KEYES, OKLAHOMA
160613SJUL31:
“Major?”
A woman in camouflage woke up, ignoring the aches and pains of where she’d slept – on her desk. There were so many people that were in worse condition than she was, that even the minor inconvenience of pulling yet another all-nighter was just that, a real inconvenience. As she looked up, she noted that another young woman – the kind of young woman she was once – in military camouflage came in with a tray of food. It took a few more minutes before she realized that the girl had probably just barely graduated high school – literally the kind of sweet young thing the woman had been once, and certainly not the kind of person that should’ve been in uniform.
The war didn’t give us much choice, however, the major’s thoughts reminded her.
The private, unaware of her commander’s stream of consciousness, set the tray on her superior officer’s desk. “I took the liberty and grabbed you some breakfast from the chow hall. Also, the colonel would like to see you when you get a chance.”
“Thank you, Private, I appreciate that,” came the grateful response. A second later, she remembered to append that with, “Dismissed.”
As the soldier left, she walked over to the mirror to make herself presentable, making sure her own uniform wasn’t too wrinkled. She re-tied her hair into a bun, then made sure her oak leaves were on straight; they were so new they still tended to slide around on the clasps. The girl she had once been looked at the present-day visage of Maj. Penelope Martinez, US Army Medical Corps. She was long past the days when she’d been an idealistic young teacher ready to usher on the future of the world. That seemed like a broken dream now, a dream shattered that day five years ago when the Others came and in the span of days reduced eight billion lives on Earth to maybe a tenth of that. Since then, there were no more science teachers with idealistic dreams or anything of the sort. There was now only the militaries of the world and a desperate struggle for survival. No time to hope for a better tomorrow, just surviving the immediacy of now. Not for love (she hadn’t seen her husband in months, though thankfully he was still alive), or birthdays (her thirtieth had passed two weeks ago without fanfare) or celebrations (her birthday gift from the colonel had been a fast-tracked promotion).
Nothing left of what had made humanity grow, not since that fateful day five years before. Nothing that would advance the art or culture of the species, basically letting them be little more than advanced animals. It was a concern that she had, one that she had a sneaking suspicion others did as well. Without what made them better, what made them worth surviving this war? Why win the fight only to lose your soul along the way?
Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to entertain those thoughts. Ensuring that she was now presentable, she walked back to her desk, quickly ate her food, then retrieved her gunbelt and sidearm. While they were mandatory at virtually all times, she liked to take them off when she was in her office. She had never been comfortable with them, especially not when one was an alumnus of Hallenbeck High School, especially the year that had been plagued by the Hallenbeck Rampage.
Thankfully, no one had ever given her grief for that. Especially as she was already dealing with the aftermath for years later. Especially that of betrayal of people she cared about, especially her best friend.
A short walk later, she arrived at the headquarters of the 4th Infantry Division. After the prerequisite salutes, she was finally directed to the conference room where the colonel was. “Maj. Martinez reporting as ordered, sir,” she said as she entered.
A man a decade older than her with thinning hair and bushy mustache gave her a smile as he looked up from his digital chart table. “Come in, Penny, come in! Have you had anything to eat?”
“Thank you, sir, but I already did before coming over.” She relaxed in his presence, feeling better. There was an old Army saying that a commander was a father to his troops, but when it came to Col. Thomas Karnstein, he pretty much embodied that. He had lost his wife and children in North Carolina back during Decimation and it had only been years of suffering through survivor’s guilt that had brought him around to a semblance of his old self, or at least so he claimed.
“I bet you’re wondering what I called you in here for,” he began. “We got a call from the brass; they’re going to execute an operation of vital importance – a humanitarian mission back to Mesa Verde. If I recall correctly, you’re a Mesa Verde native, so I’ll need your advice. I’ll also need you to select some of best your personnel for this mission, as well as an officer to command them. Normally I would send the entire field hospital but given that we have to be ready to deploy the rest of the division, we can’t spare the whole unit. Plus, to be honest, the locals have gotten a little too used to us being the de facto medical care around here.”
“Mesa Verde?” The name felt like ancient history to her, a time long forgotten in the past. She’d lost so much since she left it, part of her wanted to leave it behind forever. But she knew she damn well couldn’t. “Something going on, sir?”
“We just received this bit of intel this morning.” He looked at her. “This is classified and the only reason you’ve been cleared for this is because you may need to know in order to make a decision on the personnel you’ll be sending.” She nodded and he went over to his desk and pressed a button on his computer, playing the audio. At the sound of the voice, Penelope gasped.
“Something up, Major?” Karnstein asked.
“I know that voice, sir! That sounds like my younger brother!” Penelope stated.
Karnstein looked straight at her. “Are you sure?”
“My younger brother’s name is Byron. And like I said, I know my brother’s voice. I know that’s him,” she insisted. She paused for a second before immediately saying, “Sir, request permission to go on this mission.”
“Denied for a ton of reasons,” Karnstein said immediately. “For one, I need my most capable doctors here, and you’re the best of them all. Second, are you absolutely sure that’s your brother? All we have is audio, no video for you to confirm, I’m afraid. While I’m not doubting you, you have never really talked much about your extended family before. And third, assuming that is your brother, that potentially puts you in a difficult position if something goes sideways if you’re there.”
“Sir, I don’t think it’s anyone else but him,” she argued. “And if we’re trying to make inroads with the resistance there, having someone who knows him and is taking personal care of his wife – my sister-in-law – might get our foot in the door. Lastly, those people might need a doctor, and as you said, I’m the best you have.”
Karnstein was silent for the longest time before adding, “You’re not field capable.” Penelope was just about to protest when he added, “But you bring up a point: if we can get this militia on our side, maybe we can take Mesa Verde back. I guess it’s worth a shot and given there’s some heavy weight being thrown behind this, I can’t argue too much.”
“Anything else I should know, sir?”
He nodded. “Yes, check back in a couple of days; I’ll have more information then. And that should do it for the first thing.”
“The first, Colonel?”
“Well, there is something else I think you might be interested in,” he said as he walked to the closet door and opened it.
Penelope gasped in shock. Then she lost all military decorum and rushed into her husband’s arms, kissing him passionately.
With a warm smile and a bit of hidden envy, Karnstein voiced, “You’re on forty-eight hours liberty, Major. That’s an order.” He then stepped out of the room to give them some privacy.
“James!” she cooed when they finally came up for breath. “How?”
“I tried to get here in time for your birthday,” Cpt. James Kraft, US Army, told her, “but then I got dragged back to assist with the evacuation of Paris.” He looked at her sadly as he recalled the location where they’d had their honeymoon. “It’s gone now. The Louvre, the Arc d’ Triomphe, the Tower…. There’s nothing left but memories.”
“But I have you still,” she said, kissing him again. “Those memories will be alive so long as we are.”
He smiled at that. “And I plan to live to see the end of this war. And speaking of which,” he said, looking at her rank devices, “Made major, I see. I knew you would outrank me the moment you got into that medical program.”
“Yes,” she replied as she put her arms around his neck. “And as your superior officer, I have orders for you. I expect you to take me out to dinner in town, then back to my apartment and make love to me until we’re both exhausted. And I expect those orders to be followed to the letter, is that clear, Captain?”
In response, he kissed her again and said, “I’ll do my best, ma’am.”
=+=
At one time, Keyes had been, as far as Oklahoma was concerned, the literal middle of nowhere. Situated in the far west of the panhandle, the biggest things the town was known for was bland scenery, endless brush and scrub and that Route 56 ran through the town as if it could care less about its existence. But all that changed as Decimation occurred and the population of the US was turned inside out as people avoided the old, ruined population centers like the plague. What had once been a microscopic community of less than 300 people was now a relatively vibrant town in the mid-four figures, not counting the military presence. The place was being slowly retooled from desert to farmland, and hopefully in the future Keyes would be known as a great farming community to move to. But with the development of the north side of town, it also appeared that once the war was over, and if humanity survived, Keyes would likely end up as a future permanent Army base, or at least a National Guard facility.
Dinner that night had been at one of the few restaurants in Southside (the “civvie” side of Keyes), a little Italian place called Bella Note. Granted, it was a glorified pizza joint that had crappy Italian food and the beer was watered down, but the dessert was okay. Plus, the person who ran it, a woman by the name of Megan, was friendly enough (and in any case, Penelope knew she was dating the colonel.)
But that wasn’t the point: for the first time in weeks, Penelope got to spend in-person time with the man she loved, and they lived that small segment of their lives for all it was worth. The night got even better after dinner as they took a walk in the moonlight and sat by a small artificial lake someone had apparently built just before Decimation. Pausing on a bench, they reminisced about the better times that felt so long ago, holding hands and acting like foolish children over a decade younger than they were.
And now they laid in each other’s arms, sweaty and spent, just the two of them. His arm draped over her breasts, Penelope could feel the intimate closeness of him and despite everything, she could forget just for a second that the world was in a literal life-or-death struggle for humanity’s sake.
James was first to speak, breaking that metaphorical spell. “So, we’re going back to Mesa Verde,” he stated with the same reluctance she felt. “Are you ready?”
“You’re going?” she asked with surprise.
“Sorta. My mission is to provide security for the humanitarian mission going there, but I didn’t know that you would be in charge. I guess at this point, worrying about fraternization regs is pointless, or the Colonel would’ve put a stop to it.”
“Oh.” She was quiet for a few seconds – wondering whether this was the real reason the Colonel was reluctant to let her go on the mission – before she asked, “Do you remember my brother?”
James paused, as if in thought. “Yeah, I do. I even remember the day I met him, years before I started dating you.” He paused in thought, reaching into the back of his mind to recall that day. “One of the punks at school tried to steal his phone and I stopped it. I had no idea that he was your kid brother at the time, but the look in his eyes was that of a kid with a serious chip on his shoulder.”
“Byron’s always been a bit rough-edged,” Penelope admitted.
“I know. I remember he was being a jerk at the wedding, and we were never really close with him even when we lived in town still,” he commented. “Well, maybe he’s appreciative of what I did or maybe it set him in the direction of being an anti-government militiaman. I don’t know.”
“At least he’s on our side,” Penelope mused.
“No hon,” he told her. “He’s fighting a common enemy. That doesn’t mean he’s on the same side. Even if he’s your brother, we can’t rely on that. I can only hope his words about his wife being pregnant are true, and that he’s more focused on getting her to safety than getting us in his gunsights.” Penelope suddenly went silent, and James added, “I hope I didn’t offend you. I know he’s family.”
She looked at him with sad eyes. “Do you remember our plans the weekend Decimation happened?”
“I do. We were going to go away for the weekend, just you and me, why?”
Penelope got out of bed, her taut nude body glistening in the moonlight streaming through the window. As she ran her hands down her torso, she said, “That weekend I was going to tell you that I wanted to start a family.”
=+=
Once she returned to work, Penelope wasted no time in notifying her subordinates that she was now taking a special assignment, effective immediately, and until further notice. Her XO took it in stride and told her he’d hold the unit together until she got back. His smile, however, fell when she intended to take a company’s worth of the best medics they had. In turn, once those medics were informed, they weren’t too happy either that they were going to be deployed, especially as they’d gotten used to being the town de facto hospital and thus not likely to go anywhere anytime soon.
From there, she reported to Karnstein, who told her she had the next two weeks for her and her subordinates to do nothing but re-familiarize themselves with being soldiers and not just medical practitioners. “Unfortunately, we’ve been here so long that some of your people forgot that we’re in the military, Major, and it’s your duty to remind them. Not just that, I’ll need your detachment to be ready to deploy at a moment’s notice,” he told her during a planning mission with her and James in attendance. “When I told you this mission was high priority, I knew it was serious. However, I just got new information that underscores just how serious it is.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“I take it this isn’t just a walk in the park, sir,” James noted, reading the briefing that had been provided.
“We got a call from the Mountain this morning. As of now, this mission has been given the highest priority by the President himself. So much so that if it wasn’t for the fact that we really can’t spare the manpower right now, you wouldn’t be the only one deployed, Major – we’d be sending the whole Division. However, they want to work with a small strike team, so we’ll have to go with what we have. However, you’re not the only ones going.”
Both officers understood the severity of that statement. “How much hotter are we talking, sir?” James asked him.
“The President has authorized the use of the SEALs for this operation,” Karnstein explained. “From what I understand, specifically SEAL Team SIX.”
Hearing that, even Penelope understood just how critical things had become. Over the past five years, the special operations community had thrown themselves into the worst of the fighting against the Others, and the number of casualties was immense. The special warfare operators were the best of the best, and in a war where being a special operator of any service was likely to get you dead by your next breath, SEAL Team SIX stood at the pinnacle of that superelite community. And if troops from that group were coming, it meant things weren’t going to be anywhere near a walk in the park.
“Anything else I should be aware of, sir?” James asked him.
Karnstein nodded. “Make sure that you have your best people protecting the medical staff,” he said, gesturing to Penelope. “I’m sure you want to make sure that they come out of this alive.” A sad look crossed his eyes as he added, “You never know how much it will hit you when there’s not even a body to bury.”
“With all due respect, sir,” James said, “I know she’s special, in ways I can’t even explain. And I know she can do incredible things when she puts her mind to it. It’s part of the reason I fell in love with her.”
Penelope in the past would’ve hidden behind her hair and turned twenty shades of red at the attention. But the woman now just gave her husband a loving smile, then turned back to the colonel. “Personally, I think I got the better half of the deal,” she said with a grin.
“Okay, you two, you’re making me jealous. Now get out of here; I’ve got work to do and you’ve got some refresher courses to teach our medics, Captain. Dismissed.”
As they departed the building, she said, “I’m going to round up my team, while you get yours together. How do you want to handle this?”
“Hon, you’re the one in command here. You outrank me, remember?” he reminded her.
“Yes,” she said with a lascivious grin, “but I can’t exactly order several hours of vertical pushups in the nude with you, can I?” He laughed and she got her point across. “Seriously, you’re the expert here and I’m going to rely on you, because I’m pretty sure you don’t want me dead.”
“I think I’d very much prefer that,” he agreed. “Okay, I’ll talk with my senior cadre, get a training regimen together, and I’ll bring it by this afternoon for your approval. That should allow us to get everything going first thing in the morning. That work?”
“That works for me,” she told him. “Let’s get it done.”
“Roger that, Major.”
=+=
Because she knew she had to lead by example, Penelope decided to get an early start regardless of what her husband came up with and decided to go on a longer than usual run. Prior to this, Penelope had always thought herself to be in decent shape throughout her life: back during her high school years, she was into athletics; while she wasn’t someone who had Olympic-level aspirations, she did well enough to be a regular on the school soccer team. But since her semi-involuntary commission into the Army, she’d had to keep up with military regulations, and that meant physical fitness standards far beyond that of soccer pick-up groups and afterschool practice sessions. She often wondered if the girl she was five years ago would look upon the woman she was now with envy; she was in far better shape than she’d been when she was twenty-five, never mind when she was in high school.
Of course, that was before she’d opted to go running with 1st Lt. Cassidy Bollard, a friend of hers assigned to the Headquarters Company. Now Penelope felt like she did back when she was a student, barely able to keep up with her friend and only passing because of her interest in soccer.
“Wow, Penny, you are out of shape,” teased Cassidy. The two began circling Slimp Lake once again, having run the equivalent of six miles during that period.
Penelope stumbled over to the nearby bench where they’d left water bottles and practically collapsed on it. “Tell me about it. And to think I used to be worse than this.” Cassidy passed over one of the bottles and the older woman nearly drank it in one draft.
“Easy on the drinking, Major. We still have to go back, you know. Cramps are no fun at all.”
“No, you can carry my corpse, Lieutenant,” she gasped between breaths. “And no, you can’t have my husband – I want him entombed with me whether he’s dead or not.” Both women laughed at the gallows humor.
They sat there for the longest time, watching the birds dart in and out of the tree, watching another infantry company run by, before Cassidy asked, “You ever seen an Octo before?”
Penelope nodded. “During Decimation. I was between classes at the time, and then these black-and-teal cephalopod-like creatures with six eyes rained down from a giant tear in the sky. And once they reached the ground, they pulled out their weapons and started firing at everyone and everything. One of my friends, a fellow teacher, was killed instantly; I probably would have died myself if one of my students hadn’t pushed me out of the way of a blast; he didn’t survive, either. Ultimately, I made it because I played dead and the Octos couldn’t tell who was alive or not. Shortly after that, we had to evacuate Mesa Verde and due to the urgency of the situation, any police officer who met the physical fitness standards was automatically drafted into the Army. After a quick familiarization as well as crash course in officer school, James was assigned to the 4th Infantry. Meanwhile, the rest of us civilians were pretty much left to our own devices at the refugee camp being built in Ute Mountain. And I was probably there for about a few weeks, with nothing to do but to try to teach my students, most of which were now gone because they were either dead, drafted or volunteered for military service on their own.
“After a couple of weeks, I was then approached by a colonel. Apparently, they researched my degree and found that because of that, I could serve as a doctor. So, they offered me a commission if I’d go do a year of medical training to be a doctor. Given that we were just coming to terms with Decimation and the realization that most of humanity was gone, I immediately volunteered because I wanted to help. I studied for a year with a retired military doctor who recalled back to service himself, and he taught me how to take my knowledge and training and reapply them to the situation. After that, I was assigned to the 115th FH before I was tapped to take command of the 10th. What about you?”
Cassidy took a drink before she began. “Military brat. My family was stationed in Germany, and I’d already been approved for a commission to West Point – I’ve never thought of anything other than an Army life. But then the Octos hit Kaiserslautern and pretty much destroyed everything I grew up with. Most of us civvies were evacuated from KMC immediately, and since I had already been tracked towards West Point, I had special classes set up there to finish up my high school diploma before I started the Academy proper. It wasn’t until I started my formal training that I found out that my father had been killed in the Battle of Berlin. My mother died of a broken heart not long after that.”
“I’m sorry to hear about your family.”
“At least my kid brother survived; he’s wheelchair bound, so he wasn’t drafted, but he’s also smart, so he became a teacher. He eventually settled in Omaha and now he’s got his own life and is doing well.” She chuckled. “When I was a kid, I remember reading somewhere that Omaha was the 44th largest city in the country. Now, it’s number ten.” With that, she got back to her feet. “Well, let’s head on back and we can work on weapons familiarization. I know you’ve trained on the basics: M9, XM7, P-90 USG, and such, but I doubt you’ve kept up on them other than your pistol, haven’t you?” When Penelope shook her head, Cassidy nodded sagely. “And that’s why I’m your friend, Penny. I’m just making sure you don’t completely embarrass yourself in front of your subordinates.”
“I’d...rather not, Cass. I’m somewhat of a pacifist when it comes to these things, plus I’m a firm believer in the Hippocratic Oath and the Geneva Conventions. I know we have to carry sidearms, but I don’t like that at all.”
“Major, the Genevas don’t apply to extraterrestrial combatants, and you know it,” Cassidy countered. “Plus, the Hippocratic Oath means ‘first do no harm’ to your patients, not to those trying to kill them. Look, I understand your concerns, I really do, but….”
“But?”
The younger woman opted for a different tack. “Have I ever told you about what happened to my fiancé?”
“I remember you mentioned that he was killed in the Battle of Vancouver, but not much else.”
Cassidy nodded. “I met Kyle during my first year in the Academy. We weren’t supposed to date while there, but he and I kinda got around that,” she giggled. “We grew closer over the years, and when we got our commissions and were assigned to our first units in Washington state, we got engaged. I was over the moon, because I was with the man I loved, and nothing was going to go wrong!
“Except that it did. His unit hit the ground running, while mine was deployed to the rear at the Naval Base at Whidbey Island. The plan was a focused effort to try to liberate Vancouver, then the Canadians would assist us in pushing down to retake Seattle. At least that was the plan. Instead, we got hit hard by the Octos and the only reason I survived was because I was evacuated on a Navy medical flight to the makeshift airfield in Warm Springs, Oregon. As for Kyle…his entire unit got vaporized when the Octos completely obliterated the combined forces at White Rock, just outside of Vancouver.”
Cassidy was silent for close to a minute before she continued. “I didn’t even have a body to bury, Penny. As for my unit, it was so destroyed, we were absorbed into the 4th Infantry, because that was the largest surviving unit in the area.” The younger woman looked at Penelope, and the gaze she gave her friend was haunted. “If you’re going to do this, you need to know how to use a weapon, because there may come a time when pulling the trigger may be the only way to save a life. Your life, your patients’ lives, your husband’s life. It’s a cruel exchange, but it’s a necessary one: you have to be prepared to take the enemy’s life in order to save our own.”
=+=
That night, sleeping in her husband’s arms, she dreamed a fitful, disquieting recollection.
Seated on the steps to the recently built memorial to the Rampage, Penelope was lost in thought. It was the week before she would leave for college, and she hadn’t bothered to say goodbye to her former friend. Some that she was still friendly with, like Dakota Ryan, Lina Perez and Rivkah Billings, she had, and they’d try to stay in touch, they promised. Others, she’d wished well, congratulated them on graduating and hoped they would have a bright future.
But not the one she’d once been truly close to.Not the one whose tie had been cut, completely and utterly.
Sometimes it felt like she was the only one in the world who still remembered the twins, and even nowadays it felt as though even she wasn’t sure. Had they ever been real? Were they imaginary friends a girl kept well beyond childhood? The only other person who could answer that, that was sure that they had once truly existed, was someone she was no longer on speaking terms with – and that was her fault.
In her memories, all she could remember was Doriatessa, screaming and cradling the dead body of her sister, while reality turned into anything but behind her. In that moment, Penelope had seen things that she wasn’t sure that mankind was ever meant to see, and in some of the horror stories that one of her friends was familiar with, people went insane after being exposed to that. It made her wonder if she had lost her mind as well, the victim of cosmic horror like so many protagonists in those kinds of stories.
Penelope hugged herself as if it would help. I’m so sorry, Tessa, she thought, tears forming in her closed eyes. I gave up and I don’t think I can ever be forgiven for that.
“You suffered, Penny. You’ve done more than your own share of redemption, even if you didn’t need to.”
Penelope’s eyes immediately opened. She tried to wake up James, but he wouldn’t stir.
“Wow, never thought you two would get together. I knew lots of girls had their eyes on him, but…well, I’m happy for you two.”
Penelope turned her head in the direction of the voice, and in the darkness of her apartment a glowing being sat in a chair by her table. The figure appeared vaguely to be a teenager, but somehow was still instantly familiar to her.
“Tessa?” the woman voiced as she got out of bed.
The glowing girl frowned. “Do you mind getting dressed? Granted, I know what girl parts look like, but I’d rather…well, you get the idea,” she said with a smile. “Although you do look good for your age. Frankly, you look far better than I would have expected.” Tessa snapped her fingers and a T-shirt and sweatpants appeared on Penelope, then read the marking on the shirt. “Army? That’s surprising.”
Penelope went over and hugged her old friend, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she sobbed, holding her friend for all she was worth. “I gave up on believing in you! You were real and I—”
“It’s okay,” Doriatessa replied. “I understand.” That was not enough for Penelope, who continued to hold her friend for the longest time, crying hysterically and refusing to let go. Finally, she added, “I’m not going anywhere. Not after I did all this to come talk to you.”
At last, the woman released her embrace and looked at her youthful friend. Despite the golden aura, somehow Doriatessa was still a teenager. “Why….?” the woman asked.
“I’m not ready to discuss that just yet,” The other girl told her. “However, I’m here because of you, though I have to admit it’s good to see my ex-boyfriend again.” She chuckled. “Don’t worry, it’s in the past.”
“Why me? And why are you still a teenager?” The answer came to her instantly. “Oh. This is a dream, isn’t it? This…this is a dream, and being here with your ex-boyfriend, my husband, is making me remember all the things I’d put aside.”
“If that’s what you want to think, that’s your call,” was the teen’s response. “But that’s not the point I was trying to make. What I am saying is, well, to quote that old movie, ‘We need to get the band back together.’ We need to save the world and I need your help.”
“I’m not sure we can,” Penelope admitted. “I don’t ever say it aloud, but…the day before Decimation, we had eight billion people on Earth. Now, it’s estimated that there’s barely 775 million of us left, and even that might be a stretch. Humanity was murdered, and compared to that, what can we do?”
“Do you remember what my favorite song was?” Penelope shook her head; after all, it had been a dozen years ago and very little music was being made nowadays, so keeping track of people’s tastes from years bygone was pointless.
At the lack of response, Doriatessa chuckled again. “You guys – Jessie especially – used to give me grief because I’d listen to the classic rock station; KSHZ 99.1.”
That immediately made Penelope remember. “Oh, now I remember! 99.1 KSHZ – ‘The Only Rock That Matters!’ You used to be into a lot of 70s music, but I never knew why.”
“It’s mainly because my mom was into it and I got into it by extension. Lane was always into classical music and jazz, just like Dad; she always hoped the connection would somehow mean that he cared about us still,” Doriatessa explained. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, but I’m prevaricating. What I meant was, do you remember my favorite song? Because if you do, you’ll know.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will, in time. But what’s truly important right now is…I need you to find me, Penny. I need you to find me and Jess, and band us together. We can save the world before it’s too late, but we need to come together.”
“But…how? I don’t know where she is or even if she’s still alive! We lost touch after you left and I grew to hate and resent her for what happened! I don’t even know where to begin!”
“Head back to the MV. Something is still there.”
“There’s nothing there. The building where you used to live was torn down long ago and all it is now just apartment buildings.”
“There’s something there. Something always survives. I can’t tell you where it is, but you’ll need to find it. Find it and I’ll be able to speak to you through that.”
“But….” Penelope was going to say something when Tessa raised her face to meet hers.
“I’m not asking the Penelope I knew back then. I know she wouldn’t have done it, that she was feeling too guilty and self-conscious to do so. I’m asking the woman I see now and hoping she remembers our friendship enough to do so.” The magical teenager smiled. “Maybe then you can get rid of that guilt you’ve been carrying for so long, and you won’t have to name your daughter after me to assuage it.”
“How did…?”
“Because you were the most likely to do so, thus it was an educated guess. Jess was always likely to pick some fashion-based name like Tiffany or Coco,” Doriatessa said with a grin. “But I need you to get the Artifacts. That’s the first step. In time, everything else will follow.”
Penelope sat up with a start, blinking her eyes. That was one hell of a dream. She saw the early rays of the sun stream into the apartment, and the clock said she had to get up in an hour, anyway. That was almost a dream I couldn’t take. I thought I’d….
The alarm went off, and as it did, the radio on the old clock went off. It was set to play the radio, in this case KLTM 102.7 – “Oklahoma’s Freedom Station”. It was a station that pretty much played whatever they wanted, because they were the only radio station left in this part of the state. A song came on and it made her pause. It was Pinback, a band back from the 90s, and moreover, the song on the radio was “Penelope”. Although the Penelope in the song was a fish that belonged to the singer, the twins often used to tease their friend because of the name.
But there was one line in the song that they’d always meant sincerely: a reference to treasure and a reference to love, in this case that of friendship. Tears welled in Penelope’s eyes. She’d forgotten – she’d put so much away, put so much of it because she wanted to forget. But in doing so, she violated the Hippocratic Oath – to do no harm. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t taken said vow at the time; she’d violated it with someone she’d cared so much about.
She looked at her sleeping husband, then to her uniform.
I took an oath to do no harm and I took an oath to protect the innocent. I failed on both counts, she told herself. But I’m not going to fail again!
If anyone had looked at the woman, they would’ve seen a flicker on her right breast. The symbol to everyone else looked like a butterfly-shaped birthmark. But it was her benison, the mark that identified her as elf-friend, that now shimmered in the dark.