The sky was painted with colours of pink and gold, decorated with white streaks for clouds. The sun itself was deep orange, the colour of the fruit, giving out its satanic glow. Silhouettes of the buildings black against the sunset, haunting the landscape.
Jack carried on with his walk along the path to the center of their bit of the city; The National Portrait Gallery.
When the men and the women split up and taken claims to certain parts of London, their leader had chosen to use the Gallery as the meet up. They stripped the walls from the paintings and lay them in the lowest floor of the building covered in sheets, shielding them from the dust until the war is over.
Portraits, Landscapes, Still Life's all hidden away for God knows how long.
He let out a sigh, watching white transparent air come from his lips.
The way to the Gallery from his flat was about a ten minutes walk and already he was halfway. Five more minutes and he would get to hear what the Colonel had to say.
Another speech about near victory? A speech for the dead? They have had about a hundred for each one.
As he approached Trafalgar Square the great building loomed above the statue of Lord Nelson.
Jack mounted the steps to the meet-up two at a time and entered to see thousands of men gathered in a group, waiting to hear the Colonel.
The chatter was filling the hall with noise, occasionally sentences could picked up.
'Down to the women!'
'It's their fault!'
'We should kill them off.'
'This war should be over by now.'
This kind of talk carried on until the Colonel appeared on the balcony. He held up his hand for silence, which he got within a minute.
"Men, soldiers, comrades today is a day of mourning for the men we have lost in these four years of war, but tomorrow we shall celebrate for we are bombing the women's camp!"
Gasps ran through the crowd of men, some shocked others excited. Jack, however, was horrified. Outside he was pulling a straight face but inside he was running and screaming with fright and loss.
"We must do to them what they did to us!" Men around him cheered, lifting their fists into the air, the looks on their faces lit up and energetic.
"They must die for what they did!" Another cheer.
"Tomorrow peace will be among us once again! Tomorrow we shall be victorious! Tomorrow we shall be heroes!"
Anger twisted inside of him.
How could he be so stupid?
He must warn Ara, this plan couldn't succeed.
"Jack Harrmann, can you come up here please?" The Colonel was looking throughout the crowd until his eyes rested on him. Jack gulped down his fear as the men all turned to look at him. Slowly he pushed through the crowd until he reached the broken moving stairs. Climbing the steps was ten times harder with all eyes on him, legs shaking, unsteady breathing.
What should he say?
He joined the Colonel and bowed his head.
"A few words to inspire us Jack?" Nervously he stepped up to the mic and took a breath.
"The women have deserved what they got.." he started. He ran his eyes through the faces of his fellow comrades. What to say?
"And we all want the end to come." The truth? Yes. He sighed inwardly.
"But war doesn't end with a massacre!"