Anthony DeCosmo - Beyond Armageddon 04

by Schism

  Nina surveyed the clearing surrounding the cabin and Odin stood at her side with his nose in the air sniffing. She heard song birds celebrate the end of another summer day, her eyes saw no reason to fear, and her Elkhound did not advance any warning.

  She adjusted the M-4 on her shoulder and then stepped out of the shadows. Her footfalls crunched on the white gravel. As they crossed the distance, Nina took note of the cabin’s isolation; of her isolation in those mountains. Inside the forest, she had not given it much thought. But there, seeing the cabin in the clearing under the wide open sky and against the backdrop of forested mountain walls, emphasized the point.

  Nina and her dog arrived at and climbed the wooden stairs then stopped perfectly still. The door stood slightly ajar. Scrapes and splinters along the frame indicated forced entry.

  She drew her pistol and pushed the door. It swayed open with a creak much too loud for her liking, but no response came from within.

  She stepped inside first. A fresh cedar smell greeted her, riding on cold air trapped inside the home for a decade.

  To her right, a small room with a desk and dusty wildlife oil paintings, an ancient typewriter, and a bundle of straw in one corner no doubt home for a mouse. To her left, a closet with empty clothes hangers and a cache of dusty fishing gear scattered below.

  In front of her the hallway continued toward a kitchen. First, however, an archway to her left just beyond the closet.

  Nina instinctively felt a presence in that room even before she peered inside. When she did, she saw a bundle on the floor; a person curled in a fetal position in front of a dormant stone fireplace and at the foot of a plush sofa.

  Trevor Stone.

  Before entering the room she listened and looked along the hall but her instincts now told her they were alone.

  Those instincts were wrong.

  She stepped into the living room, holstered her weapon, and cautiously took to a knee. Odin stood nearby, his nose in the air.

  Nina felt a shiver shake her arm as she reached two fingers to his throat. For a long second she feared she had searched all day only to find a corpse. She closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief as her fingers felt a soft pulse, but he did not stir.

  His shirt had been torn to shreds during his blind race through the wilderness. He wore only one sneaker and she spied small patches of blood on his pant legs and arms. Nothing serious, but another sign of the craziness of his flight through the woods. Her Emperor—her leader— reduced to a wild animal.

  Nina studied the rough lines in his cheekbones and the strong shoulders that had carried her people so far for so long. Lying there, on the floor, those cheekbones seemed soft and the shoulders vulnerable. She realized she looked not upon an Emperor, but a man.

  In that moment all the admiration, all the loyalty, and all the respect she held for him doubled. Trevor Stone was no super being, no powerful entity, no demigod. She saw him as a human being, no more, no less. And while that realization stripped away his aura of invincibility, it made him real and his accomplishments more worthy of admiration.

  And he lay there, on the floor, alone.

  A wave of sadness flew over her. No, not over, but from that locked part of her heart.

  He will not be alone. He deserves better than that.

  She yanked a quilt from the sofa producing a cloud of dust that caused her to cough and wheeze, but he still did not stir even as she draped the cover across him.

  Nina placed her backpack on the floor and retrieved the oversized radio from inside. With her attention focused on the communicator, she did not see the Old Man staring in the front window, his face contorted into an expression of deep grief; tears streaming down his cheeks.

  The transmitter offered only static. Nina did not understand why. After several minutes of trying, she left the living room and moved outside in time to watch the last rays of sunshine fade behind the peaks. Odin remained behind, curled on the floor in one corner of the room nursing his own exhaustion.

  Still, no contact. She did not understand. The high powered radio should work, even in such a remote area. Something obstructed her call for help.

  She turned off the radio, returned inside, and knelt next to him whispering, “Trevor Do you.can you.hear me Um.it’s me.Captain.it’s me.Nina Forest.”

  No response, only the slow rise and fall of his chest.

  Nina considered her options. She could not carry him out of the mountains. Indeed, she could not walk out herself. The trip in had consumed her strength. Her legs needed rest. Furthermore, she suspected Trevor to be exhausted, which probably accounted for his lack of response. At least she hoped so.

  The calendar, she knew, said July but they sat in the high mountains surrounded by forest. The cabin’s stale, cold air already felt chilly enough despite how hot the day had been. Certainly the temperature would drop even further as night rose.

  She prioritized.

  First, Nina slipped her arms under his legs and shoulders, grunted, and lifted him to the couch. He lacked weight. The Order had provided just enough nutrients to keep his body functioning.

  With him secure on soft bedding and under the quilt, she turned her attention to the fireplace. On one side of the stone mantle a pile of yellowed newspaper, on the other a stack of dried logs.

  Nina used the paper and twigs for kindling and a match from her survival kit to ignite the heap. After allowing the flames to build, she added wood to the mix. Soon a respectable blaze warmed the living room.

  She slipped off her jacket and chugged from her canteen, careful to keep a healthy supply ready for him when he woke.

  If he wakes up.

  Nina found she had no appetite for rations. Eating could wait until morning.

  With that in mind, she settled in for what promised to be a long but hopefully quiet night. She sat on the floor and propped her head against the side of the couch while he slept above and Odin remained in the corner.

  An hour ticked by, maybe longer, and the world outside grew dark while the fire inside cast the two in a warm glow.

  Nina’s eyes grew heavy and sleep beckoned.

  .in a flash, her instincts chased off that sleep. She drew her weapon and leapt to her feet to confront the intruder.

  “Easy.easy there, missy.”

  He took a cautious step from the shadowy hall into the light of the living room. Odin glanced in the newcomer’s direction, but to Nina’s surprise her K9 friend appeared unconcerned.

  Nina held the gun sure and steady.

  “Hold it right there.”

  “Oh now, calm down,” the Old Man spoke with his hands held up and his back slightly hunched. “I’m not your enemy, you know that, don’t ya’”

  She did not know that.or.or did she

  “Who are you”

  “Oh, now, that’s right. You don’t remember a lick, do ya Probably for the best and all. Yep, definitely for the best. But now.well, now it’s a damned nuisance.”

  The Old Man’s words suggested he wanted to come across as flippant, but the tremble in his voice fell far short, sounding sad, maybe scared, to Nina’s ear. Still.she saw something familiar in him. Not visions, but feelings. Feelings of wonder and awe.

  The sight of Trevor lying on the floor had made her see the Emperor as just a man. The newcomer standing in the light of the fire.she knew-she knew-to be much more than that.

  “Now what is that I see in them eyes Could it be.naw.could you be thinkin’ you recognize lil’ old me”

  Nina did not react as the Old Man dropped his hands.

  “I.I don’t understand.”

  She did not feel threatened by the stranger; merely puzzled. She tilted her head and studied the lines of his face.

  “We had a talk once, you and me, about our friend here.”

  The old timer nodded toward the sofa. Nina followed his motion, glanced at Trevor, and then returned her attention to the newcomer. She turned the pistol in her hand, thought, then slid it into her hol
ster.

  “Mighty obliged,” he smiled a forced grin. “Anywho, I couldn’t really do you no harm even if that’d be my intention, seein’ how I’m not really here and all. At least, not the way you would be thinkin’.”

  As if to emphasize the point, the man took another step forward on the wooden cabin floor, but his footfall made no noise.

  Nina had seen enough in the decade since Armageddon to maintain her cool. Nonetheless, her voice dropped to a whisper. “Who are you What are you”

  He walked in a clumsy gait suggesting frailty. Nina guessed that to be an illusion, too.

  “I’m a friend. Now, you can’t tell me you haven’t heard all them stories, right You know, the stories `bout Trevor walkin’ off into the woods and comin’ back with fancy notions.”

  Nina had not heard those stories in recent years, but she had heard them.

  She crinkled her brow and remembered the early days at the estate. However, to her memory those early days began nearly a year after she and Shep had crashed in northeastern Pennsylvania. From what Shep had explained, she had been spirited away by The Order and implanted with two dormant parasites before being returned to Trevor’s band of survivors.

  Her mission, it appeared, had been to unwittingly collect intelligence for The Order. At some point in the process the parasites activated, recalling her to one of The Order’s bases. Or so Shep had said. Her discussions with Gordon and rumors of Trevor’s own imprisonment by The Order at the same time made her wonder.had she once betrayed Trevor Stone

  Regardless, the survivors raided The Order’s base and freed her, removing one of the parasites but not knowing of the second implant’s existence. That second implant had been tied to her memory. Months later doctors found and removed the second implant but, in the process, she lost her memories between its removal and when it had been first inserted.

  Seeing the Old Man standing in front of her and feeling a sense of recognition for him confirmed what she had long suspected: more had happened during those months than Shep or anyone had shared. Indeed, Nina’s decision to unravel the mystery of Trevor’s assassination had been driven by Ashley’s promise to shed light on that hole in her memories.

  “Hello You awake over there, missy Now, I can’t go fillin’ you in all over again and besides, I don’t think none of that matters right now.”

  The Old Man hovered over the sofa. Nina watched as his shoulders sagged more and glints of moisture sparkled in the corners of his eyes. The Old Man’s words continued but she could sense his struggle to maintain composure.

  “Guess.guess I just don’t understand as much as I’d like. No.not at all. I’m really sorry over this, Trevor. I always said, it ain’t about you. Maybe.maybe just this once.maybe we can make it about you.”

  “What’s wrong with him”

  His lips quivered, “He’s alone.”

  At first his answer confused her. But as she stared at the sleeping man named Trevor Stone, she began to understand. Her heart sank.

  “What did they do to him”

  The Old Man chewed on his thoughts as if to sculpt the right words. “Now, let’s see. From where you’re standin’, Trev has been gone for, what, two months That right”

  She nodded and resisted the urge to correct him that from her point of view, Trevor had been dead for two months.

  “For his part, well, its felt more like a decade.”

  Her head snapped around and she asked, “What do you mean”

  The Old Man snickered, a little, but without any good humor. “See, now, I keep on tellin’ Trevor time is irrelevant. It’s just a state of mind, really. What they done to him.they filled his head full of misery, stuffin’ it with visions and whatnot. Memories, if you will. Yeah, a whole bunch of bad memories. Nasty stuff.” The Old Man focused his eyes on Nina. “Bad things that he’s done and bad things happenin’ to people he’s got feelin’ for.”

  Nina grimaced and asked, “What You mean, they tortured him”

  “Trevor, he’s been tortured before on the outside. Messed him up real good, too. I was able to help out back then, to sort of undo the damage. Well, no, I’d say more like I took the edge off. This isn’t the same thing. This time they cut a shade deeper.”

  “I still don’t understand.”

  “Honey, Trevor’s mind has spent ten years re-livin’ all the bad things he ever done; all his guilt, all the decisions he made that ate away at his soul. They brought his demons to life.”

  “Dreams You mean they gave him bad dreams”

  The Old Man shook his head.

  “Nah, sweetie, reality. As real as you and me standin’ here. What are we if we ain’t the sum of our memories, right I suppose he coulda pulled on through but they took all those feelin’ of guilt and fear and-what would you say-oh yeah, they amp-la-fide them.”

  “Ampli..fied”

  “Yep. Drove him over the edge, too, but I think you can see that. Scrambled him up good. Tell me there, missy, how good a day would you have if someone tore you up like that Now make that day seem like ten years.”

  He held his eyes on her for a moment to make his point, and then cast them to the person lying on the couch.

  “It’s all bouncin’ around up there in him,” he spoke gently. “Powerful stuff, you know Emotion and such.”

  Nina could not be sure that she did, in fact, know. She had Denise-her daughter-and that had opened her to a wide range of feelings she never knew existed. Still, much remained hidden away waiting for the right trigger to bring it forth.

  The Old Man went on, “It’s like energy, I suppose, over powerin’ the circuits of his mind. Shortin’ them out.”

  Nina stepped closer to the couch and studied Trevor’s silent face. From what this strange old man told, a storm brewed underneath. A storm that had driven Trevor over the cliff of reason.

  “So we’ve come all this way and it’s too late Listen, I don’t believe that.”

  He asked, “Why”

  Her head tilted with childlike wonder as she whispered, “Because I know him. I mean, I sort of know him. I know he’s beaten the odds every time. He’s won fights he never should have won. He’s been brave enough to make the hard decisions for all of us when someone had to do it. I’m just saying, everything Armageddon has thrown his way, he beat it. He can beat this.”

  The elder told her solemnly, “Not this time, missy. This time he can’t do it by himself.”

  She did not know what to say. The surety in the man’s tone offered no room for debate.

  He continued, “I think I know everythin’, but this fella here, he’s been teachin’ me a bunch lately. Teachin’ me, ain’t that a hoot Think I’m finally startin’ to understand a few things. And one of them is this; it don’t matter what fancy gizmos you give a guy, it don’t matter what neat tricks you play, sooner or later life ain’t something that can be lived alone. Sooner or later, everyone be needin’ someone.”

  Nina thought she found a solution. “His wife. Ashley. Do I need to bring her here”

  The Old Man stood still and silent for several long seconds. The crisp, hot smell of the fire chased away the lingering taste of dust that had dominated the room. Just as Nina felt compelled to speak, he offered words of his own.

  “That ain’t gunna do the trick, missy. Trev, here.well, he’s with who he had to be with; more like a job than anythin’ else. That’s part of the problem. I guess it’s better to be with no one than to be with the wrong one, `cause that only makes things all the more lonely. And both of them.” the Old Man coughed.or was it a sniffle “.and both of them are all alone, even when they’re together.”

  Nina understood.she thought. It fit, of course. Trevor Stone played the role of humanity’s savior. Perhaps he had been forced into other choices that had not been his own.

  The Old Man finished, “So he’s layin’ here in a big mess. Maybe he won’t even wake up. That’d be for the best, you know Maybe you should just walk away and leave him be. Tell everyone yo
u didn’t find nothin’.”

  Nina saw herself as a soldier, not a philosopher and certainly no expert on relationships or psychology. She knew something of loneliness, though. She tried to speak, but found her mouth had gone dry. Nina licked her lips, then tried again.

  “Can I.can I help Some.somehow”

  The Old Man turned to her with very serious eyes. She met those eyes with hesitation.and a tingle of fear.

  “Now, watch what you’re sayin’. You think `bout that now, missy. You think long and hard. There’s only one thing that can be done here, and it ain’t pleasant.”

  She swallowed. “What can be done”

  The Old Man leaned a little closer and spoke delicately. “He’s got a mind full of sorrow, of pain, of loss. Like I said, it’s like energy bouncin’ `round up there, overloadin’ his circuits. He can’t handle all that. He needs to.he needs to unload some of it.”

  “What.what can I do”

  “Oh, now, honey, be careful `bout what you get yourself into. To help him.I dunno.you need to.well you’ll need to open up to him. You need to take some of that burden out of his mind. Take it on your shoulders.”

  “I don’t understand you,” yet she worried she did.

  “But missy, you need to know. What he’ll be givin’ you.a whole lot of sadness. A whole lot of doubt and scared and worry. These are the things that have taken over his noggin’. Things stuck up there with nowhere to go.”

  Nina felt goose bumps spring to life on her arms despite the persistent warmth flickering from the fireplace. Her heart beat fast.

  “That’s not possible. I mean, how could I even do something like that”

  “You have to want to. Can’t force you to; can’t force no one to do that. But like I said, it’s all like a big ball of energy bouncin’ around. If you want.if you are willin’ to take the chance.”

  Nina staggered a step away.

  “I.I can’t. I don’t know how to.I.”

  Nina stopped her retreat, then shuffled forward and knelt next to Trevor on the couch.

  “Tell me,” the old timer asked. “Tell me what you think of Trevor Stone.”