Big Dog [ONC 2022]

2

"As tensions rise among Eastern nations in Europe, border skirmishes have become the daily norm. Centuries old grievances along with more recent problems are bringing the entire region to the brink of war.

While NATO is taking a 'wait and see' attitude at the moment, they have not ruled out the possibility of a large scale mobilisation of forces in an attempt to protect allies' borders and to broker peace between the aggrieved nations.

Many former military chiefs and current military analysts believe that all negotiations will prove fruitless, however, as belligerent nations head closer to all-out conflict."

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2

She had never seen a storm like it. Only moments before, the sky had appeared overcast, but mild. Now, thick black clouds coated the skies, roiling and pulsing like living things in the throes of death. Lightning raked the landscape, but that would not stop Runa from finding her children. If she did nothing else of worth in her life, she would do that and bring them home safe.

The rain stung her face, carried at great speeds by screaming, howling winds that threatened to lift her from her feet and send her flying through the air. Thankful she had not removed her heavy boots, Runa dipped her head and continued to forge her way towards the beach. It felt like every clutching gust of wind fought against her, pushing her two steps backward for every step forward she made.

Her coat, wrapped around her in haste, suffered the worst of the wind. Ends flapping against her legs, the back ballooning outwards as the winds found their way through and into the tiniest of spaces. She held the lapel over her nose and mouth, protecting her face and aiding her in catching her breath. Each time she had tried to breathe without that cover, it felt like all the air in the world had become ripped away from her, as though the air itself did not wish her to breathe.

But she would not allow the fickle turns of the air to stop her from her goal. Nothing on Earth or in the Heavens would keep her from her children and pity the man, beast or element that tried. One step in front of the other, leaning forward, forging her way onward, Runa would find them. She had to. She could not survive another loss.

Even as she caught sight of the little dock, her mind, unbidden, returned to those days early in the pandemic, where her husband, strong and active, had succumbed to the virus before the vaccines had come available. She remembered him wasting away, day by day. Remembered how he fought to breathe, then only survived through the intense ministrations of the hospital staff, upon a ventilator, struggling to bring life-giving oxygen to his body. And then ...

She couldn't tell if her face had become slick with tears or that the driving rain had plastered her face with water. Either. Both. It didn't matter. She had no time to resurrect her mourning for her husband. No time to think back upon what might have been had they resorted to masks earlier. Or had moved to this desolate land before the virus had marched, inexorably, across the face of the planet.