Floor 21- Dark Angel

by Jason Luthor

  “Pretty high praise, if Dodger’s saying it.”

  Yazzie smiles at her. “I’m only half as great as she says I am.”

  That gets a laugh out of me. “Really, she’s pretty much amazing. But, uh, I thought you were . . . gone? To Fort Silence.”

  “I was,” Jackie says with a nod. “I . . . I had to come back.”

  “Did something go wrong?”

  “Not really, I guess? Nothing I really want to talk about. Or maybe I will, I’m not sure yet. All I knew was that I had to get away from the boys.”

  Yazzie snorts. “Haven’t heard that one before.”

  “Boy problems?” Jackie asks.

  “Only when men act like boys,” she says as she smirks over at Jackie. “Nah, my love life’s simple and easy, just like I like it. Sounds like yours isn’t.”

  “Well, first of all, I don’t have one. Second, my only real problem’s that I didn’t feel like dealing with a man that’s my best friend but also . . .” She pauses and blows upward into her air. “He just doesn’t get what I’m trying to tell him no matter how hard I try, I guess. Stupid, I know.”

  I can’t stop my grin. “You’re talking about Tommy.”

  “Yeah. Guess I didn’t hide that very well.”

  “I can still remember when you used to hate him.”

  “Maybe I still do,” she says with a laugh. “No, that’s not it. It’s not that bad, he just got me worked up and I needed someone to talk to who wasn’t estrogen impaired.”

  Yazzie nods. “Personally, I think we all need that once in a while.”

  “Yeah. It’s weird. Like sometimes you just need a break.” She shakes her head. “Anyway, like I said, I don’t think it was that big a deal. I just wanted some breathing room. What about you guys? What brings you two together on this obviously wonderful night?”

  “Trying to convince the lieutenant to come back to work.”

  “What?” Jackie looks over at me. “Something wrong, Dodger?”

  I shake my head. “No, just still recovering from that injury I got back before the Battle for Central Freedom.”

  “Oh. Well, obviously that’s something you don’t want to rush.”

  Yazzie interrupts. “That’s not what’s wrong with her. The medical care she got at the garrison was the best you could get. She had biofoam injected a few seconds after she got hit, so a lot of the damage was already repairing by the time she was on a Vertwing out of the fire zone. Then she had surgery to get everything fixed up the second we landed. She’s fine.”

  I have to protest. “Well, it’s still . . . sore, sometimes.”

  Jackie looks my way. “Just sore?”

  “It’s hard to explain,” I tell her as I stare at the ground. “It’s just . . . unless you’ve been shot . . .”

  She looks at me like she can’t believe where I’m going with that line. “Unless I’ve been shot? Dodger, do you want to tell me someone you know who’s been shot more than me?”

  “Uh, nobody, really. Sorry.”

  Jackie frowns. “Don’t do that.”

  “What?”

  “Apologize. You’ve got nothing to be sorry about, Dodger. You took a bullet. I know it happened for a good reason.”

  Yazzie nods. “Yeah. Saving our lives.”

  I can’t help but shake my head. “That’s not . . . It’s not how it happened. I wish I could say it had been like you, Jackie, taking bullets to save someone’s life. But I’d . . . I’d just gotten done killing a third of my team off. I was so stunned that I . . .” I heave out as the memories flood back. “I just stood there because I couldn’t believe what I’d done.”

  Jackie shakes her head as she looks over at Yazzie. “You were there?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Is that what happened?”

  “No. Obviously not. People did die, but it was because they were saving us. If they hadn’t taken the position they had, the whole squad would’ve been wiped out. Dodger gave the order, and it was the right one. Everyone who got killed . . . They did it saving people they cared about. Us. They knew what they were risking.”

  I heave out. “I just . . . If I had made a better decision. . .”

  I feel Jackie’s hand touch my knee, and I immediately get how hard she’s stretching herself. I know how much she hates physical contact. “Dodger, I’m not going to pretend it just magically get easier. You will never forget that moment, and you’ll probably be wondering about whether you made the right call for . . . well, for a while, really. Here’s the deal. You can’t save everyone, no matter how much you want to. I mean . . .” She gestures to herself. “You know what I do, and even I can’t save everybody. When it comes to fighting and battles, especially when things are really hot, you’re not going to get everyone out alive. If you do, that’s a miracle.

  “I know we . . . We haven’t talked as much as I wish we could’ve since I got back. All this . . . fighting, you know? It just doesn’t stop. But I looked into what you’ve been up to since I came around. Dodger, you’ve grown. You just did it your own way. You’re not ever going to be Tommy, who’s got a natural knack for being a leader. You’re not like Mike, who does his thing by kind of being this stoic golem in a fight. Not to mention that psychic intuition of his. Dodger, you’ve got two things going that other people don’t. You’re smarter than everyone else, but you also connect with people. Probably too much, but I can’t really criticize since I’m infamous for being unable to bond with anyone.”

  She frowns and lowers her eyes for a second as she’s looking for more words. “What I think I’m trying to say is that, when we fought together, you kept judging yourself by whether you could shoot as well as someone else or by questioning why you weren’t as calm under pressure. And the thing is, you can look at other people and use them as a guide to being better, but you can’t judge yourself because you think someone else would’ve made a different call. You’ll never win that argument in your head. I don’t know if there was a better option when you were on the ground, but I’d never question your decision making or how much you care about your people.” Jackie moves her hand and pushes it into my chest. “You’re Dodger, one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. You’re the same girl that sharpened up so much she got put in charge of other people.” She looks at Yazzie for just a second. “People who believe in you. That means something.”

  When she finishes, I just kind of . . . take a hard breath and stare her in the eyes. “I . . . Uh, thanks, Jackie. It’s just . . .” I look down and squeeze on my thighs. “It’s been hard, thinking about the people I lost. There was one girl on the team whose death . . . I don’t know, it’s hit me really hard, but even her parents said she respected me and maybe kind of even liked me.” I smile. “She even said I intimidated her, once. How the hell I could intimidate anyone . . .”

  “Someone like you, who fought her way out of a Tower infested from top to bottom with the Creep? What’s not to be intimidated by?”

  “I just . . . I don’t think I’m ready to go back to fighting yet.”

  “Then don’t,” Jackie says as she looks over at Yazzie one more time. “No offense.”

  “None taken.”

  Jackie swings her eyes back my way. “Dodger, I can’t make decisions for you. If you decide to go back to fighting, then I’m absolutely sure that Yazzie’s going to have your back, but she’ll probably have your back even if you decide to do something else. I thought I heard you were going to try volunteering or something out here.”

  “Yeah, actually I talked with Cynthia about doing some volunteer time, putting together food and medical stuff to get shipped out to the colonies.”

  Yazzie interrupts. “And she’s been spending a lot of time already around the block, helping with getting some of the tech fixed or helping put food together for everyone.”

  I shrug. “But that’s just busy work.”

  And that’s when Jackie’s hand goes to my shoulder. “Shut up with that. God, Dodger, it really is
like looking into a mirror sometimes when I talk to you,” she laughs.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You do the same thing I do and pretend like you don’t do anything when everyone is trying to tell you that you actually do a lot. If you’re volunteering, and getting medical supplies together, and making people’s lives better . . . Why do you still feel like you’re not doing anything important?”

  “Because it’s not . . . it’s not the militia.”

  “And who the hell cares? Are the only stories worth talking about our military stories?” She stops and looks over at Yazzie again for a second. “But, I’ll tell you this. I know that your people want what’s best for you. Maybe right now that means volunteering. Maybe later it means getting back out there with them. My point’s that they’ll have your back whatever you do, and that counts for something. So, go do what you have to do that’s bet for you, because we’re going to be right behind you.”

  I can feel my voice cracking a little. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. I’m . . .” I push a hand to my face for an instant as I suck in a deep breath. “You were . . . You’ve always been the best fighter I’ve seen, Jackie, but it wasn’t the fighting that made me totally proud to serve with you. It was just . . . you. Who you are. Even if you weren’t . . . you know, Jackie the soldier, you’d still be amazing to know. You just . . . you care, and . . . you inspire me.”

  She chuckles as she brings her hands into her lap. “I’m not inspiring, Dodger. But, I’m glad you think so.”

  “You are, Jackie. I know you’ve never thought so, but you are. I have my issues, but yours has always been thinking the worst about yourself. All that time you were missing, we never stopped talking about how amazing you were. You always inspired us. Me. Mikey. And yeah,” I laugh, “Especially Tommy.”

  Jackie smiles as she gets up from her chair. “Alright, enough with the emotional crap. I’ve only got enough in my system to go so far, you know?”

  Yazzie raises a hand. “You’re not leaving, are you?”

  “Um, it kind of felt like . . . I don’t know, like that was the moment.”

  “The moment? Are you tired?”

  “No?”

  “Do you have somewhere else you need to be?”

  “Not . . . not in particular.”

  “Then stick around and talk.”

  Yazzie’s bluntness takes Jackie by surprise, and she looks like she’s struggling with even the idea that someone would invite her somewhere. She looks at me, like she needs a confirmation, and I wave her back down to the chair. “Come on, Jackie. Didn’t you just say we hadn’t done enough talking since you got back?”

  “Yeah. I guess I did.” She looks behind her to the chair and, after waiting an almost embarrassingly long time, finally sits back down. “Thanks for the invite, guys.”

  “That’s what friends are for.”

  Mike’s Recording 15

  Got to say, there’s never anything quite like walking into the Green Zone for the first time. A long time ago, it used to be a park. Want to know how I know? Because there’s a giant stone wall that surrounds most of the place with statues and plaques everywhere.

  I normally like coming in from the south. There’s this big, golden statue that sits on top of a huge stone pillar. The statute’s got this woman, hand held high, as she rides on the back of three horses. At the bottom of the statue’s smaller carvings of people sitting at the base, this small pond being fed by the city’s water system. The whole thing feels victorious, like the spirit of the city. Things might be rough, but it survived, a lot like the zone. A lot of work has gone into restoring the Green Zone. It’s basically one of the greatest examples of culture and history we have in the city.

  Of course, it doesn’t look nearly like what it did five hundred years ago. A lot of the stone walls were replaced, and not all the statues survived. A lot were pieced together as best as they could be, using pictures from centuries ago. We know that the glass enclosure that surrounds every mile of the park went up before the August War, maybe to protect from extreme changes in the environment. Whatever the reason, every mile of the zone, from south to north and east to west, for miles, is enclosed in reinforced glass. That helps keep in the heat, protect from the weather, and grow the crops that Central Freedom is known for. Of course, most of the crops have been moved underground as Central has gotten more sophisticated, so there are huge greenhouses beneath the ground these days. Not even I’ve seen it, but from what I know, apparently they’re kept in these towering racks where plants are just grown on multiple levels. Pretty impressive sounding, at least to me.

  When we get to the zone from the southern entrance, we waltz right in. No weapons checks or anything like that, the kind of thing I’m scared we’ll be seeing after Fort Silence gets settled in. I try not to think of it as we walk off the pavement and onto the dirt path leading deep into the park. It’s nice to see Jackie out of her armor. Kind of intimidating when she’s standing a foot taller than I remember, so her being back at normal height is nice, especially since I want to talk with her.

  Course, she’s still Jackie. She knows why we’re there. We’re lagging behind Cynthia and Mandy when she looks my way. “You talked to Tommy, huh?”

  I shrug and laugh. “Does it matter?”

  “Mike . . .”

  “Jackie, this is just me trying to get you to see Central Freedom. Remember when we used to just chill in the library and waste a day away? That’s what today is.”

  She looks down and smiles. “Okay. I’m pretty sure I can live with that.” We pick up the pace and fall in with the others as we walk down the road. Jackie’s eyes are shooting everywhere, and they’re wide as saucers. “Everything’s so . . . green.”

  “You’re not lying.” She really isn’t. “Once upon a time, they think that something like hundreds of thousands of people came to visit every day. You can tell by the stone walls that the park’s older than almost the rest of Central. Cynthia, do you know how old they think the Green Zone is?”

  Cynthia’s eyes look skyward as she tries to remember. “Let’s see. I think maybe . . . three hundred years before the big Towers started going up?”

  “Think that sounds right. Yeah, whatever war brought down the city, it didn’t happen until at least something like three hundred years after the Green Zone was first made as a park. Back then, people just came here to walk around, I guess.”

  Jackie shakes her head. “I guess that makes sense. People like being outdoors even when they’re living in the middle of a city. I guess they built the park to give whoever lived on the island a place to go.”

  “Seems right. Here in Central, when people were recovering, they started switching the park over to farming ground pretty quickly from what I understand. Glass enclosure gave them the protection they needed to do that. I couldn’t tell you how much of it was turned into farmland, but I think it was most of it. That’s how things stayed for a while, before things were stable on the island. The reason you don’t see much farming going on anymore’s because, after the people moved back into the city, they began a project to shift the farm’s underground. Safer that way, I’d guess.”

  “Well, yeah. More protection from the environment. I mean, it’s not like we’ve got a healthy world to live in.”

  “Pretty much. You want to know the crazy part?”

  “What’s that?”

  “Central’s amazing, but apparently, it always was. A long time before anyone thought of moving the farms underground, the people who lived in the city’d already built tunnels and caves that ran underneath big parts of the park, with tech that’s way older than the oldest tech we have.”

  Jackie smiles. “Really? Interesting.”

  “Serious. All Central had to do was move its farms below, into what’d already been built. Long time before the Towers, this city’d already built one of the most incredible water management systems around. Whole underground tunnels moving water across the island, taking was
tewater to get it treated and cleaned. When people were recovering from the war, the technology to recover had already been around for centuries. All they had to do was turn it on.”

  Cynthia looks my way. “Just remember, the survivors of the war did upgrade the plant. The waters became much more polluted after the Creep spread around the world.”

  “True. Thing is, the basics were already in place. Whoever first built the city’d already done amazing stuff. There probably weren’t many better places to escape after the Fall than this place.”

  Jackie nods, but she looks, I don’t know, not sad, but like something’s bothering her. “That makes . . . that makes a lot of sense, when I think about it.”

  “Why you say that?”

  “Something I’ve never looked into. You remember those numbers we used to hear in the Tower?”

  “The weird ones we’d pick up on the radio?”

  “Right. They were . . . they were coordinates. I didn’t really find that out until we were almost out of the Tower, and I didn’t learn how to interpret those coordinates until a few months after I woke up, but they would have led to somewhere here. This park.”

  “Man. What are you thinking? Maybe we were picking up on some broadcasts that were still running from centuries before?”

  “Maybe. I don’t really know what else it could’ve been. If they were being told to come here, I guess that’d make a lot of sense. With a water treatment plant and plenty of land to farm, it’d make the perfect place to retreat to if things went bad.”

  “In an end of the world situation? Yeah. You’d want to find farmland and water.”

  “I need to follow up on that soon. You know, find out exactly where the signal’s coming from. For right now though,” she says, looking up into the trees, “I’d like to just enjoy this.”

  “Agreed,” I tell her as the road curves through some rolling green hills and leads further into the shade. I can see her looking around like she’s completely lost. “Something wrong?”

  “The sun,” she says, looking up into the blue sky and bright yellow light. “It’s fake.”