//A Nice Turret's 100 oneshots

[justify]It wasn’t always like this. There was a time when the world still smiled. Back before the war. Before the martial law. Before the military police took our rights.

In the days leading up to the so-called “great” war, the tension could be felt in the air. I tell myself that I wasn’t the only one to notice it, that there were others brilliant enough to notice. In all honesty, I must admit that I can understand why some didn’t see the signs. It isn’t a matter of intelligence, but rather a matter of who you listen to and how much attention you pay to the news reports. My father always said that I was a bright one, a girl of great importance. One of the few that could see the light of hope amongst the abundant dark hopelessness.

My friend Markus understood this threat a little before I did. As a matter of fact, it’s because of him that I’m alive. I remember the first day like it was yesterday…

“Amy, how long do you think it’ll take?” He asked me one cloudy morning at Peace Park. At first, I wasn’t entirely sure what he meant and so I did the only thing I could do, I turned my head towards him and gave him a questioning look. After a brief moment’s pause, he took a breath and reiterated his original query, “The war. How long do you think it’ll take for it to start?”

Finally understanding what he meant by ‘it’, I thought for a second. The tension was escalating between the Empire and the Union at an amazing pace. This amongst other things made me open my mouth to deliver my first of many dark thoughts. “I’d say about two-three days.”

As time passed, and our conversation drifted from politics to school then back again. Several of the Imperial Armed Forces’ light armoured vehicles drove past the main foyer of Peace Park. It wasn’t long before a few personnel transports and equipment transports arrived. This time, they stopped at Peace Park. This time, they unloaded equipment.

“That’s an 88mm anti-tank cannon!” He remarked, pointing his finger towards the long-barrelled and fairly large piece of weaponry that was being taken to the intersection of Peace Rd and 42nd Ave. We watched as sand bags were deployed around the weapon, and as a 40mm anti-personnel machine-cannon was placed nearby. But that wasn’t all that happened at Peace Park that day.

“We should get going before they make us leave.” Markus spoke from the shade of a nearby tree. I simply nodded and followed him out of Peace Park. In our retreat from the place, we only ever opened our mouths to speak about how strange it was getting. All of the Lintburg city police had been replaced by military police, and all the provincial health vehicles were replaced by military medical vehicles. The same had happened to the fire department. In a way, it was almost like we were under martial law.

As we made our way to our, for lack of better terms, hideout, we noticed that Peace Park wasn’t the only place that had been fortified. Several schools and city government buildings had also been seized. Once in our hideout, which we named The Radio Cat, I immediately turned on the TV. The headline itself was disturbing, and the live feed more so. The Union had launched an attack. The entirety of Rilk City was destroyed, and it was now the place those inhumane people were using as a forward base. As the story ended, a Breaking News banner crossed through the screen, giving way to the National Defence HQ’s announcement room. “Under the circumstances, we must declare martial law. This is not to facilitate our control of the people but rather to make it easier to keep them safe. Your local emergency services have been, or will be substituted by more prepared military personnel. It was not an easy decision, and we will do our best to restore normality once this is all over.” A man with many medals and rank bars announced firmly from the screen. The hint of sadness in his eyes hardly visible under our low-resolution screen.[/justify]

[justify]It had only taken a few hours. Watching outside of the Radio Cat with commandeered security cameras, we saw what was happening. The citizens were being forced into their homes, and a steady flow of soldiers and equipment was going into, and through, our formerly calm city. We made light jokes about the situation, saying that this would be a quick, short and mostly political war. Markus and I were terribly wrong…

Opening the roof door to the Radio Cat, we sat near the edge overlooking Peace Park. Several tents had been placed, a few more unrecognisable things around the tents and some sort of loudspeaker system which I could only assume were sirens should there be any attack.

As though staring at the sirens had prompted them to come to life, it was only a few moments before, without prior warning, the alarms activate into the standard air raid caterwaul. Retreating back into the [i]Radio Cat[/i], we steadied ourselves in the most stable part of the main floor – the equipment lockers. Several minutes of waiting passed. The siren was still wailing, but no sound of explosion quite yet. In a remarkable way, it can be more stressful and horrifying to have the air raid sirens running without any explosions than it is to have them drowned out by explosions. I guess it’s the anticipation of the explosions that is responsible for that. Fortunately, or rather, unfortunately, that ‘silence’ was broken by the sound of a detonation right outside the Radio Cat. The aforementioned detonation was shortly followed by a series of rapid and rhythmic shots. The sirens stopped. It wasn’t an air raid, it was a ground assault. Exiting our lockers simultaneously, Markus had the same idea as I: get to the rooftop.

The roof exit door slammed open. The weapons fire sounded much crisper outside, the yelling more coherent without concrete walls muffling it. A wave of dirt, gravel and stone welcomed us to the roof. Peeking over the ledge from where the material had come, we were quite surprised to find a large hole, with some kind of glowing thing inside.

“I don’t think staying here is a good idea.” He said, pointing at the now rhythmically pulsing spherical object within the crater. Simply nodding my agreement with my eyes still fixated on the device, he grabbed my left hand firmly and pulled me away from the edge, mostly manoeuvering me all the way to a safer location, the basement of the school.

Finally leaving my strange state of hypnosis, I asked as to our whereabouts. “We’re in the electronics room. In the school.” He answered trivially. I could hardly make out his shape as he sat down in a nearby chair.

“Why aren’t the lights on, Markus?” I asked, still half-disoriented.

“If they walk by the door and they see the lights on, they’ll know someone is in here. I’ve brought enough food in to keep us going for a while, as well as a few other supplies. I think there’s a roll of electrical tape in there…” He responded, pausing to think a little, “If I can find it in the dark, we can block the gaps in the door – then we’ll be able to have light in here!”

“That’s great!” I answered with a bit more energy.

“Except… I don’t have any source of light on me.” Markus mused after I heard the sound of him checking his pockets and bag.

I made a quiet gasp of realisation. “My phone has some power left, we can use that to find the tape!” I said, almost all of my usual energy back.[/justify]