Novel Excerpt: Dark Fairy Chronicles

My latest project has been a rather bizarre and experimental idea.  The novel I've started working on now has two plots:  one in the past (1999) and one in the present (sorta:  it's 2009).  Together, they constitute the Dark Fairy Chronicles:  the outlandish case of a fairy and her daughter from another world crossing over to modern America to escape persecution.  In the past, the young daughter faces the hardships and pressure of high school, and begins to dabble with the lore and magic of her home world to overcome the challenges, and to perhaps seek vengeance against those who hurt her.  Ten years later, the town has been consumed by the dark forces of magic, with the town in ruins and overrun by vicious monsters.  In all that time, the military has been struggling to quarantine the corruption.  To end it once and for all, they launch an operation to exterminate the Dark Fairy.

Much of this writing as been touch and go for me, but over the past several months it's been coming along smoothly.  I find myself most comfortable in the 2009 scenes, where everything is pretty wicked and it's been playing out like a modern-day war story with a fantasy aesthetic.  I have a pretty good idea as to how these scenes will roll.  The 1999 plot is being laid out in a kind of flashback fashion, and I've always been weary that I may not be able to piece this together right (because high-school drama is something I never really wrote of before).  It's been coming along little by little though.  In a way, it's a bit like Stephen King's Carrie (or, cheesy as it may seem, the film The Craft), but coupled with an overarching quest plot; I don't even know how to describe the present-day story, except to say maybe it's what you get if the Shadow of Mordor video game was crossed with Saving Private Ryan.  The Dark Fairy herself is heavily inspired by characters like Maleficent.

This is being written as an epistolary novel, patched together from faux journal entries and memoir excerpts from the different characters involved.  Later on, I hope to include news reports and official documents as well.  This style of writing is great for giving a book a more realistic texture, but I believe it's ideal for showing multiple viewpoints and insights on the characters, making things well-rounded.

Below is the first major segment of the book, told as an excerpt from the memoir of a sergeant in the National Guard (his name is currently Jake Gildenberry, but his name is subject to change, because it does seem a little silly to me).  It jumps right into one of the major battles between the Guard and the Dark Fairy's forces; as such, it is a pretty grim and gnarly battle scene.  I hope it captures the horror and inhumanity of the battle, while stimulating interest in the rest of the tale.

WARNING:  This story contains liberal amounts of blood and gore.  Cursing is censored.

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July 10th 2009

                The Dark Zone:  the place didn’t get its name for being all flowers and sunshine.  At one point, maybe it was.  All that changed ten years ago, out of some crazy circumstance that nobody in the world truly understood.  Somehow, the small, sleepy town of Clearmont had turned into a Hell-on-Earth.  And I was standing right at the brink of it, along with several hundred other Guardsmen, just waiting to slaughter whatever it was that was stirring deep in the corrupted landscape.

                I had always heard stories about the DZ, but none of it could have prepared me for this.  There was a definite line in the grass where the world as we knew it ended and the corruption began:  it was fresh and green where I stood, but just a few feet away, it was all black as ink.  There was a line of dead trees in front of us; from the gnarled branches, scores of bones and skulls hung from twisted ropes.  Most of them weren’t human, but the ones that were undoubtedly came from our own countrymen, who fought and died to contain the corruption ever since it started.  God knows how many men died fighting in the DZ.

                The sky above the black land was always dark; gray clouds always swirled over the area ominously, and sunlight hasn’t even touched the land in years.  Several UAVs circled around the edges of the perimeter, scanning the dense mass of twisted trees and thorny underbrush.  They fed intel back to the forward operations center; command made their final decision based on the drones’ readings.  Moments later, the first stage of the attack commenced.

                From the distance, five A-10 Thunderbolts appeared and zoomed over our heads, their twin engines leaving behind a deafening roar.  Soaring over the DZ, the planes launched a myriad of air-to-surface missiles.  Upon hitting the tainted land, the missiles exploded in giant plumes of fire that ripped through the trees and set the grass on fire.

                Through the roaring of the flames, we could hear shrieking:  hundreds of vicious, inhumane shouts.  We all became tense and alert, gripping our rifles and waiting for the enemy to be flushed out.  This was my first engagement with the enemies of the DZ; I had always heard stories about them, and I read the reports, but even when knowing what to expect, I couldn’t stop the anxiety.  I watched intensely as the foliage ahead of us moved, and the enemy surged out of the woods with renewed rage.

                Suddenly, there was one monstrous roar that drowned out all the other noise of the battlefield.  From the middle of the forest, we all watched in awe as a huge monster rose up over the burning trees and took flight.  It was a black dragon, well over a hundred feet long.  Its scaled, spiny body glistened like oil in the daylight; its huge leathery wings flapped with enough force to produce a strong blast of air on the ground.

                The A-10s circled around the DZ and started another run.  Three of them continued to bombard the ground, but two trained their cannons on the dragon.  A constant stream of bullets ripped into the beast.  Some of them tore holes in the beast’s wings, and some cut through its thick hide, but most bounced uselessly off of the thing’s body.  Thousands of rounds were pumped into it within a matter of seconds, but the dragon showed no sign of being affected at all.

                Then, the beast lunged at one of the planes.  With a quick flap of its wings, it zoomed into the aircraft with a swift burst of speed; its talons clamped onto the fuselage, and it snapped at the cockpit with its jaws.  The plane’s canopy was crushed; pieces of glass and metal flew from the crunched hull, and the pilots inside were smashed to a bloody pulp.  The dragon swung its body before releasing the plane’s wreckage; the wreckage flew toward one of the other planes, but it banked and narrowly avoided a collision.  Falling into the woods, the destroyed A-10 slammed into a cluster of trees, becoming nothing more than a twisted heap of smoldering metal.

                Ahead, the foliage continued to move, as the enemy’s ground units drew closer.  I could tell that we were all disturbed after seeing the dragon; it was just a small taste of the madness that we were about to see coming out of the corrupted land.  No level of training and experience could prepare us for the unnatural things we were being asked to fight.   The fear in all of us was so palpable, it hung in the air around us like a dark veil.

                Next to me, a fellow guardsman couldn’t take it.  In a panic, he turned and fled.  Our unit commander shouted at him to fall back into formation, but he continued to run.  Some of the other men exchanged looks, clearly wondering if they should also take a chance and desert, rather than to face the terror of the Dark Zone.  The bravest ones merely shook their heads in pity and kept their guns pointed forward.

                Finally, the enemy broke through the line of trees and foliage in front of us.  The first one we saw was set on fire from the planes’ bombing run; the creature was nothing more than a short, black humanoid shape with charred skin, and an unnatural shriek coming from its lips.  Several of us opened fire immediately, putting the thing out of its misery.

                As the burning creature collapsed, with black blood gushing from its wounds, dozens of them rushed out at us.  They were orcs:  a vicious and ugly rabble of gray, green, and black-skinned monsters.  They were the size of normal men, but nearly twice as bulky in muscle.  Their bodies and faces were strangely gnarled and twisted, to the point where no two were alike.  They are all clad in various forms of crude, makeshift armor; some were made of wood, others pieced together from metal scraps.  They all had crude weapons in their meaty hands; jagged swords, warhammers, and huge clubs.

                In one huge wave, the orcs rushed at us screaming their inhuman war cries.  We fired on them, sending a volley of bullets that cut through their entire front line.  The sounds of endless gunfire filled my ears, and orc bodies collapsed in front of us on a pile.  More of them continued to come out of the forest, jumping over their fallen comrades and rushing toward us in a blind rage.

                From overhead, the four remaining A-10s made another pass.  Their cannons pelted the battleground, with thousands of bullets streaming into the creatures and ripping their bodies to pieces.  Even the most heavily-armored orc became riddled with holes; they all collapsed in front of us in a bloody heap.  The planes continued to circle around, and the black dragon followed.

                There was a short-lived boost in morale as we watched the monsters fall before us.  More of them came out of the woods, and we opened fire again.  More of them were shot down, but some slid and took cover behind the bodies of the others.  From there, they brandished crossbows and fired arrows at us.  One of the men next to me was hit in the face, an arrow sticking out of his eyeball.  His body slumped to the ground; watching him, I realized right away that there was nothing I could do for him.

                More of us were hit with the arrows.  Our barricades and body armor were able to repel a lot of them, but some men fell with arrows in their arms, legs, and heads.  Despite the losses, we maintained the suppression, firing thousands more bullets into the woods and slaying more of the orcs.

                One group of orcs rushed out, holding up a large metal shield.  Our bullets ricocheted off of the metal wall uselessly; the creatures crept closer to us with while holding up the barrier.  As they encroached, one guardsman tossed a grenade, which landed at their feet.  The explosion ripped through the orcs; frags shredded their flesh, splattering their blood all over the place.  The shield fell to the ground uselessly.

                Our commander shouted words of encouragement, and we continued to hold the line.  The orcs seemed to continuously spawn out of the woods, throwing themselves at us in a blind, animalistic rage.  I started to wonder if there was more to their strategy; even primitive brutes like these must know that we had the upper-hand in sheer firepower.  Even the dumbest of enemies would know by now to spare their men in a senseless frontal assault and seek an alternative, but the orcs just kept coming.  They had to have been up to something, using this attack and throwing away their most disposable soldiers as some kind of distraction.

                I wondered if command would be considering the same thing.  Just as soon as I contemplated these things, our unit was ordered ahead.  There was a break in the enemy waves, and we needed to push forward into the woods and start our incursion into the DZ.  All at once, we ran from the cover of our barricades and charged forward.  More orcs appeared in front of us, but were quickly cut down in a barrage of bullets.

                Pushing through the first line of trees, we found ourselves treading across a gnarled landscape of thorny bushes and dense underbrush.  Ahead, we could see the remains of the orc burrows, collapsed and set on fire from the bombings.  Dozens of burnt bodies were strewn around the surrounding woods.

                Our objective was on the other side of the burning settlement:  a glade that we could use to set up a base camp.  We traversed around the burrows, trudging through a thicket of gray prickly bushes.  Just as we stepped through the tough foliage, an orc jumped out from behind a tree and swung a warhammer.  The massive weapon smashed into the man in front of me; I could hear the brutal crunching of bones.  The soldier collapsed, coughing up blood, and the orc raised his weapon up to deliver a fatal blow.  I didn’t even stop to think; I squeezed the trigger and shot the enemy in the head.  A hole exploded in the creature’s cheek, gushing black ooze.  He staggered and fell, making grotesque gurgling sounds.

                Somebody crouched down by our fallen comrade, and started to deliver first aid.  Then, we heard noises ahead of us:  moving foliage and the grunting of orcs.  Knowing that this was not the time or place to help our man, two of us picked up the wounded soldier and hauled him back out of the woods.

                The rest of us pushed forward.  After just a few steps, arrows started whizzing through the trees.  Some of them hit the men behind us, who were carrying out our wounded comrade.  If that man had a fighting chance to live, that chance was obliterated, as an arrow struck him in the gut.  Men were falling all around me, with arrows sticking out of their bodies.  I took cover behind a tree; I heard a hard thunk as an arrow wedged itself in the bark.

                Several others took cover, behind trees, hills, and rocks.  I peered cautiously from the side of the tree, to see if I could spot the enemy.  An arrow grazed the tree close to my face, and I had to withdraw.  Others took a chance to fire their guns from behind cover; our bullets cut through the foliage and hit a few of the enemy.

                While the guardsmen continued to fire, I realized that they were drawing the orcs’ attention away from me.  I took a chance to run from cover, moving deeper into the woods.  I dived into a cluster of bushes, just as an enemy spotted me and let loose an arrow.  It flew over my head, as I took cover in a shallow ditch.  I remained prone and flush against the soil, well out of sight from the enemy.

                We heard the A-10s overhead again.  One of them made a pass over the forest, and launched ground missiles into the enemy lines.  The forest ahead of me became engulfed in flames; a dozen orcs were incinerated, and they shrieked in pain.

                As the planes passed by, the dragon continued to chase them.  The beast closed in on one of them and snapped its jaws at the plane’s rear wings.  Its teeth crunched the metal, and the dragon yanked away a huge chunk of the fuselage.  Out of control, the A-10 spiraled and plummeted to the ground some miles away.

                As the fire and smoke cleared, the land ahead of us was scorched, and parts of the woods were still ablaze.  All of the guardsmen regrouped and pressed forward, cautiously treading over the charred land and passing by the burning woods.  I tailed behind the main group; we moved for another fifty yards, before reaching the clearing.

                The glade was circular and flat.  There were some wrecked cars along the edge of the woods, but were completely covered in vines and overgrowth.  As we stepped on the grass, our unit commander started giving orders to secure the perimeter.

                Suddenly, an arrow flew into his back.  Its shaft pierced through his body, and the arrowhead poked out of his chest.  He didn’t even stand a chance, as the arrow punctured his heart; he collapsed, with blood spilling on the grass.

                We all ran retreated to the woods, but it was too late; in the clearing, there was no cover, and no time to find cover.  Arrows criss-crossed each other in the air and landed all over the glade, turning it into a confined killzone.  Dozens of us were caught in the cross-fire, with arrows cutting through our bodies.  We all fired back into the woods, but it was impossible to see where the enemy archers were.  They had us surrounded and outnumbered; we had stepped heedlessly into a trap.

                None of the arrows hit me, and I considered myself lucky.  The enemy stopped their attack briefly, before they came out of the woods all around us.  There were maybe twenty of us left in the glade, and the orcs formed a circle around us.  They closed in, wielding bows, blades, and clubs menacingly.  We held up our guns, but hesitated.  It was a brief and uncertain break in the fighting, and nobody wanted to make the first move that could get us all killed.  After all, they had us outnumbered now, and it looked like they wanted us alive.

                One of the orcs stepped closer to us, cocking his ugly brown head at us and sizing us up with his blood-red eyes.  He barked at us, “Stupid humans! You dare trespass on tainted soil.  Don’t you know that corrupted lands belong to us? You will all pay for your insolence!”

                In the heat of the moment, one of the guardsmen shouted back, “F#&k that! This is American soil!” He held up his gun and was about to shoot the orc in the face.

                In one swift move, the orc closed in on the soldier thrashed his arms out, pushing the soldier’s rifle to the side.  He then slashed down with his sword, cutting the guardsman’s hands off.  As the man’s hands and rifle fell to the ground, he screamed in agony, regarding his bleeding stumps in disbelief.

                “Anybody else want to be a hero?” the orc seethed. “I eat heroes for breakfast!”

                With the orc formation closing in on us, there was little more choice.  Fighting back would only get us killed; one by one, we all surrendered, dropping our weapons.  Regarding the ugly faces that closed in, I asked, “What are you going to do to us?”

                “That depends on what the Dark Fairy says,” the orc spat.  Turning to the others, he shouted a phrase in the strange, foreign orc language.

                In the next instant, the orcs were upon us, pushing into us harshly and clubbing us with their weapons.  A mace came down on the back of my neck; I felt a sudden stab of pain, before everything went dark.

Yep, I drew this from the above scene.

UPDATE:
I recently received some feedback from a friend, who was formerly in the National Guard.  He informed me that it is highly unlikely that an A-10 can be taken down by a dragon; the planes' guns would likely rip the beast to shreds.  However, the A-10s are not the fastest and most maneuverable, so it is still possible for a dragon to latch onto one, possibly from behind and over the dorsal side so it's out of range of its guns.  The issue also came up concerning radar, but there are ways for a dragon to evade detection.  It will either be the case that the dragon is cold-blooded and doesn't emit enough heat to be picked up.  More than likely though, I will need to explain that the entire DZ dampens and disrupts radar and other scanners due to the presence of magic (although that will mean that the UAVs at the beginning will also be affected).  Also, the A-10s should deploy countermeasures (probably flares) to ward off the dragon; I imagine that a flare could cause some harm to the creature.

I will plan on revising this scene with the above considerations in the rewriting phase, to improve creditability.