Tabankin - Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

1st Edition November 2014

Copyright 2014 Ira J. Tabankin, all rights reserved.

Sterling VA 20166

Cover image by Markus Gann

Dedication

This book, as all of mine, are, is dedicated to the love of my life, my wife Patricia.

Thanks to everyone whos provided feedback and support for my writing.

The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual names, persons, businesses, and incidents are strictly coincidental.

Christmas Eve

On November 18, 2014 in a BBC interview Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said, Dont give Iran atomic bombs. Iran is developing intercontinental ballistic missiles; theres only one reason for this, which is to attack America and Israel. Iran is not Americas friend; they seek our mutual destruction.

December 4, 2014, Iranian hackers have penetrated the computer networks of government agencies and major critical infrastructure companies in the United States and 15 other countries over the past two years in a campaign that could eventually cause physical damage, according to a report by cybersecurity company Cylance.

Prologue

Christmas Eve, December 24th, 2027, dawned overcast, windy and cold. The snow continued for the sixth straight day. Tomorrow will be the seventh straight white Christmas weve had. Once having a white Christmas would have been a joyful event. An event we sang songs about, an event to embrace, an occurrence that increased the Christmas spirit. It would have added an extra level of excitement when the presents were opened on Christmas morning. Everyone prayed for a white Christmas. We would open our presents while we kept one eye looking outside at the fresh snow. The snow on Christmas morning called to us like Ulysses Sirens. Come outside, come into our embrace. Cover yourself in us. The snow pulled at us to go outside placing our footprints into the fresh white covering. Children used to play in the snow; parents went outside to clean walks and driveways. Dogs ran, played and ate the fresh snow. The virginal white snow covering everything used to be one of the most breathtaking and beautiful sights anyone saw the first thing Christmas morning.

Kids couldnt wait to take their new sleds and toys outside to play in the snow. The clean white snow covered the grayness of winter. The fresh, untouched snow is beautiful; it smooths out the furrows in the fields; the snow sparkled when the suns rays touched the snows flakes. The snow glimmered like crystals that had floated down from heaven. A gift heaven gave us to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Even adults played like children in the fresh fallen snow; we and our children made snow angels in the fresh snow, and we had snowball fights. Fresh snow even made Christmas dinner taste better than normal. When the street lights came on, the snow reflected the lights, shadows from where everyone had played took on a life of their own. No one who woke to a white Christmas was ever depressed. Fresh snow on Christmas used to be a rare gift. That all ended twelve years ago.

This Christmas the snow is a reminder of what weve lost. A white Christmas is a reminder of our lost innocence. Fresh snow only means additional work for everyone. The children will gather the snow to melt for fresh water instead of playing in it. We have to work in the cold, wet, frozen water, clearing paths and checking our perimeter. Instead of being in love with the fresh snow, today we hate it. It only serves to make us wet and colder than normal. Fresh snow increases our burdens; it reminds us of all weve lost. Some may suffer frostbite; some may get sick which can turn deadly since weve run out of modern medications. Even a simple cold can develop into a serious illness that could further reduce our already low numbers. Anyone who gets sick has to be quarantined to protect the rest of us from the spread of whatever illness the person has come down with. We learned the hard way a simple flu can devastate us. The policy has become a real hardship for parents with sick children; most understand were trying to protect everyone.

Today is the twelfth anniversary of the end of the world as we knew it. It was very cruel that our enemy used Christmas Eve as the date to launch the attack that almost destroyed the world. The eve of the day when most of the world celebrated the birth of Jesus, the Prince of Peace saw the death of billions on his birthday. America was one of the first countries to feel deaths grip. On this twelfth anniversary, were again celebrating Christmas with an exchange of homemade gifts and a small tree decorated with ornaments made by the children. For years, we marked Christmas as only another day on the calendar. For years, Christmas was a reminder of what we lost. Every day is one we fight for life; we couldnt afford to spend the time celebrating. We spent every moment looking for food, clean water, building protection and defending against the attacks that still come. We spent our first post-Christmas after the attack burying six of our neighbors. Two were just babies. We shed many tears that day. Our tears rolled down our cheeks freezing before they hit the cold ground. Christmas is a reminder of what weve lost. We know were supposed to be thankful for what we have that were still alive. Alive? Twelve years ago none of us would have considered this life. Most of us dont want to remember what weve lost or the war were still fighting years after the world ended. Many ask why we are still fighting twelve years later. Our children ask when the war will end. Many of our children have never known peace. Most of us know this war will end only when the last one of us or our enemy remains standing. This war has become one to the death. Surrender isnt an option for either side. Weve learned not to trust the other side. They use a white flag as a strategy to advance on our positions. We learned our lesson when they used a white flag to get a few of us to exit our defense line where they shot at us.

This war started a long time ago. If wed only kept our eyes and ears open and learned our lessons the first few hundred times, we might have never reached this place. We should have learned historys lessons. We shouldnt have made excuses for them; we should have listened to what they were saying. Had we learned historys lessons we wouldnt have had to relive them. Had we listened, had we studied what they were saying this war would have come to an end a long time ago with our victory. Our enemy was honest; they never hid their goal. They preached it; they shouted it whenever they got a chance. We should have judged them from their book and not from ours. They told us their plans; they told us what their goal was. We didnt believe them; we didnt think anyone in the twenty-first century would follow through killing billions of people. We didnt believe they really believed what they were saying. It became politically incorrect to say anything negative about them. We were told most of them were peaceful, only a very small number of the 1.6 billion members of their religion were fanatical. We thought it was possible to convince a small number to change their ways. We were told we could buy their friendship; we could make them see the error of their ways. Our leaders said we could talk it out; we were told we could reach a comprise, after all everyone wanted peace. They were wrong. Being wrong cost the world billions of lives. The fresh snow reminds us of what weve lost. The fresh snow covers the graves in a cold white blanket that smothers our dreams.

Einstein was asked if he knew what weapons would be used in World War III; he is quoted as saying, I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. He was almost right. World War III flowed into World War IV. World War III destroyed our world. It destroyed most life on our small blue planet. The worst weapons man ever developed were used in the third World War. The third World War turned out to be the shortest major war in history; or one of the longest depending if you consider World War III as the initial strikes and the current war as World War IV. Something most of us do. Twelve years later were still fighting. No longer as countries, now we fight as small communities, we fight as small bands of people determined to win, each win enables us to live so we can fight another day, we sound almost like the Roman gladiators. We finally realized that our enemy isnt going to give up until the last of us, or they are dead.