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Join Date: May 2005
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JOHNNY REB
And the Maverick Men
In
‘The Clockwork Atoll’ Part 7.
Character Created by Tim Frady / Story by Wayne Clayton.
When Johnny came too moments later he found himself trapped under the beast. Summoning all his remaining strength he pushed the now dark limp hulk from on top off him and staggered to his feet.
As the soft gentle ash fluttered about him he stared at the scene of devastation. The once golden sands had been torn from the beach leaving only the hard sharp black volcanic bedrock, which even as he watched was turning grey with the fallout falling from above.
Out at sea Johnny could see the remains of the once mighty ghost fleet. At its heart he could still see the Saratoga afloat where others further out had been torn adrift or sunk.
He glanced back at the shattered remains of the fallen beast. Lying face down Johnny could see the once impenetrable skin had been ripped open by the swirling debris and charred white by the heat. But even now the demon from the sky began to stir. Falteringly it tried to raise its great mass, its open wounds belching out thick blue sulphurous mist. Johnny leaped on its back and letting out an inhuman cry drove his fists deep into one of the fleshless hole. The cloven beast wailed out in apparent pain as Johnny unleashed the full force of his spectral lightening inside it’s shell, until finally with a great sighing death rattle it slummed lifelessly back to the ground.
As Johnny pulled his fists from the dead beast he looked down into his hands to find them filled with the remains of still smouldering gears and blackened cogs of some unearthly design. He let them slip through his fingers and fall into the grey powder below. Turning his back on the Cloven Machine he slowly walked away.
In the silence Johnny picked his way through the remains. First spotting the place where Jones had fallen, the imprint of the beasts hand still embedded in the rock itself even though no signs of Shutterbug remained. Suddenly he saw something glinting in the dust and reaching down he pulled up the strap together with the camera still intact which Jones had treasured for so long.
As he pondered what images it might still contain he heard a noise coming from up the beach. He looked up to see to his amazement a man sitting up in the dirt. Within a moment he was at the man’s side. For a second he was unable to tell who it was until he began to sweep away the thick dust which covered his features.
“Vinnie?” Johnny could scarcely believe his eyes as Vinnie looked up at him, still clutching the dented canteen which had belonged to Captain Travis.
“I tried to tell him Johnny, I tried to tell him that you weren’t the only one who’d signed up to the programme” But Vinnie was wrong Johnny never had signed up to the programme. He had been this way long before this war had ever started.
“They said they were gonna make me bomb proof just like you Johnny” whispered Vinnie, turning the canteen over and over in his hands.
“If they hadn’t of washed me out, me and you could have taken that son of bitch down, just like that”
But Johnny wasn’t listening he was staring up into the sky. The creature might be dead but out there in the vast reaches of space he knew that whoever had built it were still very much alive, and that one day they might return.
Then out of the corner of his eye he saw in the distance the first of the observation planes begin to start its first pass over the island. And he heard too the ticking cogs of the cameras grind to a halt. Their eyes were now blind once more and the clockwork atoll had wound down and was silent again.
He reached down and patted Vinnie on the shoulder.
“You’re in charge now Private Layton, I’ve got to go”
“What..what you mean go?” stuttered Vinnie in his broad southern accent.
“Travis is dead. The way I reckon it World War 2 must be finally over. Go home Vinnie”
And with that he handed Vinnie Jones’s camera and leaped up into the air.
Squinting into the sun Vinnie called out after him.
“Where are you going to Johnny?”
“Going to pay my respects and then this here Johnny’s marching home again”
THE END…
Coming soon Big Blue returns in ‘Q & A’
‘Decades after the events on ‘the Clockwork Atoll’ the mystery still remains and its secrets left untold, untold till now’
See Johnny Reb next in ‘Valley of the Lost’
‘After 5 years at War Johnny Reb has one last mission to complete’
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awesome!! great way to tie it all in, hey wayne i was meaning to tell you, if you need help maybe i can ink some stuff for you, if you'd like. maybe you can send me a test sketch to see if i can handle it, and the time issue as well. just sayin i'm up to helpn if you need it email me at 
