JUNIPER'S DAUGHTER - THE FINAL WAR EXTRACT BY NICK ARMBRISTER ON AMAZON

                    

JUNIPER'S DAUGHTER - THE FINAL WAR EXTRACT BY NICK ARMBRISTER ON AMAZON

“Whose in di house?” John shouted through the open door of the stone cottage, no one answered. Again he asked, “Whose in di house?” Sarah laughed long and loud almost crying, “You remind me of the blood clot booyaka ish man Ali G from way back!”
   “Yea I remember him back in the 90s and early 00s,” John chuckled, remembering the laugh they had when they were kids watching Sacha Baron whatever his name was doing his stupid but funny characters on telly. Where was he now?
   “Lets enter this joint!” Sarah said, walking into the glass porch by the open door, she tried the main blue painted front door, it opened with a simple turn of the handle. Had it been unlocked all this time? John had to take off one of his holdalls to enter the small main door; he’d pick it up later. He had one of the wind up torches to see, Sarah had the other. Into the hallway three doors led off it, into the first one the front room, the second was the dining room, the third the kitchen, upstairs was like a normal house (what was normal?) with a main bedroom, a smaller one and a bathroom. Everything what was to be expected in a normal house with one exception – there was no one around, where were they? In the city when it was nuked? So no one was alive to inhabit this quiet house on the hill? When the bomb hit the city it must have been something to see, the death of 200,000 people… The blast wave would be a gentle caress like a breeze on a summer’s day at this distance.
   John tried the light switch in the front room it came on! What the fuck? Outside it was night the light would be visible for miles, Sarah drew the dusty curtains coughing and sneezing due to years of crap. In the corner was the reason why the light worked, a car battery rigged up to give current mounted on an old metal TV stand, what an ingenious idea! Each other room was the same under closer inspection; spare batteries were stored in a big floor to ceiling cupboard in the kitchen. There was a multi media centre in the room, Sarah messed around with it and loud music came out of the speakers, a song about failed poignant romance sung by a female singer with a stunning voice. A dusty CD cover was on the shelf, John picked it up, it read Nightwish, “Once” album. Sarah turned the music down to a bearable level and looked at the other equipment here – 36inch plasma TV, 17inch pc monitor with dust covered keyboard and pc tower nearby, cordless phone, digital camera with printer and other gadgets. Sarah turned on the computer, a Mac model from over a decade ago; she used a similar one at college so long ago. The screen glowed green through the dust as the Mac booted up, then black, grey and finally white as software loaded up, anti virus, firewalls and other crap. On the desktop a host of icons glowed showing many uses, Sarah clicked on one with the mouse trying the internet. It came up after endless minutes of waiting bringing real opportunities to see what was happening in the world; news had been so hard to come by and was often old or just hearsay. On the main page she took her bearings – news, bizz, Myspace (still going now?), Europe online and more. She checked the date “3.32am Friday June 13 2015”, yes up to date and working, the news feed streamed up, she hadn’t used the internet (still called that after all these years?) in a decade. It was still the same or was it coz of the old computer? There was a UK news bit, she clicked it, nothing came up this bit was blank with only a white screen. Why? The English army keeping everyone in the dark? Or had everyone crashed back into the Stone Age after the wars? Then it hit her; there was no United Kingdom anymore after the civil wars. Fuck that! Onto the world news bit covering Europe, there a bit on France! After the terrible nuclear war was there anything or anyone left? Three news headlines read: “Reconstruction begins as France re-joins Europe and the World community”, “Money from America rebuilds France and bordering countries” and “UFO seen in many areas over France, strange lights in the sky and ghostly lady of the mist seen”. For ten minutes Sarah and John read the news on France. Rebuilding had to happen one day they had to build up and rejoin Europe, it was the only option wasn’t it? What was this odd report on lights, UFOs and a ghost woman? Could it be Juniper’s Daughter? After the weird talk of a woman, a leader coming to help, dismissed as hearsay, was she in the land of the frog, before coming here? Who could say? John thought it was all bullshit that people had regressed to superstition and rumour. Onto world news, a war reigned between India and China allied with Pakistan with millions of casualties. Other trouble with mad tribal leaders in South America, an American invasion of South Africa, etc, etc, the world hadn’t changed at all, just the year. War ruled the planet, as before, Sarah was about to break the connection when John stopped her, “Do a search for Juniper’s Daughter.” She did so, one hundred and eighty seven million results showed, “Fuckin’ Hell! This cant be right,” he gasped. Sarah redid it, it was correct. She clicked onto the first link, it loaded and opened and blurred photos appeared of a woman walking down a derelict road. More photos and text, she scrolled down and read the words, “Rumour and counter rumour of a second coming, of the end of the world, of a saviour of the human race. No firm evidence is available only speculation, conjecture and mystery. Just who is Juniper’s Daughter?”
   On and on they both read, John left the room to get some fresh air, this was all too much. A world still at war, UFOs, this strange woman, all madness! It was then he looked up; he saw a light move across the heavens, a shooting star… then it turned and shot back the other way. What the fuck? You gotta be shitting me! “Sarah, Sarah get your fuckin’ ass outa here, come and see this!” he screamed. In seconds she was there, the sky was dark nothing was there. Then it appeared, she swore and held her breath for a full minute watching it, a dark red light pulsating and growing larger, shooting over their heads before vanishing.