War

“I found another box for you to go through” Jake heaved the dusty old box up onto the desk as he spoke.

“Really? I thought we were done. You swore to me the last box you brought was all of it.” Sarah sighed as she looked at the box of old films.

“What can I say. I found another one. It was tucked way back in the corner.” He grinned at her and stepped away from the desk. “Well that’s me done for the day, I’m off down the pub. Maybe you can come to join us when you’re finished here.”

Sarah looked at him in disgust, as he knew this batch was going to take her hours, and there was no way she would be getting out of here until late.

She picked up the film on the top of the box, brushing the dust away so she could see the label to add to her records. It was hard to make out, written in pencil and faded with age.

“Moon, 1969.” She shrugged and loaded the film onto the player, ready to digitise. She assumed this was more moon landing footage. Looking at the super eight film it was on, it was very likely to be someone’s crap home video recorded straight off the TV of the moon landing.

She flicked the switch to set it going, set the alarm for five minutes and walked off to grab a drink. She usually checked the film five minutes in to make sure it was working okay and then would leave it to run.

She hit play and started running down her checklist to ensure it was recording properly, image position, image quality, true colours, sound etc. It was only when the video had been running for a couple of minutes that she started to pay attention to what was on there.

It was a video of the Apollo eleven shuttle mission, but everything was slightly different. She rubbed her eyes and peered a bit harder, as next to each American flag on the astronauts’ suits was a swastika. She rubbed her eyes again, assuming she was just overtired, but the black symbol synonymous with Nazism was still there.

Sarah shrugged, as she must have come across some weird student movie project. She let that film run and grabbed the next one out of the box.

“New York, VD day celebrations 1962.”

She put that one in the player next, again after five minutes, she paused to check the film. This time it was in New York City, and flags were flying from every street lamp and building. But not the American flags she was expecting, it was Swastikas. There were a few people in the crowd holding banners, she clicked through the film frame by frame until she could make out what one said.

“VICTORY DEUTCHLAND.” Was printed in capital letters.

Sarah grabbed the next film in the pile, as this was the weirdest, most elaborate student project she’d ever seen.

“Washington DC 1961.”

When she pressed play, it took her a while to work out what she was seeing, there were people walking around piles of white rubble. She saw the stars and stripes flag crumpled and shredded in amongst the debris. It was only when the film jumped to a wide shot that she realised the rubble was what was left of the White House, part of the famous facade was still intact, but the rest was in ruins, having clearly been burnt out.

“LA 1961.”

This film was Ariel footage, the plane came up and over the Hollywood sign, but where she expected to see houses, and roads there was nothing but devastation. All she could think of was the footage she’d once seen of Nagasaki after the bomb.

Sarah tipped the box out onto the desk. There were only 1 more film left and an old newspaper. The label on the film said the 4th Reich.

It was the newspaper headline that really grabbed her attention.

“Hitler declares WW3 victory.”

Sarah squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that when she opened them that she would no longer be reading that headline. But it was still there. In agitation, she leapt up from her desk and raced to the kitchen for another coffee, and as she made her way back, she stopped at the window to get some fresh air.

She didn’t feel her fingers release the mug, she didn’t hear the crash as it broke on the floor, and she didn’t feel the burn of the hot coffee as it splashed up her leg. Her whole world had narrowed down to a single point. The Swastika flying on the building opposite.