't want to know. I tried to find my friends and family, on my own, but everything, everywhere, it's just empty." I flinched, remembering how I'd stumbled into Matt's house and what I'd encountered there. I pushed the memory away and looked at Leo.

"I'm not even sure where to start... Hell, I'm not even sure where it started, or how! I mean, I know bits and pieces and I can piece together a story, but I have no proof or anything..."

Leo's voice trailed off, obviously thinking about how he had to start this.

"Well, you know how there had been a lot of tension before.. Al of this?"

I just nodded, realizing it was true; many countries had been snapping at each other like angry ducks for a while. "It was just snapping really, until Kwerzig and Lobald got into a civil war over some islands, that both believed belonged to them. It wasn't really anything major, until Kwerzig shot a plane out of the air they believed contained the war generals from Lobald, but actually the plane was a passenger plane from Nethaldel, carrying innocent people, people who had nothing to do with it! Over 300 people died that day... I was actually surprised that Nethaldel didn't declare war on Kwerzig that first day, but I suppose they had no proof, not at first, only suspicions. Either way, the suspicions were enough for the ITU to suspend Kwerzig from everything."

I interrupted Leo. "ITU?"

"Oh yeah, I suppose you missed that too. It used to be the PTU, remember? The Pandorian Treaty for Unity, to unite all countries in Pandory, but after that event, it became the International Treaty for Unity. Either way, Kwerzig was suspended from everything: they could no longer trade with any other countries, leave their own; nearly all countries joined in it. The governor of Nethaldel actually visited many of the participating country, to thank them for their support. It was terrible, really; to lose so many people at once, in a war that wasn't theirs.

Well, Kwerzig was suspended for a week until they leashed a nuclear bomb on Nethaldel. I don't think anybody suspected that, I mean, nobody had declared war on anybody, only Kwerzig was being sanctioned! Which was a surprisingly soft punishment, but there still wasn't any proof. The proof came two hours after the bomb; researchers had managed to get some pieces of the crashed plane out of the countries and the ITU confirmed the plane had been shot by a rocket from Kwerzig. Not that there was anything left of Nethaldel to do anything... Well, that launched the third World War. It's strange, because it all happened in what, a couple of weeks? You remember that treaty that most countries signed a few years back in which they promised they would no longer produce nuclear weapons? Well, they all lied. Although we can't tell for sure if Nethaldel lied...

Either way, what began as a civil war, ended in most of the world being bombed. We mostly got left alone because of our neutral repetition, you know, and there were no bombs here, but things haven't been great either."

Leo suddenly stopped speaking, and I sensed more had happened here, in our neutral country that was supposedly safe, but I realized he didn't want to talk about it, not now. So I remained silent, taking in what I'd been told. It was strange to think that the world had ended because of a mistake. And that mistake cost the lives of over 300 people, and that cost the lives of what, half our population? More? Leo hadn't named any details, and I wasn't sure if he didn't know, didn't want to talk about it or didn't want to tell me. Probably a combination of all three...

Leo sat cross-legged across me, head down, eyes toward his own fumbling hands, and I realized I was doing the same. No words could explain my feelings right now.
I just stared at my hands, picking at everything; my clothes, my shoes, my nails, anything, until I felt an arm around me, and I realized tears were coming from my eyes, and I had probably been sitting like this for longer than the seconds I thought it were.

"You okay?"

"I don't think anybody is okay, anymore."

Leo didn't have a response to that, nothing witty to say. His silence said more than any words could have said.

"Come on, let's get up, get ourselves a drink and something to eat. We can't sit here all day, you know."

"We can, actually. Who's going to stop us?" I smiled a bit. "But I get you. Come on, let's see what we've got.