Overwatch: Dark Days, Chapter One "Death From Above

The night before the fictional Battle for Yonkers, which takes place at the start of the war.

10 miles from Yonkers, New York

2100 hours

January 1st, 2012

Life as we know it...it seemed over. A few weeks before New Years 2012 the world caught on fire when America's capital, Washington, D.C. was bombed by Russian bomber aircraft. Next came the invasion. Just hours after the attack on Washington, Alaska was invaded by the Russian army. Alaska, a section of the part of the United States, and a quarter of Canada belonged to the Russians. Me? I was just a Canadian paratrooper dragged into the American military. My country needed me, but the Americans wouldn't let me go fight for Canada. It made me angry, made me feel like I shouldn't have accepted the offer made by the American military for me to transfer. The fight I was fighting in America- it wasn't mine to be fighting. But I had a job that I, like my fellow Canadians up north, had to do; push the Russians out of North America. 

I looked up and saw Jaime heading towards me.

"Can I sit here?" She asked as she slung her M4 around her back. "Go ahead." I said as I huddled in my foxhole. "Enjoying the snow?" asked Jaime as she watched Yonkers' anti-aircraft defences go to work against attacking Russian aircraft.

"Couldn't be colder."

She laughed and said, "Even in the apocalypse you can STILL find a way to use humour!" I turned towards her and said, "Without humour...we'd go crazy. That's why in tough situations you use it to your advantage."

The fires in Yonkers lit up the night sky. It was spectacular from our position, but if you were in Yonkers, it'd be a much different story.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" I asked as the wail of bomb sirens in the distance filled the air. "Not as beautiful as the fire we made, and not as big." exclaimed Jaime as she got up and walked towards the others, who were sitting around a small camp fire. "Let me guess, you wan't me to go?" I asked in a sarcastic tone of voice.

"That depends if you're cold or not."

I took off my helmet, set down my M16A4 as got out of my foxhole "Fine, I guess I'll go over there."

I walked over to the others. It seemed like a repeat of Afghanistan, with Tord burning Russian-made s**t...again. But this time, Jayde, our new soldier, was being influenced by Tord and helping.

"Guys...what are you doing?" I asked as I watched Tord throw two AK-74s into the fire. "What seems to be the matter, sir?" asked Jayde as she gave me a troublesome smirk and threw a Russian flag into the fire. I watched the stuff that Tord and Jayde threw into the fire burn. "Tord...you may be the other sergeant here, but you're a terrible influence to the new ones." Gage looked up from cleaning his Barrett M107. "Sir, wouldn't it be a good idea to burn that stuff, seeing as we don't have enough wood to keep the fire going?"

I thought about it for a minute, then looked up. "You're right, pass me an AK."

Everyone laughed. Then for a minute we all fell silent. During that silence, you could hear Russian aircraft overhead, being shot down and dropping bombs on Yonkers...or at least trying to do so.

Drew stood up and walked towards her foxhole. "I'm going to bed now, guys. Goodnight!"

All through the night we would talk, tell jokes and wonder what it would of been like in Yonkers that night. But when we would go into Yonkers to fight...it would be the exact opposite of what we thought the battle for Yonkers would be like. The Russian army was coming.

And they were determined to take and hold the city.

Author's Note

The first chapter of "Dark Days". It was originally written in September of 2011. Despite the short length and moderate plot of the chapter, I hope you all enjoy it!