Project M.A.R.A.

As his eyes tried to open he could feel the intense pain all over his body. The ringing in his ears was incessant. He struggled to grab a coherent thought from the cloudy confusion in his mind. Was it really that smoky or was he losing his sight on top of everything else? He was screaming or at least he thought he was, "Mara!!! Mara!!! Where are you?" He knew he was yelling for her but he couldn't hear a sound. The panic was beginning to take over. What had happened, why did everything hurt so much, why couldn't he see her, she had been right there, right in front of him. He knew it just as sure as he knew his own name, she had been just a few feet in front of him, that sweet gentle smile, those kind beautiful green eyes, and her long black hair ever so slightly blowing across her face in the gentle April breeze. Just seeing her standing there waiting for him made him feel as though his life finally had a purpose and meaning.

It was two months ago to that very day. He would never forget the first moment he saw her sitting on a blanket in the park. It was the first warm day and the sun was finally shining bright and warming up the air just enough to enjoy some time being outside. She was sitting alone reading a book and the way the sun was shining down on her took his breath away. He had never seen her here before, which was odd because he knew almost everyone in the village, but she was new.

The ringing in his ears was finally releasing it's hold and he could hear all the chaos and confusion, the panic in the screams of others nearby. He was trying to get his vision to focus so he could find Mara and make sure she was safe.

That day in the park he walked up to her close enough to see the book that was so intriguing to her that she seemed to be in her own world, even though the park was very busy that day. There were kids running around and animals playing fetch, all the sounds of nature making the perfect setting. He recognized the book in her hand; he had read parts of it himself, a very entrancing collection of poetry and short stories by what seemed to be a rather disturbed, literary genius. He walked up to her and said, "all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream", to which she replied without ever looking away from her book, "Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night". He could see a slight smirk on her lips, "I'm Charles" he said politely, she raised her glance slowly upward to meet his eyes and with a soft sweet smile she replied, "hello Charles, I'm Mara."

His eyes were finally beginning to pull into focus the horrific scene around him. “Oh dear God” he thought, “what in the world happened?” Everything was destroyed, the shops, the trees, the vehicles….fires were blazing from the rubble that remained of the buildings that once stood around the little town square. The air was heavy and black with smoke and ash. There were bodies laying all over the place, the people who weren’t instantly killed by whatever dreadful event had come to this quiet secluded little village were frantically searching for loved ones in sheer hysteria. Charles had never seen such a terrible heartbreaking scene. It felt as though he were in the middle of one of those end of the world apocalypse movies. How could this be real, how could this have happened, here, here of all places. This was the safest place in the world, with very little crime, nice people, good schools, helpful and friendly neighbors, so this wasn’t real, it just couldn’t be real.

His eyes searched the scene, trying to see something, anything that would give some reason or explanation as to what had happened. There were no large holes in the ground to indicate an impact of some sort whether from a bomb or a meteor, no weapons, no soldiers, just destruction and death everywhere.



“Sir, the devices have been detonated.” “ What is the damage report Sergeant?” “Well General, overall 80% destruction of structures and 90% human casualty.” “Those are extremely good percentages since the device was only set to 75% of its capacity, I would say the boys in the lab have out done themselves with this one.” “Sergeant, do we have satellite images yet?” “ Not yet sir, they are uploading now, it took several minutes for the scene to clear up enough for the satellites to have a clear enough view.” “Ok, Sergeant let me know as soon as they are up and ready for review, and don’t forget the close up shots.” “Yes, General.” “Oh and get me the location of the device for retrieval.” “Yes, Sir. We are running the program now. Once it goes into blast mode the signal is temporarily locked to prevent enemy forces from picking up the signal. It should be back online in just a few minutes.” “Very good, keep me posted. I will be briefing the recovery team on their clean up mission.”

The General walked out of the command room and down the hall two doors, “Ok men the project has been initiated and all devices detonated perfectly. Now, it’s up to you and your teams to make sure this secret weapon continues to be a secret. Is that understood?” In unison the three men in the room simply replied, “Sir, Yes Sir.” “I am waiting on images of the scene and coordinates of the device. Once they are uploaded you will have 48 hours to complete your mission. Do each of you understand what your mission is? And how important it is that you complete it without fault or hesitation?” “Yes, Sir. We have all been brief on the exact actions we must take and everyone involved in the mission has been given the opportunity to decline if they have any kind of moral issues. I assure you that the man involved will not fail.” “That’s good to hear First Sergeant, we can not afford any mistakes or bleeding hearts on this mission, one slight hesitation would destroy the entire program, and I don’t have to explain to you what the fallout would be from that type of mistake.”

Charles was now able to get up and start walking around, although the pain inside his body was almost debilitating he had to find Mara, she had to be ok. He couldn’t bear the thought that she might be one of the many bodies scattered and broken throughout what was left of the park. There were very few people left alive, as he wandered around trying carefully to not step on or stumble over what remained of the people he had known for the last 20 years. As bad as his body hurt, his heart hurt a thousand times more, he could not make sense of what had happened. There was just no reason for this amount of destruction and death. Those who weren’t fortunate enough to have died instantly from the initial blast were mortally wounded and barely hanging on at this point. The reality had begun to set in that there was no rescue coming and the local fire department along with the doctors office and clinic were gone, reduced to a pile of brick and ash.

As he looked around him he started noticing just how much each pile of rubble that had once been a thriving storefront all seemed to have the same things in common other than the obvious, they appeared to all have been destroyed the same way. Each building had the most damage on opposite corners, the front left and right rear corners had signs of far more destruction than the rest of the area. With each building you could see where the blast had gone off and blown out those corners specifically, and with enough power to almost incinerate the rest of the building. It was all very precise and as he could now see very deliberate. Who could do such a thing, what kind of monster could have done this.

“General, we have the images and some astonishing updated stats on the project. Now that our satellites have a more clear view our numbers are better than originally thought.” “Well, what are we waiting for, son? Let's see how our little beauty did.” “Yes, Sir. As you can see on the screen each building was perfectly detonated causing the most effective amount of damage. And the human casualty will be 98% once the wounded have succumbed to their injuries. It appears that the trial run was an amazing success with almost perfect precision and total destruction.” “Thank you, Sergeant, this will make the men at the top very happy. If the device can do this amount of damage when set to 75% capabilities there will be no stopping it when it’s set loose with 100%.” “Sir, here are the exact coordinates for the device.” The General took a slip of paper from the Sergeant and walked back down the hall to the men waiting in the room. “Men, I have good news, the project was more successful than originally thought, the clean up and retrieval should be a lot quicker and easier, the casualty numbers are far better than originally reported, and the destruction level will make it easier to cover up with the meteor story. Once your men are out of the blast zone, the object will be launched. Once it impacts there will be nothing left except a hole and one massive rock. The news media will have the story of the century.”

In the distance he heard the whirling of a helicopter, "finally" he thought. As the chopper landed the men we're given their final orders "get in, find the device, tie the loose ends and get back, we're on a time clock." Three teams of three men each headed towards the village. Charles heard a gun shot and didn't understand why they would be shooting, they should be rescuing. He heard a familiar voice behind him, "Hey Doc" the man said, "you look like you've seen a ghost, what's wrong? Don't you recognize your own handy work?" Charles turned to see the man holding the heart shaped locket that Mara had always worn. "The boys in lab decided it needed a more feminine look, and with a little extra tweaking got it all to fit in this pretty little locket." " How could they let this happen that research was destroyed, I destroyed it!" Charles yelled. "Well, you know how the government works Doc, they keep track of everything." "This mission ends here, sorry Doc, orders and all, you know how it is, no loose ends."

"Command, this is Alpha leader. The device is secure, all loose ends are tied up. We are headed back to base." The General smiled, "Good work men!" As he turned back to the man sitting at the control panel, "Sergeant, the trial run was a success, detonate the remaining devices in every country. We can finally rid the world of filth."

As Doctor Charles Massey layed there bleeding out, the final image he saw was true side of the chopper the read: Project: Moblie Annihilation Remote Access.