Authors: Joseph Picard
Alan spoke up. “I think he want out to
his meditation spot, along the path to the temple.”
“
Thanks.” Cassidy started to
turn, but stopped. “Hey guys. Any of you leave the ruins in the
last year or so?”
A bit of a pause as they thought, and
then only Karl answered. “Yeah, I did. Just a while before you came
along, Cass.”
“
How did it go?”
“
I got really… sick, I
guess. I canceled my trip, and came back. Stupid thing was, as soon
as I got back, I felt better. But once I was here, I didn’t really
want to go anymore.”
Cassidy and Cheryl looked at each
other. At least they knew they weren’t crazy. “Thanks,
Karl.”
Cassidy and Cheryl headed down the path
to the temple and as suggested, Marcus was meditating in the spot
he usually chose.
“
Chief?” Cassidy
said.
Marcus opened his eyes and smiled at
the two. “Oh! Hey there, I thought you left for Cheryl’s folks’
house!”
Cassidy skipped the explanation to
that, and went right to the question on her mind. “Marcus, you were
at central recently. At the very least, I know you were at central
half a year ago.”
Marcus looked puzzled. “Yes. I go there
now and then to attend to administrative things,
mainly.”
“
Did you ever get sick while
you were offsite?”
Marcus tilted his head. “Not that I
remember, why?”
Cassidy glanced at Cheryl, then back to
Marcus. “I’ve talked to a little under a third of the base since we
got back, and including me and Cheryl, only four of them have been
offsite in the last year, and you’re the only one to not feel like
total garbage when they leave.”
Marcus shrugged. “Really? I don’t know
what to tell you!”
Cassidy looked at Marcus with a stare
that bordered on accusing. After a bit, she spoke her mind, “Does
this have anything to do with your ghost-thing? Because you hear
it, and no one else does?”
“
He hasn’t said anything to
me about it.” Marcus’ voice trailed off as he glanced towards the
temple. “He doesn’t see anything wrong. Seems to think it’s fine
just to stay where you feel good.”
Cassidy got a little cross. “You said
it likes company. Are we some kind of prisoners?” Cheryl’s eyes
widened with that new worry.
“
Prisoners?” Marcus was
entirely shocked by the notion. “He’s totally harmless! He wouldn’t
try to keep anyone here against their will! I don’t think he
could!”
Cassidy stared into Marcus’ eyes, and
swallowed hard. She adjusted her voice, and spoke calmly. “Marcus.
I like you. I’d go as far as to say I respect you. But I’ve gotta
ask. Has it ever occurred to you that he might lie? Or that you
might be a bit off your rocker?” Even as she said it, she knew his
mental health couldn’t explain the grenades.
Marcus smirked. “Bat shit insane was
what you were thinking, wasn’t it?”
“
A little.” Cassidy smirked
back. It was hard to feel accusing towards Marcus. Cheryl sighed,
relieved that the adversarial feeling was dissipating.
“
Sergeant Hood!” Marcus
piped up suddenly.
“
Who?” Cheryl
asked.
“
Oh yeah, him.” Cassidy
scratched her chin, and then turned to Cheryl. “He retired from
here just before you transferred in. Maybe we should give him a
ring.” Cassidy pulled her terminal forward, and looked to Marcus.
“It was Eliot, right? Sergeant Eliot Hood?”
“
Yep.” Marcus nodded, “Might
help looking him up if you add retired in there
somewhere.”
As the call went through, and they
waited for Hood to pick up, Cassidy sat, and Cheryl followed suit.
It occurred to Cheryl that when everything was fine, she was the
leader. When things were messier, Cassidy took charge.
A few moments later, Sergeant Hood’s
face popped onto the screen. He was wearing civilian clothing as
you’d expect from a retired soldier, and appeared to be in his
kitchen. “Stanton.” He said with some surprise in his voice, “To
what do I owe the honour?”
“
Hi, Hood.” While Cassidy
spoke, Cheryl was partly visible to Hood on the edge of the screen,
and Marcus was on the wrong side of the terminal to be seen at all.
“You look like retirement’s treating you well enough!”
“
Yeah, I can’t
complain.”
“
This is going to sound
pretty odd, Sergeant, but when you left the temple, did you get..
sick?”
Hood suddenly looked a little startled.
“Ha, it happened to you, didn’t it? I had to go to a funeral, and I
got an hour’s flight away from the post, and the whole world
started closing in on me! I was going out of my mind!”
Cassidy, Cheryl and Marcus all were now
paying strict attention. “That’s exactly what happened!” Cassidy
said, “We were going on vacation, and bam!”
“
And you went back to the
temple base…?” Hood asked.
“
And then we were fine!”
Cheryl chimed in. “One of the guys here sounded like he had a
similar experience!”
“
This is troubling as hell!”
Marcus said.
“
Marcus?” Hood heard Marcus,
and didn’t seem so thrilled about it.
Marcus moved around the terminal so he
was in the picture. “But you’re fine now?” he asked
hopefully.
Hood huffed. “Yeah, but I wasn’t at
first. When I first left the temple base after retiring, I expected
it to happen, but I started falling apart at central. The same
thing. Claustrophobia, paranoia, just generally messed up. An M.P.
got a hold of me, and I ended up in the infirmary for a couple
days. I felt fine after about twelve hours, but they wanted to keep
an eye on me, and run some blood tests.”
“
And?” Cassidy
asked.
“
I was clean. So I went
home. It hasn’t happened since.”
Cassidy turned to Marcus. “Sir, I
suggest we have a medical team come here and test us. Especially
me, Cheryl, you and Karl.”
“
Absolutely! Tests for
everyone seems prudent.” Marcus agreed.
Hood nodded at Marcus. “I guess you’re
okay, Marcus. Do you still talk to that damned ghost,
though?”
“
Of course.”
Hood smirked. “Crazy old bastard. You
be careful now.” He glanced over at Cassidy. “All of you be
careful.”
~~~~~
:::C /27
~~~~~
At the little camp, Cassidy and Cheryl
pecked at their grilled dinners. Cheryl dragged over her terminal
to call her folks.
It didn’t take long for her dad to
answer. “Hey! Oh.. where are you? That looks like your
base!”
“
Yeah, it is.” Cheryl
sighed. “Something weird happened. There’s… there’s some kind of
flu running around the base, so …”
“
Is it serious? You don’t
look so bad, we can take getting made a little sick.” By now,
Cheryl’s mom had come into the picture, looking
concerned.
“
Well, it’s a little
complicated. It just seemed best that we stick around here until
things have been sorted out.” Cheryl wasn’t lying exactly. No
quite.
“
Complicated? Complicated
how?”
Cassidy stepped in. “Well, Mr. Lowe, to
be quite honest, there’s some sensitive information involved. I
really don’t want to worry you, we just can’t get into all the
details until all the brass has sorted things out.” Technically all
true, but it felt like a lie.
Cheryl’s parents shifted uncomfortably.
Cheryl cuddled up against Cassidy, smiling at her parents. “It’s
really okay.”
Cassidy’s dad grumbled. “Cassidy. I’m
pretty sure I told you to call me Pete, so can the ‘Mr. Lowe”
stuff, alright?”
Cassidy smiled. “Alright,
Pete.”
“
I’ll call you soon, kay?”
Cheryl said.
Her mom nodded. “You
better!”
Closing the terminal, Cheryl buried her
face against Cassidy's arm and sighed. “Aww, that felt like
crap.”
Cassidy squeezed Cheryl and looked over
to the nearby chunk of wall. Over the past couple months Cheryl had
been painting little bits of art; not really anything more than
doodles, mostly things like flowers and hearts with all the deep
complexity of a twelve year old’s notebook, but Cheryl said it was
an expression of her feelings.
“
Go work on that a bit,”
Cassidy said, “I’ll clean up dinner.” Cassidy would make fun of the
‘mural’ a little now and then for being so ‘girly’, but honestly
didn’t mind one bit. It was a cute activity, like Cheryl’s diary.
Cheryl kept the diary top secret, but the art was something Cassidy
could see. Today’s addition was a butterfly in the upper left
area.
“
Looks kind of like the one
Cip has above her bunk.” Cassidy said as the stuffed the dishes
away into a duffel.
“
I know.” Cheryl turned
around with a sheepish little smile. “It represents your undying
lust for her.”
Cassidy rolled her eyes. “Oh, shut
up.”
“
No, no, I know the truth.”
Cheryl faked a distressed sigh, “You tease her about supposedly
wanting you because you secretly wish you’d wake up to find her
on-“
“
Ahhh! Cheryl, you … you… I
don’t know what to call you.”
“
I have a few
suggestions.”
“
Oh really?” Cassidy raised
any eyebrow, and purred.
Cheryl giggled, and slumped against the
wall. “No, I wasn’t thinking like that. I was thinking...” was she
blushing? “I was thinking in a slightly different
direction.”
Cassidy leaned her head and stood to
slowly walk towards Cheryl. “Different how? Good? Bad?”
Cheryl bowed her head. She was
definitely blushing. “Good. Good I hope. I don’t even know if you’d
want to be called this. I don’t know.”
Kneeling by Cheryl, Cassidy took her
hand and smiled softly. “I think I might. If it’s good... well, it
sounds good.”
~~~
Cassidy awoke to the beeping of
Cheryl’s terminal, and realized the sides of the tent were being
rustled by fairly strong winds. Cheryl closed her diary, and opened
the terminal. “Hey Cip.”
Cassidy rubbed her eyes, and rolled
over closer to Cheryl, to see Cipriana’s face.
“
Hello, ladies. How’s the
storm?”
“
Is it a storm?” Cheryl
asked, “I mean, I knew the wind was up, and I sealed the tent
up…”
“
So you’re doing alright
then? They don’t expect it to get any worse or anything, but you
never know. As it is, that tent should do you just fine, assuming
you set it up properly.”
“
Hey Cip.” Cassidy was still
mostly asleep, and just now tuning into the
conversation.”
“
Hello Cassidy. Go back to
bed. At any rate, if things get rough over there, don’t hesitate to
call the base for help.”
“
Sure thing, Cip.
Nite-nite.” Cheryl went back to her diary, while Cassidy fell
asleep again, curled up by Cheryl’s side.
~~~~~
:::C /28
~~~~~
Afternoon shift was in its last hours,
and the setting sun sweetly simmered on the west horizon. Due to
Wanda spraining an ankle, the evening roster had been shuffled up a
bit.
Marcus was taking up an evening shift.
Cassidy suggested that she or Cheryl should take the shift with
Marcus, to attempt getting more information about the ghost.
Cassidy had kind of meant herself, buy Cheryl seemed eager. Maybe
that was better. Cassidy could get a little overly confrontational
at times.
Pity, though. The sunset was something
she really enjoyed watching with Cheryl. Jim was her partner for
this shift, reuniting the old ‘rainbow patrol’. The two of them
didn’t have a whole lot to talk about though. Every time Cassidy
thought of something to talk about, she realized it involved
Cheryl. Even though it had been a long time since Jim got shot down
by Karl, she still didn’t want to rub her romantic bliss in his
face.
~~~
Horad crept along the sands, thinking
of the aeki lizards. He was not too different than them in many
ways. He had spent his life living out in the grand nowhere,
largely unnoticed by the rest of the world.
In the past, he’d set a bomb now and
then. Aeki don’t do that. He had hurt a few people, but not
deliberately. Bombs were just a tool to make a point. To draw
attention to injustice. If someone got hurt, that was
regrettable.
The first time he hurt someone, it was
hard to sleep. The last time he hurt someone, he barely gave it
another thought. He told himself that if people got in the way,
they were probably part of the problem. They were the reason he had
to live in a hole in the ground. That was their fault,
right?
The fancy suit Samuel had given him was
more comfortable than he expected. It was near black, and stiff to
the touch. Horad would have worn something that looked more like
the sand, but Samuel assured him that this suit’s ability to hide
heat would be more useful to him. That Samuel sure was connected.
It was good to see a norther taking an active interest in Aguei
rights. This somehow assured Horad that his own methods and efforts
were not in vain.