A/N: This is a Ravit-centric short story. It's part of my trilogy where Ravit actually survives season 2. It's placed roughly 2 months after the end of season 2 and my story 'Here With Me'. You don't need to read my other fictions to understand only that I have an OC character named Kate Lassiter who owns a huge company that helps distribute the cure around the world as an assist to the Nathan James.
So please read and enjoy.
Wolf looked over to Ravit as they drove through the empty streets of the city near where Ravit grew up. They wore gas masks due to the amount of decayed bodies left to rot in the streets.
Apparently it had once been a thriving city filled with people and beautiful architecture, just like the rest of the country. Now it was reduced the rubble and burnt out homes, dead and decaying bodies laid randomly around the place. Some dead from the virus as they looked like they sat down and just died. Others were shot and left, some body parts scattered where bombs had exploded. it seemed when the pandemic hit it inflamed the tenuous situation between Israel and her neighbours.
War had broken out, not something that was new to the region as it had been in conflict for hundreds of years but Wolf knew it devastated Ravit to find her home completely destroyed. To find her culture decimated to the point of near extinction. When they'd landed at Tel Aviv international airport they'd been greeted by less than a hundred survivors begging for a cure. The stories they told were heartbreaking and horrifying to say the least.
The people at the airport came for the cure and begged for asylum to America and other western countries as there was nothing to salvage in the city. But Ravit and Wolf informed them that while Lassiter Industries was supplying the cure, they couldn't take on passengers back to America. It hadn't gone over well but having the cure along with food and medical supplies had smoothed over the pain as it bought the survivors time to find a way out of the mess that had become of their lives.
They had procured a vehicle and headed out of the city to where Ravit had grown up. It had been a silent ride as Wolf was stunned by the devastation. He'd thought America had been hit hard but he was wrong. He could understand why the people at the airport were desperate to leave. They had survived a pandemic and more conflict than anyone should endure.
They headed out of the city limits into a more rural area. He couldn't help but notice how devoid of living humans. No one lingered behind, no one to bury or cremate the remains. Just leaving them for the animals. It turned Ravit's stomach to see so many people disregard their religious beliefs but she understood why. People were scared of contracting the virus. She just hoped with the cure that they could clean up the streets and bury the dead with respect.
They were in the home stretch to her home. She grew up on a farm. She remembered running through the gardens as a kid with her sisters. A soft smile tugging at her lips as the memories of kicking up dust as she ran between the olive trees having her sisters chase her. She could smell the scent of the earth, the feel of the summer day heat on her skin. Her parents were perma-culture farmers by trade, both highly educated people who held PhD's their research was in more sustainable agriculture. They earned grants from the government for their research and sold their produce to local markets. Her family wasn't rich but they had lived comfortably with what they had.
For months she had lived with the knowledge that her family was dead. It was years of watching her country fight with Palestine that taught her that people were more willing to tear each other apart than work together. She hadn't joined the military because she felt passionate about her country's politics. She joined because she had wanted to earn her education, to see the world and to feel apart of something bigger than herself. She had wanted to be a protector of innocent people and at this point she could no longer remember all her reasons. She hadn't felt disillusioned by her time in the Military as it had given her as much as she felt she gave them. She was still proud to wear her uniform, to tell people she served her country.
It was why she had been grateful when Kate offered her the chance to come home with the cure. People didn't care who she was, so it wasn't ego that brought her home. It was that thin sliver of hope that her family might have survived. But as she turned down the driveway of the property she found the gate halfway open and swinging in the breeze. She pulled the truck to a stop and pulled the handbrake on and turned off the engine.
She pulled off her gas mask and looked out to the scene before them. She tossed the mask on the dash and leaned on the steering wheel.
"What is it?" Wolf asked her as he'd followed suit with pulling off his gas mask. He looked out the front window.
"They are gone." Ravit said, the farm looked like it hadn't been tended in months. The fact the gate was half open was also a bad sign. She wondered if there was any point in going any further at this point.
"Wind could've knocked the gate open. I'll push it open and you drive in." Wolf told her.
"Ok." Ravit agreed as she decided that she might as well try and find something to salvage to take with her back to the US. To say a final goodbye. Wolf hopped out of the truck and raced over to the gate and forced it open and out of the way. Ravit started the truck and drove in past the gate before she waited for Wolf.
A few seconds later, Wolf hopped back into passenger seat and Ravit drove them up to the homestead. She glanced out the windows as the field some plants had thrived while others had died without being maintained. She knew her family would not have let it go like this.
She pulled the truck to a stop outside the house, it was basic ground level stone house. It didn't look like much but it was home. Ravit hopped out of the truck and closed the door and headed to the could feel Wolf at her back following her as she opened the door. She licked her lips and prepared herself as she had no idea what to expect. She knew that if her family were alive they would have greeted her outside already. She would have waved to one of them working in the field.
The small room was musty and thin film of dirt layered all the surfaces. Ravit counted the work boots that were perched under the bench seating. She moved to the door that connected to the main house and turned the handle. As soon as the door opened the aroma rotting food and flesh hit her. She fought her gag reflex, tears burned her eyes as she pushed herself into the room.
It was a large living area that combined living room, kitchen and dining into one. Tears fell down her face as she took in the state of the room. It was a mess but that wasn't anything new but there were rats around the place that scurried at their presence. Dust and dirt covered the surfaces telling her nothing had moved in months.
"Ravit, I can check the house." Wolf told her in a low tone. She shook her head.
"No, this is my home, my family." She told him.
They did a round of all the rooms where she found one of her sisters in her bed. Her parents had died in their own bed together which made her wonder what happened to her youngest sister. A question that didn't go unanswered as they found a grave out the back of the house.
Ravit and Wolf spent the next few hours after that cleaning and aerating the house before burying her family. They had to bury them in the bed linen as Ravit couldn't bring herself to touch them in their state. She knew it was too late for all the traditions of their religion to be adhered to when it came to death but she felt her family and God would understand and forgive her.
Wolf had said they should burn the bodies because of the virus but she couldn't do it. She could barely explain it to him that in her religion that their body was from God, that the remains had to be treated with the utmost respect. That once a person died it was prohibited to do anything but return the body to the ground in its entirety as it was gift. Wolf didn't fight her on it, he just helped her which made her all the more grateful for his presence as she wasn't sure how she could of done it alone.
"You know Burk would've come with you." Wolf said to her as they sat at the dining table. There was no food but Ravit pulled out a bottle of Arak that her parents kept for special occasions. She dusted off a couple tumbler glasses. She placed them table alongside the bottle.
"He's not like us." Ravit told him, she meant it in a nice way because as much as she liked Carlton Burk; he did not understand the world the way she and Wolf did. He just saw everything in terms of black and white. He didn't or couldn't conceive the grey area of morality and ethics.
She could remember her frustration when she'd tried to explain to him why she was upset about the current state of the world. Why she couldn't celebrate the capture of the bounty hunters and the mussels when a kid had died. She didn't see him as being insensitive but it bothered her that even when she'd laid it out for him, he still didn't seem to understand her.
"I think you don't give him enough credit." Wolf said defending Burk as he watched Ravit pour a small amount of the Arak into the glasses and topped them with water from her water bottle. The drink fizzed and turned a milky white colour.
"He was posted at Givatayim. That's a holiday posting, nothing happens there. He has no concept of how depraved people can be when they are desperate to survive. It's probably why I like him, he's untainted by it." Ravit said before she lifted her glass to her lips and took a sip.
They lapsed into silence as he knew she was referring to their shared time on the mainland trying to survive and keep people alive through the pandemic. Not just that because they'd both seen a lot of horrible things in their military career that alcohol and mindless sex or any other escapism couldn't wipe away. For Ravit; it was her years stationed at Gaza, for him it was peacekeeping in East Timor and his multiple deployments into Somalia and Afghanistan.
It was why they understood one another, they had their scars and they both wanted more. They wanted to stop fighting, they wanted to be made redundant because the world was at peace with itself but it was a dream. One they'd never see fulfil so they made their peace in that knowledge accepting that they could only do so much and made reminders to live a little more for themselves to get back the balance they'd lost in the pandemic.
"So what's your next move?" Wolf asked her breaking the silence, he took a sip of the drink enjoying the aniseed taste of the liquor. It was a little like drinking cordial. Ravit looked down at her glass and gave a shrug.
"I don't know." she admitted.
"You going to stay here?" he asked her. Ravit looked up him, tears in her eyes. She shook her head, completely heartbroken as she couldn't stay here. She knew in her bones if she did, she'd sink into a dark mental place and waste her life alone buried in grief and regret.
"No, I'll keep the property but I can't stay here." she told him before she took another sip of her drink. She wiped her face on the sleeve of her shirt. But the tears continued to fall down her face.
"I'm going to ask Kate to get me a ride to Sydney. I'd like you to join me. I don't want to go alone." He confessed to her, tears burned his eyes as he felt her pain as he was in the same place as her. He also hated seeing Ravit cry, it pulled at him as he just wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her everything would be ok but he knew with Ravit it was better for her to come to him for comfort than force it on her.
"We've come this far together." Ravit said with a weak smile as she reached her hand across the table. Wolf placed his hand in hers and she gave it a comforting squeeze. She held onto his hand a moment longer before she released it and moved back in her chair. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled trying to calm her emotions as she really didn't want to be a sobbing mess.
"You know, this Arak isn't too bad." Wolf said changing the topic away from him. Ravit downed the last part of her drink and gave a nod.
"Yeah, my parents shared a glass after my sisters and I went to bed. I used to be able to see them from my bedroom door. They'd sit at the table talking and laughing. So happy." Ravit said, she looked around the place. "So many happy memories were had here." she said.
"That I don't doubt." Wolf said as she topped up their glasses with water and Arak.
"My Safta-Grandmother she taught me how to cook in this kitchen. She was adamant that I'd be the perfect wife. She'd tell me 'How you supposed to get a good husband and feed your kids if you can't cook properly?'." Ravit said with a soft smile as the memories floating in her mind of her grandmother and mother arguing over what Ravit and her sisters would be when they grew up. But she did enjoy cooking with her Grandmother and listening to her stories.
"If I remember rightly your cooking isn't all that great." Wolf told her with an amused smile. He barked a laugh as Ravit flipped him the bird while she sipped her drink.
"You never had my shakshuka after a hard night of drinking." She told him.
"Well, I guess when we can source the ingredients you will have to cook for me. But you should know that I won't marry you no matter how good it is." Wolf told her, Ravit gave him a dower look but her lips curved into a smile as she appreciated their friendship. That he was here with her.
"We'll finish these drinks, then I'll grab a few keepsakes and we can lock it up." Ravit said to him. She already knew what she would take with her, a couple photo albums, her grandmother's recipe book and a few keepsakes to take with her before they closed up the house.
She didn't know if she'd ever be back again but she at least felt some peace in knowing she could come home in Israel. There was even in her pain and grief a sense of peace in knowing what happened to her family. It answered questions that had gnawed at her, so she could leave knowing she did the best she could and now had to move forward.
"We can stay for a few days if you want." Wolf offered, Ravit shook her head, she appreciated the offer but she didn't think it would help to stay and she recognised Wolf was in the same position as she was. He needed to find his family; to know their fates.
"No, we have to find your mother. She has a lot to answer for in regards to you." Ravit told him in a mocking manner. Wolf laughed as she knocked back the rest of her drink.
End