//------------------------------//
// Prologue  
// Story: The Final Crusade 
// by Enfield 
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The Final Crusade

By Enfield

My name is James Rogers, this is the story of my last summer vacation on Earth. 
I was born in Southport, England. I was well known by my friends and family because of my intelligence, charm, humor and above all, my “talents”. The first talent being that I was able to speak perfect Russian, German, and the accents of the British Isles, the German and Russian was a mystery because my parents were of neither decent. The second talent was that I was an amazing marksman at the age of six and onwards, I was well known after shooting down three tin cans with an air rifle at my cousin’s birthday party, it may not sound like much but the cans were set up at over a hundred feet away and I hit each one with three pellets. The third talent was undoubtedly, the most bizarre. You see I was never the sort of person who would be a trained killer but for some reason I know some sort of martial art, I never had taken one class before. My dad was a black belt in karate and my mother (who I’ll never fully understand) was an expert in kickboxing, as for me I didn’t know how to fight or expect to until I was eight. It all happened that one day in school, I was minding my own business sitting in the back of the room reading a World War II history book when the school thug Manny decided to get some money off of me. I never really carried money on me nor did I ever go near or even look at Manny, but he thought I was loaded and threatened me with a beating if I didn’t give him wanted. After I refused he took the book and tore it apart, I said that I hadn’t finished reading the book and Manny decided to take a swing at me, unto which I blocked his arm, pinned it to the wall, threw Manny to the floor and accidentally broke his arm in the process. After that little incident I was taken down to the Headmasters office and was scolded for my actions, even though they were justified (apart from the broken arm). My father was brought down to the school so he could hear what happened, luckily, he was on my side. But the downside was that I was expelled from the school because of the nature of Manny’s injury, it was that bad his arm had to be in a brace for the rest of his life. For two years I was entirely home schooled by my mother, it was a lonely life. No friends (because they were afraid of me), almost no-one from my family visited me save my uncle, who for a few weeks brought his drinking friends to see me (being the proud uncle of an eight year old who almost tore some kids arm off). Kind of funny how they said when I was old enough to drink they would buy my first round. 

By the time I was ten we moved to America, we found a house in a little town in New Jersey, I was nervous for the first month there. I didn’t know about the culture, the school system, or why people drove on the other side of the road. It was the pool party on our street that really helped me get the reputation I once had, within a week I started to like American school, and my new American buddies really like me. Within five years I was pretty much one of the most popular kids in middle and high school, the History teachers were jealous of my war history knowledge, the Russian and German language teachers refused to have me at any of their classes after the first two times. A quick persuasive talk to both of them and I was back in the classes, occasionally showing off and annoying the teachers by answering questions in the wrong languages. Sadly, after a few days, the popularity wore off and I was forgotten, I was lonely but not as much as the years I was living in England. Once I was nearing my sixteenth birthday I was offered a job at a gas station where my parents were good friends with the owner of the place, I started in January after my sixteenth birthday. It was at first rather exiting because of all the exotic, vintage and rare cars that pulled in.

Late in April Iran decided to blockade the Persian Gulf and commence air strikes against British oil tankers and American naval warships. A war broke out between Iran and NATO, and since then prices of gas skyrocketed. The exotic cars and friendly talkative people were replaced with bitter old people, stupid young men, crazy women and a horde of undesirable, unattractive cars. The job excitement then dropped from there on out, my boss became a little irritable until I started bringing in donuts for the mechanics. Soon however, my luck changed, prices went so high people had almost stopped using their cars, so our gas station was mostly filling fuel canisters and lawnmowers. It seemed as if my life would remain relatively normal, and it did until that one day in June. It was that one day that changed everything. 

This story here will tell you the story of the three months that went from changing my life, to destroying both it and my family. From the first day where three young girls unexpectedly came into my life, to the last few weeks in which I discovered a horrible secret from my own parents and actions that lead to my inevitable demise. This is not what I wanted to happen to me, but at least I enjoyed my life until then. All old things must come to an end eventually and make way for the new. At least in the end, my final effort was not in vain and above all, successful.   
I am James Rogers, and this is my story.