The End of the Beginning

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The End of the Beginning Page 11

by Eichholz, Zachary


  William had been there long enough to know the culture and its tangibles. Bamboo trees and bonsai plants greened up the office to add to its already apparent Asian style and feel. Pottery, jade jewelry, tapestries that showed ancient scenes, and a stone Buddha that was blackened on one side and the size of a dishwasher watched over the office, reminding whoever entered, or maybe even the commander herself, of what was won and loss over there.

  The floor was navy marble with a white UNIRO symbol embedded in the center of the room. As William opened one of the double doors to the office, the glass became transparent again.

  “Captain,” the commander called out, now staring out over the plaza, hands held behind her back, as though inspecting her kingdom, her subjects scrambling about below like ants trying to satisfy their queen.

  “Yes, Commander?”

  “I love a good dare. Show me.”

  As William closed the double doors he watched Hammond through the glass continue to stare out her office windows. There was something curious about her. Something that made William want to know more. Something…

  “What are you going to show her?”

  William spun around at the all too familiar jovial voice. Standing with his hands in his pockets, his glasses crooked, a smirk on his face, was John.

  CHAPTER 17: Acceptance

  The sheer scope of the UNIRO base dwarfed that of any military base William had ever been on, but then again, those bases weren’t built to house an organization intended to save the world.

  Its seawall seemed to go on forever, twisting out from shore like an arching serpent. They passed wind turbine after wind turbine as they walked, their electric hums dulling the sound of the ocean waves, their blades spinning relentlessly in the sea breeze. Often William would have to hold on to his beret to keep it from flying off the wall in the wind, fifty feet above the water on the titanic concrete barrier.

  “You’re him, aren’t you?” William asked.

  John chuckled. “I’m who?”

  “The mutual friend. You know Mr. Wood, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” John nodded, “we go back to just after the end of the war. Shortly after the Auxilium Protocol was ratified and UNIRO made a reality, a call went out to anyone who wanted to join to come and enlist. They needed doctors and I saw a place where I could save people through my work without the possibility of also having to kill someone. Seven months later, I found myself here, as did Roger.”

  He stopped. “You would have hated it back then,” he laughed. “They got the first group here so fast they had us living in portables for the first few months. None of this was here, just bulldozers and backhoes. But wow, look what we have accomplished since.”

  John opened his arms to the base and turned 360 degrees. John then turned towards William and looked straight into his eyes, squinting a little as he did behind his glasses. He put his finger to William’s chest and poked it several times.

  “Look at where you are!”

  William looked out across the beautiful harbor waters. The twenty-five story tall Umoja Tower was but a mere line in the distance. The scale of it all took William’s breath away.

  “Enough about me,” John exclaimed, smacking William on the back. “I want to know about you, Will. Nothing’s changed about me. Trust me. Oh, except for this, of course.”

  John lifted the patch on his jacket that displayed his new rank of colonel. This was only the hundredth time he had reminded William since reuniting. He gave a quick wince through his teeth.

  “But you… you dropped off the map pretty quickly once you left me at that boarding gate. No text, calls, Twitter shout outs,” John joked. “What happened? I spent years looking. You had me a little concerned for a bit. I didn’t know if something had happened to you. No one did. When you were missing, I never feared the worst for you though,” he said, “but I feared you would only see the worst.”

  William rested his arms over the access road’s handrail and watched a ship docking at the port over a mile away from him. John joined his stance. A wind turbine spun almost directly above them.

  “I lost my way,” William sighed, putting his head down. “And honestly, I’m still looking for it. Being here though, I think it’s a step in the right direction. At least I hope.” William gave John a sorrowful look. “I’m scared, Doc. I’m really scared.”

  “Will you - ”

  “I have failed everyone that I have ever known,” William said. “Most of them are dead and shouldn’t be. I have had to live with that fact for the last six years, never knowing if I would imagine a dead person walking past my home and into my dreams, screaming in my face for help, never being able to answer them. I could have saved them, especially my… my…”

  “Who?” John asked curiously.

  “Never mind.” William stared into the water lapping at the base of the wall. “Now I’m expected to save the world with you guys, with my own team, and I don’t know if I can do it. I’m not the leader I used to be.”

  “You can’t live through your past anymore, Will, just like the rest of humanity can’t. You can’t change what’s happened in the past but you can look to the future and try and change what’s coming. I think, deep down inside somewhere, you already know that, otherwise, you never would have allowed yourself to come with Roger.”

  “Maybe,” said William, doubt in his voice.

  “What do you think UNIRO stands for Will? Why even undertake all this at all?”

  William scoffed and shook his head. “I dunno. Peace?” he said, throwing his hands up.

  “Close. It could, I guess,” John said with a slight nod. “I was thinking of another word though. Acceptance. Acceptance of what we have done. Acceptance of our mistakes. Acceptance that the time for blame is over and the time for action is now. And, finally, acceptance that we need to change ourselves first if we want to change our future. That acceptance goes for each and every member of this organization, including you, Will.”

  “No wonder you and Mr. Wood became friends,” William laughed. “Bunch of philosophical optimists. Is that what this place does to you? Am I going to be talking like this in a few years?”

  “Quicker, I hope!” John grinned. “You seem to already know your way with words though. Not everyone can survive a beating from Base Commander Hammond on their first day and live to tell about it.”

  “Yeah, what’s her deal, Colonel? She always that pissed off or is it just with me?”

  “It’s not only you Will. She can be like that… a lot.”

  “She like you?”

  “Yes. No. Sometimes. I think so. We talk. She trusts me.”

  “She said she was in Korea, in Ulsan, when it was nuked. What happened to her? Do you know?”

  John gulped and removed his beret. His straight blonde hair was still the same as William remembered.

  “Enough… But let’s turn this into a lunch conversation, shall we? I’ll take you to one of the dining halls. My treat.”

  “I thought everything here was free for base personnel.”

  “It is. I was just being nice. Come on.”

  CHAPTER 18: Who is She

  William entered the building through automated, supermarket-style doors and was met with a commotion of hundreds of UNIRO personnel and construction workers. Inside, the dining hall was huge, capable of holding at least 2,000 people, with high ceilings and an upper deck running along the walls around a central indoor forest. Just to the left of the entrance was an open gallery of diverse international cuisine, appealing to the vast number of ethnic groups working as UNIRO personnel.

  Hydroponic systems of tomato and bananas, even lemons, were hanging over the food lines within arm’s reach free for anyone. Misters kept the produce fresh, giving the buffet lines a natural smell. The small pine forest, left over from the original wooded coastal areas the base was built over, rose up through the laminated brown floor, transplanted in realistic AstroTurf and cared for through smart irrigation systems and soft vi
olet light near their branches. On open fire grills, veggie burgers, vegetables, and fish were being cooked. Also up for grabs was an assortment of 3D printed pizzas.

  “Good call, Doc” William said as he looked around. “I was starving and didn’t even know it.”

  “Yeah, this place will do that to you,” John finished chewing on some tuna sushi. He cleared his throat and then said, “Get some bugs. They’re good. Lots of protein.”

  “Did you say bugs? You want me to eat some bugs?” William said, looking disgusted as he downed what was left of a vegetable wrap packed together with rice paper.

  John held a grilled cricket kabob with green peppers and onions in William’s face.

  “Yeah, why not?” he said with a mischievous grin. “They’re good! I promise.”

  “Uh-huh,” William said. “In that buffet over there, is there any, umm, red meat? Pork perhaps? I don’t remember seeing any.”

  “Nope.”

  “No…?”

  “Nope,” John said with a smile. “NASA helped UNIRO develop its menus based of their Mars expedition plans. Cool, I know. They combined healthy with sustainability. UNIRO needs to quickly and easily grow the things it needs with the least amount of effort and resources so that we can focus on growing as much as we can for our rescue missions. Unfortunately, red meat doesn’t fit the bill. I guess it’s a compromise of the times. Many retailers are turning to synthetic meats. Raising cattle is expensive nowadays, too much water and land is needed. Instead, UNIRO grows protein-heavy crops like soybeans and uses insects, fish, chicken, even guinea pigs for our meats.”

  “Guinea pigs…”

  “Since all our focus basically goes to veggies, we keep our produce rolling. We grow fast-cycle plants like lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, carrots, and tomatoes. Then you got your high carbohydrate crops like sweet potatoes, wheat, and our prize crop, rice! All the rice. So much rice, Will,” he said with wide eyes. “But it works and people seem to get used it.”

  William did not know how this made him feel; he loved a good steak.

  “This place is going to turn me into a vegetarian? Should have stayed in Canada.”

  “So,” John said, leaning in, “tell me about what the commander said. I’ve been dying to know. What were you going to show her?”

  William tried to hold back a smug smile but failed. John took a bite out of a cricket, never taking his eyes behind his glasses off of William.

  “I dared her.”

  “You dared her. What the heck does that mean?”

  “Well, understandably, she thought I may be more trouble than I’m actually worth so she straight-up asked me why she should keep me here. Honestly, I didn’t know what to say. I started to sweat and panic and I thought I might, I thought might - ”

  “Have another panic attack,” finished the curious John.

  “Yeah, one of those. But I held it together and I just said let me do my work so I could basically just show her why she should keep me. Then I dared her to keep me.”

  John’s eyes grew as wide as grapefruits and his grin a banana.

  “You said I dare you? Like, literally?”

  “Yes.”

  “Wow… Brave.”

  “Yeah, Hammond said the same thing,” said William, playing with his food and taking a bite of his wrap. “The chip on her shoulder seems larger than one of the warehouses.”

  “Ha, look who’s talking,” John crunched down on a cricket. “You two are actually quite alike.”

  “Please don’t say that. I was never that much of an asshole.”

  “I’m serious,” John said. “Listen. You wanted to know about her; here you go.

  “Hammond lived in London with her family, a distinguished military family, mind you. Some of them died in the 2005 London bombings on board a subway train. As a result, she joined the British Army and was in Afghanistan by ’07. Earned a few medals there for pulling a group of soldiers out of a burning, bombed-out building, then returns home after three tours in 2014. By this time, she’s a major in the army.”

  “What about Korea?” William asked.

  “A few years go by, then 2020 rolls around and just like us, the Brits were deployed to the South. Now she’s a lieutenant colonel and leads her own regiment, 3,000 soldiers. Like she told you, she was in Ulsan readying to move on to the DMZ and enter the North when they got word that bombs were coming. Her and her men were in the downtown area at ground zero. With no other adequate shelter and time running out, they blew their way into a subway tunnel being built and rushed in.”

  “They didn’t make it, did they?” asked William sullenly, putting down his food. John shook his head.

  “Over 3,000 went into that tunnel, and only 178 came out, Hammond being one of them. See, even though the tunnel saved her and a few others, it collapsed under the blast pressure from above and buried most of her regiment. They held out over a week down there while rescue teams waited for the surface to cool down ’cause it was so hot. Water from a broken main and MREs kept them alive under her leadership. Like you, she was promoted after Korea and came home a hero. She stayed in the military and returned to Korea to help with the reunification process for another three years; then she got asked to do this.”

  “And I cowered in a forest…”

  “Don’t start beating yourself up, Will. There is a difference in these situations. The commander emerged from that tunnel with a few cuts and bruises. You emerged with a lot of broken things, including your back, a vital piece of body infrastructure. I was your doctor, I know. All that I can say is that it was better you didn’t go back into theatre. You had your reasons for leaving and she had her reasons for staying. You handled the aftermath the only way you knew how at the time and she handled it the way she knew how. All that matters now is that you’re healed and you’re here. Okay?”

  “Yeah. You're right,” said William, coming around. “I’m going to go get some ice cream.”

  “Excellent idea.”

  “Is it made out of celery?” William joked.

  “No, that wouldn’t taste good at all,” John said. He waited until William had started walking away to call out again. “It’s made out of corn!”

  “Great,” William muttered as he walked towards the ice cream bar.

  He grabbed a small biodegradable cup made from hemp and began scooping some vanilla ice cream from a freezer within one of the buffet counters. As the cold air from the freezer touched his hands…

  Ice cream was our last meal. We laughed as the storm outside raged. I was excited because I never had had such sweets that early in the morning before. My grandmother tapped my nose with her spoon. I remember her face, smiling at my joy, turning to horror as she watched a branch from behind me smash through our kitchen window with a…

  Crash! William huffed as he turned around. Someone had dropped their plate, shattering it. His med-bracelet was vibrating, as were William’s hands. He dropped the ice cream scooper, closed the sliding freezer door, and tried to collect himself.

  “Just let it go…” William muttered to himself. “Accept it. Accept it…”

  After a minute or two, William made his way back to John at their table, trying to appear as if nothing had happened. Not that John would’ve noticed anything anyways. He was too busy listening to a message in his earpiece. William also noticed his glass tag was beeping red.

  “Will, I’m sorry,” John said, hanging up the call. “I have to go. All senior staff are being called to the command center. There has been some kind of terrorist attack at an oil refinery in India.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah,” said John putting on his jacket. “Sounds big too. I’ll call you later. Dinner tonight?”

  “Umm, yeah. Sure,” stammered William as John ran past him.

  “I’ll take you on a tour of the warehouses tomorrow!”

  William gave John a quick thumbs up and watched as John walked out the front doors of the dining hall. He got up and headed towards the
exit as well.

  On his way out of the dining hall, William was looking down at his glass tag, trying to find his way back home, when he ran into someone.

  “I’m so sorry, sir,” William said, holding his arm out. “I wasn’t paying attention and I - ”

  “That’s okay, amigo,” said the man he had hit, brushing off his shoulder.

  William saw the man pause as he studied William’s face. He was in his early forties. His figure was slim but his body had clear definition through his white and black ISAF apparel. The man’s straight black hair looked purposefully messy as it draped over his forehead. His brown eyes were deep and his face had a facial hair shadow across broad cheeks and chin. A handgun was in a thigh hostel on his left leg and a radio was clipped onto his white jacket near its zipper over a tight black undershirt.

  “It’s you,” the man pointed at William. “Wow, it’s really you.”

  “I’m sorry,” William said, “do I know you?”

  “Ah, lo siento, señor,” said the man. “My name is Patrick Marcos Hernandez, chief of security here at Base Tranquility.”

  William tensed up a little. Hernandez noticed.

  “Oh wow, I’m so sorry sir. I will be more careful next time - ”

  “A man of your historical stature need not apologize,” Hernandez bowed his head. “It is a pleasure.”

  “Oh, please sir, I…”

  “Humble in greatness. I should have expected. The distinction of a true hero. I’m sure UNIRO is very proud to have you, Captain.”

  “Yeah, well, umm… The base commander didn’t have too kind of words for me earlier today.”

  Hernandez waved a hand across his face. “Pssh, nonsense. Your career and abilities are not to be underestimated.” He then wrapped an arm over William’s shoulders. “Off the record, that woman could learn a thing or two from you. She fled to the dirt. You fled to the sky when those bombs fell. Hammond can be cold. She doesn’t know what she’s got in you. If I were her, I’d want fifty more of you.”

 

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