Prey World - Rebellion Beyond

by Alexander Merow

In the next hours, the seven men hid again, when the voices of GCF searchparties could be heard from a distance. Even one of the helicopters had flown above their heads and had tried to discover them in the jungle.

  The Japanese soldier was still bleeding and already deathly pale. In broken English, or even with hands and feet, the two volunteers from Ivas communicated with their Japanese comrades, who told them that they should march along the east coast northward, to reach Arume.

  Alfred had snapped a thick branch from a tree and used it as a crutch. He contorted his face with pain and was moaning quietly. Frank tried to perk up his friend, and told him that they would immediatley return to Ivas, when all this was over.

  “What`s about the officiers of the platoons?”, asked Frank one of the Japanese.

  “I think they are all dead”, replied the Asian, and seemed to be sure.

  “We should pray, that the submarines are really waiting for us in Arume. This is our only chance to get away from this fucking jungle island!”, cursed Frank and Alf nodded.

  They waded through a small river, and finally reached the deep jungle of the central part of Okinawa. Here they felt safer. Meanwhile, the heavily wounded Japanese had lost a lot of blood.

  He bit on a piece of wood in his pain and was at the end of his rope. His shoulder was already bandaged with a blood-soaked piece of his uniform. Eventually, they reached the coast and had something like an orientation.

  Slowly the dusk returned, but they had no time to rest. So they trudged almost the entire night through the jungle until they were totally exhausted. Finally, the wounded Japanese collapsed and sat down under a tree. He told his countrymen that they should leave him alone and said goodbye to them for the last time.

  Meanwhile, Alf was also weakened and limped over the muddy ground of the jungle. Sometimes, Frank had to trail him. But the young man tried to help his best friend with all his might. Without Bäumer and the rebels from Ivas, he would have already died a long time ago. Frank knew that, and now he had to help Alf.

  “One hand washes the other!”, he said quietly to himself and heaved up the tall, hulking Bäumer. Occasionally, he also helped one of the Japanese.

  After a short nap in the morning hours, they finally struggled through to Arume and arrived at the meeting point. They were just in time and about two dozen Japanese welcomed them enthusiastically. But Madsen, the Dane, however, was not among the men.

  “Even the Viking has been killed...”, snorted Frank. “And I was already looking forward to another chess game.”

  “I just feel sorry for him, he was a great guy. Fuck it all!”, added Alf and looked sadly across the sea.

  Some small boats were waiting for them in the jungle, under some big plants at the beach. Far too many, for that little bunch here, because Frank counted 32 men who had survived the operation.

  “It was all in vain! Perhaps we haven`t killed general Williams, just a few unimportant officers”, wailed Bäumer, clutching his bloody leg.

  “To hell with all this!”, hissed Frank and sat down.

  “I just want to go home. I won`t lift a finger for the Japs army anymore, or for the fucking freedom of the world or whatever...”, muttered Alf resignedly.

  They went to the boats and swam a few hundred meters out on the open sea. Then they waited for half an hour and trembled. Meanwhile, it had become dark again and the sea looked like a scary, impenetrable abyss.

  “How long shall we still float around on the open sea like a target?”, growled Bäumer, staring at the sky.

  “Don`t worry, Alf! The submarines will come! But I hope, that some GCF helicopters doesn`t find us before them...”, said Frank full of sorrow.

  Suddenly they saw flashing lights below them. They breathed again, because it was a Japanese submarine. It rose slowly upwards and came out of the water with a loud splosh. The Japanese cheered.

  Shortly afterwards, two more submarines appeared in the distance. The soldiers crawled into the iron vessel and this time, Frank was not afraid of claustrophobia anymore. He was just too exhausted for it.

  The young German fell asleep, after he had sent a prayer to heaven. A Japanese medic doctored Alf's injured leg and finally gave him some painkillers. Maybe, that whole mission had been a flop, but they were still alive and this was not nothing.

  The two other submarines disappeared in the depths of the Pacific again, without taking any elite soldiers on board. One sumarine was enough to transport the pathetic rest of the “Hukushuu unit” back to Japan.

  The hours-long diving trip was peaceful and without any incidents. The submarine dived down to a greater depth and evaded the enemy warships, which still plagued Tokyo and the other major cities in central Japan with massive missile attacks. Frank just let the time pass and slept. They finally reached the port of Toyohashi and were afterwards brought to Tokyo.

  Two days later, a cheer went through the headquarter of the Japanese high command. The international media had reported that general David Williams had fallen victim to a terrorist attack.

  Matsumoto`s war propaganda spoke day and night of the “heroic attack on the fortress of the international mass murderer David Williams” and preached the Japanese, that the war had already reached a turning point.

  “Now, the world sees the true heroism of Japan, and now, our entire nation shall rise to drive the slave hordes of the World Government back into the sea!”, said the propaganda.

  The campaign had been a tremendous success, and most Japanese started to believe that a victory was possible now. Schools, kindergartens and even universities should be named after the “Hukushuu unit” in the following years. The Japanese propaganda knew no more limits and it was quite successful - on the psychological front.

  Meanwhile, Frank and Alfred had been brought back to the Taishis. But it was just some kind of furlough, because after a month, they should return to the Japanese army as soldiers to support the counteroffensive in the south. The Taishis were more than proud of them, but the veil of mourning for their son was still under the surface.

  „The Japanese high command can kiss my ass!“, Frank was lying on his bed and was sipping a cold beer.

  Alf grinned. “Tomorrow we will disappear. Forever! No southern or norther front will see me again – never!”

  “We have fulfilled our mission. And it was not in vain. Thank God! And I'm sure, that I have shot Williams”, said Kohlhaas proudly.

  “Ha! I think it has been the Japanese soldier, you have already talked about. He has also fired at that group of fleeing officers, right?”, teased him Alf.

  ”No, I'm sure! They already lay in the mud, when the Japanese shot at them!”, returned Frank.

  “Anyhow, then carve another notch in your rifle butt, superman!”, answered Bäumer and laughted.

  “Never mind. The main thing is that we are still alive...”, said Kohlhaas and fetched another bottle of beer.

  “Wilden is overjoyed because of that “Hukushuu thing”. Now he jumps through his house, all day long - like a kangaroo. What do you think?”, remarked Alf and smirked.

  ”He bounces from Lithuania to Siberia!”, laughed Frank. “And I will bounce too – when I see Julia again!”

  They packed their bags and watched TV or played cards for the rest of the day. Tomorrow the would leave this country forever. The Japanese army could look for other heroes now.

  While the two men enjoyed their rest, the southern invasion army of the GCF descended into chaos, just as the Japanese high command had hoped it.

  The multinational army was totally confused for several days and its soldiers on the battlefields were often confronted with contradictory commands. Suddenly the successful advance in the south of Japan stopped.

  Furthermore, president Matsumoto proclaimed the “great counterattack” on national television and masses of young Japanese marched to the southern front to drive the wavering GCF troops back. New tank divisions and aircrafts supported the huge assault of the Asians, while
the war propaganda stylized everything to a “Japanese awakening”. Within just two weeks, the defenders repulsed the GCF in the south of the central island of Honshu and drove their enemies out of the most cities. Finally, the highly motivated and self-conscious Japanese soldiers defeated the GCF in a great battle near Hagi and took Honshu back. Shortly afterwards, the Japanese counterattack reached the two southern islands of Kyushu and Shikoku - with great success.

  Hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers flowed to the fronts and a wave of euphoria seized the whole country. Meanwhile, Sapporo was fallen and most of the defenders had been killed or had died of hunger, like the biggest part of the civilian population too.

  Nevertheless, the brave city which had held out for so long, became a national symbol of resistance against the World Government and was transfigured to a “monument of Japanese heroism” by Matsumoto's propaganda.

  In the end, the willingness to make sacrifices of the defenders of Sapporo inspired the Japanese soldiers that much that they even started a second counterattack in the north.

  In return, the GCF tried to break the Japanese morale with several air raids which devastated large parts of Tokyo and Yokohama, but that was not enough anymore.

  At the end of March 2032, the World Government had to admit that the invasion of Matsumoto's Japan had failed. Nevertheless, the battles in the bombed out cities of southern Japan and on Hokkaido went on for several months – and countless soldiers still died.

  Frank and Alfred still burst with pride when somebody talked about the operation on Okinawa. But now, the others should fight. They were sick and tired of the endless killing and dying. So they just left the Taishi family and thanked them for everything. Shortly afterwards, they disappeard from Japan - with a foreign trading ship. Frank and Alf were brought to the Philippines and flew back to Vilnius as harmless tourists. John Throphy finally picked them up at the airport.

  ”Holy shit!”, said Frank, when he recognized the Irishman at the main entrance. At that moment, Frank realized that they had survived hell...

 

  New Plans