All the Songs Tomorrow Forgot

Bluebirds turn out to be not so innocent, Snow White be damned!

Based on the Medium Magic Prompt: “Birds have become super intelligent and are attacking humans to save the world.”

“The nuclear material has been tracked to a warehouse outside Moldova. We’re watching it for possible sale.”

“Thank you, Irene. Do we have any idea who the potential buyers are yet?”

“Not yet, but we’ve got eyes on the usual players.”

“So Myanmar, Iran, Egypt, South Korea.”

“And Japan, yes, Ma’am. I’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything. For the meeting with the Prince, just stick to the Global Warming Conference, don’t wreck the oil agreement, but do find out everything you can about the arms deal without intimating Saudi Arabia is at fault.”

“Right.” The Prime Minister made her way towards her office. Before she could go in, another member of her staff came running up.

“Madam Secretary! Wait! There’s news.”

The Secretary and her Head of Staff stopped.

“We’ve received a communication from a group claiming to be behind all the recent terrorist attacks around the world.”

“All of them?” The Secretary was surprised. She’d been of the opinion that there had been some copycats involved.

“If it’s true.”

The secretary took the communication.

To the Leader of the Free World:

Things on our planet have gotten out of hand. It seems that there is an absence of morals and values and ethics have been replaced by universal narcissism. Instead of a #MeToo movement we now have a #MeOnly movement. You have no commitment to even protecting your own citizens from harm, willing to sacrificing them for “the greater good,” largely defined as shiny baubles to line your already comfortable nests. And the other nations are no different.

If you don’t want the attacks to escalate, you will need to clean up your own mess. The price of being a world leader is that sometimes you have to step up to the plate and accept responsibility for not only your own people but for leading other countries in the right direction as well.

If you choose not to act, or if we don’t see meaningful steps being taken to stop the continued pollution and destruction of the world we all share, the actions you have experienced so far will seem like a walk in the park.

We will be watching.

The Harbingers of Spring

“Victor, make my apologies to the Prince and tell him we’ll reschedule as soon as possible. I have to take this to the President at once. Irene, with me please.”

— — — — — —

“Tessa, I don’t see what’s so important. Some nutcase sends a vague message that says nothing of substance and we’re supposed to do what?”

“Mr. President, you know there are definitely places we can start. The hostages we refuse to ransom because we’d have to trade mineral rights to a tract of land that we only hold because we took ten of another country’s citizens hostage. The falsified reports about just how much damage our new fuel system is doing to the environment. Going back on an asylum agreement that will send more than 1000 refugees back to a country that will torture and quite likely murder them.”

“Oh, come on, Tessa. You don’t really think we are going to consider any of that do you? It’s set policy.”

“And what’s set can be unset, Mr. President.”

“I’ve given you my reply, Tessa. Weren’t you supposed to be finalizing our oil deal with the Prince of Syria?”

“We rescheduled.”

“You WHAT? We need that oil! Get on the phone to the Embassy and arrange to get him back here. Just make sure he understands we’re serious about the nondisclosure agreement. We don’t need our allies knowing we went behind their backs to obtain it.”

“What we don’t actually need is that oil that we’re just going to stockpile so that several of our enemies won’t be able to use it. And at the cost of 12 billion dollars. More than enough to trade for the hostages without the need to give up the mineral rights and to develop a new fuel system to replace the one that’s speeding up global warming by decades. We’d even have enough to sponsor those refugees and save them from agonies we can’t even imagine.”

“We will be using it for the oil deal we have already agreed to with Syria. Make it happen, Tessa. Now!”

“Yes, sir.”

But halfway back to her office, another one of her assistants came running up to tell her she needed to get to the situation room.

She walked quickly to where the President had already gathered his cabinet, and the Joint Chiefs. “What’s happening?”

“It looks like there’s about to be action on the plutonium,” the President replied.

“Do we know whose going after it?”

“Not yet. Hopefully, we’ll know soon enough. Do we have a visual? Okay, good. Here we go.” The President leaned forward as Tessa sat down.

As they watched, a shadow on the edge of the screen was seen to move toward the warehouse where the nuclear material was being stored. The U.S. agents could be seen waiting for the order to engage.

“Wait, what’s wrong with the coverage? Why does the shadow seem to be floating?” The President sounded confused mirroring the reactions of the others in the room.

Suddenly, flashes of blue could be seen darting towards the men on the ground and the snipers on the roof. This was accompanied by the sounds of screams and machine guns firing. Something shattered but with the chaos no one could tell what it was.

“What’s happening over there? Kelly? Glen? Report, dammit!”

The response was sketchy. “. . . skylight. . . blue. . . from above us. . . didn’t expect. . . “

An explosion cut off further exchange. With the fire and smoke no one was sure what they were seeing and everyone leaned toward the screen to get a better look. Something seemed to emerge from the top of the building. The blue flashes could now be made out to be some kind of creatures.

“No, it’s not possible,” the chief of staff said. It took several seconds before the rest of those in room clued in.

“Birds?” The President said incredulously, “Are those things . . . birds?”

As they watched, groups of what appeared to be bluebirds disappeared into the top of the building, then emerged holding onto the cases that the plutonium was kept in and flew off.

“How many was that?” Tessa asked.

“Thirteen,” someone answered.

“And how many were there?”

“Thirteen.”

There was silence, then one of the staff pointed and said, “Look, one of them is coming back! It’s got something in its beak.”

The bird dropped what it was carrying and flew off again. Something white fluttered to the ground.

The President jumped up. “Get me a close up.”

The view shrank until they could all see the piece of paper with bold type on it.

The President sank back down into his chair and put his head in his hands. “Tessa?”

“Yes, sir?”

“I think it’s time to talk options.”

Natalie Frank (Taye Carrol) has had work featured in Haunted Waters Press, Weirdbook Magazine, Siren’s Call Publications, Lycan Valley Press and Zero Fiction among others. Her poetry has been featured in several anthologies. She is Editor for 1-One-Infinity, The Partnered Pen and One Table, One World and is Editor in Chief for Promposity and Mental Gecko. She is also the Managing Editor for Novellas and Serials at LVP Publications. Her collection of poetry, Disguised I Breathe, In Love I Hold, can be found here on Amazon.

If you enjoyed reading this story, you might also enjoy these:

You can find links to my other work on Medium and follow me here. Thanks for reading!