Our World Of Stars And Fireflies

Prologue

The old woman sat quaintly in her chair, a single scar up her right cheek, caressing its way across her eye. Behind her a small hut stood quietly, the door slightly open, the wood creaking whenever a more intense gust of wind moved it. Small children from the village stood in front of her stared in awe at the lady, listening intently. they chatted hazily, scampering to be the closest to her. They murmured to each other, their small eyes darting around, their ears perked, listening for one word. As is speaking all of their thoughts, one little voice at the front piped up.
"Can you tell us the story again?" the woman laughed a hazy laugh and smiled a bitter sweet smile.
"The sun will go down soon pups, I cannot tell much." she soothed the rabid chaos of the children with her words. They all turned to stand attention to her words.
"Tell us what it was like! How did the war start?" said a loud voice from the back. Slowly the old woman stroked her dog and leant back in her chair.
"Just this once, then off with you. I have business to attend to." Her light British accent was smooth, hooking the children with one word. There was a small cheer. "Alright then. So as many of you know there was a war, a great war. This planet would never be the same after this war and it has never fully yet healed. But slowly, as time flows, we are rebuilding our once great civilisations to be as great as they once were. We had many things: cars that almost everybody owned, giant cities, towering skyscrapers, museums, theme parks that were thrilling to say the least and more of that sort."

"What happened to those things?" A little girl whispered in the front.
"Like many things they were destroyed or torn down for their materials. Wood, metals, stone, anything to create weapons, buildings, shelters. There were not only soldiers in this war, there were civilians. And like in many wars before this one, there were casualties. So many casualties." she stared into the distance as if caught by guilt. "Unfortunately not as many as this war took. Countless people were killed, massacred, innocent people whose lives didn't matter to the wrath and fury of weapons. I would say that many forgot what mercy was, what humanity was. There were no captives, no people taken hostage... unless you had information. One of the keys to your survival was to be able to give information to those who wanted it. In the beginning of the war, the whole world was barely involved. As time went on...everyone who breathed was part of this dangerous game we were all playing. It was like Russian roulette, only every chamber contained a bullet, and each bullet was to be used, against friend or foe. It didn't take long to wipe out most of the world. Somehow, as you all know by now, the bigger countries stayed till last, the remaining countries being England, America, China and Russia."
"But why those countries?" the old lady grinned at the repetitive questions. Every time she told this story, the children reminded her to leave nothing unsaid, no stone unturned. They savoured every detail she could give them, like they had an insatiable hunger for the knowledge she held.
"The government still lived. Through various efforts by each country, their governments still lived, well, at least half of their governments. Apart from America. They were being run by military efforts. After some time England and Russia, through some bloodied acceptance, managed a peace treaty between all the countries. Apart from America. Their leader, Karlson, was intent on refusing the treaty, leaving the other countries questioning whether it would be America's destruction or persuasion. Many agreed on sending thousands of nuclear bombs to wipe them out, but others disagreed. There were still hundreds if not thousands of innocent people in America who could not just be killed when it wasn't them deciding. Something had to be done to stop others from blowing America up."
"The heroes!" there was a small murmur from the crowd. The old lady quietly got up.
"That's it for tonight pups. Maybe I can tell some more tomorrow?" a groan and moaning proved that was not the preferred option. "Shut up and go to your homes! Or no story tomorrow!"
Within a minute they had all disappeared in various directions to go home and to sleep so that the rest of the story could be heard quickly in the morning. The old woman laughed and turned to go inside. The big scraggly dog followed her inside.
"Come on Junior! The wind is changing. It will soon be winter." She stared out of the open door. "I can sense it. Just like when I was first here." The dog groaned a yawn. The lady playfully tapped him with her stick.
"Come on old boy. To the fire. I need to figure out how to tell them the rest of the story. Make it different from the other hundreds of times I've told them."
She carefully sat herself in her chair and watched the crackling flames whisper peacefully in the heath. It was so long ago the war, yet it felt like yesterday.