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Join Date: Oct 2008
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Johnny Reb in 'Return to the Lost Valley' Part 2
Character Created by Tim Frady / Story by Wayne Clayton
Johnny stood beneath the glow of the mysterious valley sun. The sounds of the teeming jungle now fell silent as if all its inhabitants were watching the events in the clearing. Johnny felt the electricity flow down his arm into the cold steel of his revolver, its metal began to glow ice blue in readiness.
"Surrender you weapon Rebel in the name of the King!!" growled the Captain in a thick English accent. His pistol aimed squarely at Johnnys chest.
Johnny was in no mood to surrender to anyone. Let alone to what appeared to be a Captain of the British Colonial Army, a figure out of place and out of time in an equally out of place Tank! He knew it was a physical impossiblity for it and the others to be stood before him. No tank could plough its way through the tangled web of the jungle. But here he stood looking down its barrel.
Suddenly at the motion of the Captains arm the undergrowth sprang to life and out trooped a squad of riflemen. Within a moment they had formed two ranks, the first crouching to give clear line of fire to the row behind.
"I said yield Yankie Scum before Crown and Country" spat the Officer.
" No one calls this 'Volunteer' Yankie!!" Snarled Johnny. He had heard those words spoken by many men and some had even lived to regret it. He may of been out numbered but he knew the odds were in his favour.
"So be it Rebel...FIRE!!" yelled the Captain.
The sound of muskets rang in Johnnys ears as the first volley of lead tore through the air towards him leaving behind them a thick cloud of smoke and gun powder. He braced himself as the balls of soft metal rippled across his flesh like a shower of rain before falling bent and twisted at his feet.
He was dimly aware of the animal screams of the apemen behind him as they took flight in fear at the sight of the fire flashing from the strange spears the Red Coats carried.
Johnny raised his gun and began to fire blue bolts of lightening into the fog of gun smoke before him. The etheral light wrapping itself snake like around the contorted figures in the billow mist before they fell lifeless to the clearing floor.
A second volley blazed towards him, glancing his hardened body without harm been brought. Then another and another. With each report the air grew thicker with smoke until Johnny could barely make out the soldiers behind it. He fired blindly into the rolling fog of war and only heard the yells of those he killed.
Then Johnny heard the Tanks begin to grind into action, and moments later the boom of the gun and then he felt the heavy thud of the shell ram into his chest, the air forced from his lungs with the impact.
He charged towards the dark outline of the iron beast and buried his fist into the metal plating. Then he peeled back its skin to get to those hidden inside. But before he could strike the valley was filled with the boom of distant artillery. Johnny on instinct threw himself to the floor barely seconds before the shells began rain down.
The clearing now exploded into great plumes of shattered earth. Johnny felt the clods of mud and shrapnel slap hard against the ground as they fell back to earth. Looking up he saw the the dense cloud begin to evaporate with each new shell falling. Somewhere in the distance he heard the guns fall silent before the last of their offspring whistled through the air and finally buried themselves into the earth.
Staggering to his feet Johnny looked around him, his mind racing. The Jungle had vanished with the mist, in its place beneath the strange hovering sun was the familar haunting vision of the endless scarred landscapes of those battlefields of Europe.
With all his mighty strength he fought to keep down the urge to retch at the horror which surrounded him. The bodies stretching out snagged upon the coils of wire which trailed across the no mans land. Johnny in an instant almost believed that he was mistaken and that the war had not ended, he had never left Europe and ventured into the Jungle at all, that was all a dream. He was still there in that manmade Hell. Merely yet another victim who had fallen prey to madness brought on by the unrelenting sound of falling shells.
"Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!" he screamed as he fought to drive back the vision before him.
"No it's not real, it's not REAL!!" Johnny drove his fist in the dirt,clawing at it in an attempt to find the green of the jungle beneath it.
Then the valley began to echo with a deep thunderous roar, a roar which even has Johnny tried to block it out with the palms of his hands became that of thunderous laughter. Laughter which rang through his very bones.
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Duo attack. Lolz
