Chapter 47: Off of the Island

Date: November 26, 3007
Time: 01:20
Location: Navasota Island

Deirdre McKenna laid her A-3 Asianic Sniper Rifle on the sandy beach and sat down on the cool sand. The lingering smell of putrid smoke and burning flesh loitered around in the cold night air; they were still burning the bodies of the dead behind her, where the sands were red. A wisp of wind wandered through, temporarily dampening out the rotten smell.

Then, the tears started to roll and Deirdre was not able to smother the memories that were clawing at her skull. As her tears landed on the soft sand, Deirdre could only remember the one moment back in the field of tanks, before the explosion, before everything went wrong, before Duck died.

It seemed so futile to mourn the loss of a fallen comrade, but he was something so much more to her. She knew he had always had a crush on her, and couldn’t believe everything he had done for her to try to win her heart, including giving up his life to save hers. Duck’s words to her when she was lying on the hospital bed in Kerning City when she had been incapacitated by the car wreck were running through Deirdre’s head in an endless river of emotions.

“Deirdre?” Damiver came up from behind. She could hear his combat boots crush the little tiny granules of sand beneath his feet. Deidre raised her head out of in between her arms and looked back, trying to wipe away the tears before he noticed anything.

“What do you want?” she snapped hastily, pretending nothing was wrong.

“Deir… we all miss him. He was one of the best, and he wouldn’t have wanted you to remember him like this,” Damiver responded, not phased by her snappy comeback. But Deirdre knew Damiver had no idea what she was feeling. She had never told anyone about her secret love with Duck until they had seen her kiss his cold dead lips goodbye back on the battlefield. She couldn’t stop sniffing.

Damiver looked at her with pitiful eyes for a moment, then advanced and took her in his arms. Deirdre felt his warmth envelop her; she hated it, yet she yearned for it. It reminded her so much of Duck when he used to talk to her when she was down. She felt so stupid not to realize he had loved her ever since high school. Deirdre bit her lip, sending fresh new tears down her cheeks. She didn’t know how long they stood there together, but she did not break away.

“Ahem,” a gruff voice cleared its throat. Deirdre pulled away from Damiver and the both of them turned to face Mikhail. The Eden had somehow disappeared once again. “Now if you two are done, we still have work to do.”

Michael and Maldran walked up from behind Mikhail. The captain’s eyes shifted from Damiver to Deirdre and then back again. Deirdre felt suddenly ashamed she had broken down.

“Anyways, though we have beaten down the bulk of the Dominion’s army,” Michael started.

“Not to mention one of his best generals,” Maldran interrupted. Michael shot him a warning look and Maldran’s eyes shifted away uneasily.

“As I was saying,” Michael continued, “We have to wipe out the Dominion’s headquarters in Orbis, which should be in that general direction.” He waved his hands vaguely to the east.

“And how are we going to do that?” Damiver asked, looking around at the war-torn island. Deirdre followed his gaze and noticed that the landing craft the Dominion had arrived on were all smoldering humps of scrap metal, and those not destroyed were severely damaged beyond any hopes of repair.

“That guy,” Michael grinned and pointed at Mikhail, who stood triumphantly like a clichéd superhero.

“Follow me,” he chortled and whipped around. Deirdre picked up her sniper rifle, shouldered it, and followed the squad back into the jungle.

The island’s spirit seemed different now. The air smelled tainted, as if polluted by the very machines of the human race. Somehow, the wind was different too, corrupted and iced over by death. As Deirdre trod through the fallen trees and craters, she noticed the forest seemed extremely eerie without the large trees protruding from the ground. They had destroyed it all.

As they made their way out of the trees, Deirdre was taken aback at the sight. Thousands of bodies littered the once green and lush grass that had once been the clearing. Every inch of ground was stained crimson with cold blood. It was a deathly portrait, the definition of the deadly art.

To Deirdre’s surprise, Mikhail veered off course, heading east towards the ocean once more. She shot Damiver a quizzical look and he shrugged his shoulders. Apparently, they were not going back to Mikhail’s lair.

After walking for about ten minutes, they reached the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. The salty sea slammed onto the rocks before retreating back to prepare for another charge. Deirdre’s nose tingled with the sensation. Every crash of the waves seemed like the crash of cymbals, overwhelming all other sounds. The ocean had a heart full of secrets, mesmerizing and hypnotizing.

“We’re here,” Mikhail roared after a while. Deirdre looked around. “Here” seemed like “no where.”

“Um,” Michael asked uncertainly, “Where exactly is, ‘Here’?”

“Ahaha, Boy you need to use your eyes!” Mikhail slapped Michael heartily on the back. He walked up to a boulder sitting awkwardly at the edge of the cliff and slammed his foot down on it. The stone obeyingly sank into the ground.

A rumbling filled the air as the ground trembled beneath Deirdre’s feet. Rocks and pebbles were bouncing around like popcorn in the microwave. Then, she realized they were sinking as well. Deirdre looked on with astonishment as her legs disappeared into the stone below her, followed by her waist and her hands, until she was completely submerged inside the rock.

A sharp burst of light bounced off of Deirdre’s closed eyelids, making her jolt them open in curiosity. She was standing in an enormous cavern with a gigantic crystal blue pool in the middle. Docked at the shores were a couple of high-tech looking ships. Deirdre looked from Mikhail, who was looking at his possessions with his hands on his hips, to the submersibles. For a hermit who lived on an island, Mikhail seemed to be ridiculously rich.

“Any questions?” Mikhail’s voice boomed, echoing off of the enormous ceiling of the cavern. Taking the squad’s silence as a no, he sauntered down the steps onto the docks. Deirdre followed and soon found herself next to a large black submarine. The cockpit was blurry through the tinted windows, but she could tell the control lights were all beeping and flashing brightly. There was a red “W” painted on the side of the craft, which Deirdre took to mean “Wizet.”

“Get on board, and let’s go,” Mikhail smiled as he motioned for them to board. Deirdre took hold of the cold metal bars of the ladder up to the hatch atop of the ship. As she ascended, she felt a gust of wind chill her to the bone. The night had gotten obscenely bitter; even the caves screamed out ice.

As she landed inside of the submersible, Deirdre found herself in a spacious compartment. There was a locked door leading to the cockpit to her left, and a large sitting room to the right. Making her way aft, she looked out the side portholes. The blue ocean water was bubbling up from an underwater mouth. Random fish were illuminated by the bright lights of the cavern, their scales playfully glinting a sheen of white into Deirdre’s eyes.

The bottom of the lagoon was filled with crystals of every color. The light dazzled off of the rainbow crystals, creating a fabulous lightshow. Deirdre smiled to herself, feeling a sense of peace and serenity overcome her. For a moment, she felt as if nothing was wrong, as if all she needed to do was look at the crystals forever. But as she tore her gaze from the display, the emptiness in her heart returned, and she was Deirdre once more.

As she sat down on a couch at the very front facing away from the windows, Deirdre realized the rest of the group, as well as a squad of EDEN, had already climbed down. The couch fell in the shadows, so only her squad noticed her there. The hatch was closed and secured. Mikhail walked into the room and asked, “Like it? We built it ourselves.”

Deirdre noticed an ammo locker at the very back of the ship, held together by a large padlock. The six men in Mikhail’s force sat down by it, sulking in the light. But before she could do anything else, the ship lurched forwards, and she felt herself sinking.

“Strap yourselves in, we’ve got a bumpy ride,” a voice on the intercom, which Deirdre recognized as Mikhail’s, boomed out. Out the windows facing away from her, she noticed the other ships sink down with them, no doubt filled with the remainder of Mikhail’s loyal troops.

It seemed almost foolish to take a single building with a hundred plus troops, but Deirdre waved off the thought. She was too preoccupied with other thoughts to trouble herself with trivial things.

As the fleet of ships exited the underwater cave, Deirdre felt themselves pick up speed. The humming of the engines at the back droned monotonously throughout the cabin. Deirdre suddenly felt her eyelids droop heavily. She blinked a couple of times to wake herself, but to no avail, and she slumped down onto the couch.

“Deirdre?” A voice whispered. Deirdre opened her eyes. The white world focused into view. Leaning above her, was Duck.

“Duck!” Deirdre shouted out, overjoyed. She sat up and hugged Duck close, not wanting to let go no matter what.

“Heh, I see you still remember me,” Duck replied warmly. Deirdre looked past his shoulders as she hugged him. Everything was bright white, and had a sheen like no other. Was this a dream?

“I…” Deirdre stammered as she pulled away to look up into Duck’s eyes, “I’m sorry, I don’t…” but Duck waved her off.

“No need to apologize. The past is unchangeable, and to linger in it is certain death. Come on Deirdre, you’re smarter than that. Do you know where we are?” Duck motioned around with his hands. It was then that she realized Duck had a pair of magnificent, white, feathered wings protruding from his back.

Deirdre looked down in gloom, “I wish you were alive again.” She ran her fingers through Duck’s messy hair.

“We’ll meet again soon, but you still have a job to do,” Duck replied with a smile, “Goodbye Deirdre.” He leaned forwards and kissed her on the lips.

She heard murmuring from the back. The darkness covered her, creating a veil for her teary eyes. Looking up, she noticed the six EDEN men whispering to themselves as they stared at her.

“Hey Des, watch this,” Deirdre heard one of them say to the other. Then, he turned around in his seat and addressed Deirdre in a booming, but not so intimidating voice, “Hey, tough guy, what’s with the loner ****? Why don’t you come back here and sit with the real men?” His buddies gave a chuckle of approval.

Deirdre slowly leaned forwards, revealing her features one at a time. As soon as her head emerged from within the shadows, the men recoiled back in surprise. She cocked her head to the side, staring the man down with her piercing blue eyes. Deirdre could feel his embarrassment rise. Giving him a last menacing look, she retreated back into the darkness.

“Nice one,” one of the man’s buddies said, trying to stifle a laugh.

The man crossed his arms, growling a “shut up,” at his friend. Deirdre watched him sulk for a while, when she noticed the engines shut off. The intercom crackled and then revealed Mikhail’s authoritative voice once more, “Lock and load.”

Deirdre grabbed her sniper rifle and checked the actions. As the craft drifted to a halt, she stood up and strode to the bottom of the hatch. The door to the cockpit swung open, revealing a smiling Mikhail, “Ready Deirdre?”

“You know it.” She shouldered her rifle and climbed up the steel ladder to the hatch.

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