Hunting Krakats

Hunting Krakats

If life was a bed of roses, I’d look for the thorns beneath the pretty surface.If life was a rainbow and sunshine, I’d look for the colors that were left behind.If life was a memory from before I'd look for a happily ever after. In a time that was and life that is….all of it.

These were the words embroidered on the heart shaped locket hanging on a young man’s chest. Beneath it, a wedding ring.Almost too stereotypically feminine to match the consistency of his masculine stature. But nobody cared anymore. The earth was gone.Political polarization and the thirst for power being the main reason for it. Liberals and conservatives alike. Different in views but sharing a destructive agenda.Families torn apart by radical views. Neighbours looking the other way. War was a dirty player that seduced the hearts of the major league countries and bio warfare its enabler. It all made sense at first, no collateral damage. No huge clean up. You have the world on it’s knees or by the balls. Anyone would do anything to get better and you can control the outcome with the antidote. However,everyone was too busy making diseases and spreading them that they forgot to manufacture a cure. In order to keep the secrets of their antidote safe, they restricted the flow of its information. Those who knew the formulas succumbed to the diseases made by others. No cure was produced and no one knew how. Life became a rat race where the rich and thieving thrived and the poor and honest succumbed to it’s plunderous. Animals and the environment fell prey to the deadly diseases that now plagued the earth. Land,air and water,all polluted. Some survived and turned into horrible mutations.Humanity licked it’s wounds, built domes around what they could save and that was that. Gone were the days where we roamed the earth freely.Quarantine was a way of life.

Resting on the radical dreams of one experimental bio scientist( Sigmund Peddle), they put all their energy, resources and came up with a solution . It almost became a religion. Cultish. Find a cure! or nuke the damn place! Well not really, but experimental radiation was the driving point. Describing it to a layman,one would give the analogy of pouring very very strong bleach into every cleaning product to do a major overhaul of a very dirty house.But how would we survive?How would the animals survive? How would nature survive? The answer to that came with two words. Scorpions and roaches. These two creatures were the only known creatures to survive radiation. Insane experiments began. Trying to merge human and insect DNA. The homeless,weak and vulnerable were forced into human trials and no one cared. The night is darkest before dawn and this was truly the darkest point in humanity. As all foolish and ghoulish experiments go, a new race began to emerge from these experiments. They would inject them under the pretext of “vaccinations” and then toss them into the outside world to survive. All failed experiments ( or as they thought) turned out to be a rebirth process. The bodies looked like they were dying at first and fell motionless to the ground, and would be missing the next day. All buried bodies would have dug up graves in the morning. At first they thought that it was animals that were digging them up. Reality hit them like a ton of bricks one day when they saw a legion of hybrids attacking one of the domes. Krakats they called em ( partly human,partly abominations). Stronger in every way,faster.Superior beings that could actually survive in the new world,but something was very wrong. There was no moral conscience, no feeling, almost psychopathic and impulsive. A constant desire to dominate. They tried to be civil. Tried to talk to them but every diplomatic gesture was met with hostility. They had a predilection for violence and bloodshed.Their bodies almost reptile like,constantly cold and hard.A new war emerged, more lives were lost on both ends. The humans still had the intellect but the Krakats were closing in. They were also reproducing at enormous rates.Spiraling into the hell on earth they created.the humans had to unite.They quickly developed a conscience, the experiments stopped. People started to care and love again. Families stayed.Liberals and conservatives, alike. Theist and Atheist alike. Men,women,children and anyone who had a conscience. It was us against the Krakats.

Jason Hunt knew the end of that if we explored the narrative. While the humans had better technology and resources they had, the numbers were growing every day. He chucked on his shirt leggings then uniform to start his day. His name tag read patrol officer of quadrant 12 (the domes over the world had been broken up into different quadrants). The front liners of each quadrant (the petrol unit ) are the first to deal with any threat both domestic and foreign (foreign meaning anything beyond the domes). They needed to be ready for anything and life was a day to day ordeal. You needed to have a certain type of mental stamina,guts to really have a carefree attitude to be in this position. The pay was good and it had its perks but anyone would be insane to put their life and live the way patrol officers do.Jason lost his dad to cancer ages ago and his mum and sister to tecoma. His life was hell before the world ever knew what hell was. He spent his younger years in debauchery, and then she saved him.Hayla was as gentle,kind and as loving as they come. It was inevitable that he would fall in love with her only to have that love ripped away by a Krakat. This was personal. This was a mission.

He kissed his locket, it was hers and now his forever! The last words Hayla left him with before her precious life met its end. Almost a daily mantra before he headed off to work.He pictured her watching over him in a way. Like a guardian.

It was agreed upon by the United Nations( The current and ONLY governing supreme authority,representing the humans) and the Krakats that certain parts of the world were Krakat territory and the other parts human. Obviously the Krakats settled for the colder, more humid parts (which did better with their skin) and the hotter drier regions were where the domes were built. This entire agreement was done in vain really as the Krakats were CERTAINLY planning an attack. It was a matter of when.

Work is a mundane ordeal but Jason is as sharp as a kite. His coworkers used to joke about taking turns trying to get Jason to chill. Jason could stare at a single point for hours on end. Nobody knew how or why he had so much focus and he never told them. “Sir?” Jason’s attention is immediately diverted, he turns his attention to a lower ranked officer. The young lad in his early 20’s. Blond hair cut close to his temples,clean shaved looks back at Jason “Sir, I think you are going to want to come and see this”.Jason leaves to follow him

Quadrant 12 is a pathetic quadrant (probably one of the safest quadrants. Jason was sent there indefinitely for breaking protocol to save a fellow petroller in Quadrant 50. His superiors didn’t take kindly to his “rambo” antics and shipped him off to a place where they didn't have to deal with him. Their way of firing but not firing him in Jason’s mind. He didn't care about the pay. He wanted the action. He had focussed all his heartbreak, all the pain in his life into one point, the destruction of the Krakats!.

“Sir, take a look at these fluctuations in our sensors around the fences outside”. Slightly flustered Jason replies “ Well what am I looking at Conor? Can you make sense of it?”. ‘Sir,there seems to be a rise in the wind around our censors. Almost like there is rapid movement, but it isn't triggering our alarms precisely every Thursday in the last month at this time” Conor says pointing at the screen. “Could be an animal” Jason murmurs. “ That is what we thought, sir but the land around us is barren. No animals have been spotted on our cameras.Besides, these movements seem to be almost methodical, back and forth and it comes as close as the barrier doors and then goes back and comes back. What sorta animal will do that and why?” ”Well” Jason sighed. I guess I have nothing better to do tonight anyway,I'll come back and take a look for myself.There is no need to alert the other petrols or anyone else right now but yeah I’ll take a look at it”.

That night Jason creeped up to a spot close to that door where the action was taking place. Not that he expected to find anything but hey, that was one way to keep his mind from being bored. The thought that there might be something ACTUALLY happening in quadrant 12 was interesting enough. The minutes turned into hours, Jason was all out of cigarettes. That was his limit. He was going home. He slightly grins to think of the times where he promised Hayla that he’d stop smoking. He intended to keep it and he did for a solid 2 years. But then the pain grew more and he came to a point where he had to decide between a cigarette and a bullet in between his eyes. The cigarette seemed to be the safer option. Quiet murmurs and the sound of footsteps suddenly bring Jason back. What was that noise? Jason sneaks up to get a closer look. A small group of individuals in the silhouette of the moonlight,”Is that a krakat? Wait, that's Sigmund Peddle. That nut job is still alive? This is BIG.IT’s HUGE!!!” Jason thought, stunned by what he just saw. He sneaks around the back, draws his weapon and shouts “All of you STOP RIGHT NOW!!! Hands up. Now Turn around slowly” The procession slowly turns around and all of Jason’s worst nightmares are confirmed. “Sigmund? How?? What is a Krakat doing inside the dome?” Caught up in the moment Jason isn’t quick enough to see a stinger shootout pricking him leaving him in a paralisis state, His body slumps to the ground.” I didn't see the second krakat he thought '' Still aware of what is happening he sees them inject two other people with a substance he can’t make out “ Oh no! The experiments are back!”. He is injected with something and the 3 of them are brought out through the dome and tossed outside.”This is it” Jason thought “ The moment I get my mobility back I am going to kill myself to stop the transformation. I am not going to become an abomination” “ He pondered to think about the life he lived. He was ready. He had been ready for a long time.He wanted this. To die and leave. He was done. The fuzzy words of Sigmund still echoing in his ears “you have no idea how deep this goes and what is ACTUALLY going on. Sit back Mr Hunt and enjoy the ride ....” Then it got black. Real fast and hard. His heart stopped and Jason fell unconscious.

If life was a bed of roses, I’d look for the thorns beneath the pretty surface.If life was a rainbow and sunshine, I’d look for the colors that were left behind.If life was a memory of before I'd look for a happily ever after. In a time that was and life that is….all of it.

To be continued…..