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Description
Entry 1: WELCOME TO RED
It's been seven years since the first of those many damned bombs fell and cleansed the earth of any civilized human; they're all savages now, everyone of 'em. It seems watching the earth explode non-stop for all this time has made me lose all hope I had left in humanity, just so much destruction for one adolescent mind to harbor. Before all of this, this Hell, the world was a beautiful disaster waiting to go up in flames; first the Russians came. They took the west coast, all of it, the United States responded with nukes as far as the eye could see, the Russians did the same. Overnight my world became as desolate as the moon, the only difference between them was their size it seemed. As for me, the first night the Russians made their way and took Los Angeles, I left with my family heading to some place the government deemed a "Haven from the destruction." We paid their toll of 25,000 each, my father would pay anything for our safety; then like that, we were hauled off to some underground base hidden in the Sierra Nevada's, and transported to "RED." We weren't alone, roughly 50,000 people joined us on the trip up, all of us spaced into separate compounds 1,000 in each; without their knowledge, many of them would go for the peace only to end up resting in peace. Three days on mars, we learned that the U.S. government had collapsed and the Russians soon would follow, the world had lost it's head and was running a muck.
That was seven years ago, about 5 years ago, Russian refugees took the stargate and used it as a base of operations to conduct raids on us. These raids killed so many of our population, including both my parents and younger sister through execution, I was left to parish alone in the dead desert just outside of the shack the took refuge in the time of the execution. I wandered around for two days until I managed to drift onto our compound. So there I was, an orphan, left to die, and I felt painstakingly alone; so I found myself in the trade of repairing and cleaning the firearms of the community for no pay, but instead a place to live and eat. It was a pathetic thing if you saw it, I always thought about just taking one of those guns and ending all the suffering but I didn't have the nerve, at least that's what I guessed. All this changed for me when I met the one and only girl my age in this hell off of earth, her name was Nell, she would talk to me and smile, I'd smile back and we would go on for hours. She understood my condition and I understood hers, for three years, we were insufferable; then the damn Reds came back to finish the slaughtering.
This raid took place two months ago and cost us the most casualties of any previous raids. At early dawn, I heard news from Casey, the head of our community's radio station, picked up what he called "chatter over the radio," but after an hour we dismissed it as interference from the sand storm a day earlier; we were dead wrong. At noon, I was doing my rounds, inspecting and checking each individual rifle and pistol for no faults when it got eerily quiet; the usual sound of terraformers and mining equipment ceased and immediately I knew something was up. A burst of machinegun spray ripped through the air, shattered the silence along with Casey's left shoulder, like that he was down. I grabbed as many guns and ammunition as I could bear and made my way to the center of town sprinting from cover to cover with the Russian guns spitting rounds that buzzed as they zipped by my head. Everyone in town was caught by surprise, Casey was down and going into shock, I found Overseer Garcia with a round popped into his head and dead on contact, this was just to much for a 16 year old child to take part in. All that rushed into my head was Nell's safety and the adrenaline, charging full force I reached the telecom station and distributed the guns mostly by tossing them at any friendly face I saw. Taking cover in a window I drew my sights on anything that moved outside, I'd never shot a man, I was no murderer; something came over me and I felt my finger beginning to tighten on to the trigger without aiming out of fear. I heard a crack then the recoil kicked and thrust me back, the bullet hit it's mark, slamming into the chest of the nearest raider and killing him. I stood in shock while I thought "what have I done?," if I knew at the time what I would soon find out, I would of shot every single one of those monstrous killers.
In the terror, I began to run through the corridors handing out ammunition to the scared faces holding our guns, Nell lived in the west wing and I was slowly making my way there providing some supportive fire when needed. Stopped only by Kit who grabbed me by the collar and begged me not to proceed, he told that the west wing had been hit the hardest; this only encouraged me more to help Nell's situation, I drew back, knocked him loose of me and with a pistol drawn I reached the west wing. Walking along the corridors in the west wing was a horrible sight I will never forget, stepping over the fresh corpses of my comrades ripped by gunfire, smoke from the fires blinded me and I would choke, I continued the search. I finally reached her room only to find a hole blown clean through the wall! The area was clear and the Russians were retreating back to the hellhole from hence they came and I was left surrounded by dead bodies, fire, looking for Nell. I knew I was alone in the entire wing, no one could hear my screams of terror and frustration; then and there, I found Nell. She was on the floor, looking pale and on the verge of death; I collapsed to her side, still conscious she starred at me. Her eyes scream in pain and the truth killed me, I knew our journey together was over; with tears subsiding I picked her up and together for the last time, we went through the blast hole in her house and I laid her down in the sand, and waited for her time to pass. She finally flew away at 5:31 pm in my arms, in my arms… with that, I found some comfort…

Entry 2: Good Times
"Boy how time flies," I hear that from everyone that managed to survive that day, each and everyone of these basterds could care less what happens to me, they've thrown me into the lion's den far to often expecting me not to get out. They just smile thru their teeth, and their words, their words are the worst; acting a friend only to talk down about me behind my back, they all should just watch their back so they just can't stab mine anymore. The only ones I trusted on this red hell planet was Casey, Kit and Nell; Nell's gone, Kit is grieving his lost of his mom and little brother, and Casey Is in the medical center, if you could call it an "Up-to-date medical center." We've run into problems here other than those Reds, we're running low on food, clean water, and medical supplies; Kit and Casey wanted to go out raiding for salvage but I stopped them taunting that it was just too dangerous, so they backed down. Casey is an ex-ranger with the United States army, retiring just before the bombs fell; now he's cupped up on this planet being put to the task of radio management. Now he's 28, he's taught me many things like battlefield medicine, how to track prey and how to fire a gun; he's like a father to me now considering I lost mine, I can still hear my dad's voice whenever a sandstorm hits. Kit is two years older, a shy lovable kid with a lot to lose; we're close friends always going out on unscheduled patrols around the compound, we say it's for safety measures but really we just goof off and tell stories of earth. His mom and little sister were also on the casualty list of the last raid, his mom was a brunette with brown eyes that just spoke out with conviction. She was a kind woman, his little sister was named myrtle, only seven, and was murdered! the last thing I can remember about her was that she was innocent enough to mention something about my eyes that I will never forget. "Your eyes, they look blank, you ok?," the only time something like that had ever come up, but I knew it was true even though she was a mere child.
It's harsh but they're all dead now, me, Kit and Casey need to need realize it or else we are not going to make it far on this planet. I know if I ever tell them this they'll definitely start to tear riffs between each of us, we need all the support we can get from each other; being the youngest of the three of us, I'm probably the most inexperienced but I need to try and agitate ourselves to survive. Ever since the attack on our compound stiffening pressure has been building, so tight it's in the dust filled air; people want a scapegoat to blame this on, like humanity has done for ages and I think it's gonna be me. Kit and Casey both know this and they are trying to hatch some plan that will save all of our skins, just the other day the new overseer called me out pointing his arrogant finger at me saying that this was me and Casey's fault for not Alerting the town after we picked up the chatter over the radio just before the attack. The overseer had a posse at his disposal that were all brainwashed into the same thought; threatening us with death, Casey swiftly pulled out his magnum taking aim at anyone who dared touch me, this was the final straw. We received an eviction notice the next day, "the nerve!" I thought, that these people could kick us out of our home and in a time like this. We had two weeks before we were finally let loose into the wild Martian landscape.
It was decided between us three that we would "borrow" as much supplies as possible before leaving, it was going to be easy, we all work in the stockpiles and maintenance areas of compound, so we could slip some things away without any notice. I had the most important job of the three, although being only sixteen , I had a large knowledge of firearms, ammunition and weaponry; I was to "borrow" these items to ensure our safety and effectiveness if we were to survive. Kit worked in the food and water purifying station, so he had our rations and water supply covered. Casey worked in the radio management, he would salvage electronics and radio equipment. It seemed we were all set, the compound was so small with population and was already corrupt enough that what we were doing was no out of the ordinary thing for RED. The only thing left for me to do was to say goodbye to Nell, she was buried along side my family, they say for space efficiency but I always thought of it as a more sentimental message. I stood alongside her grave, not weeping nor contempt, I stood and starred at the rusty ground; I thought I saw rain come down and pelt her grave, turns out it was just a tear of mine. I simply, looked down only to look to the heavens and I said "I'll see you soon," and I made off.
After the two weeks were up, Casey got his all terrain rover started, filled it with gas, and we were to use it to make our exit; we had together collected about three pistols, 4 assault rifles, 500 pounds of food, 60 gallons of water, 5 walkie talkies and more things that were really just plain useless. We hauled them to the rover, stacked them thoroughly, hid the firearms and ammunition so the civilians in the compound wouldn't fret and we were leaving. It was about 5 minutes until we hauled off we all realized what we were about to do, we had no plan, no place to go, we were leaving what we called home and we were leaving behind our past. My dad always told me that "the past is what makes the man," I didn't realize the importance of it until that moment; we were leaving our possessions, our lives and our sanity behind, we didn't know what might await us on our journey, we just hoped whatever it was wasn't going to point a gun to our face and pull the trigger. And like, that we were off…

Entry3: In The Shadow of Giants
We past the gates and Operation RED, as it was diagnosed the U.S. Government, an operation to ultimately ensure democracy even if the U.S.A. were to collapse, was now a distant town fading away in the corner of my eyes. Driving through the desert was one of the most memorable moments I had, mainly due to how calm it was; I've never been that relaxed since I was born. Just Kit, Casey and me riding through the desert looking for refuge, we heard stories of some ancient grounds that might provide some refuge just 100 or so clicks south from RED; that being all we knew, we went for it. About three hours later I noticed the terrain began to change from red rocky iron rock to soft mineral sand; probably from the aftermath of all those sandstorms that burdened this planet. Then we managed to make out what looked like a man on the horizon holding something that looked like a sword and he had it pointing to the sky, he looked close but it took 45 minutes to reach him. It was a statue, not just any statue for it stood at least 1000 feet tall, it was carved out of the cliff that harbored it; we were literally in the shadow of giants. The entire area consisted of ancient houses carved from rock, temples, ruins, and this one statue; but why this statue? Why would these people want this massive statue shadowing over there every move casting judgment? It was incredible that no evidence of anything that could help any of us decipher who made this and why didn't exist; we figured it had to be at least 6,000 years old considering the statue wasn't human and the Martians are an extinct breed due to the fact it was a dead planet until humans came.
It began to get dark, all we had for a fire were some torches, oil and some dingy rags, we made a fire and one by one we fell asleep under the stars and under the "colossus," that's what I called him. I slept next to his massive big toe, feeling like a bug ready to be squashed, I felt the need to adjust away from him. Kit had a bad habit of talking in his sleep, we all knew this, and his rants began. But this wasn't him speaking; it was in some language I've never heard but somehow I understood every word! Both were asleep, only the voice and I were awake I felt a sense of awe and terror, I could understand but I knew this wasn't a human language, perhaps Martian? Nether the less, the important thing was what it was telling me, taunting me with the thought of heading to the stargate; this was absurd, not only was the stargate controlled by the Russian refugees, but where it headed, Earth. Earth was practically dead, I had no idea how many people survived the nukings ; even if the did survive they are probably savages and in a worse condition than RED ever was.
The voice just kept repeating the same phrase in my head, "the gate, the gate you must go; to earth, through the forked snake, then you will know." I had no idea what this meant, just where it told me to go, only god knows the terror that I felt. Then, I began to drift, I woke up early dawn to greet Kit and Casey who were setting up for our next move; with them distracted, I began to wander off and think of the night before. What can earth offer? I didn't know how to explain it but I felt the need to go; but the Russians at the stargate prevented me, I had to have both of them on my side to go thru with this. So I crept back to the camp site without their knowledge of me ever leaving, and I began to talk. "we're out here alone, no one will come to save us dammit, and you both know that; what we need is a real plan if we are to make it."
Both Kit and Casey looked confused, I guess when they see a sixteen year old try to give pointers it would be confusing. Kit responded with a "yes," soon Casey would follow and our planning began. Kit again wanted to go and salvage and look for any remaining compounds associated with Operation RED, Casey and I disagreed. Casey wanted to scout and ambush any Russian camp, grab their supplies and dip out. All of us had an arranged hate already for the damned Russians but what they did to us at RED, we wanted payback, I was hoping to use this to our advantage. "you want salvage Kit and you want the Raiders Casey," both responded with nods; "The stargate has both." Both gave me a surprised look, they knew what awaited them at the gate; to my surprise Kit agreed! Casey on the other hand was weary about this, he knew I was up to something, but he couldn't tell what. I confessed about the voice, Kit thought I was crazy, Casey knew my actual intentions and began to think of earth. He thought of all the resources, all the forts, guns, supplies, water and especially memories. Casey was in and so was I, all we needed was Kit's full trust; Kit wanted to discuss this further but he knew he couldn't stop us , so he came with us. All of us on one rover headed off into the sun, armed to the teeth ready to take anything on and willing to risk it for we had nothing to lose now. We were brethren fighting for survival in a hell manufactured by mankind's thirst for war and hate; and now we would go to the heart of it… Earth…

Entry 4: Into Nell's Eye's
It was four-thirty in the morning by the time we began to see the Stargate on the horizon, from that point we knew we had to play it safe. We parked the rover behind some rock formation about 3 clicks away from the stargate, the Russians were asleep, only their patrols were awake and searching the area for any sign of hostile life in the area like Casey, Kit and I. Casey took a scoped hunting rifle with some silencer he made himself from scrap back at RED, his handy ole' knife and his pistol from his military days. Kit was armed with what seemed a single-shot-rifle, pistol, assault rifle and knife as usual. Myself, I took some grenades we pocketed from the Russians who were killed in the raid, an assault rifle from America, a magnum that my dad gave me for my 13th birthday and Casey's tomahawk he gave to me for my 16th; we were ready. The stargate was near the north pole, it may have been four-thirty in the morning but the sun was shining high above us like I heard the sun did in some place called Alaska. With that thought, we readied the rover and drove full speed into the compound.
We caught them all by surprise, as soon as we burst through those door we lit the hole room alight with lead, killing at least three Russians who didn't have guns pulled; I didn't have remorse considering what they did to us three. Casey took left, Kit and I were together and we both took center. Clearing out each room filled with Russians, we made our way to the control room only to be met with little resistance; we both were surprised. With the room empty of hostiles we made our way to meet up with Casey who radioed us that he was under heavy fire in the courtyard. Ironically we used the building's directory and eventually found the courtyard; we saw Casey below under fire from what looked like Thirty Russians, we snuck around to their left flank and began to spray. With the Russian forces split between two targets they were easy picking for Casey and Kit, me myself was ordered by Casey yelling across the courtyard to take their right flank by going through the adjacent corridors, I listened. There were three rooms in the hall way to the Russian's right flank; I had to clear each. In the first room I got into a knife fight, once I entered the Russian knocked my rifle clean out of my hand only to follow with an uppercut to my chest. I collapsed in pain, in the corner of my eyes I saw him pull out a knife and rush me; on my feet now I pushed his hand away as he passed, the knife grazed my palm. He stumbled below, this time I knew what I had to do; I took the tomahawk and ended the deadly game he was playing with a blow to the temple. He was down and I went on thru to the next two rooms with no interference and took the right flank as ordered.
The battle outside was still raging, they took many casualties but they still fought for dear life. Casey was sniping, Kit was spraying anything that moved in their vicinity, and I, I was taking my mark at the Russians with the magnum. The magnum made work of them, anything it hit would go up in an explosion, especially when it hit the Russian nearest me; he immediately was down, the slug hit him in the upper torso, an immediate death. And I went on with this strategy for the remaining battle. After an hour of the firefight, we were victorious, the Russians were dead or dispersing and we were in the building we wanted so bad to control. We relocated the control room and began the work of restoring the power to the facility; Casey headed to the back-up generator and , like the rover, got it to work. With power running at full the window of opportunity was slim, so Kit and I found the launch keys, put them in their designated keyholes and we synchronized the activation till perfect. The Portal was now operational and all of us made our way to the launch deck, the portal was a beautiful sight, shimmering blue with the dust particles in the air reflecting light giving off a green and red tint; the true blue reminded me of Nell's eyes, how they were so clear and deep and went on forever; I could look at them forever. Then Kit nudged me, and with that thought raging through my mind, the three of us together jumped into the void…

By John Lawson

Description
Entry 1: WELCOME TO RED
It's been seven years since the first of those many damned bombs fell and cleansed the earth of any civilized human; they're all savages now, everyone of 'em. It seems watching the earth explode non-stop for all this time has made me lose all hope I had left in humanity, just so much destruction for one adolescent mind to harbor. Before all of this, this Hell, the world was a beautiful disaster waiting to go up in flames; first the Russians came. They took the west coast, all of it, the United States responded with nukes as far as the eye could see, the Russians did the same. Overnight my world became as desolate as the moon, the only difference between them was their size it seemed. As for me, the first night the Russians made their way and took Los Angeles, I left with my family heading to some place the government deemed a "Haven from the destruction." We paid their toll of 25,000 each, my father would pay anything for our safety; then like that, we were hauled off to some underground base hidden in the Sierra Nevada's, and transported to "RED." We weren't alone, roughly 50,000 people joined us on the trip up, all of us spaced into separate compounds 1,000 in each; without their knowledge, many of them would go for the peace only to end up resting in peace. Three days on mars, we learned that the U.S. government had collapsed and the Russians soon would follow, the world had lost it's head and was running a muck.
That was seven years ago, about 5 years ago, Russian refugees took the stargate and used it as a base of operations to conduct raids on us. These raids killed so many of our population, including both my parents and younger sister through execution, I was left to parish alone in the dead desert just outside of the shack the took refuge in the time of the execution. I wandered around for two days until I managed to drift onto our compound. So there I was, an orphan, left to die, and I felt painstakingly alone; so I found myself in the trade of repairing and cleaning the firearms of the community for no pay, but instead a place to live and eat. It was a pathetic thing if you saw it, I always thought about just taking one of those guns and ending all the suffering but I didn't have the nerve, at least that's what I guessed. All this changed for me when I met the one and only girl my age in this hell off of earth, her name was Nell, she would talk to me and smile, I'd smile back and we would go on for hours. She understood my condition and I understood hers, for three years, we were insufferable; then the damn Reds came back to finish the slaughtering.
This raid took place two months ago and cost us the most casualties of any previous raids. At early dawn, I heard news from Casey, the head of our community's radio station, picked up what he called "chatter over the radio," but after an hour we dismissed it as interference from the sand storm a day earlier; we were dead wrong. At noon, I was doing my rounds, inspecting and checking each individual rifle and pistol for no faults when it got eerily quiet; the usual sound of terraformers and mining equipment ceased and immediately I knew something was up. A burst of machinegun spray ripped through the air, shattered the silence along with Casey's left shoulder, like that he was down. I grabbed as many guns and ammunition as I could bear and made my way to the center of town sprinting from cover to cover with the Russian guns spitting rounds that buzzed as they zipped by my head. Everyone in town was caught by surprise, Casey was down and going into shock, I found Overseer Garcia with a round popped into his head and dead on contact, this was just to much for a 16 year old child to take part in. All that rushed into my head was Nell's safety and the adrenaline, charging full force I reached the telecom station and distributed the guns mostly by tossing them at any friendly face I saw. Taking cover in a window I drew my sights on anything that moved outside, I'd never shot a man, I was no murderer; something came over me and I felt my finger beginning to tighten on to the trigger without aiming out of fear. I heard a crack then the recoil kicked and thrust me back, the bullet hit it's mark, slamming into the chest of the nearest raider and killing him. I stood in shock while I thought "what have I done?," if I knew at the time what I would soon find out, I would of shot every single one of those monstrous killers.
In the terror, I began to run through the corridors handing out ammunition to the scared faces holding our guns, Nell lived in the west wing and I was slowly making my way there providing some supportive fire when needed. Stopped only by Kit who grabbed me by the collar and begged me not to proceed, he told that the west wing had been hit the hardest; this only encouraged me more to help Nell's situation, I drew back, knocked him loose of me and with a pistol drawn I reached the west wing. Walking along the corridors in the west wing was a horrible sight I will never forget, stepping over the fresh corpses of my comrades ripped by gunfire, smoke from the fires blinded me and I would choke, I continued the search. I finally reached her room only to find a hole blown clean through the wall! The area was clear and the Russians were retreating back to the hellhole from hence they came and I was left surrounded by dead bodies, fire, looking for Nell. I knew I was alone in the entire wing, no one could hear my screams of terror and frustration; then and there, I found Nell. She was on the floor, looking pale and on the verge of death; I collapsed to her side, still conscious she starred at me. Her eyes scream in pain and the truth killed me, I knew our journey together was over; with tears subsiding I picked her up and together for the last time, we went through the blast hole in her house and I laid her down in the sand, and waited for her time to pass. She finally flew away at 5:31 pm in my arms, in my arms… with that, I found some comfort…

Entry 2: Good Times
"Boy how time flies," I hear that from everyone that managed to survive that day, each and everyone of these basterds could care less what happens to me, they've thrown me into the lion's den far to often expecting me not to get out. They just smile thru their teeth, and their words, their words are the worst; acting a friend only to talk down about me behind my back, they all should just watch their back so they just can't stab mine anymore. The only ones I trusted on this red hell planet was Casey, Kit and Nell; Nell's gone, Kit is grieving his lost of his mom and little brother, and Casey Is in the medical center, if you could call it an "Up-to-date medical center." We've run into problems here other than those Reds, we're running low on food, clean water, and medical supplies; Kit and Casey wanted to go out raiding for salvage but I stopped them taunting that it was just too dangerous, so they backed down. Casey is an ex-ranger with the United States army, retiring just before the bombs fell; now he's cupped up on this planet being put to the task of radio management. Now he's 28, he's taught me many things like battlefield medicine, how to track prey and how to fire a gun; he's like a father to me now considering I lost mine, I can still hear my dad's voice whenever a sandstorm hits. Kit is two years older, a shy lovable kid with a lot to lose; we're close friends always going out on unscheduled patrols around the compound, we say it's for safety measures but really we just goof off and tell stories of earth. His mom and little sister were also on the casualty list of the last raid, his mom was a brunette with brown eyes that just spoke out with conviction. She was a kind woman, his little sister was named myrtle, only seven, and was murdered! the last thing I can remember about her was that she was innocent enough to mention something about my eyes that I will never forget. "Your eyes, they look blank, you ok?," the only time something like that had ever come up, but I knew it was true even though she was a mere child.
It's harsh but they're all dead now, me, Kit and Casey need to need realize it or else we are not going to make it far on this planet. I know if I ever tell them this they'll definitely start to tear riffs between each of us, we need all the support we can get from each other; being the youngest of the three of us, I'm probably the most inexperienced but I need to try and agitate ourselves to survive. Ever since the attack on our compound stiffening pressure has been building, so tight it's in the dust filled air; people want a scapegoat to blame this on, like humanity has done for ages and I think it's gonna be me. Kit and Casey both know this and they are trying to hatch some plan that will save all of our skins, just the other day the new overseer called me out pointing his arrogant finger at me saying that this was me and Casey's fault for not Alerting the town after we picked up the chatter over the radio just before the attack. The overseer had a posse at his disposal that were all brainwashed into the same thought; threatening us with death, Casey swiftly pulled out his magnum taking aim at anyone who dared touch me, this was the final straw. We received an eviction notice the next day, "the nerve!" I thought, that these people could kick us out of our home and in a time like this. We had two weeks before we were finally let loose into the wild Martian landscape.
It was decided between us three that we would "borrow" as much supplies as possible before leaving, it was going to be easy, we all work in the stockpiles and maintenance areas of compound, so we could slip some things away without any notice. I had the most important job of the three, although being only sixteen , I had a large knowledge of firearms, ammunition and weaponry; I was to "borrow" these items to ensure our safety and effectiveness if we were to survive. Kit worked in the food and water purifying station, so he had our rations and water supply covered. Casey worked in the radio management, he would salvage electronics and radio equipment. It seemed we were all set, the compound was so small with population and was already corrupt enough that what we were doing was no out of the ordinary thing for RED. The only thing left for me to do was to say goodbye to Nell, she was buried along side my family, they say for space efficiency but I always thought of it as a more sentimental message. I stood alongside her grave, not weeping nor contempt, I stood and starred at the rusty ground; I thought I saw rain come down and pelt her grave, turns out it was just a tear of mine. I simply, looked down only to look to the heavens and I said "I'll see you soon," and I made off.
After the two weeks were up, Casey got his all terrain rover started, filled it with gas, and we were to use it to make our exit; we had together collected about three pistols, 4 assault rifles, 500 pounds of food, 60 gallons of water, 5 walkie talkies and more things that were really just plain useless. We hauled them to the rover, stacked them thoroughly, hid the firearms and ammunition so the civilians in the compound wouldn't fret and we were leaving. It was about 5 minutes until we hauled off we all realized what we were about to do, we had no plan, no place to go, we were leaving what we called home and we were leaving behind our past. My dad always told me that "the past is what makes the man," I didn't realize the importance of it until that moment; we were leaving our possessions, our lives and our sanity behind, we didn't know what might await us on our journey, we just hoped whatever it was wasn't going to point a gun to our face and pull the trigger. And like, that we were off…

Entry3: In The Shadow of Giants
We past the gates and Operation RED, as it was diagnosed the U.S. Government, an operation to ultimately ensure democracy even if the U.S.A. were to collapse, was now a distant town fading away in the corner of my eyes. Driving through the desert was one of the most memorable moments I had, mainly due to how calm it was; I've never been that relaxed since I was born. Just Kit, Casey and me riding through the desert looking for refuge, we heard stories of some ancient grounds that might provide some refuge just 100 or so clicks south from RED; that being all we knew, we went for it. About three hours later I noticed the terrain began to change from red rocky iron rock to soft mineral sand; probably from the aftermath of all those sandstorms that burdened this planet. Then we managed to make out what looked like a man on the horizon holding something that looked like a sword and he had it pointing to the sky, he looked close but it took 45 minutes to reach him. It was a statue, not just any statue for it stood at least 1000 feet tall, it was carved out of the cliff that harbored it; we were literally in the shadow of giants. The entire area consisted of ancient houses carved from rock, temples, ruins, and this one statue; but why this statue? Why would these people want this massive statue shadowing over there every move casting judgment? It was incredible that no evidence of anything that could help any of us decipher who made this and why didn't exist; we figured it had to be at least 6,000 years old considering the statue wasn't human and the Martians are an extinct breed due to the fact it was a dead planet until humans came.
It began to get dark, all we had for a fire were some torches, oil and some dingy rags, we made a fire and one by one we fell asleep under the stars and under the "colossus," that's what I called him. I slept next to his massive big toe, feeling like a bug ready to be squashed, I felt the need to adjust away from him. Kit had a bad habit of talking in his sleep, we all knew this, and his rants began. But this wasn't him speaking; it was in some language I've never heard but somehow I understood every word! Both were asleep, only the voice and I were awake I felt a sense of awe and terror, I could understand but I knew this wasn't a human language, perhaps Martian? Nether the less, the important thing was what it was telling me, taunting me with the thought of heading to the stargate; this was absurd, not only was the stargate controlled by the Russian refugees, but where it headed, Earth. Earth was practically dead, I had no idea how many people survived the nukings ; even if the did survive they are probably savages and in a worse condition than RED ever was.
The voice just kept repeating the same phrase in my head, "the gate, the gate you must go; to earth, through the forked snake, then you will know." I had no idea what this meant, just where it told me to go, only god knows the terror that I felt. Then, I began to drift, I woke up early dawn to greet Kit and Casey who were setting up for our next move; with them distracted, I began to wander off and think of the night before. What can earth offer? I didn't know how to explain it but I felt the need to go; but the Russians at the stargate prevented me, I had to have both of them on my side to go thru with this. So I crept back to the camp site without their knowledge of me ever leaving, and I began to talk. "we're out here alone, no one will come to save us dammit, and you both know that; what we need is a real plan if we are to make it."
Both Kit and Casey looked confused, I guess when they see a sixteen year old try to give pointers it would be confusing. Kit responded with a "yes," soon Casey would follow and our planning began. Kit again wanted to go and salvage and look for any remaining compounds associated with Operation RED, Casey and I disagreed. Casey wanted to scout and ambush any Russian camp, grab their supplies and dip out. All of us had an arranged hate already for the damned Russians but what they did to us at RED, we wanted payback, I was hoping to use this to our advantage. "you want salvage Kit and you want the Raiders Casey," both responded with nods; "The stargate has both." Both gave me a surprised look, they knew what awaited them at the gate; to my surprise Kit agreed! Casey on the other hand was weary about this, he knew I was up to something, but he couldn't tell what. I confessed about the voice, Kit thought I was crazy, Casey knew my actual intentions and began to think of earth. He thought of all the resources, all the forts, guns, supplies, water and especially memories. Casey was in and so was I, all we needed was Kit's full trust; Kit wanted to discuss this further but he knew he couldn't stop us , so he came with us. All of us on one rover headed off into the sun, armed to the teeth ready to take anything on and willing to risk it for we had nothing to lose now. We were brethren fighting for survival in a hell manufactured by mankind's thirst for war and hate; and now we would go to the heart of it… Earth…

Entry 4: Into Nell's Eye's
It was four-thirty in the morning by the time we began to see the Stargate on the horizon, from that point we knew we had to play it safe. We parked the rover behind some rock formation about 3 clicks away from the stargate, the Russians were asleep, only their patrols were awake and searching the area for any sign of hostile life in the area like Casey, Kit and I. Casey took a scoped hunting rifle with some silencer he made himself from scrap back at RED, his handy ole' knife and his pistol from his military days. Kit was armed with what seemed a single-shot-rifle, pistol, assault rifle and knife as usual. Myself, I took some grenades we pocketed from the Russians who were killed in the raid, an assault rifle from America, a magnum that my dad gave me for my 13th birthday and Casey's tomahawk he gave to me for my 16th; we were ready. The stargate was near the north pole, it may have been four-thirty in the morning but the sun was shining high above us like I heard the sun did in some place called Alaska. With that thought, we readied the rover and drove full speed into the compound.
We caught them all by surprise, as soon as we burst through those door we lit the hole room alight with lead, killing at least three Russians who didn't have guns pulled; I didn't have remorse considering what they did to us three. Casey took left, Kit and I were together and we both took center. Clearing out each room filled with Russians, we made our way to the control room only to be met with little resistance; we both were surprised. With the room empty of hostiles we made our way to meet up with Casey who radioed us that he was under heavy fire in the courtyard. Ironically we used the building's directory and eventually found the courtyard; we saw Casey below under fire from what looked like Thirty Russians, we snuck around to their left flank and began to spray. With the Russian forces split between two targets they were easy picking for Casey and Kit, me myself was ordered by Casey yelling across the courtyard to take their right flank by going through the adjacent corridors, I listened. There were three rooms in the hall way to the Russian's right flank; I had to clear each. In the first room I got into a knife fight, once I entered the Russian knocked my rifle clean out of my hand only to follow with an uppercut to my chest. I collapsed in pain, in the corner of my eyes I saw him pull out a knife and rush me; on my feet now I pushed his hand away as he passed, the knife grazed my palm. He stumbled below, this time I knew what I had to do; I took the tomahawk and ended the deadly game he was playing with a blow to the temple. He was down and I went on thru to the next two rooms with no interference and took the right flank as ordered.
The battle outside was still raging, they took many casualties but they still fought for dear life. Casey was sniping, Kit was spraying anything that moved in their vicinity, and I, I was taking my mark at the Russians with the magnum. The magnum made work of them, anything it hit would go up in an explosion, especially when it hit the Russian nearest me; he immediately was down, the slug hit him in the upper torso, an immediate death. And I went on with this strategy for the remaining battle. After an hour of the firefight, we were victorious, the Russians were dead or dispersing and we were in the building we wanted so bad to control. We relocated the control room and began the work of restoring the power to the facility; Casey headed to the back-up generator and , like the rover, got it to work. With power running at full the window of opportunity was slim, so Kit and I found the launch keys, put them in their designated keyholes and we synchronized the activation till perfect. The Portal was now operational and all of us made our way to the launch deck, the portal was a beautiful sight, shimmering blue with the dust particles in the air reflecting light giving off a green and red tint; the true blue reminded me of Nell's eyes, how they were so clear and deep and went on forever; I could look at them forever. Then Kit nudged me, and with that thought raging through my mind, the three of us together jumped into the void…

By John Lawson