The Brave Cave Dwellers Of Podastria

The Brave Cave Dwellers Of Podastria

By Paul McCann

Steve Ribbenhousen stood before the live to air camera crew that was being broadcast live across the globe.    

“Today in the Podastria the streets of the city that once had been a playground of the rich and famous have now been transformed into the wasteland of the war machine that has now become unstoppable. “

The camera crew captures three different angles of the foreground and background while the journalist continues his description of the scene as some survivors were crawling out from the rubble. Some medical assistance was being provided by paramedics who were there. Suddenly from out of the blue jet fighters appeared in the sky and began shooting and firing waves of bullets down on to ground. As some of the camera crew fell to the ground, Steve panicked and drove away in the news van at speed on the road that made its way up to the mountains that surrounded the city.

Steve had always done things on impulse; He had this uncanny instinct that enabled him to improvise and get through some very dangerous times. He always carried a small emergency survival kit in the van every time he would been sent to report on anything dangerous and life threatening. His love for life and music was another of his positive strengths that many had said brought him sanity in all the mad moments he had been through as a reporter for the live broadcast news channel. His life so far had been a journey with many twists and turns . Moving like a gypsy from place to place without a network of family and friends to assist him when times got tough. He previously had been a singer in a rock and roll band that broke up and after he was offered a job with the news channel he grew up very quickly going from place to place where there was conflict or war. People at home in the comfort of their armchair enjoyed the very dramatic scenes he had always done d. It was like he was fearless before danger, willing to go to places where no one would ever go to show scenes that no one had ever seen .

This sense of being there in the action and allowing people to see live broadcasts of death and destruction in the world made people sit up and take notice. All his broadcasts were admires by film producers and ever some of the government leaders were interested in what he was doing .

Today was different, The war machine was now out of control and half the world was under attack . No one knew what lay ahead for the world’s population. Things were unpredictable and many had stated that this was the end of world  .

There are many reasons who people do what they do by Steve knew exactly where he was going and what he was going to do. He was going to make sure he would survive this war and live to tell the tale even if the big bang came.

The road he tried to drive on was full of holes and debris so he could only go so far until he abandoned the van and went on foot with his survival kit which included food some medicines and a six string guitar which for him was more than medicine for Steve , it was his lifeline to sanity .Steve went along the roads carefully until he came to the foot of the mountains . After a few days climbing up the mountain paths he found some caves high up on the mountains and in those caves , there were some people who had fled the towns below and taken refuge there on the mountain and those caves had become their new home sweet home . Those brave few who had taken a chance to escape the madness were now safe in the caves .

Although at first Steve was not made welcome , they eventually allowed him to stay after he played them a few tunes on his guitar and told them stories of the places he had been and the things he had seen . For the cave dwellers it was the best entertainment they had since arriving at the caves . High up there on the mountain top where for a while the troubles had stopped , they found a way to carry on with life and there they would wait in the hope that someday soon the war would be gone

In those homes for the brave, they were not dead in their grave .They were alive and could continue to survive . They knew where water was and were able to hunt for food and cook and keep clean ,

Day by day as the years passed some of those cave dwellers passed away , Others now were old and Steve continued to support in every he could with his stories and songs , He was their encouragement , His love for life was music for their ears and he knew that so he vowed never to leave them. They all cared for one another there in one way or another and they were not sure if the war was over or even if there was anyone left in the world. They found happiness up there in the caves and had no desire to leave.

Deep in his heart Steve had thought about returning back to the world below but only if there was no one left in the caves. He had always thought that he would be the last survivor there not only because he was the youngest but because he had a very strong will and something special no one else had . Songs in his heart and inspirations that came to him every single day.

He never knew why he was chosen to have these gifts but he knew that he had to share them and from the very first day he arrived to the caves and that’s exactly what he had done. He was happy to be there among them and they loved the way he saw life. For Steve it was all about people and places, smiles on faces and the rewarding experience of having shared something special in life with a story or a song . People always listened to him and the love he gave was the love that made him continue doing what he did best.

After the last of the cave dwellers died, Steve decided to return to the world below and to try and record some of his songs and stories of about life in the caves .

His journey was long and slow but day by day he was making his way back to civilization to tell them the very powerful story about being among the brave cave dwellers on the mountain that surrounded Podastria.

The City of Podastria had been rebuilt and the war had been over for many years now, Steve could hardly recognize the place and was feeling for the first time frightened at the change he saw. Lots of traffic on bust streets, a huge shopping mall, an expansion of industry and commerce he had never seem before anywhere in the world . It took him a while to connect with society but there were one or two in the area who remember his name . Just by chance he met a film producer that also remembers him. They had lunch together and Steve spoke about the caves and the brave people who lived there,

Suddenly the film producer saw dollar signs and decided to tell Steves’ story to the world in a new production called, Homes For The Brave.

The film would attempt to show the diversity of people trying to survive a war and the special bond that had developed between them .

The move would include some of Steves songs and the producer also hinted that there would be a film soundtrack as well to follow the movies release.

Unfortunately Steve had passed away before the movie was released but at least his story was told and his songs would be heard. “Homes For The Brave” was a huge success at the box office and 20 years after the war machine had ended the movie had been shown in cinemas all around the world. Steves songs had also been recor4ed before he died and were also very popular. Steve had never married and had no children although some said his songs and his stories were all his children.

The End