World War D(warves)
By
Geltab
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PUBLISHED BY:
Copyright © 2014 by Geltab
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
World War D(warves)
I will write this for historical purposes. What happened needs to be documented by someone, and no one left wants to be the one to set it down. I think the shock of the remaining survivors outweighs any desire for thoughts of remembrance. Anyway, most of the scholars are dead. I fought in the war, I lived through the war, I won and lost myself in the war. I am not a historian or a professor, like I said, most of them are dead. I’m no one, thrust into unbelievable, unexplainable, ridiculous events. Things that actually happened that could never be true in a million years. Still, anyone who reads this in the future, never doubt its accuracy, I was there in the flesh…unfortunately.
I will try to relay to you, the reader, wherever you are, in whatever time and place, the horror of a planet gone crazy overnight. Fantasy became reality. When you picture the concepts of reality and fantasy in your mind there is a clear line separating them, fiction over here, and nonfiction over here. For instance, there were reindeer that lived near the North Pole; there were never flying reindeer in the North Pole, ala Santa Claus. The point is this, I now believe in flying reindeer, Earth’s idea of reality was shattered and remade overnight.
On March 3rd 2033 at 3:33pm EST, a dark fantasy became an unbearable reality. From a clear and sunny morning, right into earthquakes around the globe that triggered huge cities made of stone to rise from under the earth, cities made of black stone rising all over the world simultaneously. They mostly appeared in rural areas, such as farms and empty fields. One day it was a field filled with weeds, and the next day there was a giant city made of stone taking up hundreds of miles. Other areas of the world had lone mountains and mountain ranges rise from the ground and the sea. Most people thought this was Armageddon or the end of the world, some super volcano finally going to bring everything crashing down. The rising of the black stone cities and mountain ranges occurred over twelve hours, this is why I say reality was shattered and transformed overnight.
In populated areas, several cities were obliterated as the new cities of black stone and mountain ranges rose underneath them, tumbling our modern skyscrapers and jazzy brownstones to ruin. What was this? What were they? Where did they come from? ‘Has to be aliens,’ is what I was thinking at first, until discovering these invaders were worse than zombies. The whole world, or what was left of it, was buzzing like crazy, talk in the media and the internet to those who still had electricity, quickly went into conspiracy theories, and with good reason. I always thought it would be a nuclear war, or the alien invasion I mentioned, or maybe zombie apocalypse, anyway, I thought wrong.
Militaries from around the world were placed on the highest level of alert, global martial law was implemented for the first time ever, and people needed some kind of damned answers. The answers came alright, and I wish to God I never lived to see them. From these cities, from these mountains, and from underground they came, Gray Dwarves. It might sound funny but it’s not, they are nothing except your worst nightmare come to life. These are no friendly Dwarves from fantasy stories and movies. No, these were not the greedy yet lovable Dwarves of Disney and Hollywood we all grew up with. Where were the cantankerous, yet kindly Dwarves from The Hobbit when you needed them? It wasn’t these killers that was for sure.
Their skin was dark gray, like ash from a chimney fire; it was clammy with the feel of a person who’s been dead for a few days. Their eyes were bright red, like burning flames directly from the pits of hell. You could feel the hatred for humanity emanating from them almost physically if you looked them in the eye. All the Gray Dwarves had their faces tattooed with metal, the pattern depending on rank. Their teeth were filed to fangs, and then dipped in some type of unbreakable metal. Their matted and dreadlocked hair, unkempt for decades was to add to their menace. Many had mushrooms or small, shady plants growing from their hair or beards. Their dead skin was embedded with various black and white gems throughout their bodies, and in the pit of their throat was a bright red gem that pulsed with disgusting red ooze. They wore the shaggy hair of some type of animal making it almost impossible to see their armor, though they wore metal underneath the hides. Only their oversized axes were easily spotted, gripped double handed and held in front of the Gray Dwarves as they marched.
Just like the cities and mountains had attacked the land, legions of axe wielding, dead skinned Gray Dwarves began attacking the armies and peoples of the world. The armies of the globe were remarkably, and suspiciously well coordinated with one another. The U.S. led the coalition; there were twenty million men at arms of different nations united and standing ready when the Gray Dwarves cities appeared. They never stood a chance. Guns, tanks, missiles, rail guns, laser ships, acoustic devices, nuclear weapons, all weapons of the world were armed for war. There turned out to be just one problem for us, the Gray Dwarves were immune to guns, bombs, missiles, radiation, biological weapons, fire, and any other chemical reaction. Nothing seemed to harm them.
Through deadly experience we learned they were vulnerable to bladed weapons like anyone else. If you had a blade and the will, you could stab them and they would die, which was easier said than done considering their martial training. People noticed when the Gray Dwarves were hit by metal shrapnel from explosives they were cut or died. The fire and explosion didn’t bother them, just the metal shrapnel. It was like a miracle learning this after their initial slaughtering invasion when we thought they were invincible. They smashed through us like a hammer, the twenty million strong army was gone, global chaos ensued.
Burning, pillaging, looting, and those were just the humans. Many countries took the Gray Dwarf invasion as a time to begin fighting among themselves, of those countries, many don’t exist anymore. The Gray Dwarves were merciless, as if they enjoyed killing humans, it wasn’t just war for them, this was a hunt for fun. Millions upon millions in addition to the military died during the first month’s confusion. Everyone was trying to shoot the Gray Dwarves, to blow them up, unsuccessfully. This allowed the Gray Dwarves to gain the advantage, running their war as they pleased.
Nothing in our arsenal could hurt them, not even the weather bothered them. Where were the Roman Legions when you need them? We were only a couple thousand years too late. In our modern world we had forgotten how to fight hand to hand with swords, spears, axes, and shields. Everyone accept a handful of entertainers and historians had no reason to know these things. We had to learn again to fight just as our ancestors did.. The Gray Dwarves were successful in every military encounter, murdering soldier and civilian alike as they conquered the world, on their time. There was no mercy or pity in their eyes of fire; it seemed they were made of the stone they sprang from.
After three months it appeared most of the world was finished. Europe fell into a disorganized mess, Russia, China, and India joined together,
regrouping into a new country calling itself New East, no one was sure how long humans would be around, why come up with a fancy name?. They were barely hanging on; their union had the best chance at survival simply from the sheer numbers of people. The Americas crumbled, imploding under the weight of the blood and slaughter of the Gray Dwarves. They didn’t break the will of the people, just the old concepts of government. All over the world, from the old U.S. to Mongolia small resistance groups were trying to form from the survivors of the initial attack, and learn to communicate with each other somehow. Knowledge was spreading once again among the small groups about blacksmithing, ironwork, armor, and other crafts needed to defend against Gray Dwarves.
They could have exterminated us all too easily, but they didn’t. They were at ease, amused, swollen with victory. We began to notice a pattern, the Gray Dwarves would start a battle campaign, fight, die, and kill until they stopped for their season, sometimes not attacking for years, it depended on their King’s moods, and we learned they lived by something they referred to as “War Seasons.” Their reasons no longer mattered, so long as it gave us a breather. Allowing us to regroup, restock, and get ready for the next season. They seemed to satisfy some uncontrollable bloodlust through their killing and were possessed by precious metals and gems, trying to turn them into weapons. In their campaigns, anything they consider treasure they steal, carrying all they can hold. Unlike Dwarves of lore, they only wanted treasure they can turn into weapons of war.
With all hope lost, any leader we had still alive was desperately trying to communicate with the Gray Dwarves and negotiate some kind of surrender. They weren’t able to grasp the fact that there was no mercy or surrender to be had. The largest resistance movement in the New East was already under attack by the Gray Dwarves before they could organize properly, how they learned the location is unclear, but our greatest hope of survival had been betrayed. In this moment at the end of all things, in this moment of humanities extinction, a dream to match the nightmare came true.
From the Indian Ocean, south of the subcontinent at the equator, rising out of the ocean sprang another mountain range. This one was continuous, and the size of a continent with a mountain peak in the center taller than any on Earth, twice the size of Everest. First, we thought it was another Gray Dwarf city or mountain, except this was no black stone; this was precious metals and jewels. The whole continental range was decorated with enormous, magnificent, and fierce figures of warriors. Giant cities of precious metal rose from under and above this range, there seemed to be no end. The earthquake and following tsunami from the rising of this new mountain range wiped out the Gray Dwarves invading along the coasts, this gave the New East time to regroup and retreat to a safer location.
The Gray Dwarves were frantic in their first display of fear. They forgot about killing us and turned their attention to that golden mountain range, they were very interested in the highest mountain peak. They kept repeating a word to each other as they ignored the humans continuously hacking at their flanks. “Thazdulrene,” no one knew what it meant, but it was all consuming to the Gray Dwarves. They were gathering together in a great mass around this peak, marching upwards towards the golden mountain range like a dark thunderstorm they began to swell at the base of the mountains blotting out all color.
Suddenly there came a horn, like a Shofar, but loud enough to split the ears of the world. There was a shaking and rumbling, ‘Another earthquake’ I thought, as I fell from the violent jerking. The top of the tallest golden peak shattered and blew to countless pieces before the eyes of everyone. I thought the Gray Dwarves were attacking with a weapon, until I began to see what looked like lava, far in the distance, high on the mountain slopes, moving faster than a jet it wasn’t lava, it was more Dwarves. These were not the Gray Dwarves though; they were like night and day in their differences.
These heroes wore armor as bright as the sun making them hard to look at; their weapons were either made of, or wrapped in jewels unknown on Earth. In their eyes a fire burned with a different light than that of the Gray Dwarves. In their eyes was a cleansing fire, pure and purposeful in its clarity. They were shouting an unknown language all together, like water at high tide they swept over the Gray Dwarves surrounding their golden continental range of Thazdulrene, on their way down they hacked them into nothingness. There were no bodies; the Gray Dwarves were just gone, almost like the weapons of the Thazdulrene Dwarves were dimensional rifts. There were so many of these golden Dwarves of Thazdulrene they couldn’t be counted or the end of them seen. I got the awful feeling this was just one battleground between the Gray Dwarves and the Golden Dwarves of Thazdulrene. Maybe many worlds, many dimensions suffer some part of this conflict and Earth just happened to be next in line.
Every surviving human was taken to the golden range of Thazdulrene and placed in various cities under the protection of the Dwarven King. It was a magical process of gathering, or high tech, how do you tell the difference? How they were able to find and transport all survivors to their continent I will leave to future scientists and magicians. Earth is no longer the planet it was, whatever the next step of Thazdulrene, we will be there fighting.