Chapter: The Last Day

Erik came to some time later, Rugrat was stumbling through the house like he was still drunk, holding his head as he drank directly from the kitchen sink.

Erik looked to his legs, his eyes hadn’t lied, they were there now.

Erik gripped the armrests of the chair he was in.

He gritted his teeth, even with the headache mildly pounding away in his head he was focused on his legs.

He pushed his body up, his legs felt awkward, but they responded to his thoughts.

Erik stabilized himself before he pushed up, balancing his weight on his legs.

They were incredibly weak, he could feel the strain of holding himself up on them.

Using the wall and the couch he moved forwards shakily.

His steps were sudden and jerky, it was as if he had sat on them for a long time, they were numb, but the feeling was coming back as blood flowed through them.

Rugrat looked over to see Erik moving forward shakily.

His pained expression turned into a smile and then laughter.

“You fucking beauty! Nothing can keep down the Doc!” Rugrat laughed.

Erik laughed, he tripped and fell over, but his joy wasn’t diminished as he rolled onto his back and continued to laugh.

“I’ve got fucking legs!”

***

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It was around midday by the time the two of them recovered enough for Rugrat to help Erik out of the house.

Erik leaned on Rugrat, his legs were already getting stronger, Erik’s natural healing abilities had only increased with time. If he and Rugrat hadn’t worked on putting him back together then Erik’s body might have recovered on its own in six months.

They went over to the garage/workshop, the truck, ATV and car had all been moved out to clear space for the two circles that appeared in the workshop.

Discarded pallets lay around the room. Rugrat had broken items down into the components so that they were as small as could be, Boxes and anything that took up space had been removed.

Two semi-circle containers had been filled with necessary supplies and topped off with ammunition. Ropes in the centre would allow them to climb into the middle and lower more gear over their heads.

“Good work,” Erik said, seeing all that Rugrat had done, he didn’t know how he had enough hours in the day.

“I got your med kit supplies ready, but I haven’t wrapped it all up, you want to check over it?” Rugrat said, pointing to gear off to the side, there were needles, bags of saline, bandages, tourniquets, drugs and a myriad of medical equipment laid out.

“Help me over there,” Erik said, they didn’t have time to mess about, there was just one day to go before they were summoned.

Erik went through the medical supplies, by nighttime everything was packed up in the summoning circles. More gear was packed in around it. If they had move room then they’d try to take as much as possible.

Erik’s legs were good enough to help Rugrat with everything.

Then they turned to personal gear.

Erik checked on his plate carrier, rucksack, weapons and other extras. He modified it as he could before there was nothing more to do.

They sat out in front of the house looking at the garage and workshop, the two of them drinking beers in silence.

Everything had been a whirlwind since Rugrat showed up, in Erik’s hospital room.

Unbidden thoughts appeared in his mind as his eyes moved to the stars.

Keller, Honcho, Yoreck, they’d been his friends his buddies. Here he was, his arm and legs returned to him, but they hadn’t made it.

A heavy silence descended as Erik raised up his bottle.

“To the fallen.”

“To the fallen,” Rugrat said, the two of them hit bottles, tapping them against their chairs and took a deep drink.

They nursed their drinks, thinking on the past, there was no grand ceremony or fanfare. Simply two men saying goodbye to their brothers.

“Well even if it’s the end tomorrow, we’ve got good company waiting for us,” Rugrat said.

“That we do,” Erik agreed.

A part of him wanted to just rest, to put it behind, but another part of him, the part that had driven him for most of his life, it hungered for what was to come. He wanted to see what was on the other side of this summoning. He wanted to guide his own life.