Laremore - World on Fire

ALSO BY W.D. LARE MORE:

THE GEARING INCI DENT

WORLD
ON
FIRE

W. D. LAREMORE

Copyright 2015 W. D. Laremore.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-6062-9 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4907-6063-6 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4907-6064-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015942690

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Trafford rev. 06/03/2015

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CONTENTS

For Eliza beth

My First Lady and Editor-in-C hief

In Memory of Grandma Shi rley

You were always there fo r us;

Now God, and our family who has pa ssed,

Are there for you.

L ike any good writing, this works purpose is to entertain through imaginative journey as well as provoke insightful intellectual stimulation that the reader finds meaning in. This novel is the result of three things: 1. The synthesis of stories and historical understanding while conducting the research for, and writing of, my Master of Arts dissertation, 2. My personal fascination with time travel and its consequences which, I know from its success as a genre in popular culture, is a shared interest with anyone who will enjoy this book, and 3. My love of, and homesickness for, my home away from home which is the Lenton-Nottingham-Beeston region of Eng land.

Gratitude and appreciation are owed to my parents who always encouraged me to pursue and develop my talents and interests, my supportive girlfriend who accepted the time away from her that this labor of love took, my close friends and fans whose expressed enjoyment of my first novel, The Gearing Incident , encouraged my continued writing, and my kickstarter crowdfunding backers whose contributions made the publication of this book possible and who are listed in the acknowledgements at the end of this book. I would also like to extend thanks to the good people of Nottinghamshire who not only helped me with my research, but were the kind and inviting people that made Nottingham feel like a second home. In doling out my thanks and appreciation, I would also like to acknowledge the helpful staff of archives and libraries across the United states and United Kingdom. Thank you to anyone else I missed in this paragraph that made this work possible. Finally, thank you, my newest reader, for choosing this book to immerse yoursel f in.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. Although much of the story is based on the authors personal experiences as an American living in Britain, and his extensive historical research, no actual person, place, event, or thing is intended to be accurately represented in this work. A selected bibliography and acknowledgements will follow at the end of this work for those interested in further reading. I hope you enjoy reading World On Fire as much as I enjoyed writing it for you.

W.D. Lare more

May 2015

PROLOGUE

CAPITULATION DAY

To Whomever Finds This:

I f you have found this letter, I am likely to have already perished. I am writing to you on September 28, 1974a date which I hope will be meaningless to you, unless of course it is your birthday. For me, and the one billion people left in America at this time, today is known as Capitulation Day. Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the day that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was compelled to sign the Treaty of Paris which ceded much of New England and the American south to Nazi Germany. Since that day, the Nazis have consolidated their power and control in the former American coastal states from Maine to Georgia and have been lately testing the boundaries of the neutral zone dividing Nazi America from what is left of the United States of Ame rica.

Those of us left behind the fifty-foot walls topped with razor wire and guard towers in Nazi America face a nightmarish reality characterized by brown shirt death squads targeting minorities and dissidents, concentration camps to hold prisoners and forced laborers, citizenry registration, and extremely curbed rights. Firearms have been confiscated, school curriculums are dictated by the state, the media is strictly censored and free speech is curtailed. Even if we wanted to fight, we would have nothing to fight with, no idea what is really going on, and no way to organize and speak out. Freedom and hope no longer exist here. As a younger man, I hated Roosevelt and the United States government for abandoning us. Now that I am educated and more mature, I understand that after the destruction of Savannah and Bangor, Roosevelt had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Paris before the Luftwaffe dropped another atom bomb on an American city.

All of that is behind us now. I hope, and indeed I pray, that this version of events sounds unfamiliar to you because if it does, it means my mission was a success. I have designed and developed a time machine which intertwines my destiny with our past and the future of humanity. If my mission is a success, this letter will surely be discarded as the mad ravings of a lunatic scientist, or better yet, a mediocre hoax. If my mission is a failure, however, then with my last breath I say: Figh t On.

Most Since rely,

Jameson D odge

Serial # 2511101-4 7265

Labor Camp

Albany, New York

CHAPTER 1

IT BEGAN WITH A TRYST

Nottingham, Eng land

May 14, 1944

H igh Street in Nottinghams Market Square during blackout felt desolate in spite of all the buildings, lit only by the moon and the many stars above. Wiser men would know better than to wander through this part of town alone and by night, but even watered down whiskey makes people braver than they sometimes should be. Tonight, Johnny Dodge was that man wandering down High Street, stumbling and blind drunk, past the butcher shop with meat hooks hanging from the overhang of the second floor. He wore his Class A uniform, and his shiny shoes were scuffed from tripping over the cobblestones of the streets in the English city.

Johnny Dodge was one of three million servicemen from the United States armed forces being hosted by The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Like most other men his age and in his circumstances, he knew he should be back at camp resting for morning calisthenics or whatever training program they would be put through next, but the problem was that Johnny knewas did the three million men like himthat any day now they would be shipped off to France where they would face certain danger and probably death. If how one dies is at least as important as how one lives, well then one might as well live a life just as meaningful as the cause they die for.

Johnny Dodges Class A uniform was stained and ruffled from an accidental collision with a smelly tommy that spilled piss-warm bitter on him before they knocked each other down. The vague memory of a solid left hook filtered through Johnnys brain as his jaw ached and he recalled how the evening got out of hand before he stormed out of The Bell Inn. Boy, that tommy could hit alr ight!