Day One (Book 2): Choices Read online

  Now what?

  A thin man with a military styled haircut and flight suit on lept from the left side of the aircraft and instantly noticed me standing there. “Hey, what are you doing out here?”

  I looked at him and he appeared to be no older than twenty-one. “You the pilot of this thing?” I asked.

  “Yes, as a matter of fact I am,” he announced. “Civilians are not supposed to be out here on the flight line, and you sure as hell aren’t supposed to be armed either.”

  “How many crewmembers does this thing usually need in order to fly?” I asked, ignoring his other comments.

  “I know you heard me, so that means you’re either stupid or testing my patients.”

  “Three… four?” I asked.

  Another man jumped out of the aircraft and walked around the front to where the pilot stood, taking a good long look at me before offering his own hard thought remarks. “Hey, buddy. This man asked you a question.”

  “A pilot, a co-pilot, and maybe a gunner?” I added.

  The second man spit onto the ground and made his way toward me, stopping just a few inches in front of me. I countered by looking around him at the paint scheme the aircraft had, which was a standard camo pattern. “Are you deaf or just plain stupid?”

  “You were flying the interstates a day or so ago, right?” I asked. “Flying around doing whatever it was that you do up there when you suddenly decided to start shooting at me and my daughter for absolutely no reason at all.” I said, trying my best to keep the anger in check.

  The man in front of me looked nervously to the Pilot who shrugged his shoulders and approached me as well. “Look, we have shit to do around here, so why don’t you just turn around and walk away before things get real ugly, real fast.” He tried to act tough in front of the others, but I wasn’t intimidated by him.

  “Answer the question and I’ll leave,” I stated, not really want a confrontation of any sort. I just wanted to hear them say what they had done, to let them know that they almost killed a two year old little girl for no damn reason.

  “No, you’ll leave now!” He stated and grabbed me. I jerked away from his grasp, which pissed him off even more. “Look here buddy, I’ll kick your ass all over this flight line!” he tried to grab me once more, but this time I wouldn’t stand for it. He got a gut full of SBR and stumbled backward doubling over before hitting the ground.

  “Like I said, you were out flying the other day, right?” The anger was surfacing.

  The Pilot suddenly had a better sense of respect for me and quickly nodded.

  “So if you do run into any of those things out there, then you shoot them, right?”

  He nodded again.

  “That’s odd, because there were none of them around when you started shooting at me,” I said moving around the side of the aircraft and slowly nearing him. The man on the ground recovered, pulled his revolver from his chest holster and stood.

  “Now you’re done, asshole,” He grabbed and spun me to find the barrel of the weapon now pointing directly at his face and with his revolver still pointed in a separate direction; he’d be dead before he even got close to getting his sights on me.

  “Go ahead, slick. Try it and see what happens… I dare you.” There was no hiding from the anger now, it was in full swing and would not die anytime soon.

  “What in the blue-blazing hell is going on out here?” A voice screeched from behind. The man and I turned to see Captain Andrews standing a few feet away. His eyes looked hard at me, and then shifted to the man I was holding at gunpoint.

  “You’re in the shit now, asshole,” the Man said and grinned.

  “Let me ask again,” Andrews said in a deeper tone. “What is going on out here?”

  “This asshole came out here starting shit with us and I was about to put him in his place before you walked up, sir,” the man said.

  “Yeah, it doesn’t look that way from where I’m standing,” Andrews replied.

  “The day before you showed up at my house, this helicopter shot at me and my daughter on the interstate for no damn reason! Had it not been for slick here being a bad shot, things would be a whole lot different right now. So I came out here to ask them about it,” I explained. “To let them know they almost killed an innocent two year old!”

  Andrews looked at the man near me, and then shifted his eyes to the Pilot. “Is what he said true?”

  “Sir, we were out on patrol the other day, but it could have been a different chopper that shot at him. We aren’t the only ones in the area, sir,” the Pilot said.

  “Oh, we aren’t?” Andrews asked.

  The Pilot shook his head, although he quickly stopped when he realized that there were no other forces in the area and saying anything more would only add to the anger he now saw in the Captain’s eyes.

  “And what about you?” Andrews asked the man near me. “Is anything he just said true?”

  The Man did not want to reply, although doing so could lead to severe punishment for insubordination. “Well, sir. We were in the area and I think maybe…” He stopped to think further into his words, knowing full well they could lead him directly to the brig.

  “With a man holding an assault rifle to my head, I’d suggest telling the truth as the proper course of action. Or he might shoot you,” Andrews added scornfully.

  “But, sir.”

  “There’s no but, sir, to it! You know the rules better than he does – rules we have in place to keep from falling into chaos and disorder like the rest of the world has.” Andrews barked. “So I’ll ask you once again. Did you shoot at him and his daughter, or at anyone or anything else, for that matter, that wasn’t a designated target?”

  The Man looked at Andrews. “I did fire my weapon, sir. I just wanted a little action and excitement, if even for just a few minutes.”

  “You have a weapon pointed at your face, held by a man who’s daughter you almost killed, and from the look upon his face I’d say he’s about to return the favor,” Andrews added. “How’s that for excitement? You go around breaking protocol for a few shit’s and giggles later, then you must adhere to the consequences. In fact, if I was in his shoes right now, I’d just shoot your and get it over with!”

  I wasn’t at all sure how to take Andrews line of words and how he was treating the situation, although there was a small portion of me that applauded him for his efforts and agreed with him in every aspect.

  “Sir?” The Man asked.

  I was not prepared for what would come next; as I was positive they had learned their lesson and would never break protocol again.

  “Shoot him, Brandon,” Andrews told me.

  I looked at the Captain as though I hadn’t heard what he said.

  “You heard me correctly. Shoot him!” Andrews followed.

  “You can’t shoot someone just because they are an idiot, if that were the case then three quarters of the population would have died years ago,” I said, but not in defense of the Man in front of me. I said it in order to keep a clear conscious.

  “You’re right,” Andrews said and the situation began to dissipate. “Shoot both of them. He’s just as guilty as the other guy. The hell with it, shoot all three of them just to be safe.”

  I lowered the SBR, allowing the one piece sling to take the full weight of the weapon and removed both hands from it. “No!”

  “Your daughter could have died,” Andrews added.

  “But she didn’t and neither did I,” I shot back.

  Andrews held up both hands, obviously irritated at what he had just learned. “Fine… then I will.” He jerked the 1911 Springfield .45 automatic from his thigh holster, flipped the safety off and pointed it at the head of the Man closest to me. The Man’s eyes bulged in their sockets as he was certain death was just seconds away.

  “Wait!” I shouted to him. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m keeping order amongst my men. We aren’t in a peacetime event, this is a full scale war with those thin
gs out there, and if we are to win, then these men have to follow the code to the letter or face the consequences. I don’t need rouge soldiers flying around doing whatever the hell they want! They must know what discipline is in order to work effectively.”

  “They were just blowing off steam,” I exclaimed.

  “And so am I.”

  I jumped in front of the man before Andrews could shoot him. The barrel was pointed at my face and Andrews motioned for me to move with the weapon, to which I shook my head. “No one was injured and you would have never known anything about it had I not gotten pissed off seeing this aircraft out here and came looking for trouble!”

  Andrews just glared at me for several long moments. At one point I actually thought he was about to shoot the man through me just to prove a point to all of those that were watching, as we were now the center of attention on the base. You could almost hear a pin drop in the massive slurs of silence, ringing like church bells on Sunday morning.

  “You had your chance,” he said to me and holstered his weapon. Turning to what appeared to be an assistant of some kind, he spoke. “Arrest these three men, immediately.”

  The assistant did as ordered and drew several soldiers close by to hold them at gunpoint until they were cuffed and led away.

  Andrews turned toward me. “Never hesitate when I give you orders again, are we clear?”

  I simply stood there completely lost as to what had just happened before my eyes. I couldn’t believe any of it – I think I didn’t want to actually, as somewhere within me I held this understanding and admiration for the man that had saved me and my daughter when others would surely have sacrificed us to escape.

  I was left there on the flight line after Captain Andrews and his assistant had left. I could feel every pair of eyes burning through me, as though I was a snitch and they hated me for it. I had never wanted or planned it to go this way, if anything; I hoped to get my point across or maybe an explanation as to why they had shot at us. I didn’t get what I’d set out to achieve. All I had managed to do was put three young men in jail, ground a chopper that had to be useful for something, and felt like the school yard kid who had just got his ass beat and everyone watched silently as the bullies were lead away.

  Chapter Two.

  Johnny sat on his bunk listening intently as I told him what had happened. He’d seen it unfold through the window and worried about the possibilities if the proverbial shit hit the fan. For almost an hour the conversation hung on my courageous actions, until the words ran dry. It was then that he confided in me something very special, information that put an even bigger smile upon my face.

  “Are you absolutely sure you can do that, because I don’t want to get my hopes up for nothing,” I asked.

  “I’ve never been more serious in my life,” he answered and there was something in his eyes, as well as his voice that made me believe without a doubt.

  “That’ll be a million times harder to pull off then what we were already discussing though, don’t you think?” I asked, adding a few extra words to let him know that I wasn’t grounding his idea. “I’m not saying impossible here, just that it’s damn sure close to that – next door you could say.”

  He shook his head. “They run patrols almost like clockwork around here, and with that we use it to our advantage and turn the tide on them.”

  I pointed at Kember, who was at the foot of the bed playing with a doll.

  “It’ll work, Brandon. All you have to do is have a little faith,” he said.

  “I’m not saying that I don’t have any faith,” I said and looked at Kember once more. “I just have a lot more to lose if this goes south quickly.”

  “No one can guarantee success, but I can say with the utmost certainty that our odds are better than what they’d be staying here, especially with that whacko Captain arresting his own men after trying to shoot them in front of everyone. There’s something seriously wrong with that guy when you have to resort to violence to keep your men in line.”

  “One condition,” I said.

  “Name it,” Johnny said, and then watched me pull a small map and point to a specific location.

  “That’s where my son lives, with my Ex. We go there and get him first thing, or you’re on your own,” I told him.

  “And if he’s not there?”

  I took a moment to reflect, thinking back to the last chance I had to rescue him over a week ago. I could still feel the anger for myself just near the surface, circling and waiting for me to crash into its murky depths where it could attack me without mercy. “I screwed up once already… I won’t do that again. We look for him, or as I said, you go alone.”

  He leaned forward to get closer, maybe so I would hear something in his voice or see the purity of his comment in his eyes. “I would never say no to anyone in that situation, but what I want you to think about, and I mean really think long and hard about, is that it’s been well over a week so far. Lots of things can happen, and have… I just want you to be prepared for whatever we do or do not find.”

  I knew what he was telling me. It was the very thing that I didn’t want to think about and had stopped myself from thinking more than I could count so far. He just wanted me to be prepared and ready to accept the outcome, as well as anything that was attached to it.

  “One more thing,” Johnny added.

  I looked to him. “What’s that?”

  “We’ll be limited in the amount of time we have to look for him, so don’t think we are going to spend hour upon hour checking each and every house in that town. Put together a few extra places he might go, friends’ houses, grandparents, stuff like that. So if he isn’t there, at least we’ll have a few backups to check before blowing out of town for good.”

  I nodded to him. “I’ll start on that now.”

  “Make sure you mark them on the map as well,” he added.

  I nodded once again.

  He studied the map for several long minutes, getting his bearings as to which would be the best direction to come in from and leave out of, plus a few alternates just in case things got hairy and we had to bug out quickly. The last thing we needed was to get caught with our pants around our ankles and our asses hanging in the breeze, so to speak.

  The euphoria was slipping over me by now and I felt like a new man. I felt as though we could go right now and come back victorious, but still smart enough to know better than to believe that will all my heart and soul. I was far from better – the opposite direction, no doubt, but still far from whom I thought I was.

  “We’re going to go out and get some air,” I told Johnny as I lifted Kember off the bed and headed toward the door. He looked up quickly, nodded and went back to studying. We left.

  The sun was bright as we slipped into its radiating glow. I drew several deep breaths and felt the coolness invigorate my lungs as we moved along the nearby fence line. Kember picked handfuls of rocks and tossed them about, smiling each time as though proud with her newfound skill. I followed her at a distance while I smoked ensuring none of the harmful stench would bother her.

  She found several small animals, which scurried from nowhere, crossed her field of vision and drew her full attention. She’d point at them and babble merrily before seeing a different one, to which she would look at me with amazement flourishing in her little eyes, and then go back to watching them.

  Here, even in the midst of the end, my Daughter found wonder in the smallest of things, catapulting them to a level I could not for the life of me understand. Where I saw death, she found life and wonder. Where I saw the end, she was able to point out the beginning of life to me, at least making the pill we were all now up against a little easier to swallow. She made it feel that we were not facing the end after all, but somehow welcoming in a new era of living.

  How could the mind of a two year old be superior to that of an adult?

  It’s a question I would think about often.

  To me, it was like she was there to guide me thr
ough this new world and show me all the splendid wonders that were being made, instead of me there to protect and care for her, she was the one taking care and protecting me.

  I found solace in that moment. I found release from all the things that had once held me back, corrupted my judgment, or otherwise swayed me to see or think something that was nowhere near the truth. I was blown away by her.

  This little person that I’d had a hand in making, which was standing before me with a smile on her face and a handful of dirty rocks, was showing me how simple life should be. She was telling me without words that everything around us was alive and in full swing, as if the end had no more started than there was a man living on the moon. Her knowledge was timeless… it seemed limitless and I found myself loving her even more, if that was possible.

  I had lost my wife, she her mother, but we had gained the personalities of both and they could never be taken from us. We had each other, and like I’ve said a few times in the past, I would let nothing happen to her while I still drew breath. I’d fight the pits of hell for her and arise victorious. With this little girl by my side, I felt I could take on what was left of the world single handedly, beat every odd stacked against me, and overcome any obstacle with ease.

  She was my hero. I think she always had been. I’d just been too blinded by the world to see it until now.

  I dropped the cigarette and moved up to her, knelt and smiled at her. She smiled back and tossed the rocks, flicking some small chunks of dirt on my face. I wiped them away and shook my head. “You make me laugh, little bit. Do you know that?”

  A single word escaped her mouth that started an already powerful fire within me to erupt even higher. “Bubba.”

  “That’s right, baby. Daddy’s going to get your, bubba. And nothing’s going to stop me this time,” I stated to her, and as if she knew exactly what I was saying, she smiled and said it again.

  A faint echo pierced my right ear and I turned in time to see the massive clouds of black smoke rising into the dawning sky. At first I was certain that there had been a plane crash, although the reality of the moment caught me quicker than that. Had it been a plane crash, I first would have heard the aircraft, and then seen the explosion. What I had heard instead was further away and muffled, plus there had been no bright light as the fuel exploded on contact with the ground. I took a deeper look into what I was watching and my heart sank.