Juniper’s Daughter: The Final War, A novel by Nick Armbrister

Juniper’s Daughter:

                    The Final War,

           A novel by Nick Armbrister

With a claw like hand she grabbed Sarah’s hands and quietly spoke in a voice with death hovering over it, “I don’t have much time, I’m dying and I feel pain now. I have waited many months now for you young innocents to come here. Tell me, did you know about her arrival, Juniper’s Daughter? She will soon be amongst us. She has special powers; she is a teacher, a healer, a spiritual guide. She is our last chance, before we all perish. She is here to stop that and to show us the way from evil and to protect us from Satan. You must watch out for her and work with her. Or we’re all doomed.”

   Sarah nodded, her eyes clouding over with tears that streamed down her cheeks, giving her pretty face a tragic look. Emotions she forgot she had filled her entire being – joy, love, pain, loss, hope, sadness and above all, a sense of humanity.

   “I know. I believe now what you say is true. I do,” cried Sarah.

   Silently, the old woman’s gaze stared into space and her grip on Sarah’s young hands lessened. She was gone from this horrible world to a better place full of unconditional love and forgiveness.

   The guys just stared into space, not able to understand their role in this or the reasons why, actors in a scene beyond their control in a script out of madness. In a calmness that bordered on the weird the three freedom fighters drove back out of Leeds, took a small side road to another abandoned village where they buried the unknown unnamed woman. For the first time since the civil war and nuclear exchange all three prayed to an uncaring God, asking for hope and forgiveness and for a lost soul to be taken into heaven. No epitaph was given, none was asked and no mere words would ever be enough for what had just happened – a reason now existed to live. It filled John, Lee and Sarah with something more than survival. They had to get back to Oldham to tell everyone, to be ready for this new visitor from an unknown place, who would do a role unknown. It had to be better than this evil world, right?

   One last challenge remained on the winding moor road past the old battle scenes of the outgoing journey; an ambush was in place with more than just machine guns. The rocket-propelled grenade hit the armoured car on the turret side, exploding in a shower of sparks and flame and fragments. An expanding jet of gas penetrated the steel outer hull, burnt through the Kevlar inner armour and sprayed Lee with red-hot shrapnel wounding him in the upper right arm, right leg and cheek. He screamed like a wounded lion, attempting to slew the turret over despite his wounds and damage to the systems. The turret moved and jammed facing sideways, away from the hidden enemies ambush position, even so he fired both guns on full auto before passing out. His shells scythed through the air hitting nothing but trees and hillside, they never saw their attackers. Only one round was fired in revenge for earlier defeats but it was enough.

   Sarah kept driving her skill getting them away from the enemy, be it Satanists or war vets. She pulled over a mile and a half away. She quickly checked Lee out, applied a bandage to his arm, a tourniquet to his leg and a dressing to his check and gave him the okay. A shot of rare morphine would dull his pain.

   John readied his two rocket launchers. He programmed the display for long-range fragmentation to fire back at the position of their ambushers. This was like an old artillery bombardment on a grid square map reference, an area target with no forward observer calling down the fire. He checked the small computer in the driver’s position and got their exact location and entered it into the launchers. He worked out the enemy position and keyed it in too. Rockets would land there and kill anyone still there. Was the enemy complacent?

   Sarah joined John, holding a launcher pointing it up to the heavens. He gave a command and both fired together into the afternoon sky, whooshing rocket fire on a fleeing enemy. They fired every single round emptying the ammo boxes and used Lee’s launcher and supply of rockets. They’d never know if they killed their enemy but they certainly would have scared them. No one intended going back to check, not with a wounded man and a damaged armoured car that couldn’t fight back.

   The trip back was uneventful after that but on John’s and Sarah’s minds something stayed there, actions like this were meant to stop. Juniper’s Daughter would see to that, right? Peace replacing war?