._ ._.. ._ _ ._ _._ _ ... ._.. _ _ _ ..._ . (Always Love) Ch. 3/?

[inanna7]

Title: ._ ._.. ._ _ ._ _._ _ ... ._.. _ _ _ ..._ . (Always Love)
Characters: Heather, Beck, OCs
Rating: PG

Ok, I tried to insert some humor into this chapter. Hopefully it won't come off too corny. So far this story has inspired me to write at least 3 drabbles and one, ehm, bedtime story, shall we say. Anyhoo, hope you enjoy the chapter. All mistakes are my own.

The best way to describe headquarters when I walked in was organized pandemonium.

Clark, Beck’s second in command didn’t even give me a second look as I walked in. He was too busy barking out commands, coordinating defensive maneuvers and making sure perimeters were becoming secure. Soldiers bustled around me. The one person I didn’t see was Beck.

Suddenly, that gnawing fear erupted into a full fledged panic. I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek to keep my wits about me.

Then Gray Anderson was there, at my elbow, steering me towards my desk and plopping me down in my chair.

“Heather, glad you’re here. There’s a ton of things I need you to do for me.”

I looked up at him. I guess I wasn’t very good at hiding my emotions just then.

“New Bern?” I asked.

Gray’s face was somber.

“The factory’s gone,” he said. He adjusted the paperwork on my desk as continued, refusing to look me in the face.

“Most of New Bern. . .” He fidgeted with the papers.

“Most of New Bern,” he began again. The temperature seemed to drop several degrees in that one instance. Realization rolled through me. New Bern was gone.

“We know Phil Constantino is dead,” Gray said. I nodded my head. Even though he had redeemed himself a bit to the people in New Bern when the war started, feelings were still too hard here to say that he would be missed. I’m not ashamed to say I was among the latter group myself.

“We think some troops were captured, including Russell,” he continued. I bit my lip. Hard.

“And no one has heard from Beck yet. He left right after the factory got bombed. Clark said the Colonel might be maintaining radio silence. No one knows for sure. Probably won’t for another day or so. Some of the Rangers are out right now trying to look for him.”

I have no idea what I must have looked like to Gray Anderson at that moment. He looked up, paused for a moment, and then leaned down and gave me a hug.

“They’ll be ok, Heather. I’m sure Colonel Beck is ok. We’ll be hearing from him in no time.”

I wasn’t sure who he trying to convince more with that last part. Me or himself.

I hadn’t realized my feelings were so transparent. I had been cordial with him, but not overly so. And yet, over the weeks, he had become a friend. A good friend. But I hadn’t realized others had noticed my growing attachment to him.

I pushed myself away. I reached over and rifled through the paperwork on my desk.

“Well, the only way I’m going to get through half these assignments is to go to New Bern. There are survivors who are going to need food, shelter, and supplies. The sooner I stop lollygagging, the better off they’ll be.”

I willed myself to stand.

“It’s still not safe out there,” Gray said.

“I know,” I replied, “I’ll keep my head low.”

My brain must have been on autopilot as I drove. It wasn’t until I hit a particularly large pothole to realize that it wasn’t a pothole, but a section of pavement that had been blasted out of the road.

And then the smell hit. The smell of scorched earth. A clash of different scents assaulted me. Burnt vegetation, burning buildings, the acrid smell of gunpowder.

And something else.

I remember an uncle who recalled witnessing a man being electrocuted. How the smell stayed with him. He left the table one Christmas as soon as Mom placed down the ham, apologizing the entire time.

I scrambled into my glove compartment and hastily grabbed a handkerchief. I fought my stomach from turning over as I smothered my face in the scratchy cotton.

Curtains of ash and smoke rolled over the road.

It was still a couple of miles to New Bern.

A house, then another, revealed themselves through the churning black clouds. The first one looked eerily pristine. The front door gaped open, its occupants so quickly abandoning it. The second house had a crater that had demolished its western side. The windows on its eastern side were untouched with the exception of the tilt of their shutters.

A soldier appeared in the middle of the road, more than partially obscured in the smoke. I jerked to the right, hitting the brakes. The truck went into a small skid before slamming to a stop.

Now, the soldier aimed his rifle at me. As were several others, having also appeared from out of the smoke.

I tried not to blink, just kept my hands up on the steering wheel where they could be seen.

The first soldier walked quickly over to the driver’s door. We recognized one another at the same moment.

“Miss Lisinski,” he replied, lowering his rifle.

“Sgt. Yazzie.”

“What are you doing out here? We almost shot you.”

Actually, I was surprised I hadn’t been. Guess my guardian angels were working overtime today.

“I’m out here to start up the relief effort for the townspeople. And I can’t do that if I’m sitting comfortably in my office in Jericho. I planned on meeting up with Francine and Lily Nyugen in town to get everything rolling.”

“I don’t know how likely you are to find them. There’ve been a lot of casualties. The school gym took a direct hit just after dawn.” Yazzie looked down at the ground.

“We lost a lot of people there,” he said quietly.

My heart sank and I slumped back against my seat. I had lived with Francine and Lily Nyugen for five years after my mother had passed away. Francine had come for me a few days after her funeral.

“You’re having a time as it is taking care of yourself, Frank, let alone Heather.”

“But you’re taking her away from me, Francine.” My father’s voice was filled with bitterness.

“You left her long ago, Frank. You’ll know where to find her when you decide to be her father again.”

It was a long time before he was able to make that decision.

My heart felt like a dead weight in my chest.

Another soldier approached the truck, having overhead our conversation. I vaguely recognized him. Baker, I think his name was. A quiet type of guy. Kind of got the feeling he wasn’t much for socializing.

“There was an Asian woman who talked with a twang headed south with a group of people just after the bombing started. I asked where she was going. She said “Because”. I asked her to repeat it and she just waved a hand and said “Heather Lisinski will know where we are” and kept going.”

Lily. I sent up a quick prayer of thanks. Lily, at least, was alive. She’d likely have the situation in order by now. I wasn’t looking forward to telling Lily her mother had died, however. Along with God only knew how many others had been in the gym.

I looked at Yazzie.

“They’re in the B caves. It’s temporary shelter at best.”

The sergeant gave me a quizzical look.

“It’s a large cave system, spreads from here to a few miles from Jericho. But most of it is below the water table. If the weather breaks, the majority of it can flood with one good hard rain.”

“Well, the way things are going, let’s hope they can stay there for a few more days,” he replied as he walked around to the passenger side, yanked open the door and slid into the seat.

“We’ll make sure you arrive unharmed.” He nodded his head to Baker and the others, who promptly began to pile into the bed.

I started driving toward the center of town once they were all settled. I planned on taking Broad Street to Old Farm Road just like anyone else in New Bern would.

Baker tapped on the back window and I slid it open.

“Quickest way to get south would be to take the state route out.”

“Can’t I just take the bypass to the old county road? It’s not that far away.”

“No, the road is completely ripped up from mortars about a mile away. The state route is barely passable as it is. Besides,” Baker added, “I really don’t think you want to see the town.”

“I know I don’t,” Yazzie whispered. I don’t think he meant for me to hear him.

Oh, God. What was I going to tell Lily? And, please, please God, don’t let Beck be out there in that. Don’t let him be hurt. Don’t -

I bit down on the inside of my mouth and was rewarded with the metallic taste of blood. I need to focus on the here and now and not be jumping to conclusions. People needed me and I wouldn’t be much use if I was running around being a basket case over who may or may not be alive. My brain ignored the pit that was yawning open in my stomach and started to make mental notes of the area. Where could a permanent shelter be set up? How many supplies would be needed versus how much could be spared? How quickly could we mobilize?

I turned to Yazzie.

“Is it possible to call in a request to HQ?” I asked.

“It might take an hour for us to get to an uplink after we drop you off. The local airwaves are likely to be monitored,” Yazzie replied.

I drove along silently for a few minutes, thinking. There was only one person in Jericho that I could actually speak some sort of code to and he’d understand it. Among Gray Anderson’s many unused talents was that he was a huge movie buff. He could quote whole scenes of dialogue when put to the test.

“I think I have a way around the monitoring. The sooner I can get a call out, the better off the survivors will be.”

I told him my plan.

A few minutes later, Yazzie was on the radio, his face skeptical.

“This is Scout, shouting out a big hey to Boo Radley.”

Static crackled over the radio.

“This is Scout, shouting out a big hey to Boo Radley,” Yazzie repeated. He gave me a sheepish grin. It was obvious he wasn’t wild about my idea. But he didn’t have any better suggestions when I challenged him about it.

Static.

I was desperately hoping Gray was still at HQ. I could see him almost comically fighting with Clark over the radio, Gray wanting to answer and Clark not.

Yazzie repeated the greeting for a third time. I could tell he was only a minute or so from giving up when Gray’s voice broke over the radio.

“Hey Scout, good to hear from you. What’s up?”

Yazzie passed the radio over to me.

“Well, I tell you, Boo, I’m having a lot of sympathy for Kirk after he beamed down to the Regulan moon to get away from Khan. And if Dr. Marcus calls this cooking, I’m seriously questioning her abilities right now. The way I’m facing, if I was a window, the sun would leave my face.”

Gray took a minute or two to respond.

“Understood on your location and situation, Scout. If I were to follow Spock’s advice, I can be on the road as early as a day or two. You want me to bring anyone else?”

I switched to a couple of other movies I knew he was fond of, hoping he’d understand the code of my words.

“Well, being so spellbound by John Ballantine half the time, I think Constance Petersen would forget what her job was, but we sure like to see her. And even though I’m sure Old Chu is busy with his newborn, you think he could spare an evening to spend with his oldest daughter, Jia-Chien?”

“Petersen is not a problem. Old Chu is probably going to need to be persuaded, but I’ll see what I can do. See you in a few days, Scout.”

“Roger, Boo. And thanks,” I said and then handed the radio back to Yazzie.

“Would you mind translating that for me?” Yazzie asked.

“First movie, “Wrath of Khan”, Kirk is trapped in underground with Khan listening in. So Gray at that point is thinking of anything underground, mines, caves, whatever.” I flicked my hands up in a shrugging gesture, then grabbed the steering wheel as the car veered to the left.
I ignored Yazzie’s concerned look and continued with my explanation.

“When I said Dr. Marcus couldn’t cook, that would tell him that the location was created, not manmade and that the conditions were poor. I also told him that it was south of town. Only someone really familiar with the area, like him and me, would be able to put all that together. Petersen was the name of the main character, a doctor, in a movie called “Spellbound”, so he knows we need medics and medicine. Old Chu is a cook with three daughters in a movie called “Eat Drink Man Woman.”

“Which means bring food,” Yazzie guessed.

“Yep. Oh, and he should be at the caves in a few hours, he hopes.”

Yazzie stared at me for a minute and then gave a chuckle of disbelief. The truck gave a lurch as I turned off the state road and started to cut through the prairie.

“Quickest way from one point to another is a straight line,” I said, barreling the truck towards the hills. I turned my head and yelled out the window, “Hang on back there! It’s going to get rough!”

Yazzie was too busy trying to stay seated to reply. The shocks squeaked in loud protest. After twenty minutes of being on something I thought akin to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, the truck bounced around the curve of a hill and I came to a stop.

The cave entrance looked deserted. With the exception of an overturned bucket, one would have thought the place to be untouched by humans. I grabbed my flashlight and backpack, jumping out of the truck, Yazzie and the others following suit.

“LILY?” I yelled just inside the cave entrance. “Lily? Can you hear me? It’s Heather Lisinski, I’ve come to help.”

I swung the light one way, then another. Nothing but clay here. The walls turned into calcite and limestone the farther down one progressed. The place wreaked of ever present mildew.

“What was you most prized possession as a child?” a disembodied twang rang out.

“Why, that would be my first prize award for wind energy in the state science finals when I was in the fifth grade.”

“Yeah, but why did you like it?”

I blushed. Leave it to Lily to ask me that. This was going to be embarrassing.

“Because I thought the girl on the trophy looked just like an angel and I sang “Pretty Little Angel Eyes” all the way home from Topeka.”

A petite woman in her late twenties slipped from behind a rock and walked toward me. Her almond shaped eyes gave me a once over.

“God, I really hated that song by the time we got home,” she said. She gave me a hug and then stiffened when she saw the soldiers.

“They’re with me,” I said. “I don’t think they can stay to help, but others are on the way. They just wanted to be sure I got here ok.”

I walked back to Yazzie and handed him my truck keys.

“There’ll be help out here soon enough and the truck will get you back to town that much quicker.”

Yazzie took the keys with a quiet murmur of thanks. He turned to the others, pointing to Baker and another soldier I did not recognize.

“Baker, Rodrigues, you’re going to stay here and help these two ladies with whatever they need? Understood?”

“Yes, Sgt. Yazzie,” they replied in unison.

“Come on, let’s move out,” he said to the others. In a moment, they were gone.

Lily wasted no time. She started walking down a path that was only illuminated by the glow of her flashlight. We made several twists and turns, our heels slowly changing from a slap, slap against the floor to more of a thump.

The cave opened up into an enormous amphitheater. Hundreds of New Bern residents had taken refuge here.

“So, do either one of you know about power generators?”

“I use to fix up old cars with my dad,” Rodrigues volunteered. Lily gave him a wide smile before clapping her hand onto his arm.

“Well, then let’s get to it, shall we? I’ve got a generator down there that’s older than both of us and it’s acting up. Don’t know about you, but I don’t particularly care for how cool or wet the caves are.” She was already maneuvering him away towards the generators.

“Start doing that thing that you do,” she called back over her shoulder to me.

As far as Lily was concerned, the issues I had to smooth over during my time as liaison made me a first class diplomat in her book.

“He’s all right, I suppose,” Lily had said about Beck a few weeks after his arrival. “But I think if his wife ever meets you, she should thank every star in heaven for what you keep away from him. God knows Constantino would put a bullet between his eyes if the S.O.B. thought he could get away with it.”

I tried to laugh it off. Probably because I was dealing with the fresh guilt from stealing the survey page. Lily huffed in exasperation.

“I’m not kidding, Heather. That man doesn’t know a guardian angel when he sees one. He’s the type of fool that would be out in a flood saying ‘God will save me, God will save me.’” She turned her face upward and waved her hands toward heaven in emphasis. The she looked me straight in the eye.

“And he’ll miss all the opportunities God has sent his way because his pride and wits are going to blind him. You don’t believe me? Wait and see. He’ll do it.”

I thought about that conversation all afternoon as I got the townspeople organized. There were people who wanted to stay and rebuild and there were others that never wanted to see this land again. Some said that they wanted to move to Jericho and I knew for some it would never happen. Bitter sentiments last long and twist the spirit as time goes forward. It kept people from living in reality and life would pass them by. There would be no place for them in Jericho. Not anymore.

It wasn’t until after the Rangers arrived with much needed supplies some time later that I had a few moments to spare. I made my way over to Lily.

She sat in a corner, stripping wires for a motherboard sitting in front of her. As I sat down next to her, her hand trembled slightly. I thought perhaps I had imagined it.

She slapped the wires down in frustration, knocking over the little soldering iron. I gave a little jump of surprise. She let out a sigh that quickly turned into a sob as she righted the iron before her.

“When were you going to tell me?” she asked.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“Not like I gave you much of an opportunity. I practically ran off with that boy the minute you got here. God,” she turned away from me, “I hate people seeing me cry, even you.”

I brushed my hand back and forth over her back as she sobbed. I didn’t know what to say other than I was sorry.

I’m sorry. What a paltry offer of sympathy. It couldn’t bring Francine back and it couldn’t take Lily’s pain away. But that and simply being there for her was all I could offer.

Several minutes passed before Lily turned back to me.

“Rodrigues told you?” I asked.

“It was more what he didn’t tell me,” she replied. “The town’s gone, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think she knew what happened?”

My gut wrenched.

“I hope not. I hope it was quick. One moment she was there and the next, she wasn’t,” I said.

“Me, too.”

“She loved you like a daughter.”

“I know. I’m going to miss her.”

The smallest twinge twisted my heart and then all the sorrow, fear, and anger that I held in check since noontime burst forth.

Lily wrapped her arms around me.

“I’m sorry, Heather. God, I’m sorry.”

She started to cry again and she patted my back as we held onto one another, letting our tears play out.

Lily wasn’t the type to shush me or tell me it was all going to be ok and neither was I. I don’t think she knew how grateful I was for that, just holding onto one another as we mourned Francine and New Bern.

Then I thought about Beck. Out there, possibly hurt, possibly dead, with no way for me to find him.

I cried all the harder.

After a time, the ache I felt ebbed and the tears stopped.

“Ready to go out into the world again?” Lily asked. It was something her mother use to say when we were younger and had a rough moment.

“Yeah, how about you?”

“Yeah.” She gestured at the motherboard. “I better get this up and working by the time Colonel Beck shows up.”

“You’ve heard from him?” I asked, grabbing her arm. She raised an eyebrow at me.

Nice grip on the emotions there, Heather, I thought sarcastically, then shoved the thought away.

“I had a feeling you might have been crying for more than just Ma there for a bit. He’s alive, Heather,” she replied matter of factly. She patted my hand and smiled and my hand fell away.

“You’ve spoken to him.”

“No,” she said, turning back to the motherboard.

“Then how do you know?”

“There couldn’t be any other possibility. If he was dead, you and I wouldn’t be here.”

I rocked back in my chair, staring at her.

Wish I had your faith, I thought.

She smiled at me as fiddled with the wire and soldering iron. I guess my look was disbelieving.

“Maybe you’ve grown so attached to him, you can’t see it. And I know you’re going to think that this is a bit of wild talk coming from me, but that man is alive for a reason. I don’t know what. I just see him and know he’s going to be around for a while.”

She took the soldering iron and wire and tapped the smallest of beads to the motherboard.

For the next moments, the only sounds I heard was the slick, tap, hiss of her work.

It was a bit of wild talk.

But a whisper in my mind urged me to acknowledge it as truth. I hesitated and the voice became persistent.

There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain. Have faith. Believe, the voice whispered.

I gave in.

The weight on my heart halved.

I rose gingerly out of my chair, feeling off balance by the lightened burden.

Lily glanced over at me, then back to the motherboard.

“I’ll come find you when he gets here,” she said.

I just nodded.