And a time for every affair under the heavens…
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace.”
- The Holy Bible, Book of Ecclesiastes
This story is dedicated to my good friend John Bulger, who has just entered the United States Military Academy at West Point as a new recruit. Private Gray is named in his honor.
Private John Gray – “From the Ashes”
Recruit Name: Private John Gray
Birth Date: December 21, 1985
Enlistment Date: Classified
Eye / Hair Color: Green / Brown
Height / Weight: 6’2” / 240 lbs.
Familial Status: Classified
I used to have a good life. My wife Katherine and I had finally settled down in the suburbs outside New York City. Our first baby boy was on the way, and my dad had just moved in with us to help take care of him. I had recently joined the NYPD, like my father before me, and had survived a whole year on the force. The salary wasn’t great, but it was enough to pay the bills and the mortgage. And I wasn’t in it for the money, anyway. For me, the real reward was coming home every night and seeing the look of pride and approval on my dad’s face.
I was, in short, perfectly happy. I wanted nothing more than for the world to stay just like this forever.
But the world had other plans. Or at least the Bane did.
***
They came at the stroke of midnight, descending silently on New York like the angel of death. Sleeping next to my wife, blissfully unaware of the horde of aliens bearing down on our fragile planet, I never saw their ships, never saw the bomb they dropped on the city. All I heard was an explosion that shook the very foundations of our house.
Instantly awake, my heart pounding with fear, I leapt out of bed and started throwing on whatever clothes I could find. Somewhere sirens began wailing, like a dirge. Shuddering, I reached for my pistol.
“John?” Katherine called from our bed, sitting bolt upright, her eyes wide with terror, her hands held protectively over her swollen belly. “John, the baby…”
Halfway out the door, I turned to look at her. For a single precious moment she and I simply stared at each other, a thousand things I wanted to tell her running through my mind. Then she nodded, and I knew she understood everything, without either of us having to say a word.
“I love you,” I whispered.
And I threw the door shut behind me.
***
I found my father waiting for me in the kitchen, fully dressed and carrying his own pistol. “Something is coming,” I said, as evenly as I could.
“I know,” he said, calmly.
Outside the kitchen window, far in the distance, I could see flames rising from where Manhattan used to be.
We didn’t have to wait long. Barely fifteen minutes later, the Bane raiders knocked down the front door and forced their way in – three of them, their crustacean bodies bulbous and misshapen, brandishing claws and strange guns. My father and I tried to fend them off, even though we had nothing but our pistols and our bare hands to defend ourselves with. What else could we do? We were cops, both of us. Protecting people was simply what we did. My dad had been on the force for over twenty years, always out on the street, in the middle of the action. He’d faced down pickpockets, burglars, drug dealers, gangsters – criminals of every kind imaginable, and even after twenty years, they had never got him.
The Bane killed him with a single shot.
Blind with fury, stupid with rage, I tried to grab the murderous weapon out of the creature’s grasp, but its hold was too strong. With one quick, angry movement, its other claw flashed forward and slashed open my chest like I was made of tinfoil.
I fell into darkness.
***
“How many in here?” someone said, an old, tired voice.
“Two dead,” another, younger voice replied. “A father and his son, by the looks of it.”
“Mark it down,” the first said, sighing. “And find their names if you can.”
“I’ve got ID,” the second said, much closer now. “Daniel Gray…and John Gray. Both NYPD.”
“Pity they didn’t survive,” the first said, without emotion. “They would have made good recruits.”
Suddenly a third voice cut through the others. Wake up, John, it said, infinitely distant yet intensely familiar. They’re here for you…
“Dad?” I cried out. “Dad, wait!”
But strong hands had hold of me, and before I knew what was happening they were bearing me bodily into a world full of blinding light and roaring sound.
***
And so, over two weeks after the Bane destroyed New York, I was rescued by the AFS. The soldiers took me back to their stronghold, somewhere on a planet they called Foreas. The medics who treated me guessed I must have fallen into a coma after the Bane slashed open my chest. I had lost so much blood, they’re still not sure how I survived. For the next few weeks, they fed me, tended my wounds…gave me time to cope with my losses.
They had never found Katherine’s body, you see.
Then, as soon as they deemed me strong enough, I joined them.
They gave me a uniform, they gave me a gun – and, most important of all, they gave me a new reason to live, a reason that went beyond mere survival. For the first time since that night, the night I lost everything and everyone I had ever loved, I felt…I felt like I had a purpose. I knew I had been given a new start – a second chance to make things right.
That was only a month ago, but it feels like a lifetime. Tomorrow, I ship out for my first mission, my first battle as an AFS soldier. They’ve trained me well. I feel confident, primed, prepared – ready to bring the Bane to justice for what they did to my family.
Yet my thoughts still linger on my father, my wife, my son. As I recall our final moments together, I feel – not despair – but strength, their strength, coursing through me like a raging flame. And suddenly I know, with utter certainty, that we will win this war.
Out of the ashes of our ruined home, Humanity will rise again.
For their sake, and in their memory, I will make it happen – or die trying.
Author: P. Baranay
Michigan, USA
Signature Character Contest Runner-up