Join the new world

This is a continuation of the series I started writing the first day of Version 1's release. Please vote, comment and subscribe if you'd like to see more

Day 410. Everything had changed. People were marching in the streets, banners and flags everywhere. I reluctantly opened my eyes and checked the time; 4:15AM. The marches had been happening every hour, on the hour, for the last 48 hours. From an insider's perspective, the marches were pointless and showed the ignorance of the common man, but for the comman man, these marches represented their hatred for the war and the current alliance the UK had become a part of. Everyone knew the alliance we were in, ATLANTIS, but no-one knew how it operated and what it really stood for. We had become embroiled in a long war with France, well, PEACE, that had lasted for the duration of Christmas and it was the longest war in the history of the New World. Even though it had ended, people didn't forget overnight, and bitterness was rife throughout the country with wounded men and their sons still recovering.

I urged myself to get out of bed and make a start to the day, albeit at not the time I was used to. I made myself a cold coffee; another of the perks of a recovering economy was that there was no hot water. I took a sip, but promptly spat it out, it tasted more of cow dung than coffee beans, and it was more likely to be dirt than anything. With the shock announcement of our long-time President, Dishmcds, resigning, it had caused chaos amongst the government and had resulted in Rayf Drayson, former Minister of Finance also resigning. It was at a time when we had needed them most and they had left us; this was how the public had viewed it. I respected their decisions though, because I myself had only recently come back from retirement and started my career in the Military.

I trotted down the stairs of the flat and shoulder-barged the door open; it was too stiff to even bother trying to open it the "conventional" way. I tried to keep my head down as I walked the streets towards the Military Compound in the centre of London, as I knew the odd political activist would recognise me and start throwing things. It was rare that I would arrive at work without the odd tomato stain on my jacket or egg in my hair. Today, however, I was feeling lucky and arrived at the building without a hitch, no stains or abuse had been thrown at me. It was a good day.

I took the elevator to the top of the building, and looked across the skyline of London. You could still see glimmers of burning Belgium and hear the explosions of bombs in far off lands. War had evolved in these few short months, and countries were exploiting weaknesses, using more and more volatile bombs and greener grunts. The Indonesians especially seemed to have mastered the art of war, something my own country had not grasped yet.

I headed to the Officer's Mess for lunch, and even after a month being here and fighting for my country, I still left like the odd one out. My fellow officers and superiors, like Ip Lockard, lotfire, Deilos and Cheeseball were big, strong men, who had spent months honing their skills and strength. I was always the one who sat with a pad and paper in the corner, hurriedly taking notes as I readjusted my glasses. Nevertheless, these men were still my family and we had gone through a lot together, whether that be the attempted fightback at Walloon by Paddyohale and Lotfire, or the combined team struggle at Picardy; we had seen it all, the glory and the losses. More losses than anything, but we did had a few wins under out belt, which kept morale steady.

But there was still the Presidential campaign. Regardless of the outside world, the terror and horror, we always had the elections every month. It gave everyone something to talk about, and this month was no exception and promised to be another of the tight races we had all come to expect. No-one could make predictions though, so we'd just have to wait and see which propaganda the nation gobbled up this time.

Hope you enjoyed!