Fight - 99 Luftballons by Alicia

99 Luftballons

1139 hours, Vandenberg Air Base, CA.

“Sir, are you sure?”

“Are you here to question my orders, or to follow them, Lieutenant?” Commanding Officer Phillip Savoy barked, his hands tightening into fists by his thighs.

The officer beside him assumed an expression of obedience, but not before Savoy glimpsed the contempt and fear. They were in the middle of a war here, and it was not the time for frightened officers to forget their place.

 “Launch missilery action Lima Alpha.”

The order was repeated and echoed across the room until it was transmitted into the radio communication system.

“Echo Romeo Tango, launching Lima Alpha countdown in 5...”

 Across the fiery evening sky, missiles streamed, trailing a blazing pure white tail of steam towards unsuspecting destruction.

“ETI two minutes…”

***

1840 hours, East Germany.

“Maria, let’s go home.”

Maria jumped off the small construction of torn brick and items that people simply didn’t want anymore. Her patchy red shoes scuffed against an old wooden doll that had lost the glimmer of its maker’s love. The long pleat of her skirt brushed past a heavy scorched leather suitcase weighed down by a mountain of memories and lost faith. In the glimmering heat of the sunset, they glowed with an unnatural presence as if warning them 

to forget, or was it to remember?

Her younger brother, Friedrich, ran around her in circles, his head thrown back and lips parted as he gazed upwards to the horizon, towards their design. Already, their art was far away. The fluorescing eyes of streetlamps as they made their way down the Straße hissed in anticipation of night.

More eyes began to emerge from darkened alleyways as cats slinked outwards, marking their way around the two children in silence and care. 

Fifty stars came shooting out of the sky.

Dogs could be heard in the distance, barking in paranoia about the ninety-nine red balloons the two children had set free into the air.

What stupid dogs they were. 

~OvO~

Author's Note: 330 words. I know, I cheated with the stimulus a bit. But I did this story as a roughly (highly inaccurate) historical fiction because I'm trying to write my After the Bomb story and I'm getting really stuck.

In case it wasn't apparent, the dogs are the Americans, and for some reason, cats are Germans. This is highly inaccurate. The fifty stars are the missiles, it's a bit hyperbolic but it seemed fittingly American. 

AH! The name of this and the story idea itself, is all entirely based on the song called 99 Luftballons by Nena. It's an anti-war song written sometime during the Cold War, which translates to 99 Red Balloons in English. 

• Strasse (or Straße) is German for street. 
• ETI is Estimated Time Impact, although I just made that up. 
• The times seem really weird, being 1139 and then 1840, but it's apparently a 7 hour difference between America and Germany. I just didn't bother checking specifically for California.