The war to end all wars

The flames wrapped themselves along the walls consuming anything flamable. The smoke and heat from its breath making it unbearable to live. Shiruba ran as much as he could. The structure beginning to collapse. He reached the exit and fell to the ground. He had tried.

He looked at his hands. They trembled as they clutched the stuff animal. His hands charred black from trying to remove the burning planks from his friend butvhe couldn't. He cried into the bear as the sounds of sirens rang throughout his head.

The sirens.

Shiruba woke up and yelled. He looked at his hands. He swore he could feel the heat. They looked normal... Well as normal to him. Knife wounds covered his hands and the CORE emblem was emblazoned on his left hand. He turned and grabbed a pair of gloves and covered his hands. He didn't want to look at his past.

He covered his arms up and pulled on whatever clothes he had. He tried to disguise himself as best he could.

The door opened up and a woman walked into the room. "I shouldn't even be doing this for an ex member." She looked at him and handed him some paper he assumed was money and some small items. Like a lighter which he quickly put away from his hands and some other small necessities like a bottle of water.

"You helped the old man. Just don't believe I'll be this friendly if we ever meet again. You should be careful. The UN is bringing their favorite parade into our city. They believe their saviors when they bombed half our residents. At this rate I'm not sure if the rebellion can hold up anymore especially when more and more of our kind is moving towards the Coalition."

The sounds of tanks and helicoptors were overhead and he knew it wasn't safe. He nodded towards Ari and exited the room.

"You can never come back. Then again you weren't ever here." She closed the door and they walked out towards the bar.

"The worlds changed since you were gone by the way. The rich get tons by manufacturing weapons and since fuel is so high in demand people are killing for it. The middle east is basically gone after they nuked the place and corruption spreads from what used to be saudi arabia to Pakistan. I heard you were the last to talk to Kill. No one has any idea where he's been in years but I believe the recent attacks against CORE and UN outposts in Mexico are caused by him." She reached the exit. "I just have one last word of advice. Don't get caught in the crossfire." She let Shiruba out and he walked down the street. He remembered the old city. One of the places he grew up in. He began to walk down towards the crowd to blend in. The crownld was staring and cheering at the UN's army of metal and flesh. The troops were well organized and even though people thought each side was getting warn out of the ten year war the United States and Russia had kept pumping out fresh troops for the UN. They all wore neat uniforms and their tanks were spotless. These were just rookies getting a taste of what victory was going to be like. They hadn't experienced the horrid of war yet.

Shiruba continued to watch. He remembered he wanted to join them he wanted to do what's wrong. He had no idea what path had skewed him to make the wrong choices but he wanted to start making right ones now. He continued to watch peacefully making sure the rags he passed off as a cloak concealed him.