The man who cried wolf

It was a rough day for Duncan. And while most of his days were rough that day proved to be an exceptional case. Beginning with his massive headache in the morning (owing to someone’s birthday party in his squadron) to the thirty mile hike he was on, everything had gone to the dogs the whole day. Firstly due to his bumpy hangover he missed the morning briefing at the command center because of which he got a lot of ridiculous bitter speeches from his CO. Then after having a rather disappointing breakfast, he was assigned to this stingy scouting mission. The mission was simple; a hike through the jungle to a viewpoint located on the eastern parts which were currently under enemy occupation, then survey the perimeter for new developments. They could have sure as hell used drones for this purpose, but his CO, who was still pissed off, said that he needed a man’s view on the matter. Duncan now wished that he had attended the morning briefing session that day.

The mission seemed simple at first, but once he entered the jungle terrain he understood why no one else volunteered to come with him. There was no sign of any road or trail of any kind and even if there was one it would not have been of any much help either. The trees which grew on these parts of the forests were large, growing at least thirty to forty five meters in height, with broad evergreen leaves which shielded the sunlight from entering. The ground was overgrown with ferns, bushes and small plants of all kinds, which made passage though the forest a herculean task. Next some of these were armed with poisonous leaves, which on touch could lead to rashes and warts, literally meaning death. The ground washed by the infrequent torrential rains was mucky which made traversing over it very difficult. Moreover the fauna that lived here were not very human friendly. Duncan was not a biologist, his knowledge about flora and fauna of this region was practically zero. Hell, he was assigned to this area by mistake, or more precisely a diplomatic mistake. But the sizes and body patterns of the snakes, frogs and numerous insects found there can make anybody scream for their life if they see any. Constrictors, poison arrow frogs, jaguars every kind of deadly predator can be found within these jungles, waiting in ambush among the deep shades of green, with their tongues flickering and claws sharpened, jumping upon any unsuspecting prey that dare to walk through their vicinity.

Reaching a sort of clearing, Duncan decided to rest for a while. He looked at the GPS. Still ten miles to go. Not bad he thought. Judging from the four hours time he had used to cover the present distance, he was making faster progress than he had expected. Hikes through this kind of terrain could last hours at stretch, days even. He checked his watch again. The dials and the numbers were glowing with a faint green hue. Even though it was quite dark, he could clearly see the hour hand was pointing towards ten whereas its long cousin was pointing at four. Yeah, there was surely time for a quick break, he thought. So he lowered himself slowly on the damp ground, putting his harness and gear beside him.

He looked at the watch again. He had received this watch as a gift from his late father when he was in Elementary School. His father, who worked in a bank, came home happily one day, announcing triumphantly that he was offered the best employee award and as a reward he was given this beautiful watch. Duncan looked at the watch like something that had fallen from the sky, touching it softly with little hands, asking his mother what the tiny lettering on the back of the watch meant. He hopped and jumped with joy and pranced about in circles like a small lion cub when he saw his father setting the time using the small circular gear on the side of the dial. His father noticed the glint in his innocent little eyes, so when he was tucked in bed by his father that night, he gave him the watch to Duncan, telling him to always keep it close to him. Leaping up he hugged his father and thanked him with all the gratitude his tiny heart could master at that moment. But when he asked what his father will wear to work, he smiled and showed Duncan his old watch and said he will manage pretty well with that one. A heart-rending sigh escaped his mouth. That was twenty years back; he still carries this watch wherever he goes. Even when the technology has left the Analogue world far behind, he insisted on keeping it; maybe as a memento of his childhood or maybe because it had served as his faithful companion for all these years in who knows how many adventures. Or maybe because he believed that a part of his father still lives inside that watch watching over him.

Opening his backpack, he took out a water bottle and drank half of its contents. He knew he has to be more conservative about drinking water, but since it was always raining, he decided to fill it up at that next natural reservoir he came across. He put the water bottle inside his backpack again then opened his jacket a little and rolled up his sleeves slightly, and placed himself into a more comfortable position. The climate was always a hot and humid one around these parts and he was sweating a lot. He opened up his zipper a little more. But to his dismay, it did not help at all, there was no breeze not even the slightest drift. His angered flared again, more at himself than anyone else. Duncan was an army scout, instructed in various forms of combat, even assassination techniques, trained mainly for espionage. Except he was trained for a very distinct type of territory, i.e. urban landscape. He was doing quite well in his job; throughout various cities of the world, completing his missions in record time and thus earning both praises and grudges from his colleagues. And then came that fatal day, the blunder, the mistake he performed, after which life has his life thrown into a whirlpool of misfortunes. First of all he was transferred to this hell hole of a place, with tropical forests, an environment he knew almost nothing about. He had no prior training for survival in such a place and the people around him were so pissed off at the authorities for their posting to such a place, that they did not care much about a new individual trying to cope there. So for the first few days he had to survive on his own, learn about his surroundings and on its basis he planned his action. Each step was hazardous; each task could mean death if not carefully executed. But Duncan learnt one very important thing during his training, which had helped him throughout his career. That was adaptability. He understood that in order to successfully exist in a scenario he had to integrate himself with the various elements present there, absorbing knowledge from them and incorporating these knowledge for future tasks. And this theory had kept him alive all these years.

Slowly and slowly, his teammates opened up to him, becoming much friendlier then they were at start. Maybe his expertise had charmed them or maybe they had come to terms with the fact he was also a victim like them. In the next few months he learnt a lot more about the place from his colleagues. But it was not enough; he still did not feel comfortable going solitary on a mission, without any supervision. And all of these were because of this stupid war that insisted on going on forever.

Duncan’s thought shifted from his miseries towards the war. War, he thought, the highest epitome of human foolishness. Even though technology has advanced beyond the frontiers of the solar system and colonized other earth like planets in the galaxy, the human greed for power and wealth has not subsided. And this war, which has been dubbed War of the Worlds by many (Duncan thought it was insulting to the great book of the same name), was a great mistake in the first place. Three years prior to Duncan’s birth, a great movement had ensued, under the leadership of a great personage, which swept the world with a wave of radical change and reconstruction. The world community decided to unite under a single brotherhood rather than being suppressed under the tyranny of corrupt politicians and fake fundamentalists. It was the kind of change no one had ever seen, maybe after the French or Russian revolution. But unlike these movements which were mainly restricted to their respective regions, it carried the world by a storm. In the next two years, the revolution reached its peak; countries were freed from the rule of dictators, democracies were broken, their corrupt politicians either punished or banished to deserted islands along with their supporters. The wealth which had been plundered by these corrupt democrats by sucking on the blood of the poor, were seized by the public, some part of it distributed among the needy and the remaining deposited in a common bank in the hopes of building a Elysium for the masses out of it. The casualties in this movement were incredibly low, as most of the soldiers and law keepers disobeyed their orders and joined in the revolution with other people. Still there were some smaller factions and countries which opposed this big transformation but with the help of the unified army they were soon pacified. With this, the people quickly won the battle and the year Duncan was born a new nation, rather a planet nation came into being, which was officially named ‘Earth’. It had two hundred fifty other official names, in various languages spoken in different parts of the world. Actually no one cared what you call it as long as they remain united under a single domain; these official names were mainly used for official purposes only. The countries which existed before were not dissolved but rather they assimilated under the direct rule of single ruling body. The restoration process was tremendously fast, the complete control of the planet came into the hands of the people in late January; and till October when Duncan was born people were regularly going to offices and workplaces. This was due to the fact that not much of the basic infrastructure was changed; only the personals deemed to be unfit for the current globalization scenario were removed from their designated jobs, they were punished according to their degrees crime by a court of justice consisting of representatives selected from the masses and new people were appointed in their place. So the great movement which shook the world to its very core was at an end, though many questions were left answered such as what exactly had caused such a stirring among the people of earth, who was the mysterious leader behind these movement and where did he disappeared when it ended.

The years after the revolution brought a great deal of change to world scenario in terms of cultural, social and scientific terms. As the world community united under a single democratic front, there was no need for wars and grievances, so the myriad amounts of money that went into war funds and military research could be used for the benefit of the populace. As a result tremendous achievements were achieved in the fields of medical research and technology, as well as various other scientific domains like genetics, astrophysics, mathematics etc and the likes of which the industrial revolution cannot even compare to the slightest. These were achieved faster because of the sharing of resources both human and natural by the citizens of various regions of the earth. These improvement in the scientific sector made peoples life easier than before, most of the diseases were completely wiped off, luxuries once accessible only to the richest were now readily available to the general population. One of the greatest achievements of this scientific revolution was the discovery of new renewable fuel, a new kind of crystalline structure which could be mass produced with a very little amount of energy expended and which left almost zero pollutants on exhaustion. Thus the dependency on fossil fuel was completely eradicated and which prevented and stopped further deterioration of the planet’s environment. The governing body had marked erasing poverty as one of the first agenda in their manifesto, so those who were once deemed as outcasts by the high society due to their needs, were helped and these people were provided with means for leading a better life. As such the world economy boomed, raising the standards of living of the citizens of earth. People now lived a longer, happier and more comfortable life.

Next came a socio-cultural bloom, an explosion in the areas of literature and arts. Individuals from different social backgrounds and cultures, came together to form a perfect harmonic bond, which led to the birth of great pieces of art and fiction. Regions once separated by war and strife due to economic and religious disputes, threw away their past grievances and rekindled their kinship through peaceful negotiations.

So Duncan grew up in a very harmonious surrounding, like all other children of his generation, learning, playing and merrily passing away those dreamy years of his life. But alas men’s greed is something which cannot be eliminated so easily. Even if a tiny spark of such remained within a person’s heart it will soon spread out, multiplying itself and infecting others like a virus. It happened when Duncan had just graduated from college and was looking for a job. Due to some unknown reasons (most people think it was money related), a dispute arose among the diplomats in the Supreme Governing Body which presided over Earth’s administration at that moment. The dispute became bigger and bigger as time passed, soon talks of separate nations were heard all over the world. These talks became a reality when five new countries emerged within a year breaking the social bond which had held fast for a period of twenty years. These countries led by ambitious leaders with agendas of their own, moved on deliberately towards their dreams, without thinking about the consequences others may face because of their deeds. So the dispute which seemed to have shimmered down due to the separation of nation became more and more powerful and not long before the world was again engulfed in the cruel flames of war, which even pulled simple youths like Duncan into its midst. And from then on, there seemed to be no end towards his misgivings.

Duncan looked at his watch again. Half an hour has passed. It was time to move on he thought. He raised himself up and picked up his backpack and then started walking again. Since he had rested, he was feeling less fatigued then before, so he started out with a faster pace. He knew he will be soon within enemy territory and he wanted to finish his mission before dawn breaks. Duncan like to work in as much low light as possible, since it was harder to be detected by the enemy under such conditions. His night vision gear helped a lot in perceiving his surroundings in such a situation, but he can’t be too careless as he didn’t know if the enemy will not have the same kind of gear equipped. In a job involving stealth, a little advantage on one’s side can be the line between life and death. And since Duncan didn’t want to leave this world so soon, he wanted that advantage.

Duncan now came upon a wide grassland like area. He went over his plan of surveillance once again. The enemy territory or rather the enemy occupied territory begins just after this grassland. There is a military stronghold about four miles away belonging to them. Now that he could he could almost see the outer expanse of the area around the camp, he could perceive that since it was densely covered with forests so the use of drones or satellite surveillance was not feasible, reaffirming what his CO said about needing a man’s view. Duncan’s plan was to reach a small hill overlooking the stronghold and set up his gear there. This area, not of much value, is very sparsely guarded, so he thought he could go about his work smoothly. He couldn’t understand why his team even bothered about surveying this area in the first place.

A dense fog was slowly starting to encompass the whole forest around him. Good, he thought. The lesser the visibility the more effectively he can proceed. The fog may also limit his range of vision but he preferred his own discretion over the clairvoyance. A chilled night air began blowing suddenly, sending icy chills down his whole body. What was with this place, sometimes hot and sometimes cold, he was annoyed a lot. Frowning, he pulled his jacket a little tighter.

He was almost at the hill now. On his way there he saw one or two enemy soldiers but dodged them stealthily. The hill was about fifty feet high. It was steep on all sides but for one which could be scaled but not without effort. On top there was a space about ten feet wide, so this hill was not practically a hill but rather a stone pillar of some sort. Soon Duncan was at the hill and he started getting ready for climbing. He took out his climbing harness from his bag. He tightened his gear and checked if anything was loose. His shoes had two retractable spikes but he wondered if they will be of any help as the pillar was formed of hard rock.

Slowly he started climbing. He tried to remember his training from when he was a recruit. If this was a ten story building he could have ascended it within a matter of minutes, he was trained hardly and harshly in those kinds of urban manifestations. But rock climbing was a different thing. He only had whatever rudimentary training he got in military school to rely upon in such a case. But thankfully there were lots of protrusions in the rocky surface so it was not that difficult for him to climb. But still he hated this; he cursed himself once again for coming to this place.

His ascent through smooth was slow and tiresome. Occasionally a drop of sweat will fall from the tip of his nose to the damp ground several feet below. As he climbed, the nooks and crannies on the rocky surface became less and less so he was having a hard time getting a hold. Duncan looked up to see how much more he had to go; he was less than ten feet from the top. Suddenly he noticed the fog which surrounded him seemed to be growing thicker and thicker, taking on a dense grey color. He also noticed his body started to feel heavier like the fatigue which was hiding somewhere suddenly exploded out. But he knew he couldn’t do anything now, his only hope was to reach the top. A time passed, his fingers began to feel like they were about to fall off and his arms demanded they need to be released from such excruciating pain. Duncan thought he would give himself a nice hour long break when he reaches the top.

An inch at a time, he started to ascend the pillar, the thought of rest and the fact that descent was not an option at that moment were the only things that made him going at that moment. The fog was getting thicker and greyer, his body’s pain getting more painful. Visibility grew less and less till he could no longer see the top any more. Maybe it was feet more or two, he thought and went on climbing. It was a test, a war going on between his willpower and his human metabolism. He was so absorbed to gain another inch that he couldn’t feel that his hands were bleeding. As he could not see what was in front of him, he had to feel about to find a hold in the hill’s surface. Suddenly he thought what he would do if he fell from that distance. He would not probably die owing to his constitution and martial training, but would surely be rendered movement incapable by multiple fractures. And that only if he did not fall on his head and break his neck, for in such a case he is surely a goner. When dawn breaks the enemy patrol will find him lying paralyzed on the bottom of this miserable hill. They will treat him, but he will become a war prisoner with years of torture and questioning to look forward too. No he did not want to die or become a prisoner. Not after all those years of training, dangerous missions, near death situations. And certainly not in a damned place like this. He had evaded death several times before he can surely do it now. He prayed to the maker to give just a little strength so that he could reach the top. A mysterious power unexpectedly burst inside him. He had to keep climbing. One more inch, just one more. He could almost see a faint light in the dense fog or was it just his imagination.

All of a sudden, Duncan was out of the fog. He saw that he was almost at the top. He just needed to reach out with his hand one more time and he could grab the ledge. A feeling of happiness and satisfaction overflowed inside his heart. He could almost cry now. Painstakingly he moved his hand towards the ledge. He could nearly touch it.

Then it happened. A horrifying face projected itself over the ledge. He could feel a murderous aura surrounding the face. He could see the sharp fangs gleaming ominously in the moonlight, the faint blood curling growl hidden under the slow breathing sounds, the flaring nostrils releasing white mist into the cold night air and those enormous daggers like claws protruding from its legs. And suddenly he was falling through the dense fog, cruising at tremendous speed towards the hard ground below. He was so startled that a few seconds passed before he knew what was going on. An unreleased shout which emerged from the interiors of his frightened heart died down after hitting the back of his neck. But in those faint swift moments of his descent he made his up his mind to embrace his coming end. He thought about that terrifying face he had seen. He knew he had seen it before, but however hard he tried he couldn’t remember. Oh well, all this didn’t matter anymore he thought. He was going to die soon anyway. Then like a jolt of lightning, a vortex of memories passed through his mind. Yes, it was certainly that face. He was sure now. The one he had seen last time.

The face of a wolf.

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

The first chapter in the novel, mainly a prologue of sorts. Grammatical errors and word association problems noted will be much appreciated. Please tell how you feel about the overall chapter.

Reviews

[R. L. Hill]

This is really good, but I did notice that you begin sentences rather simple "He + verb". I would spice up your detail with unique juts of grammatical sentences that break up the flow and make things easier to read. I would still enjoy seeing where you are going with this story however...

[Midnite]

Thanks a lot

[sonnie ibadah]

well, i'm no pro but i believe the beginning is usually rusty 4 everyone but yours is way better. i like your flow of things and the detailed plot ignoring the grammatical errors, i think you can do more by creating your own style of expressing your story. Remember, this is your version of events. You're the creator.

[Midnite]

Thank you for such encouraging words

[sonnie ibadah]

ur welcome