Nicola Lombardi - The Tank

But it was right, it was necessary .

A buzzing, a noise under his feet…

Giovanni, finally forgetting himself, managed to smile.

January 1st. 7:45 A.M.

A layer of hoarfrost covers like ephemeral white mildew the landscape of beaten earth, stones and clumps withered stems expanding out of sight on the other side of the fence. The whole Camp 10 is immersed in is pale isolation and the cold breeze blowing from north pushes the boy’s gaze forward. There, in the distance, about five hundred meters away from where he is, a cylindrical, colossal, snow white construction rises.

Tank 10. Superb. So beautiful as to live him breathless.

In the building serving as operative center many soldiers are already working, but won’t open the gates before 8:30. It doesn’t matter. He will wait.

He closes his gloved fingers around the links and watches. He is only twenty-four. And they told him he is the youngest Keeper the NMO has ever designated. Pride drips from his lucid eyes, which close a little to mitigate the effect of the cold air.

The guests will start arrived at about 9:00 and at 10:00, so the program said, the inauguration ceremony will commence. It will be an exciting moment. There was even a small stage, with decorations and flags with the tetragram on them, from which general Aurelio Stevanich will give a speech.

The boy dreams that maybe he will be called and publicly introduced in a jubilation of applause and fanfares. Maybe. Or maybe not. What’s important is that for a whole year he will be the lord of that wonder, and that was enough to make him feel omnipotent.

From the east, the first gold-colored rays climb over the horizon and illuminate the world.

Born in Ferrara in 1965, he makes his debut in 1989 with the collection Ombre – 17 racconti del terrore. He ties with the roman movement Neo Noir and publishes short stories, articles and translations or magazines and anthologies for several publishers.

His are the novels inspired by Deep Red and Suspiria by Dario Argento for Newton & Compton. He collaborates for several years with the fantasy culture monthly magazine Mystero ; for the publisher Profondo Rosso he translates the essays H.P. Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside by F.B. Long and Oedipus and Akhenaton by I. Velikowsky, and the novel The Devil’s Bride by S.Quinn.

Among his collections of short stories there are I racconti della piccola botte­ga degli orrori (Mondo Ignoto 2002), La fiera della paura (Mondo Ignoto 2004), Striges (Robin 2005) and La notte chiama e altre storie (2011, with Luigi Boccia), and the one-shot I burattini di Mastr’Aligi (Nero Press e-book 2014).

He also published the novels I Ragni Zingari (Edizioni XII 2010, then Nero Press e-book 2014), winner of the “Premio Polidori” in 2013, and Madre nera (Crac Edizioni 2013).

For Dunwich Edizioni he has already published the short story I buoni e i cattivi in the digital anthology Poker d’Orrore (2014).

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“The Tank”

Written By Nicola Lombardi

Copyright © 2015 Nicola Lombardi

All rights reserved

Distributed by Babelcube, Inc.

www.babelcube.com

Translated by Daniele Anselmo

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