Chapter 21

Sebastien had received his papers summoning him to the army base for a physical. He could not appeal in any way to avoid joining. If you got your call up you did whatever you were ordered to do. The only grounds for excusing one's self from service was health. He passed his checks and was soon on the way to go through his basic training. The only crumb of comfort was that most of his fellow conscripts were as miserable as him.

Nothing about his training was hard mentally, but it was tough physically. At the beginning he had asked a couple of questions and this had been met with consternation. He was clever enough to know that keeping his head down and playing dumb was the best course of action. He moved on to his first posting without further incident.

During the initial months he found a friend. Robert was a little slow but he was kind and loyal. He was a bit clumsy, but he turned this into a sort of slapstick act which kept his fellow soldiers amused and made him popular. Sebastien was rather studious and would probably have been side lined were it not for his friendship with Robert.

"After a tour abroad, a platoon of fifty men, including me and Robert, were taken back to England for special duties. We were not told what we would be doing or where we were going. In the end we were delivered to an isolated base and installed in two barracks. Me and Robert were separated for the first time since we had met.

It seems we had been sent to an experimental centre which were testing various chemicals. They told us that it was a type of tear gas and would only irritate if it got in our eyes. They trooped us in and out of buildings of various sizes wearing different sorts of gas masks. Scientists in full bio hazard suits stood observing us.

I was disturbed by the sight of the men covered from head to foot. If this gas was only an irritant, why were they opting for full protection. As usual there was no one we could talk to about our worries. Everyone was okay and there had been no injuries so I had to put up with this until I was sent somewhere else.

Six weeks of testing had taken place and the men were all a bit bored. My barracks room were woken as usual and the soldiers were told to assemble on the parade ground. They were addressed by an officer who told us, in a forlorn tone, that there had been an accident the night before. Some chemicals had leaked from a store into the other barracks and all the soldiers inside had died."

Sebastien felt himself sway and a murmur ran through the normally blindly obedient ranks. The officer offered some sympathetic platitudes and said that the families would be informed. They were not to discuss what had happened with anyone and if caught doing so it would mean jail time.

They were all still reeling as they were dismissed and told to return to the barracks. Sebastien needed to take the news in. He did not return straight away with his colleagues. He walked off fearing that he would cry, which he did not want his friends to see. He walked towards an isolated hut and as he neared, he saw a face at the window.

"One of the soldiers who had been reported as dead was staring at me. Christopher was a big guy and a bit of a bully. I'd steered clear of him where possible, but now I was looking into a face etched with fear. I looked around to check that I wasn't being watched and then approached the hut.

Christopher was eager to tell his story. The window was badly fitted in the wooden hut and sound passed through fairly easily so he spoke rapidly to me. They had settled down after lights out and there was some chatter until the door opened, he said. They all fell silent as a scientist in a protective suit walked to the middle of the room and placed a canister on the floor. He then turned and walked away.

A second after he shut the door there was a hissing sound. Gas was coming out of the canister. His cot was close to a window and he heard the others cough and choke. Then there were screams as the men began to die. He had acted purely on instinct and had thrown a chair through the glass and made his escape.

Outside of the building Christopher had been violently sick which had probably saved his life. No one else had got out of the building. He had not looked back inside for fear of the gas, but as he sat on the ground no one else emerged. Men in bio suits had arrived and he had been led away from the scene. As he made his departure, he saw a lorry reverse up to the door. This would be the transport for his dead colleagues.

He had not been given much of an explanation beyond hearing the word accident. Christopher knew that this was a deliberate act. He was not the brightest soldier, but he was fully aware of the terrible situation he was in. He should not have survived and he was now a witness to a crime.

"I've told them that I don't remember anything, but I can see they don't believe me. I'm going to disappear, Seb. They can't be allowed to get away with this." He told me."

Sebastien didn't tell him that he had been declared dead. He stumbled away from his condemned colleague with the awful knowledge of what had happened already eating away at him from the inside.

His friend Robert and twenty-three other soldiers had been murdered by the army. They had been murdered by the OWG. Sebastien had managed to get back to the barracks where he had listened to the worried chatter amongst the rest of the platoon. He had not breathed a word of his conversation to anyone until now.

When he had got home, he had said he was disturbed by an incident in which his friend had died. He had been terrified about revealing more and yet here he was telling all. It was a cathartic exercise and he was glad that he had been able to share the burden. He was also sorry that Dan now knew the truth about how the OWG treated its army personnel.

Whatever the etiquette in this world Dan would not leave this meeting without hugging Sebastien. He thanked him for his brave decision to come forward and talk about what was clearly a traumatic experience. They parted and Dan made the walk back to his house in the safe town amongst the leadership class.

He went into the children's bedrooms and watched them sleep. What sort of world were they being brought up in? What did the future have in store for them? Something had to be done about the OWG. He was determined to work towards overthrowing the monstrous government.

"They slaughtered those men to test a chemical weapon."

Martin was shaking his head as he took in Dan's words. He had known that the OWG made individuals disappear but this was mass murder. Martin couldn't help wondering about the fate of Christopher who had survived the attack. Was he still alive?

Dan had spent time wondering what the Ministry of Defence was doing and now he knew. They weren't developing rockets and nuclear bombs. They had decided to concentrate on chemical weapons. Their reasoning had surely been that they could kill people without damaging their precious infrastructure.

The ministry would not have acted without the permission of the OWG so they were ultimately responsible for sanctioning this dreadful action. Their arrogance saw them kill and assume that their callous disregard for their people would not become known to the public. If challenged they would deny everything and they would get away with it.

The only sources of information that the people had was controlled by the OWG. They ran all aspects of the press. Television programmes were produced by them and the newspaper was theirs too. The occasional pamphlet was produced by someone else, but even having something like that in one's possession could mean trouble so they were largely ignored.

The OWG could issue denials about rumoured atrocities, but they rarely bothered. The best way to deal with unsubstantiated gossip was to ignore it. The story about the soldiers sounded like some, farfetched, invention designed to undermine the government. They wouldn't even comment on something like that.

When you controlled the press and information, anything negative could be suppressed. The OWG only reported on the good things that they did. Whoever was in the main government had it all worked out. It was going to be difficult to fight back against this enormous propaganda machine.