(How did the government come up with the video camera? Here are two possible versions, similar except in one important point. By the way, the S-2 is the Intelligence Officer and staff of a military unit.)
Version One
The UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter settled to the torn and blackened ground that once was Central Park. Other helos were landing nearby and at other open sites. Troops vaulted from the open doors even before the skids brushed the ground. They formed a circle around the landing zone, each soldier training his or her weapon to cover their assigned sector. Once Sergeant Tim Adams was satisfied that the quiet was genuine he gave a "Cut" signal to the pilot and the whirling blades slowly came to a halt.
He gathered his makeshift squad in front of the helo. The military had taken so many casualties that fragmented units had been melded together. Both men and women looked back at him. The restraints on women in combat had not been lifted. Officially this wasn't "Combat". Tim wondered bitterly for a moment what PR genius had decided that.
"Okay everyone listen up. The monster is dead so this is a Search and Rescue operation. We're looking for any and all survivors. You are going to have to look. After all, if they were mobile they would have already been out here waving their hands and piling on the chopper. Just remember that there still are the parasites or bugs or whatever you want to call those creatures that the monster dropped. They're fast and their bite can be deadly. So stay in pairs like you've been assigned, DON'T stray too far and keep your weapons ready at all times. If you lose communication for any reason at all return here immediately."
He surveyed the faces in front of them. Good, they looked determined but he didn't see anyone who looked like they were going to charge out and try to win a medal. That kind of people got you dead.
"Any questions? Heads shook negatively. "Move out then. Diaz, you're with me."
The pairs spread out cautiously. Specialist Carmen Diaz, the muzzle of her M-16 leading the way, fell in beside him.
"Where do we start Tim?" the black haired female soldier asked. "The place looks like a war zone."
"Well it is. Not just from the monster but from 'Hammer Down'." Tim looked around. "Carmen?"
"Yes?"
"This isn't our old unit." Both of them were silent for a moment as they relived the hell they had experienced just a few nights ago. Their transportation unit had been hastily committed for the evacuation. Many of their fellow soldiers had died when the monster simply walked through them. Others had fallen when the refugee column they were shepherding had been attacked by a number of parasites. As soldiers do, they had thrown themselves between the civilians and the menace and finally destroyed the bugs. The last surviving officer had ordered them to fall back and establish a perimeter at the docks. Bare minutes before the bombs began to fall the last of them had made a run for the waiting boat. Only a handful of the unit's members had made it.
Tim hesitated and then plunged on. "Everyone there knew how we felt about each other. We weren't even in the same platoon. But now I'm your squad leader and at least for now we should be formal, on duty anyway. If anyone knew that we were involved..."
"They'd separate us." Carmen acknowledged. A twinkle appeared in her eyes for a moment that Tim hadn't seen since that night. "Okay Sergeant Adams."
The NCO kept an eye on the searching teams while Carmen scanned the area, looking for hostiles as well as any sign of life. Nothing. Then as they approached what looked to be what was left of one of the old park bridges she caught sight of something.
"What's that?"
"What's what?"
"Over there, in the ruins of that old brick bridge. Something is catching the sunlight."
Tim followed her line of sight and nodded. "Could be anything, but we certainly aren't finding any leads that are more promising." They trotted over. Glass glittered.
"See what it is. I'll keep you covered."
Diaz carefully set her weapon down; making sure the pistol grip was in immediate grabbing distance. She lifted a few of the bricks clear and rolled some larger lumps away until she could reach down and pull the object free.
"It's a video camera. I don't know if it works or not." The Latina soldier played with the buttons. "Okay, yes, I've got it. Seems to have taken a lick but its okay. I'm rewinding the tape."
Tim waited patiently until the rewind was complete. Carmen started scanning the film.
"Just something personal it looks like. The date stamp is back in April. Guy talking and waking up a girl. Wait. It just jumped ahead to that night. Some kind of party. Let me see here," Carmen fiddled with the controls. "Oh yeah, this is good. Pictures of the destruction, pictures of the monster."
"Okay, bag it and tag it. We have orders to recover data like this too."
"Got it." Diaz swung her backpack from her shoulders. She set it down next to her weapon, started to open the pack and froze.
"TIM! I think I can see someone down there. They're not moving though."
Tim got on his radio and summoned his squad. He posted a couple as sentries as they arrived and set the remainder to digging through the rubble. The soldiers worked with a will but the bricks were heavy. Everyone lent a hand except Carmen, who was fast-forwarding through the tape, stopping it at intervals to watch part of it.
Finally they reached what turned out to be two people. A man and a woman, locked together. It appeared he had been trying to cover her body with his own when the bombs smashed the old bridge. Douglas, the unit's medic, took one look and shook his head.
"Damn."
"Damn," Tim echoed.
"DAMNNNNNNNN," burst Diaz as she dropped the cam, scooped up her rifle and threw it to her shoulder. Shell casings rained down as she emptied the magazine. Tim and the others looked. A parasite lay twitching wildly but harmlessly a few yards away.
"Just one?"
"Yeah," Carmen replied as she changed magazines and let the bolt run forward. "I feel better now," she commented as she looked at the now motionless bug.
Tim proceeded to chew some ass off of the two sentries. They took their positions again as the rest of the squad finished freeing the two bodies and laid them carefully on the ground
Tim sighed. It was probably too much to have hoped for that they would have found them alive. But still, it would have been nice. And nice was at a premium now-a-days. He shook his head and gave an order.
"Richardson go to the chopper and get a couple of body bags. We'll take them out with us when we leave if nothing else happens." The man took off, his partner right with him. The others stood and looked down at the couple on the ground.
"I wonder who they were," remarked one of them.
"Robert Hawkins and Elizabeth McIntyre," answered Carmen softly.
"How do you know?" inquired yet another member of the ad-hoc squad.
She held up the camera. "Because they give their names here, right before the end. I guess they wanted to make sure that someone would remember them."
The day passed. No survivors were found and no more contact was made with the bugs. The soldiers climbed back on board the helo after loading the bodies. The ride back to base had a somber mood. Once there the soldiers were dismissed except for Tim, who waited his turn to be debriefed, and Carmen, who watched the entire tape before turning the camera over to the S-2 personnel.
The pair cleaned and turned in their weapons before eating supper. As tired as they both were neither wanted to leave the other. They sought a relatively quiet corner outside and sat down together. Carmen was completely quiet, her face showing she was far away. He thought he knew where. Then he saw she was shaking with silent sobs.
"What is it honey?" Tim forgot all about being the squad leader, not showing affection and everything else as he saw the anguish on Carmen's face. He took her in his arms and held her. "Is it the tape?"
Tears were running down the woman soldier's face as she nodded. "It's so damn unfair. They came so close, they survived so much. He turned back from being rescued to go find her. They even made it to one of the helicopters and it crashed after take-off. And then the bombs came and the last thing I can hear over the explosions is the two them telling each other 'I love you'. Then just a tiny bit of the original tape back in April, showing them at what looks like the end of a happy day together."
"It SUCKS that they had to die like that. But what was worse is some of the things I saw early on the tape before the monster appeared. Tim, those two people, Rob and Beth is how their friends called them, wasted so much time. Yes, they finally admitted they loved each other but it wasn't until the end. I think that was the first, and the last, time they ever told the most important person in their lives how they felt."
Carmen took a deep breath. "Well, I'm not going to do that. I have you here right now Tim Adams, Sergeant Tim Adams, and I'm going to tell you right now that I love you. To Hell with breaking us up and to Hell with Military Regulations. I'm not going to hold back and only be able to tell you that when the end is upon us."
Tim tipped Carmen's face up and kissed her. "I love you too. I don't know why I haven't said it before. I know I've danced around the subject. I guess when you are face to face with death that giving your heart away to someone who's already had it for sometime isn't very scary anymore."
The two soldiers, male and female, kissed. It wasn't a deep passionate kiss; it wasn't an arousing sensual kiss. It was a kiss full of promise and a declaration of love.
When the pair rose to go to their quarters for some desperately needed sleep, Carmen looked back at the city and then at the night sky. "Rob and Beth," she began. "Wherever you are, I hope you are together. Thank you for reminding me..."
"US!" Tim interjected.
"Us," smiled Carmen. "For reminding US that the most important part of life is love and sharing it. We'll never forget you." The duo, hand in hand walked out of the darkness and back into the light of the base.
(The End)
Version Two
(I know this is repetitious perhaps but I didn't want to simply jam in a different ending but have the story lead up to it.)
The UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter settled to the torn and blackened ground that once was Central Park. Other helo's were landing there and at other open sites. Troops vaulted from the open doors even before the skids brushed the ground. They formed a circle around the landing zone, each soldier training his or her weapon to cover their assigned sector. Once Sergeant Tim Adams was satisfied that the quiet was genuine he gave a "Cut" signal to the pilot and the whirling blades slowly cane to a halt.
He gathered his makeshift squad in front of the helo. The military had taken so many casualties that fragmented units had been melded together. Both men and women looked back at him. The restraints on women in combat had been lifted. Officially this wasn't "Combat". Tim wondered bitterly for a moment what PR genius had decided that.
"Okay everyone listen up. The monster is dead so this is a Search and Rescue operation. We're looking for any and all survivors. You are going to have to look. After all, if they were mobile they would have already been out here waving their hands and piling on the chopper. Just remember that there still are the parasites or bugs or whatever you want to call those creatures that the monster dropped. They're fast and their bite can be deadly. So stay in pairs like you've been assigned, DON'T stray too far and keep your weapons ready at all times. If you lose communication for any reason at all return here immediately."
He surveyed the faces in front of them. Good, they looked determined but he didn't see anyone who looked like they were going to charge out and try to win a medal. That kind of people got you dead.
"Any questions? Heads shook negatively. "Move out then. Diaz, you're with me."
The pairs spread out cautiously. Specialist Carmen Diaz, the muzzle of her M-16 leading the way, fell in beside him.
"Where do we start Tim?" the black haired female soldier asked. "The place looks like a war zone."
"Well it is. Not just from the monster but from 'Hammer Down'." Tim looked around. "Carmen?"
"Yes?"
"This isn't our old unit." Both of them were silent for a moment as they relived the hell they had experienced just a few nights ago. Their transportation unit had been hastily committed for the evacuation. Many of their fellow soldiers had died when the monster simply walked through them. Others had fallen when the refugee column they were shepherding had been attacked by a number of parasites. As soldiers do, they had thrown themselves between the civilians and the menace and finally destroyed the bugs. The last surviving officer had ordered them to fall back and establish a perimeter at the docks. Bare minutes before the bombs began to fall the last of them had made a run for the waiting boat. Only a handful of the unit's members had made it.
Tim hesitated and then plunged on. "Everyone there knew how we felt about each other. We weren't even in the same platoon. But now I'm your squad leader and at least for now we should be formal, on duty anyway. If anyone knew that we were involved..."
"They'd separate us." Carmen acknowledged. A twinkle appeared in her eyes for a moment that Tim hadn't seen since that night. "Okay Sergeant Adams."
The NCO kept an eye on the searching teams while Carmen scanned the area, looking for hostiles as well as any sign of life. Nothing. Then as they approached what looked to be what was left of one of the old park bridges she caught sight of something.
"What's that?"
"What's what?"
"Over there, in the ruins of that old brick bridge. Something is catching the sunlight."
Tim followed her line of sight and nodded. "Could be anything, but we certainly aren't finding any leads that are more promising." They trotted over. Glass glittered.
"See what it is. I'll keep you covered."
Diaz carefully set her weapon down; making sure the pistol grip was in immediate grabbing distance. She lifted a few of the bricks clear and rolled some larger lumps away until she could reach down and pull the object free.
"It's a video camera. I don't know if it works or not." The Latina soldier played with the buttons. "Okay, yes, I've got it. Seems to have taken a lick but its okay. I'm rewinding the tape."
Tim waited patiently until the rewind was complete. Carmen started scanning the film.
"Just something personal it looks like. The date stamp is back in April. Guy talking and waking up a girl. Wait. It just jumped ahead to that night. Some kind of party. Let me see here," Carmen fiddled with the controls. "Oh yeah, this is good. Pictures of the destruction, pictures of the monster."
"Okay, bag it and tag it. We have orders to recover and data like this too."
"Got it." Diaz swung her backpack from her shoulders. She set it down next to her weapon, started to open the pack and froze.
"TIM! I think I can see someone down there. They're not moving though."
Tim got on his radio and summoned his squad. He posted a couple as sentries as they arrived and set the remainder to digging through the rubble. The soldiers worked with a will but the ruble was heavy. Everyone lent a hand except Carmen, who was fast-forwarding through the tape, stopping it at intervals to watch part of it.
Getting to the people wasn't easy. A steel beam from the bridge's interior support had fallen across them. They were working around it when Douglas, the unit's medic, who had been peering into the hole suddenly exclaimed. "Oh my God. I think they're alive!"
"What? How?" stammered Tim.
Richardson stuck his head down beside Douglas and studied the situation. "I think the beam kept the debris from falling on them. They're pinned but I don't think they're crushed. If we can just get everything away from one side of the other I think we can free them. Don't touch the beam itself. Its holding everything up and off them."
Everyone frantically pitched in. A soft moan from the hole made the soldiers work even harder. In fact they were all so intent on the task that there were actually screams when suddenly an M-16 on full-auto blasted away only a couple of feet away.
"What the HELL?" Tim leaped up, snatching his own rifle. Carmen stood with her feet wide apart as she hit the magazine release of her weapon and stuffed in a loaded one when the empty magazine fell away. She hit the bolt release and chambered a round. Following the line of her smoking weapon's muzzle there were several gasps as the soldiers saw a parasite twitching wildly but harmlessly a few yards away.
Tim first complimented Carmen on her marksmanship and then proceeded to chew some serious ass off the two men who were supposed to be sentries. He ended by admitting that he hadn't been checking but for them to pay attention before they all ended up dead.
The digging resumed. They had got enough debris away now to realize there was a couple there. The man appeared to have attempted to shield the woman's body with his own as the bridge collapsed. Both were breathing but neither was conscious.
"Okay, Richardson, double-time back to the helo and get them to call for a dust-off." Tim commanded. He turned to Douglas. "What's more important, waiting for professional help to arrive or getting them out of this hole and to the hospital?"
"Getting them out of here," declared the medic. "They're already suffering from shock and exposure. Speed is the most important thing now." He looked around. "Let's see if we can find something to improvise a couple of back boards though."
Splintered boards were found and passed into the hole, where they were wrapped in fatigue shirts and armored vests. As carefully as possible the man and then the woman were lifted from their prison. Once out they were rushed to an arriving medevac flight and flown to a hospital.
"I wonder who they are," remarked one of the men as he shaded his eyes and watched the disappearing helicopter.
"Robert Hawkins and Elizabeth McIntyre," answered Carmen softly.
"How do you know?" inquired yet another member of the ad-hoc squad.
She held up the camera. "Because they give their names here, right before the end. I guess they wanted to make sure that someone would remember them."
The day passed. No more survivors were found and no more contact was made with the bugs. The soldiers climbed back on board their helo. The ride back to base seemed to take no time at all. Once there the soldiers were dismissed except for Tim, who waited his turn to be debriefed, and Carmen, who watched the entire tape before turning the camera over to the S-2 personnel.
The Battalion Commander was present at the debrief. "Good job Sergeant," he congratulated Tim. "And you to Specialist. By the way, the two survivors are awake and want to see the people that found them. Turn your weapons in and get going."
Tim and Carmen arrived at the hospital, where they were met by a doctor who cautioned them. "They're both very tired and weak. But it will do them a world of good to talk to you."
The two soldiers crept into the hospital ward and found their way down to a pair of beds that were pushed nearly together. IV's and bandages didn't hide the features of the two people they had come to see.
By mutual, if silent, agreement Carmen took the lead. "Hi there. I'm Carmen Diaz and this is Tim Adams. You are Rob and Beth and we are very, VERY happy to see you."
"Thank you," whispered Beth. Rob echoed the words. Tim gripped hands with Rob and then touched Beth on her right shoulder. All three were surprised when Carmen leaned over, kissed Rob on the cheek and then repeated the action with Beth. She then squatted between them, taking Rob's left hand and Beth's right in her own.
"I want to say two things to you. I watched the tape in your camera Rob. In fact, that's how we came to find you, the sunlight reflected off the lens and drew our attention. So I feel like I know you two. I'm so glad that finally you two knuckleheads," a weak giggle came from Beth and a chuckle from Rob, "Finally figured out who the most important people in your lives are. You Beth when you were trapped and called Rob for help and Rob when you went to her aid. Those last words you exchanged just before the bombs collapsed the bridge just confirmed what you always knew."
The female soldier straightened up, squeezing and then joining the couple's hands together. "The other thing I want to say is 'Thank You'. Thank you for reminding me that if you don't take the opportunity to tell someone what they mean to you then you may never get another chance." Turning, Carmen slid her arms around Tim.
"I have you here right now Tim Adams, Sergeant Tim Adams, and I'm going to tell you right now that I love you. To Hell with breaking us up and to Hell with Military Regulations. I'm not going to hold back and only be able to tell you that when the end is upon us."
Tim tipped Carmen's face up and kissed her. "I love you too. I don't know why I haven't said it before. I know I've danced around the subject. I guess when you are face to face with death that giving your heart away to someone who's already had it for sometime isn't very scary anymore."
The two soldiers, male and female, kissed. It wasn't a deep passionate kiss; it wasn't an arousing sensual kiss. It was a kiss full of promise and a declaration of love. The two people on their hospital beds weren't able to kiss, but their interlaced fingers said everything that needed to be said.
(The End)
(Okay, I know that probably everyone including me prefers the second ending. There really was a third possible one you know, one that had either Beth or Rob survive without the other one. I don't know about you, but now that one is just too hard to bear. I hope you enjoyed the story.)