2389

The War Prison

The War Prison - Sam's Account

I was woken up in the middle of the night by the unexpected sounds of jets flying over the house. On the island there were only ten T-A30 fighter jets, why would they be deployed? Then a sickening feeling erupted in my stomach; what if the island of Barros had been attacked overnight?

I couldn't sleep, so I sat up in my small bed, in my dull room, in the consistent house colour of Teasdale Grey. I turned my battery-powered bedside lamp on; only my parents had an electric lamp, with the limited electrical supply we had on Teasdale.

I reached out and pulled a book down from my small bookcase. It wasn't one of the novel's I'd read hundreds of times, but a large volume entitled Twenty-Third Century Technology: A Guide. I liked the particularly dusty book, every time I read it I learned something new. If I was given the opportunity to choose a career I would love to be an engineer, but there seems to be a catastrophic war about to break out, so the career path is on hold.

I turned to a random page and read about 'The Solar Node' a plan by Professor David Enkins (a physicist) to cover the entire globe in a node that could absorb solar radiation, and let heat into the atmosphere where and when it was needed, as well as controlling factors such as rainfall and stopping natural disasters. The design was made in 2291, and was beginning to be put into motion, making me wonder why it wasn't there now, almost a hundred years later, and why there seemed to only be two islands on the entire earth, Teasdale and Barros. Some people had to know about it, the book was published in 2292, so it must have all been fine until then. Still lost, deep in these perplexing mysteries I turned the page and read about asteroid mining for precious minerals; 2260.

I must have dozed off again, as I was awoken by movement outside my door. I jumped lightly off my bed and padded to the door, pulling it ajar, to see my father dashing down the stairs. He has his charcoal suit on, and his leather briefcase was swaying by his side. He only dressed like this for work; and it was still dark outside, where was he going? Curious to find whether this had anything to do with the documents in his briefcase or the planes flying overhead I quickly pulled on some dark clothes, and waited until he had left to sneak out behind him.

The first streaks of reddy-orange were beginning to dash across the sky, the sun rising in the east. My father had set off at a brisk walk, and was now at the end of the street, turning left up a slight incline called 'Muddy Bank.' At a safe distance I followed. He walked past the housing regions, and into the outskirts of Swalesbury.

Why was he here? There was nothing on the outskirts; just flat and barren areas of land.

Behind a sudden crest he dropped down quickly infront of me. Following I found he had dropped into a courtyard, where a large ugly-looking building was built cleverly into a hill. I stayed behind the crest, but watched as my dad joined several other men in the courtyard, dressed similarly in suits. I recognised one or two, in particular the jet-black suit of Gray Steels, the head of government.

From behind the crest I couldn't hear what they were saying, so I darted out and hid behind a skip, where some waste materials had been discarded. From here I was safe enough not to be seen, but could hear what the men were talking about.

"This my dear gentlemen," the clipped tone of Gray Steels sounded "Is Teasdale's first prison, Teasdale's first prison of war. Any of the islanders from Barros we take captive are brought here, they're a great bargaining chip for what we want."

A prison? I thought to myself, not exactly useful if the napalm had already destroyed everyone.

"Last night," Gray continued "the attack began, successful napalm strikes, and the positioning of our most well equipped battleship in enemy waters. We have this little battle won immediately, there is no resistance, there is just us in our quest for what we want."

What did he want? I thought, because if we just wanted resources we would have bargained with the Barros government. There must have been something else, another reason, but what?

It seemed the small talk was over, and the men had walked off. Now the sun had crept into the sky, and the darkness of night had almost completely been eradicated. Now quite a distance away Gray introduced the men to the small workforce of prison guards; large burly men with machine guns hung around their necks.

All of a sudden the men seemed disinterested and Gray began to lead them to his SUV which was parked by the prison gates. They clambered in and the wheels span on the dusty ground, speeding away from the prison, leaving me in my hiding place.

When the guards turned around and began patrolling the perimeters I stood up and looked for a way out. The area was still free where I had came from; it wouldn't take long to walk back home. As I stepped out from behind the skip a hand descended on my shoulder, I wheeled round to find a guard aiming his dirty black gun at me.