by John Darling
My head felt horrible and I tried to push the airbag aside to see where the men were. Jemma was unconscious in the passenger seat and her head was bleeding. We had to get out of here. I tried to open my door but I couldn’t. It was jammed. I looked up to see the men within a few feet of the truck. At least I thought they were within a few feet. My vision blurred in and out, and I couldn’t tell exactly how close they were. One of them ran over to Jemma’s side of the truck and ripped the door open.
“Hey what are you doing? Leave her alone!”
Nothing I said did anything to stop him. He cut Jemma’s seatbelt and yanked her body out of the car. I was about to move when I felt a huge rush of pain and found a yellow dart in my chest. Through a tiny hole in the windshield, I spotted the person that had shot me. I reached to yank the dart out but the pain crippled my body. My eyes closed and my head fell forward into the steering wheel, causing the horn to sound. That was the last thing my mind registered before blacking out.
Chapter Forty: Another Journey Ends
“Trevor Justin Flashman. We are here today to determine your future with S.T.O.R.M. This board has reviewed all of the evidence and gone over the mission logs. We have heard several statements and comments from witnesses on the mission, as well as from other Stormers from your basic combat class. Some officers even volunteered to submit reports on your behalf because of who your father was. However, just because you share a last name with someone doesn’t mean you will be treated more favorably than someone who isn’t related to another Stormer. Captain Luthorn, will you please state the facts?”
My body shook and my palms were sweating like crazy. The long table ahead of me didn’t seem to end, and the darkness in the room only added to the intensity of the situation. What had I been thinking? Had disobeying orders to save Jemma been worth it? I asked myself that question in my head several times, and each time I came up with the same exact answer; Yes. It had been more than worth it. Although it hadn’t been a well-thought-out decision, I truly believed that I had done the right thing by going back for her. If this organization does not care enough about its own members as much as I do, then I didn’t belong here. What if I had been the one sent to that team and caught in that helicopter explosion? I would have wanted someone to come back for me. I believed that leaving people behind just to protect the secrets of this organization was unacceptable.
I didn’t fully agree with why I was being reprimanded for my actions. Two days ago I had been shot with some kind of yellow dart that had released a drug into my system and knocked me out cold. The next thing I knew, I was waking up strapped to a chair in an airplane heading back to the Eye. After being treated the way I had been back in Spain, part of me wanted to leave this review board. I knew that wasn’t the best choice and that was why I was still standing here and entertaining this hearing. Even if today would be the last day I would be able to call myself a Stormer, I would never regret what I did. Hell, I would do the same thing again.
Captain Luthorn stood up and began reading.
“On January 8th, a strike mission was conducted in Djibouti, Africa. Junior Officer Flashman was instructed, along with the rest of his team, to safely get to the ground and quickly capture the target before it reached its thermal climax. Based on intelligence received from Captain Williams, we had learned that the target had already reached its climax and infected several hundred people in the area after our first three Strike teams hit the ground.
“Thirty-seven minutes later, a U.S. Army Humvee on patrol from Camp Lemonnier spotted gunfire and proceeded into the direction of the skirmish between our teams and the infected people. Three minutes later, the Plague Killers, which JO Flashman was a part of, captured the primary target and was instructed to evacuate. Seven minutes later, the team boarded their H-TRAC, along with the target imprisoned in the vehicle’s containment box, and proceeded to the rendezvous point. Three minutes later the choppers were airborne with the Plague Killers, as well as the target.”
“In fear that U.S. Army troops would learn about what our teams were doing in the area, and why we were killing civilians, the order was given to abort mission once the targets had been captured. All teams were in the process of evacuating except for our team based out of Nigeria, the ‘Plague Killers’. They were the first to hit the ground and set up a position overlooking the main village. Unfortunately, the situation advanced faster than anticipated and they were overrun. All of our Strike Teams were instructed to evacuate so our Emergency units could clean up the mess.
“However, the chopper sent to extract the Plague Killers was shot out of the sky by a rocket-propelled grenade. Shortly after the chopper went down, JO Jemma Smith reported that she was immobile and possibly infected. JO Flashman heard this transmission over our main communication network and according to Lieutenant Xander Black, the officer assigned to train JO Flashman, threatened to shoot the pilots in the head when he realized that they were not going to respond to the hail for help. Lieutenant Black instructed JO Flashman to lower his weapon several times but eventually told the pilots to drop JO Flashman, along with Lieutenant Junior-Grade Scofield where they picked up their infected target. From there, we lost track of them.”
Captain Luthorn shuffled two pages and then flipped one of them over.
“Nine days later on January 21st, JO Flashman and JO Smith were spotted by a traffic camera in Algeciras, Spain. After being arrested and flown out of Spain, JO Smith was taken to our primary medical facility in London while JO Flashman was taken back here.”
“Thank you, Captain. Now, Junior Officer Flashman: before we make our decision, if there is anything you would like to say, you have the floor.”
My throat got really dry all of a sudden. I did want to say something but now, with everyone looking right at me, I was extremely nervous. I wanted to fully describe how I felt regarding this situation but I opted against it. Standing in front of the some of the highest ranking officers in S.T.O.R.M. was very daunting. I took a moment to think about exactly what I wanted to say.
“Regarding my actions, I do not regret any of them. S.T.O.R.M. protocol instructs its members to leave behind other Strike officers in the event that they cannot be saved from infection. This is not a policy that I agree with. I believe that S.T.O.R.M. needs to institute a policy of “no man left behind” from here on out. Saving one life justifies the need for this change in protocol. Had I not forced the pilots to bring me back to the hotspot, JO Smith could have been killed by either another infected person or by one of the U.S. Army soldiers in the area. If she wasn’t killed, she would have then become a potential threat to other people, and would only have added to the problem that we were there to fix in the first place. We were sent into that area to eliminate the threat of zombies. I got her back in S.T.O.R.M. hands before she turned, and thus eliminated another threat to our race while potentially saving her life in the process. Overall, I would just like to say that I was doing my job. The job that I was trained to do at this very facility only a few months ago. There are several protocols that need to be changed if this organization wants to continue moving in the right direction. This change needs to be the first.”
I didn’t say even a tenth of the things I had wanted to. From the little I had said, I could tell that some of the officers did not like it. The board sent me out of the room for a few minutes while they talked everything over. I went through what I had said in my head a few more times while I waited. I still didn’t think I had done anything wrong, and I couldn’t see how anything bad would actually happen to me. I mean, I had saved her life. Could no one but me see that?
The door to the large conference room opened. Captain Luthorn instructed me to come back in for the final decision.
“After taking your statement into consideration, as well as all of the other information mentioned before, this board has come to a decision regarding your future here with us. The board finds you guilty of taking action with your own personal intentions that conflicted
with S.T.O.R.M. protocols, and illegally transiting across several countries’ borders with an infected human. Trevor Justin Flashman, you are hereby suspended from duty for a year. Because of your pattern of disobeying direct orders, we will require you to go through basic combat school again after your suspension. From this point forward, you will be under constant surveillance and subject to random secrecy inspections. If you breathe a word of your training, what you did in the field, or make any reference to any of the knowledge you gained since taking your oath to anyone, whether in person, or through some means of technology, you will be subject to the death penalty. You are dismissed.”
As soon as Admiral Kelis said the word “suspended”, my heart sank deep into the depths of my body. My ears ceased to function and I didn’t register another word that he said after that. I could not believe that everything I just went through has led to this. It was all a waste. I had given this Organization everything I had, and now they were sending me home because I had done the right thing. They wouldn’t admit it because of their dumb rules, but I had done the right thing. I had saved Jemma’s life. She would be dead in that godawful desert if I hadn’t gone back for her.
My pain was quickly overtaken by feelings of anger and hatred for the people that didn’t understand what I had gone through to make sure Jemma stayed alive. If they didn’t understand that, then there was no reason for me to be here. Even after all of the training, mind games, simulations, and hours spent trying to become the best S.T.O.R.M. Officer I could be, there was no point in being here if part of my job was to let people die.
Captain Luthorn grabbed me before I could say anything else, and that was probably a smart move. He quickly dragged me out of that room and escorted me to my stateroom on Deck Eight. Shock consumed my mind like a parasite and I tried to make sense of how they could do this to someone. Before I knew it, I found myself in my bedroom with Captain Luthorn instructing me to pack my personal belongings. He also said to leave all of the S.T.O.R.M. uniforms and tech, as well as any property that I had received over the past ten months, on the bed.
The thought of having to turn in my uniform is torturous, and even though I’m upset right now, I don’t want to take it off. I worked so hard to get to this point, and I never meant to get into trouble. Only a few weeks ago, I had started to see myself having a long career with this team. I wanted to bring good change and put different protocols in place to help not only the people working for S.T.O.R.M., but the people that we are going after. Now, I would have to wait at least a year if I wanted to do any of those things again. That’s if I even decided to come back.
Captain Luthorn stepped out of the bedroom so I could change my clothes. I thought I heard a knock at the front door followed by an additional voice talking to Captain Luthorn and slowly buttoned my jacket back up. Suddenly, the door to my bedroom slowly opened up and to my surprise Uncle Keith crept around it. I immediately got excited and rushed around the bed to get over to him.
“What are you doing here? I thought you we’re in Russia!”
“I was. But I heard what happened and wanted to see if you were OK.”
I explained my side of what happened to him and even he agreed that I had done the right thing. He also said that this wasn’t the first time that Stormers have been punished for rescuing other Stormers who were in danger. However, since it had been my first mission and because I was a brand new Junior Officer, they had used that against me. Apparently, they would rather have had the younger Stormers follow orders blindly and let the veterans make the hard decisions.
“Well, look at the bright side; it’s only a year. You can go back to school, see your friends, and play hockey again. Then once you get back you’ll rock BCS and will be at the top of your class.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
That did sound like a good plan and I did appreciate that Uncle Keith was trying to make me feel better about this whole situation.
“Trevor, no one is going to fault you for what you did. OK, well, maybe the pilots won’t think too highly of you. But look, Regional Command is just trying to send a message and they’re using you to do that. It’s nothing personal against you. You did the right thing. I may have gone about it a little differently, but you did the right thing.”
I nodded in agreement and thanked Uncle Keith for sticking up for me. He really was the best. I just wished he had been on that mission with me. Things would have been so much easier.
I walked over to the mirror and looked at myself in my uniform again. It sucked that I had to leave this here and I know I was going to be counting down the days to when I could put it on again. Before I could unbutton my jacket, Uncle Keith put his arm on my shoulder and told me to stop.
“I don’t think you should take that off just yet. There’s someone who wants to see you first.”
Jemma’s face immediately popped into my head as I followed Uncle Keith out of the room. If there was one person in this entire world that I would have given anything to see right now, it was her. After everything that had happened, just knowing that she was OK would have meant the world to me right now. That would have made me feel astronomically better about this entire situation.
Uncle Keith led me down the hall and I couldn’t help but notice the crowd of people in front of a particular door. There were several officers, as well as doctors, all rambling on about something. As we got closer, a few of them made eye contact with me and stopped talking. Instead, they began staring at me, which made me rather uncomfortable.
A different officer approached Uncle Keith and said something in his ear. Uncle Keith nodded as the entire crowd became silent. A few of them were standing in front of the door but moved out of the way when they saw me. What the heck was going on? I really hoped Jemma was in that room. Just then, Uncle Keith turned around and looked down at me.
“Trevor, you get to go in there first.”
I was confused by what Uncle Keith had meant by that. The path from me to the door became clearer without a single person in my way. I slowly followed the blue carpet to the door and cautiously put my hand on the handle. A bead of sweat formed on my forehead and I could feel it dripping down the side of my face. All of the sudden I became really nervous about what, or who, was behind this door. I turned around to see Uncle Keith, but I couldn’t find him in the crowd of people. The path they had made for me was gone as they inched closer and closer to me. There was no way out now. The only way to go was forward.
I took a deep breath and pushed down on the handle of the door. It clicked open and I entered the large conference room. It was similar to the one I had just been in for my hearing but a little smaller in size. There was a long table with chairs around it and I immediately noticed that the one at the far end of the table had someone sitting in it.
The chair spun to reveal a man wearing a baseball cap. His hair curled out from under it in several directions and was the same shade as his thick beard. It was clear he hadn’t shaved in a very long time, or apparently showered for that matter. As he stood up, my eyes examined his clothes, which were ragged with rips and tears in several spots. He took off his baseball cap and my heart stopped beating as soon as we made eye contact. I froze completely as emotion took hold of my body. This can’t be possible.
I kept denying in my head that the fact that I know those eyes. A smile appeared through the thick beard and he took a step forward. A tear leaked out of my right eye and I blinked twice to make sure this was no dream. Gently swallowing all of the saliva left in my mouth, my eyes widened as the person got closer. Another tear streamed out of my left eye and against my own will, my mouth opened up…
”Dad?”
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