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The time traveler Chapter 4: By MTT3

Syrren yawned when the film ended and the small screen showed again the logo of the manufacturer. It was very early in the morning and the sun had not risen yet. The grass he was sitting in was slowly beginning to get wet because of the dew.

The blue dragon felt really tired. But it had been worth the time. He had been up nearly all night and spent the time with watching a great number of documentaries about human history and society. But he also watched several feature films, like Vantage Point, the Dark Knight, Pearl Harbor and various other ones that night. In fact he had spent the last ten days most of his time with reading through databases and watching films.

He was absolutely fascinated by these films. Since he read the description of the films after watching them, he knew that most of the feature films were fictitious. According to the descriptions films were mostly for entertainment, but it was more than that. They showed human emotions, their desires, fears and hopes more clearly than the documentaries, which did mostly show pure facts.

Especially the film Pearl Harbor and other films about humans and their flying machines they simply call airplanes, had gotten Syrren's attention. Despite the fact that humans had invented these airplanes over a hundred years ago, for most people it was still something extraordinary. Since humans would never be able to fly by their own accord, every time humans were in the air, they were caught by the beauty of the flight, of being high above the ground and seeing the world below them running by.

But he also remembered the documentaries he had seen. At first he watched these that showed the age humans called the middle-ages. He wanted to go on in a logical order, starting with 'his age' and then proceed until he reached the present. And he had been horrified by the atrocities humans had done to each other: the Hundred Years' War, the Thirty Years' War, the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War, the Spanish American wars of independence, the both World Wars in the twentieth century and the various Proxy wars during the Cold war. It seemed most times humans had been at war while he had been asleep. But maybe it was only because the documentaries were only focusing on these topics and did not show other parts of humans society. He had seen other documentaries, but many were about technical issues and only a small number dealt with human society.

At least this was what Syrren could understand from these films. It was still only an excerpt from human life.

Syrren moved his tail-tip to the screen on his knees and pressed the button on the screen that would start the next film. But unlike the last times when the film did start nearly instantaneously he only heard two deep bleeping sounds and the screen remained dark, only the logo was still there.

The blue dragon did sit up straight and brought his hands from behind his head to the machine, holding the tablet PC. He pressed the button several on the screen times with his finger but nothing did change, he only heard the two bleeps.

"Come on you stupid machine. What's up with you? Why don't you proceed with the films?" he mumbled quietly. He shook the tablet a little bit, as if he wanted to shake the data into the screen. Of course he knew now that this was not possible, but it made him feel a little bit better.

"SORRY, NO MORE DATA AVAILABLE." the electronically distorted voice of the tablet PC commented. The first time the thing had answered to one of his questions he asked in blank, he had been so shocked that he nearly threw the machine of the cliff he was sitting on. He didn't expect that this would work for him too, like with his human friend Matt, who could control the machines at his home just with vocal orders.

"What do you mean with 'No more data available'? I thought Matt did download everything. Shouldn't there be all films in the database that came out until now?"

"SORRY, THE DOWNLOAD DID STOP WHEN THE HARDRIVE'S CAPACITY REACHED ITS MAXIMUM. PLEASE DELETE SOME DATA AND START THE DOWNLOAD AGAIN."

Syrren sighed. He had already tried to debate with this thing before, when something did not work as he wanted it to. Since each time ended with him giving up frustratedly because the machine did only repeat the same answers again and again, he did not say anything else.

Instead he opened the menu that would show him what day was. It was very early at a Saturday. It was still a strange concept for the dragon that humans divided the year into days where they worked and where they didn't instead of working and relaxing whenever they felt like it.

Syrren shrugged and put the electronic device back into one of the black bags Matt had given him. They were empty now except for the computer, but ten days ago they were filled with wooden briquettes and a lot of frozen meat Matt had given him. Matt didn't knew how big the herds of deer were in the woods. But since the EU had prohibited any hunting on the entire continent he assumed that Syrren wouldn't have any problems with finding something to eat. Still, he wanted to be on the safe side that's why he provided Syrren with additional food.

Now that Syrren recalled the taste of the deer he had hunted a few days before he could feel how empty his stomach was. Since it was still very early in the morning and it was a Saturday he decided first to go hunting and then he would fly to Matt. Matt had told him that the European military could track him whether it was day or night, so it would make no difference at which daytime he would fly to Matt's home. To avoid detected by radar he had to fly at a very low height and also try to avoid visual contact with humans. Then he would be safe, Matt had told him.

Syrren got on his feet and flexed his limbs, first his arms and legs, then his wings and tail. He had barely been moving all night so they felt now like the frozen meat Matt had given him, cold and hard.

He walked to the middle of the small cliff that dominated the forest and knelt down. Again he concentrated on his feral features and began his transformation. Although he had done it some times before it was different each time, each time it started at a different point. Now at first it was his tail that was getting longer and heavier, but after a few seconds the change reached his hips and legs. He could feel how the configuration of his hips changed with some silent cracks before the change moved to his chest, arms and wings. He stretched his wings and could feel how they stretched more and more with each second. The feeling of how strong they were getting, strong enough to lift him into the air without any problems. In his bipedal form he could only lift himself a few meters into the air before he get too exhausted. When the change reached his chest he heard some more silent cracks, feeling how his bones got into new positions so hew could walk on four feet instead on just two. Then the transformation reached his neck, stretching it longer and longer while his arms reconfigured too, his thumb getting a bit smaller but he could still use it to grab things. When the change reached his snout he could feel the tingling there that indicated the end of each transformation. The feeling remained there for a few seconds before it disappeared.

Not that he was done he grabbed the black bag with his left fore-paw and took off. Like at the day he flew together with Matt he stayed very low. He didn't want to have to fight against a fighter-plane, he knew he would stand not a chance against an armed aircraft. He barely escaped an over fifty year old propeller-driven machine and he didn't want to face a jet fighter.

While he was flying over the deep green forest his view wandered around. He listened carefully for the noises of deer and finally found one. He began to flap his wings fast to stay right above the single deer. His grip on the black bag tightened so he wouldn't loose it. He would need only one paw to kill the deer anyway.

When he was sure the deer hadn't notice him, he flexed his claws once before he dived and broke through the trees directly to the deer, his claws ready.

Matt was running fast to catch up with his husky Toby. Everyday it was the same, the dog was running so fast that Matt could barely follow him. But suddenly the dog stopped for no apparent reason he was standing still. His ears moved in several directions then he started barking at something, something above them.

Before Matt had the opportunity to look up and see what was there, Syrren made telepathic contact with him.

< "Good morning Matt, how are you doing?">

Matt was really surprised, spotting the dragon through a gap between the tress right above him, his wings flapping very fast to keep him in the air. He could feel the air rushing down, so powerful were his wings waving through the air.

< "Quite good...I think. But what are you doing here, Syrren.?">

< Well,....I was just in the area and thought why not visit a good friend.">

Despite the distance between them Matt could see the dragon grinning. He was flying so low that Matt was sure he will not be tracked by radar.

< "It's good to see you're well, my friend. But you have to be a little bit more patient, Toby still wants to go on. But we will be back at my home in about ten minutes. I'll try to get back as soon as possible.

< "Matt, I can wait a little bit longer. I'll stay at your place until you return. Take you all the time you two need.">

< "Good, but please land out of sight of my house in the woods. I fear my neighbors could see you if you land directly in my garden. Make yourself comfortable there. See you">

< "Great. See you then.">

With a swift move of his wings the blue reptile made a jump in midair and flew away, towards the human's home. Both Matt and Toby watched the dragon for a few seconds before he was out of sight. Then they looked at each other.

"What do you think, go home now or do you wanna play a bit more?"

The dog simply lowered his chest to the ground, his tail wagging in anticipation. He definitely wanted to play more Catch-the-stick.

"Okay then, big boy. I'm with you." He threw the wooden stick he was still holding as far away as he could, the auburn - white dog directly behind it. "

---

Some time later Syrren was lying on a deck-chair, enjoying the warm morning sun. And although it was quite pleasant to sit in the sun, he couldn't help but to wonder why the sun seemed to be...colder. The last time he was sunbathing before he was sealed inside his cave it seemed that the sun had more power. He had already noticed it when he was studying the last ten days. But mostly he had been in his cave because of the bad weather. Now there was no cloud in the skies, nothing that could block the sun-light and still he could swear it was not as warm as in the middle ages and when he looked into the direction of the sun it looked like the glowing orb was hidden behind a thin dust cloud. But maybe he was just imagining things.

When Syrren had landed in the woods near Matt's house and walked through his garden, he nearly got a heart attack because of the small-insect like robots that were crawling through the small fields. They were about the size of a small turtle and had six small legs with two joints, which were all attached to a round metallic glistening body and on the front of it was a oval shaped head with four small camera-eyes that followed him, whenever he came near to one of these machines. On the lower part of their heads he could see a small number of retracted tools. Some of these things were digging out small plants and carried them away while others seemed to use a small light-beam to shoot several insects that were nibbling the leaves of the plants Matt was growing in his garden.

When he knelt at the side of one of this odd looking things and tried to touch it, it suddenly walked backwards, two small sharp looking blades emerged from the 'tool-mouth' and moved like the mandibles of an real insect, making strange screeching noises as if to say 'Don't touch me or I will cut you!'.

Of course Syrren had not forgotten his encounter with the staple gun at Matt's study the last time he was at his friend's home. So he decided it would be better to leave these things alone.

He walked to the door of the winter garden and tried to open it. But there were no handles or something similar he could use to open it. Then he noticed the small screen at the side of the door and he remembered how Matt had used it to open the door. He moved his hand to the screen and touched it. A small green line moved up and down, then the screen showed a strange, red-colored pattern on the screen, together with the words 'Access denied. Please do not try again or the executive authorities will be informed.'

Since he did not want the authorities humans called police to show up, the blue dragon looked around, searching for something he could use to spend the time until Matt would return. He had already seen all the movies and read everything of the database of the tablet-PC Matt gave him for his studies.

With his eyes wandering around he discovered two deck-chairs leaning at the wall of the conservatory. He had seen how humans used them to for sunbathing in one of the films he watched, Titanic if he could recall it right. After a minute of fumbling around with the metal and plastic rack, he managed to erect it. He was pleasantly surprised to find out that it had a gap between the seat and the back of the chair, just that big for his tail to fit through. He let his wings hang at his sides, sucking up as much sun-warmth he could get.

His dream-like trance was suddenly interrupted by laughter. He got up, seeing Matt coming out of the woods, with his husky Toby by his side.

When they reached the dragon Matt had stopped laughing but he was still giggling a bit.

"Man, I wish I could have made a picture of that. You would just have needed a pair of sunglasses and it would have been perfect. A real lounge-lizard."

Syrren knew that humans sometimes used insulting words to show sympathy towards somebody, a concept unknown to dragons. That was why he fell into a really big hole the last time they learned together. Matt had called him a 'silly lizard' because he had to explain something for the fourth time. It was not Matt's intention to really hurt the dragon, he just wanted to ease the situation a bit. But for Syrren it was really insulting. It took Matt a while before he could explain Syrren that sometimes humans used this kind of conversation to joke around and that you have to listen to somebody's pitch and how he said it to see if the person is just fooling around or really serious. So he knew that Matt had just made a joke.

"You know I just thought what kind of breakfast you would like but I can see you already found one."

When Syrren frowned at Matt's comment, the young man just pointed at his nose and and forehead. The dragon looked into the glass of the conservatory, examining his reflection. He realized that his nose and forehead was covered with several dots of blood from the deer he had hunted about an hour ago.

"Maybe you want to take a shower to clean yourself? If you want to I could prepare a second breakfast for you while you are in the shower."

"Well, a shower would be really fine."

Matt nodded and opened the door with his hand-print. Matt showed the dragon the bath and how to use the shower. Syrren had seen humans use showers in some films and he was kind curious how it would feel warm water falling on you from above. He had only known the cold water from the spring in his cave and the river.

Matt tried to explain the dragon how to use the water-tight screen to switch between the different modes of showering, either like a waterfall or mild rain or both, and of course to choose the right temperature, but also how to use the shampoos and soaps before he left the dragon his privacy.

When Syrren was alone in the bathroom, he got kinda fascinated with the glistening metal valves and the shower. He touched the small screen and adjusted the temperature of the water to a level somewhere in the middle of the scale. Then he activated the shower. The water began to flow out of a small split from a metal valve that was built into the wall above him. He felt the water temperature and was surprised how fast the water was heating up. After about ten seconds the water stopped to heat up, which to Syrren's feeling was still too cold for him. He raised the temperature on the small screen, the scale now somewhere in the more red area, then he stepped into the waterfall, now the temperature being just right.

It took him some moments but when the heat got through his scales, if felt so good, so relaxing. He simply stood there for nearly a minute simply letting the hot water fall on his scaled body. He slowly turned around to so he could enjoy the warm water in all its fullness. After several minutes of simply enjoying the warm waterfall, he changed the setting to rainfall. For a second the water stopped, only a gurgling noise coming from the with holes peppered metal plate on the ceiling. Then the next second the warm water began falling on the blue dragon. It felt like hot rain, every little drop leaving a little tingle on his scaled skin.

All of a sudden his heart felt like someone was clenching it with an iron fist, trying to rip it out of his chest, while his guts felt like being beaten. At the same time he heard loud thunder, his ear drums shaking. The pain made his knees weak and he stumbled, his fall a bit slowed down by his attempt to grab a steel handle on the wall. But it was in vain, the pain in his chest was so great he couldn't get a grip on it and he fell to the floor.

He was now lying on the side on the tiled floor, the water still falling on him, now not warm anymore but instead cold as ice, each drop felt like an iron needle penetrating his skin. He tried to concentrate, but he couldn't. The pain in his chest was too great and he could still hear thunder, increasing his fear even further. In panic he tried to scream but his jaws were unable to move. And the loud thunder he heard made it impossible for him to concentrate enough to built up an mental connection with Matt. He was helpless, scared to death and didn't know why.

When he looked around panic-stricken, his gaze fell on the shiny metal plate on the ceiling, glistening rapidly because of the great number of water drops falling down. With each sparkle he could hear thunder and suddenly he was not in the bathroom anymore.

It was in the days after his clan had left him. He was alone, he shivered because of the cold rain and he didn't know what to do. He screeched and wailed with all the power of his lungs, trying to scream against the rain which was falling on his face. He tried to call for his family and the other member of his clan to come back, but especially his brother. Of all members of his clan his brother was the last person he would have thought to abandon him. He had been his guardian, his mentor, his teacher, his friend, never would Syrren have thought that Rassmac would leave him on his own.

But that was what happened. Syrren cried out again, his desperate attempt to signalize that a young dragon needed help drowned out by ear-piercing thunder. He screamed out all his desperation and fear, still hoping that at least his brother would come back.

But that did not happen. He was alone. He didn't even know anymore where he was and where the safe cave was where he could hide. He had been outside all day long, looking for his clan and he had only be able to walk since the storm was to strong for the young dragon to fly.

He sniffled, hot tears of fear and desperation running down his cheeks. The frightened dragon crept into a bush, somehow trying to shelter himself from the rain. But the thunder couldn't be blocked out by the wet leaves.

Every few seconds the sky was lit up by a lightning and a few moments later the thunder rolled over the valley, scaring the young dragon to death. Each time the thunder reached his ears, he winced and wished his brother would be here and would protect and comfort him.

He had always been there for him, like at the first time when he had hunted a rabbit. Rassmac had told him how proud he was to have him as his younger brother and that he had been even faster than himself at his first hunt. Or when Syrren had been on a flight training with his father. When they had finished his father only told him not to forget anything he had learned during his flight and to prepare himself for the next training. His brother instead, who had been watching him all the time and even helped him occasionally with short mental pictures how to fly certain maneuvers, told him how talented he was and that he would surely become very powerful and skilled one day.

Syrren did never find out if he only said that to make him feel comfortable. But he was sure that he did not say all these things just to make him strive to become a powerful dragon. Rassmac only wanted his younger brother to be happy. And now he was gone.

It felt like a a piece of his heart was missing, hurting so much that he only wanted to die. He still called out for his brother but each attempt was quieter then the previous one until the only audible noises left were the rain drops falling and the thunder rolling over the valley.

Yeah, that was what happened. And now he was living through this horrible feeling again. He cried when he remembered, why he was so scared back then, his tears mixing with the water drops from the shower.

Not only because he was alone, but also because he was so disappointed of his brother. He had admired him and always wished he would someday be so strong and powerful like him. And then he was gone. He knew why they all did it, but had always hoped that at least his brother would understand him. But like all the others he left him on his own.

He was lying there, on the warm tile floor the water cascading onto him. After some more minutes in that horrible situation the water suddenly stopped flowing out of the shower head on the ceiling. It took Syrren some moments before he even realized that the water had stopped flowing and it took him even longer before he was able to to get up. He felt really wobbly when he was standing on his feet again. He hoped that Matt hadn't noticed it via their common connection. He didn't know if it was built up when he was lying in the shower, unable to do anything.

He cursed himself for being so weak and let himself again overwhelm by his memories. Just like the first time when he scared Matt nearly to death he got totally overwhelmed by his memories and lost control but this time he simply got absorbed by this horrible, horrible memory he just wanted to forget it.

"Syrren, are you allright?" The sudden knocking and Matt's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Ehm...yeah, everything is fine. It's just the water, it stopped flowing." He tried to hide the his growing panic in his voice, trying to calm down. Did Matt notice something?

"Really? That would only happen if you didn't move for several minutes." He sounded really surprised.

"Well, yeah I did. The water was so.....pleasant I just stood there and enjoyed it."

"Okay I see, just leave me a bit of water, will you? You can see how much water is left on the screen."

"Sure, Matt." he replied.

When he heard Matt walking away, a great sigh of relief escaped him. He didn't really want to bother his friend again with him going through one of his flashbacks. He took some more deep breaths, before he was able to think what to do next. Should he go out now or go on with the waterfall shower? He looked at the small screen and saw on the scale that there was still 90 percent of the hot water left, so he decided to go on, also because he hoped that the waterfall would help him to relax a bit.

When the water began to flow, he prepared himself that he would maybe experience such a flashback again. But after some twenty seconds nothing happened, so he took one of the many pieces of soap, smelling on the different ones to find a pleasant one and started to lather himself.

Some time later, when Matt just finished cleaning the last dishes while the dinner was cooking inside the oven, Syrren showed up in the kitchen, catching the smell of roasted potatoes and also a little hint of bacon.

"That smells good, Matt." the dragon stated, trying to make a compliment.

"Thanks Syrren, but it is nothing extraordinary, just some potatoes á la boulangére with some bacon. You can have some if you want to."

"Well, only a tiny bit, I don't want to eat up too much of your rations." The dragon actually started blushing again, his ear-fins reddening and hanging down a bit.

The young man again couldn't help but to smile about that reaction. "Don't worry about that, buddy. That's actually not from my weekly rations. It's from my stockpile I bought before the war. But you still have to wait for a bit longer before it's done. Ehm....if you don't mind I will take a shower now. If you want to, you can use the computer or the TV if you want to until I'm done. It won't take long."

"Sure, I'll wait here" Syrren said, his tail wagging in anticipation.

Matt, being a dog owner noticed the little change in his body language and decided to speed up things a little bit.

"Okay then. Just give me a few minutes. I'll be right back. Oh and if the oven should start to bleep it just signalizes that the meal is ready. Just a push the green button on top of it and it stops bleeping." he said with a wave before he left the room.

Syrren looked after Matt for a second, then he walked towards the oven, one of so many technological wonders he had encountered in the last few weeks. He remembered the taste of the potatoes from the time when Matt had been at his cave for a few days and nursed him until he was recovered and now the smell of the oven potatoes with the bacon filled his nostril and he felt his maw watering.

He then noticed a tiny stripes of bacon that Matt left over from his cooking. He thought about it for a second if he should eat it or not, thinking if Matt had left it on purpose. But since it was not that big, he just ate it. At least that's what he wanted to do. But Toby, Matt's white-auburn husky was already at his site, whining at the sight of the small bacon stripe between Syrren's claws.

"Hmm, you want some too?" The only answer was a swift move of Toby's tail, making the dragon grin. He ripped the bacon stripe into two, throwing one part into the direction of the dog, who caught it in midair, while Syrren placed it in his maw, enjoying the taste of the smoked meat. He had tasted it a few days ago from the stocks Matt gave him to survive the days until he either knew if there was enough deer in the forests he could hunt or if he had to return to Matt and ask him for help.

But Syrren had been lucky there had been so much deer and other animals he could hunt that there was never a thread he could starve. Nevertheless he ate all the food gave him, so it would not become bad.

While he chewed the tough meat he thought about what he could do until Matt would return, his thoughts wandered to the bookshelves Matt had in his living room and the magazine he found the last time. The last time he found it, it caught his attention because of the picture it showed. Matt had told him that the creature on the top of the magazine was called dinosaur by humans and now he wanted to read it, since the last time he saw it he hadn't been able read. But after Matt had taught him to read, write and a great time-span of human history, he totally forgot about reading it.

Now with him being able to read he wanted to know what the article was about, so he walked into the living room and was surprised to find a machine in the middle of the room. .At least he thought it was a machine because if was simply a podium with a big glass cube on top.

He got closer to the machine, curious what it could be. He walked two times around it to find out what it could be but there where not panels or screens like on most other machines Matt had in his house, so he knelt down and brought his head a bit closer to examine it better. But even with a closer look there was still nothing extraordinary.

By accident he touched the surface of the glass cube with his snout. Suddenly the glass surface looked like somebody had thrown a stone into the water, showing little concentric waves, starting at the point where he touched glass, while a sound like somebody was moving a finger on a wine glass.

He got up and gave the glass cube a kinda puzzled look. Did he just imagine things? He brought his hand close to the surface, hesitating for a second. Then he touched the surface with his claw. Again it showed the water wave pattern together with the glass sound. But this time it was a higher one. Maybe it made different sounds when you touched it on different points. He touched it again this time at another place, resulting again in a sound.

For the next few minutes he played with the weird, but funny machine. He touched the glass cube on all sides with several fingers at the same time, resulting in various sounds and variations. Then he touched the surface with one finger joint and rubbed from one side to the other, because he was afraid of scratching the glass surface. Suddenly the sounds stopped and the water waves disappeared, now showing a computer screen on one side of the cube.

He blue dragon was totally puzzled. How could that work? Now Syrren noticed four small sparkling lights in the lower corners of the glass cube. Was this maybe some sort of super-advanced computer -monitor?

He looked at the screen. It showed a list of something Syrren couldn't tell what it was. Since it seemed that this machine reacted to touch like the tablet PC Matt gave him Syrren touched on line that said 'Shattered Union'.

The screen got dark for a few seconds, then a film started.

<< 2008 'FOLLOWOING A DISPUTED ELECTION AND A TIGHT VOTE, THE US-CONGRESS INSTALLS THE MOST UNPOPULAR PRESIDENT IN US HISTORY, AS DAVID JEFFERSON ADAMS BECOMES THE 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

2010 SHORTLY AFTER THE ELECTION INCREASED UNREST, RIOTING AND A GROWING NUMBER OF MILTIAS HAVE GIVEN RISE TO EVER INCREASING DOMESTIC TERRORISM.

2011 IN RESPONSE THE PRESIDENT INVOKES THE HOMELAND-SECURITY-ACT AND DECLARES MARTIAL LAW ON THE WEST COAST AND OTHER AREAS OF THE COUNTRY.

SEPTEMBER 2012 THOUGH HIGHLY CONTESTED A SUPREME COURT RULING SIDESTEPPS THE ELECTORAL PROCESS, DIQULAIFYING POPULAR PRESIDENTIAL CANDITATES FROM SEVERAL STATES.

DECEMBER 2012 PUBLIC OUTRAGES EXPLODES WHEN A SHAM ELECTION LEADS TO THE PRESIDENT ACCEPTING A SECOND TERM IN OFFICE.

JAN 20TH 2013 DURING THE 57TH INAUGURATION-DAY'S CEREMONIES, WASHINGTON DC IS STRUCK BY A LOW-YIELD NUCLEAR WEAPON, KILLING THE DAVID ADAMS AND MOST OF THE US-CONGRESS. THE DESTRUCTION OF WASHINGTON DC EFFECTIVELY BREAKING THE CHAIN OF SUCCESION, SENDING THE NATION INTO CHAOS.

JAN 28TH 2013 IN AN EMERGENCY VOTE THE EUROPEAN UNION DEPLOYS PEACE KEEPERS IN THE GREATER DC AREA TO SECURE INTERNATIONAL INTERESTS.

APRIL 2013 WITH SEPERATIST SENTIMETNS RISING, CALIFORNIAS GOVERNOUR DECLARES HOMERULE AND SECEDES FROM THE UNION. TEXAS FOLLOWS QUICKLY AND DECLARES SOVEREIGNITY, TAKING NEIGHBOURING STATES WITH THEM AND FORMING THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS.

2014 - NOW THE ONCE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA LY IN RUINS. THE TIME FOR WORDS HAS PASSED AND THE SECOND AMERICAN CIVIL WAR NOW ERUPTS AS 7 FACTIONS WAGE WAR ALL ALL ACROSS THE LAND. THEY BATTLE EACH OTHER TO RECLAIM A NATION, TO RESTORE PEACE, TO REBUILT THIS.....SHATTERED UNION. ' >>

When the screen returned to the list, Syrren was somehow shocked. Was this film now something that had really happened? He had seen so many films and knew that a great number of them are based on real events, so do computer games. It seemed that humans were trying to deal with these events to process them.

But if this had really happened...The blue dragon knew that the United States were the most powerful nation on the planet, and although several other were rivaling them, their military and economic power were unmatched. No other country was as powerful as the US. So...if they would really have plunged themselves into a civil war, it was clear that this would have severe consequences for the entire world. Maybe this was the war Matt had told about. It was even possible that, with the absence of the United States other nations would have fallen into warlike states too, especially those who were protected by the US, like Israel or Taiwan.

While he was still thinking about this strange film he had seen, Matt entered the room.

"Ah, you have found my new VCC. It's quite fascinating, isn't it?"

The dragon looked at the young man, his hair still a bit damp from his shower he had taken just a little bit ago.

"VCC? What does that mean?" Syrren had noticed that humans seemed to like using short forms for various things, like VHS, CD, DVD and other things instead of giving the things names where you don't have to think about what it could mean.

"Ah, sorry. VCC means 'Versatile Crystal Cube'. I guess the people that invented it were inspired by the short form of DVD." The young man approached the transparent cube and touched it at a certain spot, letting the list of films and probably music titles disappear.

"It's really remarkable, it can be used as a screen and a memory store store at the same time. This entire cube acts similar like a DVD or CD. You see these little emitters in the edges?" He pointed at the, now dark, little spots. "These lasers here can both read the data that are written into this crystal cute and also use it as a screen, as you already have seen. It is still a very new technology, because the development of it was interrupted because of the war."

Before Syrren could ask him another question their conversation was interrupted by the sudden bleeping of the oven in the kitchen, telling them that the program was finished. Matt went into the kitchen and opened the oven, a wave of hot steam flowing into the kitchen, blinding Matt for some seconds as his glasses got fogged.

Syrren had followed the young man and was now watching Matt as he pulled out a long metal bowl, that was filled with many, many low-cut potato and surprisingly very little bacon. Syrren would have expected to see more bacon, since Matt had provided him with so much meat.

Then he remembered that Matt had told him that many resources had been rationed because of the war and he felt bad again for haven eaten all the meat Matt gave him instead of bringing it back to Matt since he didn't really need it.

He was surprised when Matt handed him a small plate with a portion of the meal, smiling at him. He tried to smile back, but did fail eventually, but nevertheless took the plate and sat himself at the table on the other side as where Matt was sitting.

They ate their meal quietly, only some music playing over the radio from some hidden loud-speakers. When they both had finished their meals, Syrren couldn't help but to apologize.

"Matt, I'm sorry that I did eat all the meat you gave me, although I didn't have to. I knew you needed it more than I did. I should have brought it back to you."

Matt was surprised that the dragon brought up that topic. "What are you talking about Syrren? I already told you that I didn't mind if you would eat it alone, buddy. I've given it to you gladly."

"But with all the war, the rationing and everything that has happened...I think now it would have been better if I would have brought back to you. You need it more than me, since I know now I can hunt as much as I want."

When Matt's confused gaze met the one of the dragon, he pointed with his scaled hand towards the living room and tried to explain what he meant and what he had seen.

But by because of that Matt got even more confused. He rose his hands and tried to stop the dragon from talking.

"Hey , wait Syrren wait. This doesn't make any sense. Didn't you go through the entire database I gave you? I mean, why are you referring here to a fictional computer game, that has never happened?"

The dragon gave him a puzzled and also sudden ashamed look, like he had said something stupid. "Well, since your database did only go until early 2008 I didn't knew what was happening afterward. And the film I saw on your VCC did fit so perfectly into what I already knew, so I thought that it had happened for real."

"The database did only show the time-line until 2008? Are you sure?" Matt was confused he thought that he had uploaded everything necessary.

"Yeah, the machine said that the hard-drive was filled up and that is why it stopped with the download." He gave Matt the tablet PC from the bag he had borrowed him, to show him the problem.

Matt scrolled through some lists and programs then he said: " Okay, looks like I should have bought the tablet with a bigger hard-drive." He shrugged. "Well, just give me some minutes and I will have uploaded everything that had happened until now.

The dragon thought about that for a moment, then he asked: "Matt? Can you...can you maybe tell me what had happened during that time? I mean...I really enjoyed the time when you taught me all these things and I think I can remember the info you taught me much better."

Matt had to think about this for some seconds, but then he murmured: "Maybe it's even better if I tell you in person what has happened back then. I mean it would be quite shocking for you if you would learn it by your own."

Syrren showed him only a confused look, not knowing what to answer. Matt just waved to the living room, signalizing him to follow him.

When they both sat in the couch, the VCC in front of them, Matt started to explain what had happened since 2008. Syrren was surprised to heat that the people of the USA had elected a black man as their leader, knowing that the color of a person was a difficult topic for many humans and he was also relieved to hear that nothing happened as in the little film he had seen.

He also told him, that even before his rule, various nations were suffering from a great economic crisis. It was difficult for the dragon to understand how this actually happened, he didn't really get a grip on how humans were working and such things. For example the concept of money or trading at all was totally strange to Syrren.

"Well, they somehow managed to get rid of a number of dictators in northern Africa and the middle east in 2011 and 2012, although the situation remained unstable for a while. But then for about an year everything seemed to calm down. You know before 2012 we had some really, really, troublesome years. Natural disasters, riots, revolutions, economic crisis, and a lot more stuff that had happened. But 2012 was surprisingly calm, even the world economic crisis seemed to have subsided. The only remarkable thing that has happened in that year was something that is simply called 'The big disappointment'. You know that religion is very important for many humans around the world?"

Syrren just nodded. He had read through many texts and articles about that thing humans called religion, another thing dragons would have never, ever thought about. While humans seem to be very worried about what would happen after somebody dies, dragons see death as something natural and don't worry about what could happen afterward. They keep a person alive by telling the things he or she had done and also be showing the memories this person allowed others to see.

"Maybe you had read over it or even saw the film '2012'. There were really a lot of people that thought that somehow the world would end. Neither by the rapture, this weird planet Nibiru, some people claimed that would collide with earth, nor did a galactic gate open up and connect earth with the galactic center, or whatever. And it was called 'The big disappointment' because all these sects and religions groups thought that they would be rescued by god or some deity and..." he shrugged "...nothing happened. There were also several ten-thousand suicides all over the world, in the days before the twenty-first December 2012, just because of this stupid Mayan calendar."

The dragon's lips rippled slightly as he heard of the action of these groups. He couldn't believe it, why would somebody do something like that?

Matt shook his head as he continued talking. "Well, as I said, 2012 was a really calm year, and so was the first half of 2013. But in the second half of that year everything changed. The first thing that happened was the bankruptcy of several big companies and banks in the United states and the economic situation got worse. It was just then when the the economy was nearly recovered but then some idiots in a big bank had sent them into bankruptcy and got away with the compensation."

Matt threw his hands into the air to let out his anger. Syrren didn't even have to connect their minds to see that Matt was really pissed off because of what these people did.

"So...they stole money and because of that this crises started all over again?" Syrren tried to get a grip on how the economy of a country was working, but as he knew also humans were barely able to understand it.

"Weeeeeell, according to the law in the US they didn't really steal it. But yeah, you are right. Because of that, several hundred-thousand people in the US and also all over the world lost their money, their jobs, their houses...everything. And then all went down the drain."

Matt bent over sighing deeply. "And guess what they did to solve that problem?" Syrren just shrugged, having no idea what the humans could have done.

"You have to know one of the last industries the US had left and did not outsource to other low-wage-countries was their arms-industry. And so they started building weapons like they had never before to create jobs. And this started the second cold war, since China and also Russia didn't want to stay behind the US. You can imagine what happened then, they tried to catch with the US."

Matt sighed again, like preparing himself for a very difficult task. Syrren looked at Matt, trying to figure out how he was really feeling, without connecting their minds too much of course. What he saw was fear, like he was afraid of recalling what has happened.

"Well, as I said they built weapons like mad, tanks, missiles, fighter-jets, small-submarines, ships, ammunition, rifles, all that stuff. But they also sold them like mad, to nearly everybody they thought it was either necessary or they just did because they had the money. They sold all that stuff to Israel, Saudi-Arabia, several central American nations, India, Pakistan, some central Asian countries. So there were a lot of countries that were not very trustworthy, but they still sold them weapons."

He shook his head in dismay.

"You can imagine that Russia and China were not very happy about that. But so were their allies, like the European Union, or Japan, Taiwan or Canada. They thought that the US were only fueling the conflict between east and west, for example when some European nations wanted to sell a bunch of Eurofighter Typhoon fighter-jets to India, they had to cancel the deal, because the people of that nations, like Germany, Spain and Italy didn't want to fuel the conflict between India and Pakistan. So there was the first crack between Europe and the US. And when Russia closed its borders in mid 2014 the second cold war officially began. These three nations did still trade with each other, but on the political scene they were very silent. And then there were also some catastrophic natural disasters that nearly threatened the mere existence of some nations, like nature was just holding back all of 2012 and 2013, just to strike then with all its power."

He stood up and walked some steps around like calming his nerves a bit before he continued explaining.

"As I said the US tried to rebuilt their economic strength by building weapons. But unfortunately because of that amount of weapons we got a lot of problems, not only did a lot of weapons simply disappear and emerged somewhere else in the world, mostly in a conflict area. But it threatened also the world economy, not mentioning the peace in some areas. You have to know that in 2015 some pirates at the horn of Africa captured one of these freighters that were loaded with tons of weapons. But instead of blackmailing money from the ship owners like they always did, they let the crew of the ship go and used the weapons that were on that ship to built a small fleet of extremely good armed and well defended ships.

And then they started demanding money from every ship that wanted to pass through the Gulf of Aden. You have to know, a great deal of the global oil tankers had to ship through that passage, and now they either had to pay the fee to the pirates or travel all the way around Africa. And all of a sudden..." he clapped his hands to emphasize the importance of what happened "...the oil price nearly doubled and jumped to 250 $ where it stayed permanently. Dunno if you have read about it, but mineral oil is the blood of our global economy."

Syrren had read about that black liquid humans call mineral oil, or petroleum, and how important it was to them and their lifestyle. It was needed for nearly everything. But he had wondered why humans decided to rely on such an insecure resource that was centered only at only some places on the planet.

"Didn't they try to fight the pirates? I mean, since the passage was that important...why didn't they try to sink the ship or capture the pirates somehow?"

Matt sat himself at Syrren's side looking at him with a face that showed disappointment as well as desperation.

"They did, they really did, Americans, Germans, French, Russians, they all had ships at that place and tried to sink the ship. But since the freighter was carrying some of the most advanced Surface-to-air missile and anti-ship-missiles ever developed, it was nearly an impossible task. Together with some Phalanx CIWS they were invulnerable to to missile attacks and also against Torpedo attacks since they used big fisher-nets around the ships to work against torpedoes. And when the pirates did sink an old Russian frigate with a cruise missile they gave up."

He shrugged, his hands patting his legs. The dragon thought about that for some seconds. Oil was important for humans, yes. But it had nearly been that expensive one time, even before the economy crisis without causing too much problems, except for some inconvenience for car drivers. So this can't be the explanation for what Matt was so afraid to tell him. He asked himself what it could be, so he continued listening to Matt.

"Okay the next thing that happened was an uprising in the region of West-Sahara. Barely anyone around the world knew about that place. But it was even more vital than the Middle East, because it had a resource that simply cannot be replaced. Oil can be replaced by other energy sources but phosphate cannot."

The dragon's tail trembled a bit. "Phosphate? What is that?"

Matt got up and touched the VCC again, searching through a list before suddenly a weird looking object appeared in the cube, a strange looking, gray-yellowish colored stone. Syrren got up too to get a closer look of it, his snout nearly touching the glass surface. It was fascinating, he knew that there was just a glass cube, but there the picture of that stone looked nearly as if it was really there, only the shimmering of the lasers reminded him that it was just an illusion and the fact that it was a little bit transparent.

"Is that Phosphate?" He tilted his head slightly. Syrren couldn't figure out how such a stone could be so important. "Doesn't look very spectacular."

"That is exactly what most people said too, but in fact it is even more valuable than oil, since these stones literally feed the world."

The dragon tilted his head to the other side, unsure how Matt meant this. The stone was slowly spinning around his high-axis.

"How that? Isn't this just a stone?"

"Yeah, but we use these stones to make fertilizers, you know that stuff we use to make crops grow bigger. And without them..." he sighed deeply "...the global food production is nearly cut by half."

He brought his left hand to his forehead, covering his eyes and massaging his temples.

The dragon looked at his friend in disbelief. A cut of food by half would mean...a lot of trouble to say in a friendly manner.

"You have to know the people living there wanted nothing more than their independence from Morocco, they first tried it peacefully like the people in Tunisia or Egypt did. But as this had no success, because just like in the other states of the Arab world, they were oppressed with violence, so they started to fight back for their independence. And hell did they fight. It was even worse than the civil war in Libya. Within just one week they conquered all territory that has been occupied by Morocco, although it has never been revealed where all the weapons did come from they were using. And during that fighting they destroyed the factories and facilities that were mining the phosphate."

He sighted deeply, trying to stay calm while talking about this tragic incidents that happened just a few years ago.

"After that war the prices for fertilizers tripled and even quadrupled and and so did prices for food of any kind. And in the same year the monsoon in Asia didn't occur so that caused an immense drought in India and Pakistan. And now there have been millions of people fleeing their homes, mostly along the border of these two countries."

Matt stopped talking for a moment, looking into Syrren's eyes directly.

"You remember, when we have been in the cave, you asked which nations did fight in the war. Well, that have been these two nations. We didn't know who started it but it happened when several hundred-thousands people were fleeing and many of them were escorted by the military of those countries and somehow they started a fight, probably because one group did cross the border without noticing. But we didn't thought it would become that bad."

When Syrren looked at Matt, he could see and also feel that he had really problems talking about that topic. Syrren could see Matt was even shaking a bit and the dragon's sensible ears could hear his heartbeat was way faster than normal.

"On the first day, when the first fights did start, it just seemed like a border skirmish. Like it happened from time to time every few years. On...on the second day, when the first tank and artillery troops were fighting each other over the border, we guessed now that it would be like the Kargil War in 1999, a little bit of fighting and then they would retreat to their pre-war borders. On the third day...it got even worse."

He had to take several deep breaths before he could continue, trying to ignore the upcoming bad feeling in his guts, coming from the memories of that time.

"The third day it was already a full scales war. One of the few Typhoons India had and F16 jets from Pakistan were fighting over the territory of both nations, battles between gunships and tanks were all along the border. From the first day until that time there have already been nearly 50 000 people killed. And on the fourth day..." His voice cracked. He tried again but he wasn't really able to mouth a clear word.

"Matt please, you don't have to continue." The dragon put his left hand one the shoulder of his friend, in an attempt to make him stop.

"No, you have to know what happened back then. There is no use in denying it." He put is right hand on the dragon's hand. The dragon could feel how the human trembled, as well as he could feel so many emotions going through the young man.

"Computer, open file N-1!" Matt said so silently that it was barely audible.

The foil-screen on the other side of the room came to live. It took Syrren some seconds to recognize what the screen was showing. But then he could see that it was showing a view of the earth from outer space, a small sign in one edge showed that it was a footage from the International Space Station, showing the Indian Subcontinent. At first Syrren didn't knew why Matt was showing him this footage.

Suddenly a flash, so bright that it nearly filled the entire screen for a second, broke the continuity of the film it was showing. After a few seconds the flash got darker until it was a spark, breaking through the cloud layers. The spark remained there, but it didn't get any darker, even after it stayed there for half a minute. It got bigger and bigger with every second.

The dragon didn't said anything for nearly an entire minute. Then he turned his head towards the young man at his side, his hand still on the human's shoulder. He could see that Matt's eyes were filled with tears.

"Matt? Was that a...a...?"

"A nuclear bomb? Yes, it was. That was a preemptive strike carried out by the Indian military against a great formation of Pakistani troops in the other side of the border, despite the assurance that India would never use WMDs for preemptive strikes, only if they were attacked with WMDs as well. But still they did it..Computer increase playing rate by 10." Now tears were streaming down Matt's cheek.

Syrren could see now the first spark getting smaller, when all of a sudden another spark lit up, then a few seconds another one. After one minute, the view changed to another satellite, showing India from another angle. The number of explosions has increased even more, more sparks were showing all over the continent.

"What is the meaning of that? Why...why did this happened?" Syrren didn't even close his maw, so stunned was he by the horrific video Matt was showing him.

"Why?! Nobody knows, probably because somebody was overreacting and pressed the red button. "

A hysterical laugh escaped him, more tears flowing down his cheeks.

"Anyhow, when the Indians destroyed an entire Pakistani army, they of course did fight back, launching nuclear missiles too. And then India did strike back again. And after not even two hours both sides had used a great deal of their entire nuclear arsenals, killing an uncountable number of people. All because some idiot pushed a button and started it all."

He was now barely able to control his voice. Syrren's gaze was fixed at the screen, not really believing what he was seeing. Nuclear weapons were one of the most cruel and powerful weapons humans had ever developed. But they have always been a weapon of deterrence, a weapon to be feared, not to be used. That's how at least it has been for all the years since 1949, the first time where two nations did have access to nuclear weapons.

"It was just...horrible, so horrible. When people all over the world realized what was happening, the panic was just...you cannot imagine it. Millions of people where fleeing the cities on every continent, hundreds of million. The chaos that came along with that was tremendous. You have seen the burnt buildings in the city? That all happened during that panic, tens of thousands of people trying to flee the cities and during that panic fires broke all over the place and nobody was there to fight them. They just kept burning."

When Syrren realized his friend was shaking because pure fear and uprising memories, he knew he had to do something. But what? Should he...? He could feel/see that Matt was nearly feeling the same the dragon was feeling back then in the cave when was recovering from his back-flash, although Matt didn't get overwhelmed by his memories - and there Syrren knew what to do.

He leaned towards the young man, embracing him gently, brought around Matt's back while Syrren wrapped his tail around Matt's waist. When he was sure that Matt was okay with what he just did, for some reason also Syrren didn't really knew why, started to purr, his chest vibrating strongly.

'Must be some sort of instinct', Syrren thought.

Matt was surprised what Syrren did, but after some few seconds he leaned into the hug, hugging the dragon too, enjoying the friendly gesture of his friend. With the dragon purring, Matt closed his eyes and and tried to enjoy that wonderful moment. He concentrated only on the vibrations that Syrren was sending through his entire body, giving him a feeling of total protection, hiding out all impressions from outside. But it couldn't totally hide the horrible memories Matt was just going through.

---

(October 2017, just a short times before the tragic incidents that are about to happen)

Michael was just going through his to-do-list while walking through the shelves of the wholesaler he was working for. It was still very early that day, so the it was not very crowded. Only a few customers were walking through the shop, but most were concentrated in the electronic area, where all the big TV-screens were, also a few of that brand-new foil screens, some of them nearly ten square meters big. The people were watching the incidents that have been occurring lately between India and Pakistan.

All of a sudden a young man ran around the corner, stopped and looked around like looking for somebody special. He seemed like he was in a real hurry.

"Hey, young man. Can I help you?" He had to suppress a yawn, while talking, trying to stay as polite and friendly as he could.

The young, red haired man looked at him, an expression on his face like he had just found what he has been looking for. His glasses were slipped down his nose and sweat was running down his temples and cheeks.

"You work here? Good, I need your help right now and I need it quick. I don't have much time." He was panting hard like he had just been running a marathon.

"Sure sir. I try my best to help you. How can I help you, are you looking for something special?"

"Yeah, what is your biggest freezer with the lowest energy consumption?" He was still panting, although not as hard as a few moments ago.

Michael checked his small tablet, typing in the features the young man requested.

"Well, I got this one here. It is our latest model and it uses just about half the amount of energy than a similar one, while having a capacity of nearly 250 liters. I guess that it would fit your requirements just per..."

"Okay, that is just fine. How many of these do you have?"

"How many?" Michael was really surprised by that question, but browsed through the list to look for that.

"Hmm, well we currently have twelve of them here in our store but I don't underst..."

"I take them all."

"What?!" Now Michael was really caught off guard by that comment. He would have never expected something like that.

"You heard me, buddy. I take all twelve off them. Money is not an issue. Just send them all to this address immediately." He tossed a small plastic card to Michael who was barely able to catch it. He looked first at the card then at the young man.

"Erm, sir. I'm sorry but that is not the way that how things work. We have to..."

All of a sudden the man walked close to Michael, closing he distance between them to less than half a meter. He started digging in his shoulder bag for some seconds, then he showed a small, rectangular shaped objects that was wrapped into brown paper and tossed it to Michael.

"Here this is for you if you do what I asked you to do.", he said in a very calm voice, trying not to catch the attention of somebody else.

Michael unwrapped a small part of the object...and nearly got a heart attack. What he was holding in his hands was actually a small piece of gold, with a purity of 999/1000, according to the imprints of the gold bar.

"And you will get another one if you will get me all this here on the list" With that words he handed him a small piece of paper with a list of a great amount of foods. 500 kilograms of flour, the same amount of noodles, a tonne of drinking water in bottles, as well enough frozen food to fill all the freezers he just ordered and and and. Michael couldn't believe it.

"O-okay then. I guess that is really convincing." He typed all he wanted into the tablet PC together with an order to put all the stuff into two small trucks so it could be sent out as soon as it was payed.

"Although I don't understand why are you getting so much of all of this. I mean...that would be enough to survive a war."

When the red-haired man didn't say a word but instead looked at Michael without even blinking, he knew that this was just what he wanted to do.

"You must be kidding me. The war is in India, not here in Europe. Even if it will get any worse how should that effect us?"

Matt shook his head in disbelief. He couldn't believe how ignorant people can be.

"Have you lost your minds? Both of these nations got nuclear weapons, so that should be reason enough. This war that is happening right now is beyond anything that has happened before between these two nations. And don't think that this will stay a regional conflict. China is bordering with them and they have nukes too. I don't think that you will know about that but China has been at war with both nations some decades ago and the wounds still have not healed. This war can spread very fast. First India and Pakistan, then China, from there it could spread to Taiwan which is protected by the United States, so from there it would become a world war really fast. Maybe you should think a little bit about that."

Matt tossed the other gold bar to Michael and turned around, running towards the checkout, leaving a somewhat stunned Michael behind.

'Ts, what and idiot' he thought, turned around. But there was still somehow a small amount of fear left. Was there really a possible that it could get that bad? 'Maybe it would be better to check it in the electronic area.'

---

"Man, come on, the pedal to your right is the accelerator!"

Matt pushed the horn, trying to get the attention of the cars in front of him, pressing the accelerator while having his gears in neutral position. But the only reaction of his car was a bleep of the computer, telling him to stop in order to safe energy. He was still not totally used to his new electric car.

Mat let himself fall back into his seat, angered that he could not express his anger with his car. That was one of the disadvantages of an electric car, you can barely hear it.

In the next moment he remembered all the sensible stuff in the rear part of his car and leaned back on the steering wheel, pressing the horn again.

"Damnit!" he yelled out, angry at himself for being so careless. He had paid nearly 25 000 Euro on bribes to a pharmacy, so they would get him several cartons of long-lasting antibiotics. They would be worth their weight in gold, that was for sure. Together with some other stuff he would probably need soon, they filled nearly his entire station wagon. His entire trunk was filled too, but not with antibiotics or other stuff, but with gold coins. He had used nearly all the money he had won a few years ago in the lottery where he had won about 70 million Euro in the Euro-Million lottery and bought silver, gold, and even a few hundred platinum coins. Matt was sure that he had bought nearly the entire reserve of the precious metals of the local branch office of the national bank. Most of it was brought to his house with an armored car, while he was using all his credit cards to their maximum together with a great number of small gold bars and a great amount of silver coins to bribe people if necessary.

He had always been law-abiding, never had a speeding ticket, never tried any sort of drugs. The people Matt knew had asked him why he was following the laws so strictly and he was always telling them that it felt wrong to him if he would do so. Which didn't mean for example that when he was doing his tax return that he wouldn't try to find a loophole, he just wasn't doing it till excess, like everybody else was doing it. Although he knew that surely a great deal would disappear in some black holes in the politician's pocket, he still felt bad about it, he simply couldn't help it.

But now everything was different. He had paid several ten-thousand Euros within the last hour in bribes and he didn't feel bad for it, He just wanted to get everything necessary that he and his family and everybody that was close to him would survive.

The sudden buzzing of his cell-phone let Matt wince, pressing the horn for the third time now. Matt was still using a normal cell-phone and not one of these unreliable things that people gave the name 'Bone-Crusher'. A wrong move with your jaw and you could turn it off. Matt looked at the small display on top of his phone and was glad what he was reading. He flipped it open.

"Mom, are you okay? Is everything alright? Where are you?"

"Matt, don't worry my dear, we are fine. We are at your place, just as you said we should do. But where are you? There has been an armored vehicle that brought a lot of steel boxes to your house. What is going on?"

"Mom, I don't have enough time to explain it now, but just stay calm. Get Jake and Dad, and the Huntington family, and stay inside the house. We..."

All of a sudden the connection was cute off. No bleeping, no interference, it was simply gone from one moment to the other. Matt looked at his phone and tried to figure out what was going on. Instead of reading the label of the cell-phone company he read 'News Blackout'.

A news blackout? Why in gods name would the government cut off all cell-phone activity?

Matt was still looking confused at his cell-phone that was not working anymore, when suddenly one of the few foil-screens, that had been installed in the last months on several buildings all over the city, changed to another channel. While most times it was showing news channels and stuff, now it was showing a simple word moving from the right side to the left, a simple long beep sounding through the streets. Matt lowered his side-window, moving his head outside to see what was going on.

Now he could see that that the foil screen was showing the word 'Emergency'. Matt was hoping that it was not because of what he was hurrying the last hours so much.

'Please let it just be a stupid coincidence. Please let it all be a great, stupid coincidence and all the stuff I've just bought and all the money I've bribed was totally senseless.'

All of a sudden the screen changed to a totally different view. The word 'live' in the corner of the screen made it even worse. The image the screen was showing was dancing around like the person that was carrying the camera didn't really knew where to point at. But then it focused at one point and zoomed to a cloud that was growing at the horizon. A large orange-red-brownish, mushroom shaped cloud, raising higher and higher into the sky. Then all of a sudden the screen returned to its former state, just showing the word 'Emergency'. Maybe it had just been an accident that these pics have been broadcasted, nevertheless - they were out now.

All people on the streets stopped at once, the honking of the cars, the scared chattering of the people on the sidewalks, all just got quiet. There was no sound, only the long stretched bleep of the emergency broadcast.

Then without warning the air-raid-sirens began to howl. Matt didn't even knew that they have been active until today. But it would make sense to keep the siren network in the same shape like during the first cold war in the twentieth century. For about five seconds nothing happened. The people were just staring into the sky, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from, not showing no sign of any emotion.

Suddenly Matt heard the sound of spinning tires for half a second, then his car shook like it had been hit by something. Mat hit the window frame with his neck because of the bump. He was disorientated for a second, before he realized that the man in the car behind him had pressed the accelerator without thinking, crashing into the rear of Matt's car.

The sound of the spinning tires and the crash somehow triggered a button within the people's mind all around them. The pedestrian run away screaming like somebody was strangling them, while other car-drivers behind and before Matt tried to drive away as well but without more success than the first driver.

Matt knew this situation. He had been in a mass panic during a soccer match one time and knew how people react to this. If he wouldn't stay sane now, he could get killed. Matt concentrated for a second, his eyes closed, trying to find something he could focus on. It didn't even take him this second to know what to do - to get home safely as fast as possible and protect his family.

Matt spun the steering wheel around, so he wouldn't hit the car in front of him like the other car-drivers did, when they accelerated without thinking. He pushed the accelerator to the full, the electric engines pushing the car forward with such force that Matt was pressed into the chair.

When Matt veered out of the queue, he was barely able to avoid another car, then he accelerated and drove across the crossing, while the traffic lights were still red. He overtook a a jeep, who tried to do the same, way slower because of his combustion machine.

While Matt was able to drive over the crossing without any problem, the jeep was not so lucky. Matt could see how in his rear-view mirror, how a truck crashed into the side of the jeep, sending glass and metal splinters over the crossing. Matt thought for a second about stopping and trying to help the drivers of the cars. But he decided against it, despite the horrible feeling in his guts. He could already see other cars trying to drive over the crossing, some people getting out of the cars. Within the next minutes all the streets would be in total chaos.

Matt pressed the accelerator till the hilt, trying to get home as fast as possible. He wanted to help his family as quickly as possible. He hoped that nothing has happened to them yet, like looters trying to get into his house.

'No, don't think such stupid things.' Matt told himself. He shook his head and concentrated on the road.

Matt had to break hard because of the truck that was standing in his driveway. He had been so fast that he had nearly overseen it the big car. His breaking maneuver sent the small pebbles of the driveway into every direction.

When Matt calmed down and drove his car around the truck towards his garage, he could see that it was the truck of the wholesaler, his rear opened and a great deal of the stuff he bought was scattered along the way to his house.

'Jeeeez, where is the driver?' Matt thought. He stopped his car and got out of it, his mother already coming towards him.

"Matthew. Hun, are you alright? What happened? This truck...they came just about 15 minutes ago but when the siren started to howl, they got into the other truck they have already unloaded and got off. What's happening? None of the electronics in your house are responding to us, we don't know why the sirens started."

"Mom, please. Let's get inside the house." He hasted to his house, feeling guilty that he did not program the electronics of his house that way that his family could use them too. He had to change that soon.

When they got into the the living room, his father and his younger brother as well as the Huntington family, parents and their both children, a four years old son, and her daughter of just six months.

Nobody did say a word when Matt did activate the foil-screen and they immediately saw a mushroom-cloud in the distance of the footage, right behind the Taj Mahal.

All of a sudden the baby started crying as if it knew something terrible was happening and Sarah, her mother, couldn't do anything to stop her from crying.

"So, that's it? Is this really the end?" Jake asked, but nobody answered immediately. Everybody was just looking at the screen. "Matt, tell us. You are the information geek here. Do you know how bad it really is?"

Matt sighed deeply, trying to collect his thoughts as well as as the few information he got over the internet. He skipped through various news pages, but there were barely any new information than anything they already knew. Everybody in the room was watching him silently but also somehow amazed of how he was doing it, with nothing more than his hands, several meters in front of the screen, just like Tom Cruise in 'Minority Report'.

"Crap there is anything new. Only that India launched an preemptive strike against Pakistan and they attacked back. But since than nothing new, but that is not really surprising. Nearly all big news agencies moved their servers to India because it is or better said was cheaper there. And now the entire global news network is destroyed. God damnit."

He sat down, holding his head that feels like it would explode any moment. All the information that so many people were dying in this moment right now was just too much for Matt.

"So...how worse can it get? I mean...how many nuclear missiles do they have?" George Huntington asked. He was not really that well informed about international political, economic or military issues, but that was okay for him. He only wanted to protect his family and stay happy. He could never really understand how Matt was so eager all the time to look for any information he found on the internet.

"Both...of them have about 300 nuclear warheads, both nuclear and thermonuclear. They don't have ICBMs that can reach Europe but I fear that the conflict could spread to China and from there to Russia and America and from there to Europe. But maybe only half the Indian and Pakistani population will die and the rest of the world is safe, I don't know, for god's sake. I'm not a fortune teller, I am just some normal stupid guy trying to survive." he yelled. Now even the four year old son of the Huntington's started to cry, sobbing while clear tears began to flow down his cheeks.

Matt fell into a big whole that was even bigger than when he got the information about the nuclear attack. These attacks where far away, but now he was here at his home, scaring the younger generation with information they were barely able to understand. He felt just horrible now.

He was glad when Sarah together with his mother brought both children into the kitchen after asking if Thomas, the four year old boy, want a hot chocolate. Luckily he was glad to get one and get something that distracted him from the shouting adults.

While the women together with the kids where in the kitchen, Matt and his brother Jake, his father and Marcus (the father of the Huntington kids) got outside and continued to unload the truck. They were all really surprised how much Matt has bought. The deliverers had already brought all the freezers into Matt house but had just unloaded the truck with the food by only twenty-five percent. So they hurried before the frozen stuff would unfreeze.

It took them nearly two hours before the truck was totally unloaded and all freezers where in Matts cellar. His entire family together with the Huntington family got nearly a shock when Matt opened the steel boxes and showed them his reserves he just bought, just in case that normal money would get useless.

They spent the rest of the day with nothing more than waiting and eating now and then. Despite all the things that have happened until then, they didn't knew about how fast the war between India and Pakistan would end. But they also had no idea of the seventeen minutes war, the Chinese assault on central Russia, the Euro-Russian war, the Second Russian revolution, the first Chinese revolution, the global unification in so many things like in the military or the economic branches, all these events that would occur within the next months where still unknown to them, they were so unimaginable to them that nobody would have thought about them to happen. But until that would happen they would live in permanent fear for months.

---

Syrren was still holding Matt even when the film first was already finished for nearly ten minutes, but it was still showing another film, already some time after the first nuclear strikes with the mushroom clouds still visible.

Matt listened to the noise of Syrren's strong heartbeat. It gave him the strength to continue. There was so much he had to tell Syrren what happened, so much horrible things that cannot be ignored.

Matt leaned his head on the Syrren's took a deep breath, taking in the dragon's scent. Since he was not a mammal, he didn't have any sweat glands or any sebaceous glands, so his scent was not that intensive as for example Toby's scent. But still, there was a scent of the reptile that was holding him, one wing wrapped around his back and his tail around Matt's waist. It was deep and rich, with a delicate note Matt was not able to describe.

But when Matt realized how close he had got to his dragon friend and that is pants were already getting a little bit tighter, he stopped loosening his hug a little bit and getting up, just that fast that Syrren wouldn't suspect anything.

"Syrren, thanks. Just thanks for being here at my side. These...memories are sometimes really hard to go through." Matt sighed, still having the scent of the dragon in his nose. 'Damnit I let myself go way too far. Hope he didn't notice' Matth thought.

"Okay, I...I guess I can go on. It was just...well, you know, overwhelming. But I think I can do it now without breaking down."

Matt took another deep breath, trying to focus and what happened next and to suppress the horrible feelings of that memories he gained during that time.

"Okay, where was I? Yeah, the Indian-Pakistani war. Well, what should I say more...it was one of the most destructive wars we have ever experienced."

Syrren's jade colored eyes looked at the foil-screen again, monitoring the scene. He could see at least 50 nuclear blast sites. He was shocked to see so many of them. But there was one thing that bothered him. He thought about the scenes he had seen before. He knew there was something wrong but he couldn't say what it was.

"Matt...can you rewind the film? There is something I have to see. I don't know exactly what it is, but...well. I just want to make sure."

Matt didn't say a word but did as his friend asked him to do so. Matt stopped the film when it was just after the first few strikes showing already some blasts.

"Stop." The computer reacted to the command instantly, halting the film.

Yes there it was. That scene Syrren had seen only for an instant and that he didn't understand.

"Matt, what's that?" He pointed at one certain point on the screen.

"What do you mean?" Matt looked at the foil, wondering what the dragon was pointing at. He could only see the horrible site of a nuclear blast where once Karachi has been. "I don't know what there is so remarkable about it."

That statement surprised the dragon.

"But this...this beam. Can't you see this beam of blue light that is cutting the screen into two halves?" He pointed at a certain in the middle of the screen.

Matt didn't know what the dragon meant. He couldn't see anything unusual, except for the mushroom cloud.

"Can I show you what I see?" Syrren asked. Matt thought about it for only a short moment, then he nodded.

When Matt felt the pressure on his brain, it took only a few moments of milk-glas-view before he saw through the eyes of the dragon.

What he saw would have made him gasp in surprise. When he had seen through Syrren's eyes the first time, it was during the night, so there were not much colors he could see but now...the colors looked so much more powerful, so more...he didn't know how to describe it. He could see so much more patterns, the yellow wall that his foil-screen was hanging on, was now showing a complicated pattern of different shades of yellow, obviously a result of his attempt to paint the wall in an evenly way.

But the remarkable thing he could see, was the bright beam of blue light that did cut the screen nearly in two halves. It was pointing into part somewhere in the middle of the Indian subcontinent.

Matt didn't have any sort of control over Syrren's eye movement, but he could see himself standing somewhere in the periphery of the dragon's eye-sight. But maybe it was better that way. It would be pretty awkward to see oneself through the eyes of somebody else.

When Matt had gained the control of his own body, it took him a few seconds to regain total control. It was still an amazing experience, being able to look through the eyes of somebody else. It was beyond anything he could have every imagined.

"Wow, that was just...wow. You are able to see the lasers from the PODSS. I don't believe it."

The dragon blinked a few times, again these damn shortening. "Podss? What does that mean? Why cannot humans just say straight what they mean?"

Matt snickered about that comment for a moment. "I don't know why, maybe humans are even that lazy today that they don't want to talk in full words anymore. But anyway...the P O D S S is the reason that not even more people died in the war between India and Pakistan." He looked at the screen again. He was still wondering how the dragon was able to see the Ultraviolet rays on a normal screen. They were a by-product of the defense-lasers, when it passes through the atmosphere. But he would wonder about that later. He shook his head. His draconic friend never stops to amaze him.

"P O D S S stands for 'Planet-wide Orbital Defensive Satellite System'. But most people just call it 'the system'. I guess the people from the eighties would have called it 'Star Wars program'."

The dragon's eyes widened in surprise. He had read of the such a system, but in an article that was nearly forty years old.

"You...you built the SDI system? But...how? And who?"

Now it was Matt's turn to be surprised. He was really astonished that his friend knew about something that happened nearly forty years ago. He knew that many humans didn't know about that idea anymore, although the current system based on the idea of Ronald Reagan.

"Yeah, it is pretty much like the idea from the eighties. The greatest difference was that it is not a system built by the United States. Instead it was built by the European Union, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Africa and Brazil. All these nations decided in the 2017, just a few weeks after the start of the Second Cold war to start with that program. You have to know that the United States, Russia and China have become pretty paranoid, so many nations that had been at risk of becoming a battlefield in the first cold war, thought that this could happen now, mostly Germany but also a lot of nations in eastern Europe and Asia. They didn't want their cities to end in a nuclear craters. They were so afraid that one of these nations would start a nuclear war that they decided to built the system to prevent every launch of nuclear missiles."

"Even France and the United Kingdom? I mean,...didn't they have nuclear weapons too?"

Matt who had already prepared himself for another difficult explanation, of how the MAD concept works and which nations would be involved in it, was again taken by surprise. It seems that Syrren truly has sucked up all the info of human history.

"Yeah, as it was later revealed, there were quite a lot of politicians and also military guys that were against the system, since it would render their own nuclear arsenals useless. But in the end of the secret negotiations they gave in to the wishes or orders or what-ever you may call it, from the other non-nuclear powers. They said it would make no sense to have nuclear weapons if the US and Russia would destroy the entire world. So in the end they gave in and accepted that their own nukes would be useless when the system was finished."

Matt got up and started walking around, trying to get rid of all the tensions, shaking his arms and legs. All the sitting around and the talking about all the horrible experiences of the past have caused his legs getting all stiff. He had to get rid of that feeling, and prepare himself for all other stuff he wanted to tell his draconic friend.

"You see, the system could be created that fast because every nation did bring something unique and necessary into the project, different to the SDI-project, where the US tried to build it on their own. France built the Ariane 6, the heavy rocket that would launch the satellites. They also founded a lot of dummy firms, so they could pretend that the rocket would launch normal satellites of these 'firms', while other nations brought other technologies. In the end the system was not even completed when the war started but they were able to shoot down all missiles.'

He lowered his head, a clear sign that this was not everything he wanted to say. Syrren watched Matt for another few seconds, letting him call down again. He would wait until his human friend would be able to continue.

"Unfortunately that was only about half of their nuclear arsenals, the other half were simple bombs that were dropped from bombers and fighter-planes or cruise missiles. The system was not built to shoot them down, so there were still horrible losses. But in the end that was not what the war ended, but the threat of being eliminated by their allies."

"What...what do you mean?" The dragon was now even more surprised. It was still difficult for him to figure out how humans were thinking.

"You have to know the PODSS can be turned off if all nations that participated in building it agree to that unanimously. And they did, they did deactivate the PODSS and the big five, the US, Russia, China, the UK and France threatened both India and Pakistan to destroy them with their own nukes. They didn't say what they would destroy, but when both nations did not respond they...they started nuclear missiles. All of them, except for France and the UK who launched them from submarines, started a single ICBM with a low-yield nuke towards both nations and exploded them at a height of ten kilometer a few hundred miles out to the sea."

"Wait...I don't get it. They...tried to prevent a further nuclear exchange...with nuclear weapons?"

The dragon shook his maw, that sounded just too crazy

"Actually yes. But it worked. When they really got into the war, they had only eyes for the other one. So somebody had to pull them out from their state. The leaders of the two nations were nearly in a hypnotized state, with only one goal ? destroy the other side. So we needed something really big and really shocking to pull them out of this state, and a nuclear explosion was definitely a big shock, especially when it is launched from your ally. It didn't even take 15 minutes that both sides, which was just the surviving members of the military and politics, to agree to a cease fire. But believe it or not...the next war was already knocking on the door."

The dragon's wings twitched at the notion of another war. He had already seen so much footage of war scenes, he didn't really know if he wanted to see another one, or even more.

"You know I don't like to talk about that shit either. But it's...when the PODSS's existence was revealed you cannot imagine how pissed off the Americans were. They were like 'YOU BUILT ALL THIS STUFF BEHIND OUR BACK, AFTER ALL THE YEARS WE PROTECTED YOU AND EVERYTHING ELSE WE DID...' and other blablabla. They were so pissed off, and simply didn't want to accept that they were part of the problem, that is why nobody did tell them about it. And they were so busy with watching Russia and China they didn't not notice it that other nations were putting laser-satellites into orbit, which was our luck."

He shook his head covering his eyes for a second.

"Well, what they demanded was access to ten of the satellites, they could control on their own, which was nearly half of the entire system."

"And...I guess they did not agree to that."

"Yeah, you can say they were not really happy about that reaction. Since the satellites were built to prevent any launch of nuclear weapons, the US would have reprogrammed them for they own use. That is at least what they would have liked to do. But even if they would have get a hold on some satellites, it would have been useless, since all of them are equipped with a system that would destroy them if they would for example be aimed at a target like a city or so."

"But...I still don't understand how would that start a war, since it is only meant for defensive measures?"

Matt didn't reply anything, but instead opened another file with a vocal order.

Syrren was surprised to see a something that looked like a live-footage from Sky-News from Berlin, at least that was what the date was telling. It was about one week after the nuclear war and the broadcaster was standing in front of the Reichstag building, talking about negotiations between the US and the nations that were participating in the PODSS.

<< TODAY THE LAST NEGOTIATIONS HERE IN BERLIN BETWEEN THE US AND THE MEMBERS OF THE SO CALLED P.O.D.S.S. HAVE FAILED. TENSIONS BETWEEN THE TWO PARTIES HAVE BEEN RISING NEARLY EVERYDAY, DESPITE THE ASSURANCE OF THE PODSS MEMBERS THAT THESE SATELLITES ARE NOT MADE FOR TARGETING OTHER OBJECTS THAN NUCLEAR MISSILES. MEANWHILE THE PEOPLE WITHIN THE US ARE DIVIDED ON HOW TO REGARD THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY, ONE HALF OF SAYS IT IS A GOOD THING THAT IS WAS CREATED BECAUSE IT SAFED THE LIVES OF NUMEROUS PEOPLE IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN, WHILE THE OTHER HALF SAYS THAT SINCE THE US HAS PROTECTED NEARLY ALL THESE STATES DURING THE FIRST COLD WAR, THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE LEFT THE US OUT AND BUILT IT BEHIND THEIR BACK, NOT MENTIONING THAT IT ALSO GROUNDS AMERICAN ICBMS. SURPRISINGLY NEITHER MOSCOW NOR BEIJING HAS COMMENTED ON THAT SUBJECT YET. NEVERTHELESS, LATEST SATELLITE PICTURES ARE SHOWING THAT ALL THREE SUPER-POWERS ARE READYING THEIR ARMED FORCES. ON THE OTHER HAND, ALL OVER THE WORLD, PEOPLE HAVE GATHERED AROUND AMERICAN MILITARY BASES, DEMANDING THE IMMIDEATE WITHDRAWAL OF ALL US-AMERICANAN FORCES FROM THEIR COUNTRIES. SINCE THEY BLAME THE USA FOR FUELING THE CONFLICT BETWEEN PAKISTAN AND INDIA, THUS BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS WAR WITH ALL ITS CASUALTIES TOO. MORE AND MORE PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD ARE EVEN DEMANDING SEVERE SANCTIONS AGAINST THE US, TO FORCE THEM TO DISARM. WE CAN ONLY HOPE THAT THIS SITUATION CAN BE SOLVED WITHOUT ANYMORE FORCE. I AM LINDA CLINTON, LIVE FROM BER...>>

The woman was interrupted by a sudden boom, an enormous explosion cloud showing up right behind the Reichstag building. Both the reporter and the camera-man winced, both kneeling down on the ground. It took them both a few moments to realize what just happened, the camera man aligning the camera to the black and orange cloud rising into the afternoon sky of Berlin.

<< JIM, WHAT WAS THAT?>> The reporter's face just showed total surprise, having no idea what just happened.

Suddenly there was the noise of numerous police sirens approaching. The camera-man was barely able to turn to the left when suddenly over a dozen police-cars appeared from all sides, nearly all of them panel vans. With them were several APCs together with some of two wheel tanks with AA-guns, Syrren assumed. Although the dragon was still having problems of understanding how humans react to certain things, it was obvious that something major had happened, if such a great number of military vehicles were appearing right here in front of the German Parliament.

All of a sudden all Air-Raid Sirens of Berlin started to howl, while dozens of people were pouring out of the government buildings of the quarter, escorted by soldiers of the Bundeswehr, leading them to the APCs as quickly as possible. Pedestrians were also running towards the next entry of public subway stations, obviously awaiting an air-attack.

The reporter and the camera-man didn't know what was happening, they did hear a warning broadcasted over the loud-speakers of the police cars, but couldn't understand them.

A German soldier in full body armor, together with all his weapons, carrying a heavy MG on his back, walked towards the two reporters, shouting some harsh orders at the two reporters so fast that they couldn't really understand it.

For some reason Syrren had to snicker at that sight, it was nearly comical.

After some seconds the soldier realized that the two were reporters from Sky News, and obviously couldn't understand the soldier, so he switched to English.

<< MAAM, SIR, I HAVE TO ASK YOU TO LEAVE THE AREA IMMEDIATELY. WE HAVE A SITUATION, AND WE NEED TO SECURE THE AREA HERE.>>

<< WHAT? NO, SOLDIER WE WILL NOT LEAVE HERE. I AM FROM THE PRESS AND I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE RIGHT NOW. OR ARE YOU GONNA ARREST US, IF WE REFUSE TO FOLLOW YOUR ORDERS?>> She crossed her arms in front of her chest, giving the soldier a really confident look.

<< YES, I WILL. WE JUST HAVE INTRODUCED MARTIAL LAW IN THE ENTIRE REPUBLIC. SO I WILL NOT REPEAT MY ORDER. NOW TURN THAT CAMERA OFF AND HEAD TO THE NEXT SUBWAY STATION OR PUBLIC AIR-RAID-SHELTER, WE JUST OPENED. WE...>>

Out of nowhere a sudden sonic boom shook the entire area, windows clattering and even a car nearby was shaking, . Everybody near them was looking upwards, seeing three Typhoon jet-fighters making tight turns, trying to get behind two other Fighter-jets, which just ejected two rows of flares.

<< WHAT IN GODS NAME...?>> The camera-man said, trying to focus on the air-fight.

<< SEE? NOW MOVE YOUR ASS, BEFORE THEY CHOOSE US AS A TARGET!!!>> The soldier yelled at the two, not noticing that the camera was still on.

<< WHO WILL TARGET US?>>The three of them were now stumbling backwards, still watching the air-battle above them, more flares raining down.

The soldier now finally lost his temper. <<THE AMERICANS, FOR GODS SAKE. THE USA HAVE STARTED A CONTINENT WIDE ATTACK. SO IF YOU DON'T WANT TO JOIN THE PEOPLE THAT ALREADY DIED, KEEP RUNNING!!!>>

When the soldier mentioned that the attackers were American, Syrren's maw just dropped. He looked at Matt somewhat surprised. He still didn't get it how humans were doing this politic stuff and all. But he knew that Europe and the US have been allies for decades that they would suddenly become enemies all of a sudden...Syrren couldn't really believe or even understand what happened back then.

He looked back at the foil-screen, watching the camera shacking up and down, indicating that the camera-man was running backwards, still trying to focus on the battle above them. Suddenly a missile, launched from one of the Typhoon's, hit one of the other planes, scattering pieces of glass and metal over Berlin. Syrren shuddered at the sight of the missile, knowing that some time ago it could have been him, that he would be hit by a missile too, when he and Matt tried to escape that surveillance plane.

The camera-man let his camera fall down, rolling around until the Reichstag building was in halfway in sight, people running away, while the air-raid-sirens were still howling. The AA-guns of the Boxer GTK APCs were hammering, shooting at the remaining aircraft above them. Then suddenly the hissing zip of a bomb drawing nearer and nearer. Without warning the left side of the Reichstag building exploded, shattering the world famous glass dome into million pieces and scattering debris all around the place, one hitting the camera and interrupting the connection, now only showing the snowy noise pattern.

Syrren was shocked. That was the only way he could describe his own condition. Now that he had read so much about humans, of how they have been working on relationships between this weird entity humans call nation.

He looked at Matt expecting some sort of reaction. He could feel/see that Matt had difficulties to suppress several emotions He didn't like to watch it, Syrren could tell easily. But Matt didn't say anything he just pointed at the screen again, so he looked at it again.

The film has continued, now showing a group of dark clothed people walking through along a forest route, it seems. They were whispering only now and then, and that so quiet, even Syrren's skilled ears couldn't understand what they were talking about.

After a minute or so, the group came to a small ridge and climbed upwards. When they were on top of it, the screen was showing some sort of village, but Syrren wasn't sure.

<< RAMSTEIN AIR BASE. WE FINALLY MADE IT, AND EVEN WITHOUT ANYONE NOTICING US. OKAY, EVERYBODY. NOW LET'S GET MOVING. LET'S SHOW THESE AMERICAN BASTARDS WHY WE ARE HERE.>>

Syrren somehow expected now that these people would start some sort of attack or anything like this. But instead they started assembling protest signs made out of fabric. Some were showing slogans like 'Ami go home' and others some more insulting slogans. Another one was showing the American flag upside-down but the stars were replaced with little swastikas.

All of a sudden a glare lit up the screen, the person that was holding the camera swung around, pointing at the source of the light. It was a Humvee, a searchlight on its top pointing at the group of people.

<< HEY, YOU THERE. WHO ARE YOU? THIS IS A RESTRICTED AREA. HANDS UP AND IDENTIFY YOURSELF!>>

The soldier who gave that command pointed his assault rifle at the group for a few seconds, but then he realized it were not terrorists but instead angered civilians, so he hung he assault rifle over his shoulder again.

<< HEY MAN, THAT AIN'T NO TERRORISTS. JUST SOME PROTESTERS AGAIN. WHO IS WATCHING THE PROTECTIVE FENCE ANYWAY? THAT'S THE SIXTH TIME IN JUST THREE DAYS. >>

When the soldier gave the protesters the order to follow him, they just started shouting at the soldier, yelling at him anti-American slogans and other really insulting stuff.

<< HEY, IF YOU DON'T FOLLOW MY ORDER RIGHT NOW, WE WILL USE SONIC WEAPONS AND DRAG YOU OUT HERE. YOU HERE ME?>>

Despite the imminent thread of being attacked, the protesters yelled even louder at the soldiers in the Humvee, some even throwing stones at them.

Out of nowhere an obvious ear-piercing sound let everybody break down, the camera-man letting the camera fell down, rolling around, showing all the civilians lying on the ground and pressing their hands on their ears in an futile attempt to shut the horrible noise out.

Although the sound was damped through the TV, for Syrren's sensible ears it was still anything else but pleasant.

After a few more seconds the sound stopped, the soldiers stepping closer. One of the protesters weakly tried to grab the camera. He only succeeded after a few more attempts, still weakened from the sonic attack. When he was able to grab the camera he was still lying on his back, pointing the camera at the soldier, the base with the long runway behind him.

<< YOU...YOU BASTARDS. NOW YOU ARE SHOWING YOUR REAL FACE. FIRST SUPPORTING...*he groans because of the pain in his ears*...THE PAKISTANI IN THEIR WAR EFFORTS AND NOW...EVEN TRYING TO FORCE YOUR ALLIES INTO SUBMISSION? YOU AND YOUR COUNTRYMEN ARE JUST...BLOOD-THIRSTY...PIGS. JUST GO ALL TO HELL WHERE YOU COME FROM.>>

He didn't even finished the last word, when all of a sudden the entire runway exploded, several plumes of fire erupting in the air. The soldier turned on the spot, aiming his rifle at the source of the explosions. The other protesters saw it too, getting up slowly, both because they were still weakened of the sonic attack, but also because the surprise and fear of that explosions.

<< JESUS MOTHERFUCKING CHRIST, WHAT IN GODS NAME...?>>

The plumes of the explosions were fading away, the soldiers as well as the protesters watching in horror what just happened.

Syrren was just as surprised as the people on the screen. The situation back then seemed to have become worse and worse each day, so it was no wonder Matt didn't want to speak about it.

The soldier totally seemed to have forget of the protesters, grabbing his walkie-talkie.

<< HQ, WHAT WAS THAT? HQ, DO YOU READ ME?>>

But instead of a response there was only static noises. The soldier's breath was going heavier by each second, he obviously didn't know what to do. For Syrren it seemed that soldiers without somebody to give them orders where extremely dangerous. That seemed to be true back then with this soldier. The soldier took his rifle again, turned around and aimed at the protesters. Some of them started to yell at them but most of them took several steps back, obviously now much more frightened than before.

But before the soldier could open fire at them, another soldier from the Humvee ran to the first soldier and prevented a possible massacre.

<< DUDE, ARE YOU CRAZY, STARTING A MASSACRE, WHAT ARE YOU, A GOD-DAMN FASCIST? LET'S HEAD BACK TO THE BASE AND FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED. SHOULD SOMEBODY ELSE TAKE CARE OF THESE PROTESTERS.>>

The soldier grunted, angry but also frightened. What would he do next? But before he could lower his rifle another sound overpowered every other noise, like an airplane was flying at extremely low altitude.

<< TAURUS!>> One of the soldier yelled out, pointing towards the sky.

The guy holding the camera pointed into the direction where the soldier pointed to and what he saw made him gasp in surprise.

The European attempt to create a pendant of the Tomahawk cruise missile had led the Americans to call this 'Storm Shadow' and Taurus' missiles 'flying desk', because of their square edges. As a payback the Europeans started to call the Tomahawks flying salamis. But these things in the skies were no flying salamis, but flying desks.

Syrren could count at least seven or eight of them, flying in formation towards the base. The camera man followed them slowly, holding them in the center of the screen. Suddenly the missiles dissolved the formation and started to head downwards. Only a few seconds later several hangars on the base and other buildings went up in flames.

If the soldier had been frightened before, he was now totally horrified.

The camera started to vibrate, like a giant truck was approaching and shaking the ground. Syrren could nearly feel it, because the screen was so big that it filled a great deal of his vision.

Again the camera man turned around, just in the right moment to capture a Leopard 2 tank breaking through the bushes, a soldier standing inside the hatch, looking around with some binoculars. Then he noticed the group of protesters and the four American soldiers with their Humvee.

<< ENEMY, THREE O'CLOCK, READYING E-ROCK!>>

Just three seconds later the tank shot into the direction of the Americans, a rocket flying out of the main gun, hitting the Humvee directly. It all happened too fast that anybody had been able to react. All of them were just standing still, except for the soldier inside the Humvee, who was trying to start its engine. But it was in vain, the small rocket had clearly hit the car. It did not explode, but it was sending small blue sparks all around, obviously it has damaged the engine.

Another tank approached, a model Syrren was not able to identify, but he could see some words on the tank - Armée de Terre. So it had to be a French tank. It aimed at the frightened soldiers.

<< HANDS UP AND NO MOVEMENT!>> a soldier yelled through a loudspeaker in broken English with a strong accent.

The camera-man and the other protesters were suddenly surrounded by other soldiers that pushed them into a third tank that was standing behind the Leo 2.

When all of the protesters where inside the tank, another soldier slammed at the side of the tank twice with his fist to signalizes that they were ready. The hatch began to close slowly. The camera-man tried to get a clear picture of what was going outside before the hatch was closed, but he could only see a formation of the same helicopter that had chased Syrren during his last flight, and Matt had been afraid of.

<< JEEZ, YOU FOLKS ARE PRETTY LUCKY THAT WE'VE BEEN HERE TO SAFE YOUR BUTTS. A FEW MINUTES LATER AND WHAT WOULG BE LEFT OF YOU COULD HAVE FITTED IN MATCHBOX.>> The soldier's accent was not as strong as the other ones but still recognizable.

<< WHAT'S GOING ON? WHY DID YOU ATTACK THEM?>> a woman yelled out. She was still holding a small piece of fabric with a peace sign on it.

<< WE DID NOT ATTACK FIRST, IT WAS THE AMERICANS THAT STARTED IT ALL. JUST ABOUT...>> he looked at his watch <<...ABOUT SIX MINUTES AGO THE AMERICANS STARTED ATTACKING LONDON, PARIS, BRUSSELS, STOCKHOLM, HELSINKI, BERLIN, WARSAW, MADRID AND ROME AS WELL AS VANCOUVER AND TORONTO, BUT WE LOST CONTACT WITH CANADA ABOUT TWO MINUTES AGO, BUT THE LAST THING WE HEARD OF IS THAT SEVERAL MEMBER OF THEIR PARLIAMENT WITH THEIR PRIME MINISTER IS FLEEING RIGHT NOW TO ICELAND. I ALSO WATCHED A LIVE-TV BROADCAST AND THEY SAID THAT AN ENTIRE TANK-BATTALION NEARLY LEVELED THE CITY OF LONDON NEAR TORONTO. I GUESS THEY SHOULD BE RIGHT NOW IN THE CENTER OF TORONTO. SEEMS LIKE WE LOST CANADA.>>

The protesters did say nothing. They just stared in disbelieve at the soldiers, trying to process what he just said. Syrren tried as well to gather his thoughts. That was so much information at once it was hard to handle.

<< WE ALREADY SUSPECTED THAT THIS WOULD HAPPEN, THAT IS WHY WE HAVE BEEN SO FAST WITH THE COUNTER-ATTACKS. BUT STILL, MORE THAN TWO-HUNDRED TOMAHAWKS HAVE HIT IMPORTANT PLACES ALL OVER EUROPE, TOGETHER WITH AIR-BORNE ATTACKS. IN PARIS. A FIGHTER JET DROPPED SEVERAL CLUSTER BOMBS TOGETHER WITH SOME FIVE-HUNDRED POUND BOMBS ON THE CITY. ONE OF THEM HIT THE EIFEL TOWER. IT...THE TOWER COLLAPSED, THERE IS NO MORE AN EIFEL TOWER, AS WELL AS THE REICHSTAG. THEY HAVE DESTROYED ALL OUR GOVERNING CENTERS TOGETHER WITH OUR MILITARY HEADQUARTERS.>>

<< BUT WHY WOULD THEY DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT, SO ALL OF A SUDDEN?>> a young man asked, obviously confused. They same question has been in Syrren's mind for some time now.

<< I DON'T KNOW BUT OUR CORPORAL THINKS THEY PROBABLY TRIED TO DESTROY OUR COMMAND POSTS OF THE PODSS. HE SAID THAT THE YANKS LAUNCHED NOUMEROUS ANTI-SATELLITE MISSILES BUT THEY WERE SHOT DOWN PRETTY EASILY.>>

<< SO THE COMMAND POSTS ARE NOT IN THE DEFENSE-MINISTRIES?>> the camera-man asked, trying to hold the camera still while they drove through the forest, the tank shaking up and down.

<< OF COURSE NOT, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN TOO OBVIOUS. NO, EACH COUNTRY IS HIDING THEIR OWN COMMAND POST SOMEWHERE ELSE, THE FRENCH AT A DIFFERENT PLACE AS THE POLES. WE DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE THEY ARE, JUST TO BE SAFE.>>

<< BUT THE AMERICANS...THEY WILL SURELY RESPOND IF YOU CONQUER THEIR BASES? WHAT IF THEY LAUNCH NUCLEAR MISSILES, TOO MANY TO SHOT THEM DOWN?>>

<< THEY WON'T DARE TO DO THAT.>> ANOTHER SOLDIER SAID, THIS TIME A FRENCH ONE IT SEEMED. <<OUR BIGGEST SUBMARINE, LE TERRIBLE, IS NEAR THEIR EAST COAST. IF THEY WOULD START NUCLEAR MISSILES, THEN WE WOULD DESTROY THEIR ENTIRE EAST COAST AND THEY KNOW THAT. THEY WOULDN'T DARE TO START A NUCLEAR WAR, KNOWING THAT WE COULD DESTROY MOST OF THEIR MISSILES AND OURS WOULD HIT WITHOUT WARNING.>>

Syrren couldn't believe it. With every minute it seemed more and more like a disaster movie.

"Matt, can you please stop that? I...I don't want to see that anymore. It's just too..." He didn't finish the sentence, but he didn't have to. Matt could exactly tell how Syrren was feeling, horrible just like himself.

Matt ordered the TV-foil to shut down and sat beside his friend. Syrren was slightly shaking because of all the sudden bombardment of info. Not even three weeks ago, he couldn't have tell apart a washing machine and a cardboard and now his mind was flooded with pictures of places far away with conflicts he could have never imagined that they could happen.

"I'm...I'm sorry Syrren." He gave his scaled friend a short half-hug. "I didn't think that far that this could affect you that much. I'm sorry." He rubbed his head along his friend shoulder, surprised that he had done this. It really seemed that some draconic features have rubbed off.

"Please Matt don't think about it. It was me after all that asked for this explanation. But...I didn't expect all this..." he pointed at the screen "this horrible things to happen. You know I've read through all the stuff you gave me, and I was truly shocked. I mean...I somehow thought...I mean it looked like you humans would getting along better and better, despite some smaller conflicts."

Matt sighed even deeper now. Should he really tell him now what happened in the months after all this or should he wait a little bit to let Syrren calm down? Maybe it was best to give Syrren just the basic facts of what happened afterward and not such a long description like he did with this film from youtube.

"Unfortunately Syrren, it was far from over. You have to know when the European nations conquered the American bases in just seventeen minutes there was still Canada. I guess Canada would be part of the US today, if it wouldn't have been for the American President to stop it all. It was revealed that neither he nor the US-congress did order the attacks on Europe and Canada. It were ultra-nationalistic soldiers and officers from their armed forces itself. They thought that if they would wait for their 'weak' civil government to react they would become a European colony again. I know it sounds ridiculous, but that's how they thought. Somehow they managed to gather enough firepower to strike us this hard. But we had much more men and equipment, so it was a futile fight from the beginning. The Americans tried to apologize and said that it wasn't them that ordered the attack, but that was the worst that they could do, because now there was the question who was ordering the American forces at all? Could that happen any time again? That was the main question."

Matt groaned, rubbing his temples with his finger tips.

"In the end the Americans had to withdraw from Europe, Asia and Latin-America, and their soldiers were replaced by soldiers from Europe, Australia and Brazil. We also kept most of their material as a compensation for what they destroyed during their attacks. So you can imagine they were even more pissed of. But I'm way too fast now." He sighs again. Syrren thought if he would continue to breath that deep Matt would probably pass out from hyperventilating.

"Well, in the last minutes of the war between Europe and America, the Russians all of a sudden started an attack on several central Asian nations as well as the Baltic states. I guess they tried to restore the USSR somehow. But they did only fight for two hours. When the people in Russia heard that their country had started another war, they went to the streets of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd...everywhere in Russia. I guess they didn't expect that to happen, they didn't really know how to react to nearly two million people protesting all over the country. And then something really stupid and tragic happened. The Russian president ordered a special team to take care of the protesters. Unfortunately one of them has been able to hide his color blindness. He couldn't distinguish between green and red."

The young man slightly slapped his forehead to show his anger about that.

"Man, that they didn't notice that before. So instead of grabbing a green tear gas shell he grabbed a red RVX-shell. Can you imagine it, he thinks he grabs something that would only chase away protesters but instead he gets one of the most toxic substances known to humans. So when they fired three of these shells into the crowd...they..." he had to swallow hard before he could continue "...they all died. The wind blew it all over Moscow and so several ten-thousand people died within minutes. Since some protesters were broadcasting the demonstrations live on the internet, within minutes the entire world knew that Russia had used Chemical weapons on their own people, even if only by accident.

But they shouldn't have had them anyway. But it is always the same with the big superpowers, they don't apply the rules on themselves they have set for others. Well...after that attack, most soldiers in Russia, mostly the younger generations started rebelling against their leaders, several thousands politicians, military leaders and oligarchs were killed right on the streets and in their offices. It was nearly exactly a hundred years after the first Russian revolution. But while back then all leaders were killed, the Russian president with a great deal of loyal soldiers fled to Belarus, together with over two dozen nuclear weapons, maybe as a insurance to stay in power."

He groaned in disgust. Syrren could feel Matt's disgust like a neon light, so bright was this emotion shining.

"Okay, the last thing that happened then was the Chinese invasion in Siberia or what else that place is called."

Syrren's ear-fins twitched several times. The country of China was one of the most weird ones he had read about. It was one of the oldest cultures in the world, but also one of the most authoritarian cultures, at least that is the impression he has about this country. But somehow he wasn't that surprised anymore that China was joining the fight back then.

"So they tried to use the confusion during the Russian Revolution and conquer the oil-rich parts of Russia I guess."

Matt just nodded, while Syrren shook his muzzle. That was something he couldn't really understand about humans. Why would somebody kill somebody else for an object. He knew that his father had once killed another rival when claimed his mother as his, but that was a totally different matter.

"And...who did win?"

"Nobody did. The PODSS member used their lasers to melt the Chinese armies to slag. The French had even launched a nuclear powered Particle canon that they could use against ground targets, although they were heavily criticized for launching this machine without telling the other member of the PODSS. But is has the same security system like the other ones, and since there were no cities or other important places there they could fire without any problems."

Matt shrugged, letting his hands fall to his legs, clapping when they hit his thighs.

"Well. That was what happened back then. It took us another year to calm down. But after that there were no more wars. Can you imagine it? People were so frightened of war all of a sudden that nobody wanted to fight anymore. But is was till no heaven. The US for example did shut down their borders, as well as their internet-connections. With this last act they wanted to force the rest of the world to accept their power and leadership. But this time it didn't work. Instead of the world having problems because the US didn't help, it was the US that was experiencing it."

He shook his head, stroking through his hair.

"Gods, I hate it. I goddammit hate what happened back then. Humans are just so...so... I cannot tell how stupid they are. Sometimes I just...hate humans and how stupid they think and act."

"That somehow sounds as if you don't count yourself as a human."

"Maybe I don't. I mean, so many things that other people were doing...I simply cannot understand why they would do them. It feels so alien sometimes to think that I am of the same species."

"How...how many people died?" For some reason Syrren wanted to know how many lives it did cost. He didn't knew exactly why. It was still something new to him that within seconds more humans could vanish in a simple flash than a normal person would be able to meet in an entire life.

"...five hundred..." The last words were too quiet that even Syrren couldn't understand them.

"Five hundred-thousand?" That surprised Syrren. He had read that even the first nuclear weapon humans had used killed nearly a hundred-thousand people in an instant.

"No, five-hundred millions." Matt said, sobbing a bit while shaking.

Syrren's maw just dropped and his wings and tail were just hanging down. Five-hundred millions people...dead?

"So...many? So many people died in India and Pakistan?"

"No." He wiped his tears away. He always got that emotional when he thinks about that part. So many lives simply wiped out, they would never come back. "Because of the nuclear attacks 'only' one-hundred million people died within two hours. After that about one-hundred-fifty millions died of radiation sickness, hunger disease and break down of civil order. The rest died around the world, mostly because of hunger. I...I don't want to show you the pics of the people that starved in Africa that is just...indescribable."

Syrren stood there, just shocked. He couldn't even imagine how much that many people were, but according to what he read it was like all humans in Europe had died.

Matt dried his tears and sighed deeply, looking at the digital clock above him. It was nearly six pm. He couldn't believe that they have talking and watching videos all afternoon long. Suddenly he realized he had forgotten something.

"Hey, I am sorry but I totally forgot to shopping today, and the grocery stores will close soon. "

"That is not a problem Matt, really. I will stay here and watch Toby until you return."

Matt got up and hugged the dragon tightly. He wasn't able to close his hands because of his wings but he wanted to show Syrren how much he like him. He on the other side tensed up because of the unexpected hug, but loosened himself after a few seconds and hugged his human friend too.

"Thanks Syrren, thanks so much. I will be back in no time, maybe even with something that you won't get that much in these days."

"Hmm, what do you mean?" The dragon gave him a confused look, not knowing what Matt meant, also his ability to see/feel somebody else's emotional expressions couldn't help him.

But Matt just grinned and said "Just wait and see. Only that much...if I get what I hope to get, we will have a good desert tonight."

And with these words he was already on his way to his garage.

---

Matt was lucky to find a parking spot at his favorite grocery story. He parked right at the side of the police-car that was standing there all day long. The shopping would distract him a little bit from the films he had just seen.

He got in the store just a few minutes before nobody would be allowed no to enter that day. He normally doesn't go to the store that late because many things are only available during the day, but sometimes they started to bring rare products into the salesroom although they should be sold the next day. He got a tip from a colleague that they would be selling something he had been longing for since the war.

While he rushed through store, only taking some items he thought he may need and he still had food stamps for, he was looking the pile of cans his colleague has told him about.

Then he found it right in the last corner of the shop.

Canned pineapples.

It was nearly impossible to get one in these days, since nearly all nations that produced them had stopped the cultivation in favor of more nutritious food like rice or wheat. So instead of producing luxury food for the first world they are now trying to provide enough food for their own people. And even the little bit that was produced didn't made it to Europe most times since, ship-diesel was so expensive and scarce that cooling ships wouldn't be able to bring them to Europe before they would get bad.

The pile of cans was guarded by two police-men, both armored with a Taser as a sidearm and a HK MP7 with rubber bullets in their magazine on their backs. It wasn't uncommon in these days that people would start rioting about certain things like sudden rise of food prices or because certain items were not available as promised.

As Matt grabbed two cans and tossed them through the opening of the grip on top of the shopping cart. When he wanted to take a third one, one of the police men raised his hand.

"I'm sorry sir. Only two cans allowed per person per day."

Matt sighed and put the can in his hand back to the pile of cans. He thought about if he needed anything else, but he didn't find anything else he could buy right now.

"CHOOOOCOLATE! YOU PROMISED ME CHOOOOOOOOOCOLAAATE! I WANNA HAVE CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCOLAAAAAAAAAAAAATE!!!!"

The sudden cry of the kid around the corner made Matt nearly crash the shopping cart into a box of eggs.

"Honey, I told you there is no chocolate left. I...I cannot help." The mother of the crying kid was kneeling before him, trying to calm him down. But she didn't really have any success.

Matt saw several people walking by the two, simply ignoring them. But he could help the kid. He had been able to get five bars of chocolate. Chocolate was another thing that was extremely scarce, since about ninety percent of all cacao-beans were cultivated in third-world-countries and they stopped production for the same reason as they did with pineapples.

Matt sighed and took the key he got at the entrance to open the shopping cart. They had to introduce a grid-lid for them so that they can be locked, since there have been fights about items that people already had put into carts and other people took them out again.

Matt opened the lid slightly, just enough to get one of the chocolate bars and then closes it quickly.

"Hey kiddo. Calm down, I got some chocolate for you."

The young boy stopped crying immediately, just watching the bar of chocolate in front of his face. He hesitated for a few seconds then he grabbed it and held it to his chest as if it was made out of pure gold.

"Christian! You don't just grab it. What do you say to the nice man after he just gave you chocolate although there is barely anything left on the entire world?"

The little boy, he couldn't be older than six or seven years, didn't react at first just holding to the chocolate bar. But then he murmured a thank you and hurried to the check-out area to a man who obviously was his father.

"Thank yo. I...I don't know how I should thank you except with some thankful words. I really hoped that I would be able to get at least a single bar of chocolate for his birthday but...we were not fast enough. Goddammit, I've never thought that this would ever happen, that people would fight over a simple bar of chocolate." She sobbed twice, a single tear running down her cheek.

"I'm sorry, but...I am quite emotional when it comes to my Christian. I...I hope....how could we all let this have happened? Why did we decide to be blind? Oh god, I just wish we could have known that our entire world was going to collapse, we could have prevented it. But we all, me too, we all decided to look away from all our problems and now we all pay for it." More tears were rolling down her cheeks.

"Please, maam. There is nothing that you have to be sorry about. We all have been going through some rough times in the last few years. Nobody could have imagined that it would be that bad. But look at you, you are still alive, healthy and so is your son and husband. It shows that you are able to get through all of this. Just don't loose hope."

Matt tried to comfort her a bit, knowing that people nowadays needed encouragement and moral support more than anything. If he would look around and look into the eyes of all the people around him, he would mostly see just blank gazes. The things that have happened in the last years were so horrible that there are still many people that cannot handle it. They just go on, day by day, not thinking about the future. To Matt they seemed like sleep-walkers.

But this woman here was different, her love for her son and her husband seem to give her the power to do more than just survive the day.

"Thank you, oh thank you so much. There are hardly any friendly people in these days anymore. Thank you."

Matt took her hand and shook it gently, smiling at her, trying to give her a feeling of hope. She smiled back and gently squeezed his hand too, then she turned around and walked to the check-out area, joining her family.

Matt looked at them walking out of the shop, the young boy holding the hand of his mother, the bar of chocolate in a small bag in his other hand. He had to smile when he saw how broad the smile of the kid was. 'Although we are not able to safe the entire world we can safe our small world here around us', he thought. 'If just more people would do it. So why don't they? Are they waiting for somebody to tell them to start?' He just shook his head and walked to the check-out area.

---

"You wanna join me in watching the night-sky? I could really need some rest. That was...a tough afternoon for me."

Matt had returned home a bit late because there had been an car-raid. If he would have been a few minutes faster and he would have been right in the middle of it. Some people had tried to capture a truck full of food supplies but were defeated by two police car of Europol. Mat had to smirk. Before the war police car meant a normal car that was simply equipped with a radio and a emergency vehicle lighting. Now it meant a six-wheeled APC with a gun turret on its top.

The dragon nodded and followed his friend to the balcony on top of the house. He looked down at the city. Unlike last time Syrren could see that some parts of the city were illuminated.

"Looks a lot better than last doesn't it? But that is nothing compared to five years ago, you couldn't see a single star from here, because the city was so bright. Lights were simply everywhere. But now since resources as oil and natural gas are really scarce, we cannot afford to waste any sort of resource. But...that is not that bad. We safe oil and stuff and at the same time we can enjoy the stars."

He had brought two deck-chairs from a really small storage room at one side of the balcony and placed them that way that both of them could lie comfortable on them to watch the night-sky.

Syrren sat down, placed his tail in the hole between lying area and the back of the deck-chair. He adjusted his wings a bit so he could lie back comfortable. Both of them didn't say anything, but it wasn't necessary.

It was a really nice idea from Matt to come outside to get some fresh air and get some other thoughts in their heads.

Syyren let his gaze wander around the black sky. He felt a little sting in his chest, when he remembered something. From time to time he and his brother had been doing this too. They have been sitting on the top of a mountain and simply watched the stars. Although dragons didn't have a concept of star constellations, he loved to watch them, seeing how they sparkled. They still look so alive as back in the middle-ages, although a bit darker, because of the dust in the higher atmosphere from the nuclear explosions. The band of stars he could see across the entire sky and humans called milky-way was the thing that fascinated him the most. His brother would have wrapped his wing around him to protect him from the cold while they watched they skies. Sometimes they didn't even sleep at all, but watched the stars wander over the sky all night.

And although dragons didn't know what shooting stars were, that was a phenomena that all dragons liked. They thought it must be some sort of super strong and super fast golden dragons that were flying extremely high and extremely fast. He was a bit disappointed when he had read that they were just dust particles burning up in the atmosphere. But still he loved to see them. They were a reminder of how nice and gently his brother was and how great the time was they spent together. He nearly started crying when he thought about it. But he had a friend now he could share that very same moments with him.

"I wonder how it must be living there. Must be pretty boring and lonely for the cosmonauts up there." Matt murmured.

"Where must it lonely?"

Matt simply pointed at the moon.

"What? There are people on the moon? Even after all that happened, people think about going up there? Or have they already been there since the war?" He looked again at the moon. From here it looked somewhat alive with it's black oceans and white land. But he knew now it was all dead. Why should somebody every go up there? That was another thing he couldn't understand about humans, doing things just because you are able to do so.

"Syrren, can I explain it to you tomorrow? I...don't have the nerves to do so right now."

"Sure Matt. And sorry for asking" His ear-fins blushes a bit.

But Matt just smiled at him, waving his hand to show that is was alright.

Syrren and Matt sat there for a few more hours. The young man had brought some blankets to cover them both, while Matt's feet were warmed by Toby, who was sitting at the end of Matt's deck-chair.

Suddenly Syrren jolted up, giving Matt and Toby nearly an heart attack.

"Syrren, what happened?" He could see his friend's ear-fins were twitching, like he was trying to identify a sound or try to locate it. "Do you hear something?"

"I...I don't know what it is. It sounds nearly like this helicopters but...it is different." He stood up, watching around to search for the source of the noise.

"There." He points into the sky, his eyes going wide. Was this really a... .

Matt looked into the direction of his draconic friend's hand.

"Wow, I've never thought I would see a UNMC-Peaceship."

Syrren didn't look at his friend, his eyes were like glued to the five airships that were hovering over the city, getting closer and closer.

"Amazing, aren't they? They are built as flying peacekeeper-monitoring stations for Africa, since they don't need any fuel to stay in the air. I guess they are on their way from Germany to central Africa."

Syrren's maw was slightly open, his hands gripping the railing, while his long tail was wagging in excitement. This was really amazing for him. These white and silver things were bigger than his father ever was and still it was hovering above the city, moving slowly towards them. When they were over them, Syrren could see that it were the propellers that were causing the helicopter-like sound, now that they were directly above them it was just a monotonous hum.

---

The humming of the air conditioner in the lobby rumbled in General Longuet's ears when he rushed through the automatic glass doors, nearly crashing into the slow moving things. 'Gods, that needs some improvement. First those idiots of the European-Defense-Agency and now even that stupid door.' He sucked the air through his teeth, trying to sooth his nerves with the fresh air of the nigh.

For the last two hours the General has tried to convince the council of the EDA not to release the info about Fanfir. He grunted, three quarts of all politicians and about one third of all military leaders have been killed during the giant global uprising that followed the wars in 2017. But at least nearly all CEO's of all big corporations have been killed by mobs too. They had way to much power and now it was back in the hands...of inexperienced bureaucrats and technocrats.

After the war all secret military archives in Europa, Russia and Latin America have been opened. The people didn't want that their nations would keep any more secrets, even if the info would be unpleasant. That's why the new politicians didn't want to create too much new secrets. The only exception would be an imminent threat to Europe, like an attack or something similar. He tried to convince them of his theory that the Americans have developed some sort of genetic engineered creature that is used as a spy device. But despite the facts he showed to them, they didn't believe him at all.

They told him they needed proven facts and not some weird theories. Only then they there would be the possibility to keep the incident a secret. Otherwise they would reveal it, just like they did with the Global Hawk Drone the Spanish Air Force shot down some time ago. He urged the EDA to not to do so, but in the end it was all over the news.

He knew that behind his back they called him one of the old generation, and maybe that was true to a certain point, but General Longuet was sure that earlier or later they would need someone of this 'old' generation.

While he stood there, looking into the sky, he noticed steps approaching. He could see it was Colonel Mueller, his liaison officer. He was an officer of the German Luftwaffe before Germany and France merged their armed forces to form the first supra-national army in the world. If the Colonel would come to him in the last time, it doesn't mean anything good.

"Monsieur de General." He saluted. "Good to meet you, I've just got some dispatches from headquarters."

"More good news? I already got enough of them from that bastards of the EDA. They don't see it that we cannot make the info about FANIR public knowledge, or the Americans would stop the project right now and we will never know what it is." The process in which most hidden military secrets have been revealed when mobs all over the world stormed the defensive ministries to prevent the military to destroy inconvenient material hadn't been a full success in the United States. The military still has way too much power in that nation and different to Europe, many secrets from the cold war haven't been revealed. He shook his head, in the US the Military leaders are doing the policy and here in Europe it were bureaucrats without any knowledge of how this business really works.

"Okay what is it?"

"Well Sir, the first thing is that our Australian allies have called for some aerial-reconnaissance near Christmas island. The two rogue submarines from the PRC have raided the sole settlement with the same tactic as usual. Threatened to bomb the city with cruise missiles until they had been able to resupply with food and then went off. If we act fast maybe we can get them this time."

The General looked at the sheet of paper the colonel gave him, read the most important part and then granted Australia a few more Barracuda drones from their base in Indonesia. After the civil war in China, that ended just a few months ago, these two rogue nuclear-submarines were the last remnants of the communist party and they were hunting all ships they got near to. China was now ruled by a mix of western orientated intellectuals and the People's Liberation Army, although the PLA said they would give up all power within the next six months. They too have been sick about the corruption of the politicians, so they tried to get rid of them, which resulted in a weird civil war between the intellectuals from the big cities along the coast, like Shanghai or Hong Kong, together with the PLA against the security troops of the Communist party.

"Anything else?"

The officer waited a few seconds before he gave the General a second sheet. He didn't seem too pleased to tell him wait was the next message.

"Unfortunately...the next issue is the middle east, Israel and the Palestinians to be exact. They are making problems again, both of them have attacked the UN-security zones of Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. The defensive minister of the EDA and also the United Nations Military Cooperative suggested that we should sent the Charlemagne, a little bit of gunship-policy to calm them down."

"He can't be serious? The Charlemagne battle-group and the Robert Schuman battle group are the only things that prevent another naval attack from America. No, they should send the Charles de Gaulle or the Cavour."

That was all the General had to say about that issue and the Colonel didn't ask anything else about that issue. Although the USA were also part of the UNMC, which meant that all members of this institution would not attack each other, it was anything else but sure that they would not step back one day and try to become the sole superpower again. So the only thing that would stop them was military power and with these two mega-carriers, which were even bigger than a carrier of the Nimitz class, together with the orbital lasers that was enough to hold them at bay, at least for now.

"Any more 'good' news, Colonel?" He shook his head and massages his left temple with his hand. He really needed a break but he knew he cannot afford it, not with the possibility of an living American spy device in the middle of Europe.

The offices told him some more news, that the new Russian government had granted Europe protection from American nuclear missiles, speaking reviving the MAD theory. After the nuclear war on the Indian subcontinent all nuclear powers decided to store their nuclear arsenals on remote islands until they would be dismantled. The UK, France, the PRC, the rest of India and Pakistan did so, but the US wanted to retain a thousand nukes which was more than enough to brake through the PODSS, that is why Russia would retain a thousand nukes too, just the same game as in the twentieth century.

When the General thought about Russia smirked his mustache shaking. He could remember the TV-broadcasts from Moscow, showing the young generation driving away the communist protesters, most of the over seventy years old. The communists tried to make another revolution, like in 1917, but they were chased away by the younger ones that this was their revolution and they had their chance in 1917. Now Russia was a halfway stable democracy and an ally of Europe, although there were massive problems with the refugees from China in Siberia. But he would think about that later.

The officer also told the General about several dozens SOS signals from US-occupied Mexico. Hopefully they won't come from Canada in the future too.

A few more papers of more or less bad news later the General asked his liaison officer if he was done by done.

The officer didn't say anything but instead reached into the bag he was carrying and gave the General a small black colored box with several holes in it, all of them in a line.

"I am sure this will help you to convince the EDA-defense council, Sir." he said with a grin on his face.

General Longuet looked on this box from all sides, he could see some electronics through the holes but he couldn't see how that should help him.

"What is this stuff?"

"It is a tracking device, Sir. It was attached to a deer in central Europe, to see how they migrate. You know that after the EU prohibited hunting they have reproduced really fast, so they wanted to know how they migrate now with their population being bigger then before."

The general was surprised. How should that help him? He knew about that program. They EU had to prohibit hunting nearly all over the continent because they have seen what has happened in the US when food got short. Since the people in the USA had so many weapons the literally shot the forests empty to get food. In many parts of America the forests didn't have any sort of animal life anymore which did cause a lot of ecologic problems.

"Is that a joke, Colonel? How should that help me? The deer was probably slain by a wolf or a bear."

"Well, there are two facts that speak against your theory. First this tracking device is made out of reinforced carbon-fibers. Not even a crocodile would be able to bight through that, and the second fact is that wolves haunt really rarely in a thirty meter high tree."

"What do you mean in by that?"

"Well, when the device didn't move for several days, the local authorities went looking for it and found it at the top of a thirty meter high fir, together with the holes in it. Looks like somebody has chewed on it. There are also some scratches on the other side of it. There are very few materials that are able to do that much damage to that box. There has also been a little bit of saliva traces on it. We tried to make an DNA test, but with very little success. We could only tell that is was nothing we have ever encountered before."

All of a sudden the box in the General's hands got all hot. At least that was what he thought it would. He was holding a prove in his hands that FAFNIR existed. With this he could surely convince these idiots in the EDA to get the resources to find FANIR.

"I am sure Sir, that they will not ignore this fact. Just show it to these 'politicians' and make your show as you always do it in front of these guys. Then they will give in very fast, you have this ability to get what you want Sir."

Both of them smiled over this comment. General Longuet did both because he would get now what he needed but also because of the comment of his Colonel. Any other officer would have been reprimanded but Colonel Mueller, but both knew what they were able to say without sounding insulting.

"Colonel, I will recommend you for a promotion." he said and turned around on the spot to catch the representatives before they get away. But not today, they needed to see this right now. Each minute was valuable now.

'Just wait FAFNIR, you will not get away now. I will haunt you wherever you go, and if I should hunt you personally, I will get you.'