Epic: Dawn of Destiny

by Lee Stephen

  Becan’s devilish smile curled up at Max, and he mouthed the word, “you.” Max made no response.

  Clarke could hardly speak. Finally, he managed, “That…was the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen in my life…”

  “Thank yeh, sir,” Becan answered as he filtered through the audience back to his seat.

  Jayden stared at him wide-eyed. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me you could do that?”

  “Yeh never asked.”

  The lull of the gym lingered on Becan for a moment, before Clarke regained his poise. “Next please?”

  The rest of the fights were lackluster. Scott observed as David and Jayden held their own in their matches, though neither could replicate Becan’s three-on-one feat. As for Novikov, he was tended to personally by Svetlana. When that tender aid involved a kiss, Scott knew that she and the lieutenant were more than comrades.

  Clarke’s small talk concluded the evening, and they dismissed for Room 14. Showers came next, and food in the cafeteria after. As before, Scott and his companions found acceptance with William and Joe, though now they were joined by two Fourteenth defectors—Travis and Fox Powers. Travis, despite his beating, enthusiastically praised Becan for his fighting prowess. Fox exchanged sniper-talk with Jayden.

  William was more interested in ribbing Scott for his downfall than in joining any meaningful conversation, but Scott only laughed it off and changed the subject. By the time conversation died down, it was almost 2100. Almost curfew, and time for the Fourteenth to retire to its room. Day one was over.

  Night number two was just beginning.

  * * *

  Scott lay wide awake. He peered to the bunk bed above, where David slept out of view. It was past midnight, and the Fourteenth was asleep—all except for Scott. He wasn’t sure whether to blame it on jet lag or the day’s events, but nonetheless he laid in sleeplessness, hands behind his head as he listened to the steady breathing of those around him. The soreness had begun to set in. The embarrassment had set in much earlier, despite his efforts at bravado.

  For the first time since the whirlwind of the transfer, Scott missed his comrades from Charlie Squad—Colonel Lilan and Major Tacker, Michael Carter and Donald, and of course the two girls. He missed Henry and Zigler. He missed immortality.

  But more than anything, he missed Nicole.

  He had called her earlier that day, but the conversation was almost painfully short. She didn’t have time to talk. She had other things to do. For the first time, he noticed something different about her voice. Something gone that had always been there in the past. Hope. He hadn’t seen her in four months. He knew it would be much longer before he’d see her again.

  The thought of Richmond being too far away seemed laughable now. He would have gladly stayed there had he known Russia was the alternative. But now, what did it matter? He was there. There was nothing he could do to change it.

  He recalled every detail about the day he had proposed. Every little thing. It had been a gorgeous Sunday afternoon. The sun shone splendidly. She wore a yellow shirt and blue jeans, and her hair was tied back in a ponytail. They were on a picnic. She always loved them, he always got dragged along. But this time it was his idea. She was delighted with his initiative.

  He knew if he tried to pull off anything cute it would come off sounding cliched, so he just told her. You were put in my life to be my love. If I tried to tell you what you mean to me, we’d be here all night. I love you. I intend to love you forever, and there’s no other girl who can change that. You are my girl. I want to be your man. Nikki…will you marry me?

  He remembered her eyes as they glistened, and her smile lit up. Scott…you’re already my man. I can’t wait to marry you. He could still taste the passion in her kiss.

  Sleep was futile. It was pointless to even try. He reached down to the floor and felt around with his fingers for the cover of his Scripture. His hand curled around it, he propped himself up, and slid out of bed. He was well adjusted to the darkness by that point, and he quietly padded to the lounge.

  It wasn’t until he was only steps away that he noticed an orange glow beneath its door. There could only be one explanation—someone was there. He hadn’t heard anyone leave their beds all night. Either he had fallen asleep, or someone had never left the lounge in the first place.

  He gripped the knob, turned it, and gave the door a gentle push. He saw her the moment he stepped inside. Svetlana. She sat at a corner table, her hands clasped together as golden strands of her hair shone down the sides of her face. Her posture tensed as she turned to acknowledge him. Scott froze in the doorway. The atmosphere became awkward.

  Scott wasn’t sure how he was supposed to greet her. Was it appropriate to say something? Was he supposed to put on a fake smile and pretend she was a friend, despite the fact that he had never spoken to her? He knew two things about Svetlana. She was beautiful, and she was sour. At least, that’s how she struck him. He wasn’t sure if that was his fault or hers.

  His body went rigid as the orange flicker of the countertop lamp bled through the lounge door. Svetlana and him. Two strangers with nothing in common except shower stalls and forced camaraderie. Nothing in common. And nothing to talk about.

  He sensed the bunk room behind him. Someone would wake up any second, and once again Scott would find himself in the midst of anger. The Golden Lion—pathetic fighter and disturber of a good night’s sleep. Him.

  “You Americans have strange customs,” Svetlana said.

  Scott’s mind snapped back to the present. His eyes flickered at her. “What?”

  “You open the door, stare at me, and say nothing,” she answered. “That is indeed strange custom.”

  It took him a moment to realize what she meant. She was being sarcastic. It wasn’t something he expected. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know if coming in would bother you.”

  She sat back in her chair. “Come in if you wish. But whatever you do, please close the door, or you will learn new Russian custom. Knock down the man who wakes everyone up.”

  He chuckled. A single breath of amusement. That was indeed a custom he wanted nothing to do with. He had taken his fair share of beating already. He had a busted lip and a bruised jaw to prove it.

  He nodded, stepped inside, and eased the door shut. It still felt awkward, but not quite as much as before. The burden of first words was over. She had taken the initiative. Sarcasm wasn’t the best way to start a relationship, but he could work with it. A relationship. How in the world could he relate to anything in Svetlana’s world?

  “So what is so troubling that it keeps the Golden Lion awake at night?” she asked.

  He stared at her. It sounded so venomous the way she said it. The Golden Lion. It was as if the title itself was created for mockery. It hadn’t been that way at Richmond.

  Svetlana lowered her head. “I’m sorry…does it offend you when I call you that?”

  It didn’t offend him. It disappointed him. He wasn’t a medal. He was Scott James Remington, a soldier doing the best he could to help the war. He had never asked for anything else. But he’d accepted it when it was given to him. Did that make him bad? It didn’t offend him. It hurt him. It hurt him because, in his heart of hearts, he wasn’t just a soldier. He was a human being trying to make a difference. Not just in the war. In the lives of the people around him. He was a nice guy with a gun.

  Why am I here, God? Why have You brought me here? I thought You wanted this…but was I wrong?

  Nicole said it herself. God’s will doesn’t contradict itself. If God wanted him to be with Nicole, why had He sent him to Russia? It hit him as soon as the question entered his mind. God hadn’t sent him to Russia.

  He’d sent himself there.

  “Remington?”

  For a second time, Svetlana’s voice freed him from his thoughts. His focus snapped back to her, and once again he beheld her form. But something was different. Her narrowed gaze was missing. Her pointed expression had me
lted away. She was no longer the woman who’d invited him in with venomous sarcasm. Her dark blond brows were arched. Her lips were thinly parted. She was a girl who realized he was hurting.

  “Remington?” she asked again.

  Scott shook his head. “I’m sorry.” He hated this. He felt emotional, and he knew he looked emotional. That was why he had come to the lounge in the first place. To be alone. He hadn’t expected anyone else to be there.

  “It is okay,” she said. Her voice was different too. It was concerned. She motioned to the chair beside her. “Come and sit, please.”

  “I really don’t want to disturb you,” he answered. “I didn’t think anyone would be here.”

  She shook her head. “No, please. You are not disturbing me. Come and sit and we will talk, okay?”

  Before he moved to the table and slid into the chair, he allowed himself a moment of composure. He hated sympathy. He hated it more than he hated the spite in the words Golden Lion when Max and Svetlana said them.

  As he sat, she offered her apology. “I am sorry about what I said when you came in. It was stupid of me.”

  He waved it off. “It’s all right.”

  “No it is not. I am sorry.”

  Scott took his seat in silence. The room still felt awkward, but not because she was his enemy. It was awkward because he was vulnerable.

  “So let me do it again, better this time,” Svetlana said, smiling. Insincerely, he thought. “I am glad for the company tonight. What is it that keeps you awake?”

  He knew she wasn’t glad. But at least she was trying, even if only for the sake of courtesy. “I don’t know,” he answered. “Not sure if it’s jet lag, or just thinking.”

  Her eyes narrowed, and the forced smile remained. “I think we both know that it is something you are thinking.”

  He laughed. It was obvious. “Okay. You win there.”

  She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “So what is it then?”

  What was he supposed to tell her? He was dealing with all sorts of things. Loneliness. Anxiety. Doubt. She wanted the truth? He wasn’t sure he was ready for that. “Just some personal things I’m dealing with.”

  “Mr. Remington,” she said as she shied her smile away. “A doctor hears all kinds of personal things. You may tell me if you wish…”

  “Are you really asking me for medical reasons?” Scott asked skeptically.

  The lounge fell quiet. The lamp flickered on the countertop. As Svetlana leaned back to mirror him, she played her fingers on the table. “No. It is not. But now you have me curious.” She paused. “So I want to know what you are thinking.”

  “Why are you curious?”

  She pursed her lips. “Can not a girl be curious of the Golden Lion?”

  “Why does everyone keep calling me that?”

  “Is that not what you are?”

  It wasn’t what he was. Why couldn’t anyone understand? “No. It’s not. My name is Scott, not Golden Lion.”

  She laughed lightly. “Mr. Remington, surely—”

  “My name is Scott.”

  “Very well. Scott, surely you do not expect me to ignore the fact you are the holder of most famous award in EDEN.”

  “I honestly wish you would,” he said. “I don’t want to be treated differently because I got some stupid piece of metal.”

  She crossed one arm beneath her breasts and lifted the other contemplatively to her chin. She leaned closer. “You think it is stupid?”

  The medal wasn’t stupid. The inflated symbolism that came with it was. “It hasn’t brought me anything good,” he answered. “Everywhere I go, it’s all everyone talks about…how I’m a hero, or a celebrity, or some kind of knight. I’m not. I’m just a normal person going through something I never asked for.” He wasn’t a hero to Nicole. “Do you know what my fiancee said when they gave it to me?”

  Svetlana edged back. “No…”

  “She went crazy. She was terrified, she was furious. She thought I was a fool for risking my life when we’ve got a future together. Everyone thinks I’ve been riding on some high horse since Chicago, but I haven’t.” Chicago was the easiest thing he had done. Everything after that went downhill.

  “…you do not want Golden Lion?” she asked slowly.

  “They gave it to me,” he said. “I didn’t pick it out for myself. Everyone thinks I wanted all of this, but that’s not the truth. If I had known what I know now, I’d have never accepted it.”

  Her gaze was fixated on him. “I am sorry to be so curious…it is only that I did not expect you to say these things. I never thought that you might not like what you are.”

  “Look where I am, Svetlana. I’m in the middle of Russia. My fiancee’s in Michigan. People in my unit hate me, when all I ever wanted to be was a teammate.” He didn’t understand any of it. “What do I have to do to get rid of this?”

  The lounge fell silent. Svetlana’s lips parted, though she said nothing.

  It was all true. The more he thought about it, the more Scott wished he had never assaulted the Carrier. But he couldn’t blame himself for it. He had felt—he had known he could do it. He had done what any good soldier would have done. He’d finished the job.

  His attention returned to her. The expression on her face was a mixture of confusion and intrigue. As she brushed loose strands of hair from her cheek, she said, “I did not know you felt this way. I thought…” Her words trailed off.

  “What?”

  She sighed. “I do not know what I thought of you.”

  Scott knew. She thought he was a walking ego. She thought he would walk into the unit with guns ablaze as his attitude pulled the trigger. She thought he would act like a Golden Lion.

  “I hear you now,” she said, “and you are different from what I expected. You see…when the captain heard that you were coming, that is all that he talked about. We will be getting Golden Lion, over and over. And not only that, but…you have been here for so little, and you are already gamma private. It took me two years to become delta, as it did for Max. But you did all of these things in one mission.” Her eyes sunk and her lips parted down. “And now to hear you say these things…I do not know what to say. I am…how do you say it? Amazed?”

  “Amazed that I don’t want all this?”

  She looked up. “Amazed that you hate it.”

  What she said was true. He did hate it. Every time someone talked about it or made a comment to him, he wished everything he had done would go away. Or at least not be common knowledge. “I never asked to be a gamma. I never asked for a Golden Lion. I never asked to be transferred here.” He had never asked for anything. “It all just happened. I did the best I could, and this is where it got me. I don’t know why I was chosen for any of this, and I know it’s not fair. But what am I supposed to do? All I can do is to do best that I can.”

  She stared at him for several seconds before a smile escaped her lips. “I think that if everyone could hear what I am hearing…I do not know. You have caught me off guard.” She almost laughed. “I think this is the first time that I have heard your voice. You do not sound like I expected. You do not sound like a man who loves to be special soldier.”

  “I don’t love to be one,” he said. “I never did. How do I tell everyone that?”

  She shook her head. “I do not know. Maybe wait until they are alone in the lounge…then stand in the door until they invite you in.” She chuckled. “I really do not know. I really cannot explain how everyone feels, and how you make me feel now. It is good to hear these things from you.”

  “How do you feel now?”

  “Not the same,” she answered. “There is something about you. It is good, I think. It is different. I think…that you are not like I expected Golden Lion to be. You do not talk about yourself in that way.”

  “I understand how you thought I might be,” he said. He really did. “But I’m not like that. I just want to be a soldier. I want to be a soldier and a good teammate.”

&
nbsp; “I am afraid I must apologize. I am now feeling very guilty about the things I thought of you.”

  Scott sighed. “You don’t need to apologize…”

  “No, no…I do. I thought bad things…”

  “How bad are we talking about?”

  “I do not think I want to say.”

  “You have to tell me now.”

  She peered at him, examining his countenance carefully. “If I tell you, you will hold them against me forever.”

  Good God. Were they that bad? “If you don’t tell me, I’ll hold it against you forever.”

  She offered an embarrassed smile. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then, if I must…” She shied away from him, her gaze falling to the tabletop. “I thought bad things when you fought with Max…”

  The fight with Max. That was the one thing he wished everyone would forget.

  “Must I continue?” she asked.

  Scott caught himself in a snort. “You certainly can’t stop there.”

  She stifled a nervous laugh. “…very well…I thought you looked better with busted lip…and…”

  “And…?”

  The rest tumbled out. “And maybe if he hit you hard enough we could send you back to America on rolling bed.”

  “You actually thought that?”

  Her expression grew defensive. “That was before this! I did not know! Now I feel terrible!”

  “You should feel terrible!”

  “Do you feel better now?”

  “What else did you think?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Do I have to tell you everything? I thought many things, but that was the worst.”

  Scott nodded. “That was pretty bad.”

  “That is why I must apologize,” she said. “I am afraid I will go to Hell now if I do not.”

  She had a sense of humor. It was nice. “You still might. That was pretty wrong of you.”

  “I am redeemed through my apology. What more must I do?”

  “Nothing else. You warned me beforehand. I asked anyway.”