Storm

THIRTY

"What do we do?” Kent asked nervously.

We all watched with worry as the light flew closer. The telltale sound of the Retro planes wasn’t there. Instead, we heard the sound of a conventional engine.“It’s the helicopter,” Tori declared.

“With its lights on,” Kent added. “Now that we did all the dirty work, they’re not afraid to show themselves.”

“What do we do?” Tori asked.

“I’m tired of running,” I said. “If you guys want to take off, go.”

Nobody moved. They were as tired and as curious as I was.

Soon the dark silhouette of the helicopter sailed over us. It looked to be a military chopper like the kind SYLO used to drop commandos on Pemberwick Island. It circled around and touched down thirty yards from us, kicking up dust. As soon as it landed, the engines were killed, and the rotors slowed.

“Now what?” Kent asked.

“Whoever it is, I want to face them,” I declared.

“Then let’s go,” Tori said.

I helped her out of the buggy.

“What?” Kent exclaimed. “You got shot again?”

“It’s what I do,” Tori replied with a shrug.

Kent came around to her other side, and she draped her arms over both of our shoulders to keep weight off of her injured leg. Without another word, we approached the craft. The only sound coming from it was the ticking of its cooling engine. The three of us walked to within a few yards of the slowing rotors and stopped.

The helicopter had the markings of the United States Navy.

“SYLO,” I said.

A light shone from within, and the side door slid open. A soldier wearing red fatigues stepped out carrying a powerful flashlight. He was in silhouette, so it was hard to see who he was.

“If it ends here,” I said to the others, “we have to know we did everything we could.”

We all tightened our hold on each other, for whatever support it would offer.

The soldier strode toward us. He was a tall guy who had the bearing of a disciplined military man. I knew who it was. I didn’t need to see his face.

“Granger,” I muttered.

“No way,” Kent gasped.

Captain Granger marched up and stood facing us.

“Is anyone injured?” he asked, all business.

“I took a bullet in the leg,” Tori replied.

She lifted her leg to show how blood had soaked the entire upper portion of her jeans.

“We’ll take care of you,” he said. “What exactly happened here?”

“We destroyed the Retro fleet,” I said, matter of fact. “What does it look like?”

Granger looked toward the burning rubble… and chuckled. He actually chuckled.

None of us knew how to react to that.

“Incredible,” he finally said. “Absolutely incredible.”

“What do you want?” I asked.

“We’ve got an ark on Catalina Island,” he replied. “We’ll take you there.”

“Aren’t you worried that we might be Retros?” I asked.

“Not after this,” he answered.

“He thinks we’re Retros?” Kent asked, incredulous. “That’s nuts.”

“I’m not going with you,” I said to Granger.

“Whoa, you’re not?” Kent asked, surprised. “I don’t like these guys any more than you do, but what else can we do?”

“You go, Kent,” I said. “Tori, you should too. I don’t want any part of them.”

“I’m not going without you,” Tori declared. “We’re not splitting up now.”

Kent was torn. He looked at Tori and I, hunting for a clue to help him decide what to do.

“If we don’t go,” he asked Granger, “will you shoot us?”

“No,” was Granger’s simple answer.

“Then I’ll stay with my friends. Jeez, I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

“I appreciate your reluctance,” Granger said. “There’s so much you don’t understand.”

“Then why don’t you explain it to us?” I said. “Start by telling us what you’re doing here.”

“We were observing your operation from the air,” he said. “The Retros aren’t the only ones with infiltration capabilities. We’ve been inside the group in Las Vegas from day one.”

Another soldier jumped from the plane. He was a stocky guy who was as wide as Granger was tall. I knew who he was too.

“Cutter,” Tori declared.

The Special Ops marine approached and stood next to Granger. It suddenly became clear how Cutter was able to come up with all of those explosive charges.

“I stand by what I said,” Cutter announced. “It’s an honor to serve with you guys.”

“You used those people,” I said to Cutter. “You had them do your dirty work.”

“This is war, son,” Cutter replied. “We don’t have the same firepower as the Retros. We’ve had some success with large-scale operations, like the one at Fenway, but eventually they’ll wear us down. It’s inevitable. Our only hope has been to incorporate less conventional methods. The survivors who gathered in Las Vegas weren’t coerced. They did exactly what they wanted to do. We just gave them some help.”

“Just one question,” Kent said. “Are you the good guys?”

Cutter chuckled. Granger didn’t.

“Yeah,” Cutter said. “I’d like to think we are.”

“That wasn’t a solid yes,” I pointed out.

Granger said, “Then maybe someone else can convince you.”

He turned to the chopper and made a motion for someone to join us.

Another person stepped out of the helicopter, a smaller person who didn’t appear to be a soldier. It looked like a woman. She approached tentatively.

“If you don’t want to take my advice,” Granger said, “you should really start taking hers.”

“Tucker?” the woman called.

My knees buckled.

It was my mother.

She ran to me and threw her arms around me. She was crying. Once I got over the shock, I cried too. The last time I had seen her was from the opposite side of a prison fence on Pemberwick Island. So many conflicting emotions were hammering at me, but the bottom line was that I suddenly felt like myself again: a fourteenyear-old kid. We hugged for a good long time as I did my best to pretend that everything was going to be okay.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I thought I’d lost you,” she cried. “Then I got word you all were out here and… I had to come. I’m so sorry, Tucker. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”

That brought me back to reality.

“Really?” I asked, pulling away. “How was it supposed to happen?”

“We wanted to protect you,” she said, wiping her eyes. “That’s all it was ever about.”

“Yeah, well, it didn’t work out that way, did it?”

She shook her head.

“Where’s Dad?” I asked.

“Still on Pemberwick. He’s fine. Your mother is too, Kent. They’re safe.”

She looked at Tori but had no comforting words for her.

“I’m so sorry about your father.”

Tori shot a steely look at Granger.

“How do you feel about that, Captain?” she asked coldly.

Granger stiffened. “It’s a tragedy when innocent civilians become victims of war. Make no mistake: We are at war, and I am deeply sorry for your father’s death and for whatever role I played in that.”

“What about all the other innocent civilians you killed?” she asked. “Are you sorry about them too?”

“No, because they weren’t innocent,” Granger replied. “My mission was to root out the Retro infiltrators on Pemberwick Island in order to protect the remaining population. I have no regrets about that. Your father was being used by them, Miss Sleeper, as were several of his friends. I’m sorry to have to say that, because he was fighting for what he thought was a noble cause. You should be proud of him.”

“You don’t have to tell me that,” Tori said bitterly.

“You sorry for trying to kill us too?” Kent asked accusingly. “If we hadn’t gotten away from you, the Retros would still be in business.”

“They are still very much in business, young man,” Granger said coldly.

“They are?” Kent said, sounding less cocky.

“Please come with us,” Mom said. “I know you have trouble believing me after all you’ve been through, and I don’t know how else to say it, but we really are the good guys.”

I glanced at Tori and Kent. They looked as confused as I felt.

“You told me not to trust anybody,” I said to my mom. “Turned out to be good advice. But you haven’t been telling me the truth for a long time. Why should I put my trust in you?”

My mother winced, as if the words stung her. I didn’t mean to hurt her, but it was how I felt.

“Because your father and I have been working with SYLO for a very long time, and we know that they are our only hope for the future. And because I’m your mother.”

I wanted to believe her, maybe more than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life.

“You kids have seen a lot,” Granger added. “More than most. You know what we’re up against.”

“But we just blew away the entire Air Force,” Kent argued with a hint of desperation. “It’s over, right?”

“This was an impressive operation,” Cutter said. “There’s no denying that. But wars aren’t determined by a single battle. The Retros aren’t done. Not even close.”

“Please, Tucker,” Mom said, pleading. “Come with me. All of you. Please.”

I looked at Kent and Tori and said, “I’ll do whatever you want. I just don’t want us to split up.”

“I say we go with them,” Kent said quickly. “It can’t be any worse than being lost in the desert.”

I turned to Tori. “What do you think?”

Tori looked at Granger. I saw the hatred she held for him. But I also saw that she was torn. And injured. There was so much that still didn’t make sense. So much we didn’t know. We had already decided that despite his cruel tactics, Granger and SYLO had been protecting Pemberwick Island from the Retros. Was that enough to trust him, in spite of his deadly tactics?

“I guess we have to play the odds,” Tori said. “If you’re willing to go with them, Tucker, I’ll go too.”

“Oh, thank God,” Mom said with total relief.

“Good. Let’s not waste any more time,” Cutter commanded. “Load up.”

Granger made a move to help Tori, but she pulled away. She wanted nothing to do with him.

Kent and I took her arms and helped her toward the helicopter.

“Find a seat and buckle in,” Granger ordered as he took his place up front next to the Cutter, who locked into the pilot’s seat. “Put on headsets,” Cutter called to us. “It’ll be about an hour to Catalina.”

We helped Tori climb aboard and saw that seats lined both sides of the chopper, facing the center. Mom sat on one side. I chose the opposite side. Tori sat next to me, and Kent sat next to my mom. We all buckled in and put on headphones.

“Everybody set?” Cutter asked through the intercom.

We all gave him thumbs-up. The engines whined, and the rotor began to turn. The blades quickly picked up speed, and in minutes we were airborne. The chopper gained altitude quickly, and we got our first good view of the ruins of Area 51.

The destruction was complete. Every last building was either on fire or a charred wreck. There wasn’t a single fighter plane left intact.

I had to agree with Kent. We were seriously badass.

Only one thing disturbed me. It was the shadow I saw launch from the monstrous plane. What exactly was that?

“I don’t care what anybody says,” Kent said through the headphones. “It sure looks over to me. They’re done.”

“You need to see something,” Granger said.

I didn’t like the tone of his voice.

We flew north for maybe five minutes, traveling over barren wasteland.

“Bring us a little lower,” Granger ordered Cutter. “Once around quickly. Keep your wits about you.”

The helicopter dropped fast and banked to the right.

“Take a good look,” Granger said.

We all strained to look out of the small windows.

Once my eyes adjusted, I was able to make out detail on the ground.

“Oh my God,” Tori exclaimed.

The desert was littered with the wreckage of a battle. A huge battle. There were downed jet fighters as well as wrecked Retro jets. Hundreds of them. We had seen the aftermath of battles before, but nothing like this. Not only were there untold numbers of downed planes, but also the burned-out remains of tanks and assault vehicles. The ground itself was torn apart from the impact of multiple explosions. The carnage seemed to stretch out for miles in every direction.

We were flying over the physical remains of a nightmare.

“What happened?” were the only words I managed to croak out.

“I’ve seen a lot in my time,” Granger said. “But nothing remotely like this. It was the greatest battle of all time… if you could use a word like ‘great’ to describe something this horrible. It’s the night it all began. Hard to believe it was only a few weeks ago.”

I thought I actually detected a hint of emotion in his voice. The steely soldier had a conscience.

“Who won?” Kent asked, cutting right to the chase.

Granger turned around to look at us and said, “That’s yet to be decided. Like Cutter said, wars aren’t determined by a single battle.”

“Look!” Tori shouted. “Is that what I think it is?”

Tucked near the foot of a mountain was another air base. It wasn’t as large as Area 51, and there were no fighter planes on the runways. What was there instead was a massive steel structure that looked like a colossal igloo.

“It is,” I exclaimed. “It’s the same thing they were building in Fenway Park.”

To me it looked like a giant beehive: innocent looking from the outside but hiding danger.

“Look at the base of that thing!” Kent declared frantically. “The big door! Oh man.”

Like the structure being built in Fenway, there was an immense door built into the dome. It was open, and bright light shone from within. A shadow moved through the light. Something was coming out from the depths of the dome.

It was a black fighter plane.

“What is that thing?” I asked.

“That,” Granger replied, “is the gate to hell.”

“Incoming!” Cutter yelled.

The chopper was hit. It shuttered and began to spin. The rotors whined as the craft counter-rotated, desperately clawing at the air to try to maintain altitude. I glanced out of the window to see the ground approaching quickly. We wouldn’t be in the air much longer.

Kent screamed in panic. Tori grabbed my arm.

The SYLO commander was right.

The Retros weren’t done.

Not even close.