Chapter 20

The pain in Tetsu’s shoulder was overshadowed by that which lay in his heart. He had felt broken on many levels, unable to move as the reality of the situation began to settle. His body continued to rock around in the seat of the UAZ with Paxton still behind the wheel. During the drive, Paxton retrieved the receiver in his pocket to try and get an update from the other troops. After placing it into his ear, he could only hear a loud and horrendous screech through the miniature speaker. The sudden blast of noise caused him to rip it back out and stow it away.

“That’s definitely not good,” he said. Something was happening in the woods, and he had been in enough engagements to know danger was afoot. The vehicle continued ahead towards the jailhouse before finally coming to a stop. After stepping out of the UAZ and opening the back door, he could hear a volley of gunshots coming from the north. “Alright, kid, let’s get movin’.”

“You’re not about to lock me up!” Tetsu shouted back as he leaned into the seat.

He kicked out, trying in vain to keep Paxton from getting hold of him. Paxton managed to get a grip of Tetsu’s leg in flight, squeezing tight as his instincts took over.

“Alright, nice time is over,” Paxton groaned, jerking Tetsu around him and onto the dirt road. He followed up by striking Tetsu in the chest with the steel toe of his boot. “Get steppin’!”

Tetsu rushed to his feet despite all the pain, only prompting Paxton to continue the assault. The two continued towards the jailhouse while the gunfire continued to get louder.

“Stop, I’m going!” Tetsu cried back.

Paxton followed him inside where Nomad and the others remained trapped. Once Tetsu got a sniff of the hay and other grime scattered across the ground, he felt the urge to vomit. The inside of the first two cells had been filled with Nomad and the rest of his crew. As he walked past, Nomad had sprung to life. He could hear the gunfire just as well as Paxton and was fully aware of the danger nearing.

“They’re shooting at us, let us out already,” Nomad shouted as he rushed over to the rusty bars. “We’re not on their side anymore!”

“You should’ve picked a side sooner,” Paxton replied, giving Tetsu a push towards the troop on post. “Well, Ninja-Boy, looks like you and all your friends have some catching up to do! I told you I wasn’t gonna hurt anybody.”

Tetsu had been guided into one of the vacant cells and was locked up directly across from Rowan and Megumi. Seeing them all together and still in one piece was the first bit of good news today. Unable to vocalize, he slumped back into the corner of the dwelling. He sunk his head into his knees, still not able to face them. Everything he had done to help continued to backfire. The people he tried to help were behind bars with him, more consequences to his decisions.

“Keep an eye on them,” Paxton’s voice had echoed from the inside of the jailhouse. “If shit gets hairy, go back to the Kerrigan.”

“Aye-aye, sir.” The guard replied, quickly returning with a tight salute. He stepped back towards his post, clearing the view between the cells. While the bullets continued to clamor, Tetsu had taken notice of Rowan peering at him out of the corner of his eye. As she started to lean into the bars towards him, Tetsu tried to tune her out.

“Are you ok?” Rowan asked. The sense of compassion had caught Nomad and Megumi’s attention, causing them to stare over to her.

“No,” Tetsu said, lowering his head further. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry isn’t going to get us out of this one.” Kismet said.

“Hey Kismet,” Rowan snapped back. “This man took a bullet for me; I think you should ease off and fix your shitty tone.”

“It’s ok,” Tetsu interrupted her. “I didn’t mean to lure them to you.”

“Naw, naw,” Nomad spoke up. “They were already shooting at us before you showed up. By the time we pulled in, they had already taken over. Forget about it.”

Megumi looked over to Tetsu in his somber state and sat up to properly face him. After a few hours of silence, she finally cleared her throat to get his attention.

“How’s your niece?” Megumi asked.

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“She was doing better.” Tetsu mumbled.

“No,” she replied as her face had been filled with shock. “Please don’t tell me something happened.”

“Oh no,” Tetsu raised his arm and faintly smiled back. A steady cadence of machine gun fire hummed in the distance, breaking his attention from her. The sound had caused his shoulder to throb on reaction as he continued to think of his encounter with Genji. He continued, “She’s ok, I just haven’t seen her all morning.”

“Thank goodness.”

“I’m thankful you guys helped me,” his eyes started to water up. “I wanted to help the town. Everything has just gotten worse, and now we’re about to lose everything.”

“Stop,” Rowan said to him, reach towards him. “You can’t do everything on your own and we’re going to get out of this together. The G.E.I. won’t destroy your town, I won’t let them.”

Before the crew could continue, Nomad looked back over to the guard standing by the door. The sound of gunfire started to put everyone on edge, only forcing him to try and gain some ground again.

“What’s your name?” Nomad asked.

He had still recognized him from the other day and continued to think of the years of hiding in Kashmir. The guard slowly turned to face him. He was hesitant to look over to Nomad and the others.

“Judai.” he muttered.

The name had caused Nomad’s face to light up as some of the memories from Kashmir had been rekindled. After another round of gunshots had run out, Judai started to go pale.

“Do you hear that,” Nomad asked as he pointed over his shoulder and towards the sound. “That’s coming this way soon. I know your boss told you to watch us, but they’re going to kill all of us.”

“Probably.” Judai said back, turning back towards the noise.

The battle was starting to rage on. Whatever was coming this way had to be on the outskirts of the village by now. Nomad tried to keep from having an outburst and instead began to think of his youth.

“Is Shirow still alive?” Nomad asked.

“What does it matter to you anyway?” Judai replied.

“If you’re going to lock us up in here and let them kill us, I’d say it means everything,” Nomad started to continue. He knew he was making some progress and tried to poke even further. “Mizumi is alive too, right?”

“Everybody knows her.” he scoffed at the mention.

“What about her relationship with Hideo-Jin-Ni? I know about that,” Nomad tried to keep on track as he stood to go and clench the bars. “I know she probably sent you here. I know they had a kid together, they were hiding here, and they got gunned down. This is a revenge thing, huh?”

“Who the hell are you?”

Megumi and the others had been stuck in shock hearing the information. The revelation had caused some distress among them, only causing Megumi to finally chime in.

“Is your father really Shift?” she asked.

“Yeah, he is,” Nomad replied to her, keeping his eyes focused on Judai. “They probably told you that the G.E.I. killed him, but he died in the night. He died with his family. The G.E.I. never had the chance to get him.”

“Who are you, really?” Judai finally spoke, this time he started to stand up from his chair.

“I’m not interested in stabbing you in the back and I am not going back with them. They’ll kill every one of us one in the same. Now please, open the lock.”

“I want to believe you,” Judai started to mutter before pointing to Megumi and the others. “What’s stopping them?”

Megumi spoke, “I watched them destroy that village. I know they’re going to do the same thing here, and I’m going to do everything I can to stop them. They have to be stopped.”

“If we get back into custody, we’re going to get de-processed and I’d rather die than have to go through that,” Nomad declared before shaking the bars again. “Just open the lock, please!”

Judai ran his palm across his forehead to wipe away some sweat that started to form. He began to pace nervously back around in the jailhouse, trying to ignore the gunfire intensifying. After a few moments, he brushed his nose with his finger and then shook his head.

“Ok, what was the password?” Judai asked.

“What password?” Nomad replied.

“The password to the hatch in Kashmir,” he snapped back, this time raising his voice. “If you’re who you say you are, I know you know that.”

“You know me, don’t you? You were back in the shelter in Kashmir with us.”

“Password.”

Nomad smiled to him and lifted a small rock from the hay before reaching over towards the bars. His father and all the other fighters would have gone through the motions to get into the hideout back in Kashmir. The familiar cadence was something he knew he wouldn’t be able to forget. He slid the rock across the metal once, signifying a “dash” and then two quick taps for “dot-dot”. Judai tried to keep his bearing. Nomad reached forward and dragged the rock across the bars again. The tapping on the metal caused Judai to shake his head in disbelief.

“Dash, dot, dot, dash,” Nomad said finally, throwing the rock to the ground. “Do you believe me now?”