River of Pain

"River of Pain" is a short story about the cycle of hatred. It was written as an assignment about a story that involve a river, with a clear protagonist and antagonist and a change of fortune.

River of Pain
You'd be surprised at how pretty a place of conflict could be. A good example of this is the Land of Roots. It was a small part of a small country in a tiny corner of the world. Despite this, there was a large dispute between the two groups occupying the land, the Uda and the Enja. The feud between these groups goes back centuries, and nobody nowadays knows how it originated. But what both groups had in common was their proximity to the River of Life. The Uda lived further up the river, and both communities depended on the river greatly, for food and water. It was between both sides that Dr. Robert Darin found himself. He's an infectious disease specialist from North America, and part of the organization  "Doctors without Borders" and had come to the Land of Roots to treat both groups for common diseases. One day, Dr. Darin was sitting by the river near the Enja village when he was approached by John Neta, a respected figure in the community.

"Good afternoon Doc." John said.

"Hello John." Robert replied, "I hope you're feeling better."

"Oh yeah, that TB medication works great. In fact, everyone is doing much better since you got here."

"Glad to hear that."

"However, many of the villagers are upset that you are helping the Uda."

Robert sighed, "I already explained this. I don't take sides."

"Yeah, I know. I just wanted to inform you."

Suddenly, the ground shook and a loud boom came from the village. Robert's ears rung. He looked to see that the water from the usually calm river of moving rapidly. Robert and John ran to the village and saw that the area near the river had been damaged by an explosion.

"What happened?!" John asked.

One of the villagers replied, "A truck crashed into the river and just exploded. We think it was a bomb brought here by the Uda. It was horrifying, but luckily very few died."

There were many injured villagers, and Robert went to help them. But then something caught his eye. A burning piece of metal.

"Perhaps a piece of the truck got covered in flammable material." he thought.

But something in the back of his mind was nagging him.

"Why was the truck driven into the river?" he thought, "If this really was a terrorist attack, wouldn't it be more effective to drive in the middle of the village?"

Robert's eyes widened when he made a realization.

"We need to evacuate the town now!" he said to John.

"Why?" he asked, "The attack is over. Right now we need to help the wounded."

"I think the bomb was actually a truckload of cesium."

"Cesium?" John asked.

"It's a highly reactive metal. It burns in contact with air and explodes in contact with water."

"Ok," John said, "but why do we have to evacuate."

"If it was a radioactive isotope of cesium, the radiation levels with be lethal. Everyone has to leave now!"

It had been two months since the attack on the Enja. The U.N. had gotten involved, and they had arrested all the Uda responsible. The attack was carried out using Cesium-134. It will be 20 years before the Enja can return to the old village. Dr. Darin had stayed in the Land of Roots longer than he originally planned, in order to help the ill and wounded. Many of the Enja had gotten sick from the radiation. Dr. Darin was walking by the river, upstream from where the attack happened. Even though it had been months, Robert was still disturbed by the evil in some people. As he was thinking, he saw a dead bear near the water. As he walked closer he saw a large amount of dead fish. Robert observed the corpses and noticed signs of infection. He took a sample and returned to the temporary camp everyone was living in. He looked at the sample under a microscope, and noticed that there were E. Coli bacteria in it. However, they appeared to be dividing much faster than normal.

"What are you looking at Doc?"

Robert turned around to see John standing behind him.

"This is really interesting actually." Robert said, "The radiation in the river was mostly concentrated downstream, but it seems that the small amount further upstream mutated bacteria in the river. I found an extremely aggressive form of E. Coli that killed a bear."

"Extremely aggressive huh?"

"Yeah, I mean it's lucky that no one was infected. This could very well be deadly."

"That is interesting." John said, "Well, I've got to go. I have important business to attend to."

A few hours later, Robert went to John's tent to talk to him. John wasn't there, but Robert saw a gun in the corner of the tent. He picked it up, then saw something that horrified him. A small package of trinitrotoluene. Robert then realized what was about to happen. Robert jumped in a nearby jeep and drove towards the Uda village. He just hoped he could stop John before it was too late. When he got near the village, Robert saw John driving the other way. Robert stopped the jeep in front of him and both men got out.

"I know what you're planning John." Robert said, "I have to admit. I'm impressed that you built a bioweapon on such short notice."

"I had already built the bomb." John replied, "But I have you to thank for telling me about the bacteria and bear. It gave me the idea for how to wipe out the Uda once and for all."

"You're insane. You're no better then those terrorists!"

"How dare you! I'm paying evil onto evil!"

"No, you're not! The U.N. already arrested everyone responsible. You're hurting people who never did anything to you!"

"That's not how I see it." John said, taking out a detonator, "The terrorists were Uda, so they must all be rotten deep down."

"Last chance John." Robert said firmly, "Drop the detonator."

John paused, "I just realized. You know what I'm doing, so I'll have to kill you too. Sorry doc."

At that moment, Robert drew his gun and shot John straight in the chest. The detonator fell to the ground. John collapsed, dead. Robert stood there for over a minute. He was shocked at what he had done. With a shaking hand, he picked up the detonator. He turned his head to see the River of Life flowing next to him. Robert threw the remote and gun into the river. They both disappeared from view. Robert looked down at John's body, then got back in the jeep, heading towards the Uda village to get rid of the bomb.