Hey everyone! How's it going? This is a little side story of It Began To End, where Dexter is talking about the little girl and the teenager. I thought, hey, why not continue from that and tell you what happened?
I must warn you, there is a swear in this, but it isn't too bad and is appropriately placed. Plus, it was in Nick's character, and I could totally see him saying that. So, after the little disclaimer, please enjoy...
...The Last Adventure of Josie Apollo.
I kind of own these characters, but the world isn't mine. So you know what? I claim the people, except Dexter, mentioned. They are mine now.
Josie roughly put her hands on her little sister's shoulders. Her little sibling, Gemma, stared up at her with big, brown eyes. They were too mature for her age; Josie didn't like it one bit. Gemma had been undergoing training to be a soldier in the field, and it had been going well. She was passing with flying colors, breezing past exercises and drills like they were a game of hopscotch on the playground, back before the world had been killed. As it turned out, the Apollo family had a knack for things like war. The girls' father had been a soldier in the army, and their mother a pilot. While the girls didn't see them often, as they'd been called to action, they knew their parents were the best there was.
"Gemma, you know the drill," Josie reassured her.
"Don't let losers get to me, don't be a loser, obey the higher ranks, and try my hardest. Believe in myself, and I'll go far some day," Gemma repeated dutifully. "Oh, and you'll always come back."
Josie nodded, proud of her eight year old sister. "But just in case…?"
Gemma lifted the collar of her shirt and reached in, procuring a necklace. "I keep this."
The necklace had been a favorite of Josie's. It was the necklace bestowed upon her, a family heirloom, by her grandmother. The gold chain and diamonds shined in even the dullest light, making the wearer feel that much like royalty when needed. Josie, always protective of it, had kept it close to her heart for all of her life leading up to the war. Now, it was a promise to Gemma that should would come back to claim it again. Gemma was just holding it.
It was also a challenge. Because Josie was so competitive, she created a game for herself. When –not if- she came back, she kept the necklace. It was so special, and the oldest child always held it, that it was would devastate her ancestors if she wasn't wearing it. This drove her, when at her weakest point, crawling in the mud, face caked with dirt, and uniform stained, torn, and ruined. When her little sister wasn't the first thing on her mind, and that was rarely, the necklace was her ace in the hold.
"Right," Josie chirped. "But that won't be happening any time soon, so don't plan on it." She playfully knocked her knuckles on Gemma's head, and Gemma giggled.
"I won't, I won't," Gemma laughed, and hugged her sister. Josie smiled and wrapped her arms around her sister's small frame. After a tight squeeze, Josie pulled away and ruffled Gemma's hair.
"Love you, Gem," Josie whispered.
"Love you, too, Jo," Gemma replied, equally as quiet.
Josie hated to do it, but she turned her back on her little sister and headed for the transporter that would take her and her team to the site where a monster was sighted.
There was always a little part of her heart that tore away and cried while she was away from her sister. It only reunited with the rest of her organ when Josie was back with her sister, safe and sound in the compounds of DexCorps. She waved to her sister from the glass of the vehicle, a plane made of various supplies ranging from kitchen spoons and sheets of metal, and watched as Gemma shook her hand frantically.
"Wuss," Nick mumbled. He lit a cigarette and puffed on it. "You know you always come back. Why do you always get so antsy whenever you leave?"
"One can never be too careful," Josie chided at her second in command. She punched his shoulder. "And I thought I told you to quit smoking."
Nick smirked at her. That cocky attitude was what kept him alive in field, being strong and aggressive. "I'll quit smoking when YOU don't come back with us on this ship."
Josie giggled. "We'll see. I may just have to find a substitute for it."
"Like what?" Nick wiggled his eyebrows. "Maybe some kisses?"
Josie smiled, leaning up and kissing the edge of his mouth. "I reiterate: we'll see. However, I'm not kissing you until your mouth doesn't taste like smoke."
Nick groaned. "I'm never getting any action ever again!"
Josie only grinned like a maniac. "I've found the solution to your smoking! Trade kisses for cigarettes!"
"You're so mean to me." Nick flopped dramatically onto her shoulder.
"Would you two stop flirting and get ready for the takeoff?" Amineh, their chief demolitions expert, snapped. She was a skittish, Arabian girl. Seeing a plane crash with both your parents on it could make anyone a nervous person, especially on planes.
The last member of Josie's team, Molly with her calm, jazz and blues loving mind, watched on in amused silence. Charlie, the KND engineer accompanying them for repair reasons, stared out the window. He was looking at Gemma, smiling weakly.
"You're just jealous," Nick mumbled. Josie hit his shoulder again while Amineh rolled her eyes.
"…hate…gooey, gushy love…gross…respectable…" Amineh grumbled under her breath.
"We let this girl handle explosives?" Nick teased in Josie's ear.
"Yes, and I will gladly explode you!" Amineh shrieked.
The little red light flickered for the team of five to buckle their seatbelts, and a contemplative silence settled over them. "We'll all return. Promise?" Charlie asked the group.
This little ritual was something they did before they left officially for the site, for every mission. Every team, every person, everyone, did this.
Four teenagers, in perfect unison, said, "Promise."
"Nick, take my left," Josie ordered. Nick obeyed. They were just coming into the dangerous area of the site, where the beast they were sent to destroy was said to hunt. This beast had been hindering a trade system, and they had been sent to take it out. Supplies needed to go to that base in the south sectors of the safe zones, and each cargo hold had been intercepted by this…thing.
It was the reason Charlie was with them. A railroad had been disrupted, and it needed to be stabilized before it could be repaired. Charlie, who had helped design the railroads, understood entirely how they worked and could fix them. He was the top pick by Dexter himself to go with them.
"Molly, are you in your position?" Josie asked into her communicator.
"Affirmative, ma'am," Molly buzzed back through slight static.
"Good. Amineh, to my right. Make sure you have your weapons out and ready."
"Affirmative."
"Charlie, are you set up?"
"Supplies set and ready, ma'am."
"Let's go, guys. We're going to take this thing down." Josie started forward, rifle trained in front of her, her soldiers on her sides. Molly was absent, in a copter circling above them. Unlike most snipers, Molly was trained to shoot from moving, high angles. It came in handy a majority of the time. This gave her the advantage of being in her element, and to see if something was coming from a bird's eye view.
With the agility of cobras and the speed of a tentative puppy, the team carefully made their way forward. No sounds were made, except for the sound of gravel crunching beneath their feet and deep breathing.
"Just what are we facing?" It was Nick who broke the silence.
"I don't know. They said it was something like a giant wolf, but there weren't many witnesses," Josie answered. Nick nodded.
"So aim high?"
"Most likely. But be ready for anything."
The three, including the two that had been listening in on the conversation, agreed with a slight shake of the head.
"Coming up to a cave, ma'am. I won't be able to see you," Molly cut in suddenly through the communicator. Josie almost jumped at the noise in the thick silence. "Are you going to continue in?"
Josie clicked her communicator with a gloved hand. "Yes, Molly. If you can, find a position near the entrance of the cave. This is probably the lair of the beast." She dropped her hand back to her rifle and looked farther in front of her. Molly was right. There was a cave in the distance. It was large, big enough to house whatever their mission's objective to destroy was.
Josie held up a hand, halting her team. "We need to have the element of surprise here."
Only Amineh spoke. "Don't we always?"
Josie grinned. "And doesn't it always work?"
Amineh patted the grenades on her waist. "I suppose."
They turned their eyes back onto the cave, and Josie used two fingers to point towards it. They shuffled silently through the badlands that was once green and grassy, heading towards something they didn't know how to prepare for.
Amineh was the first to see it. It glowed a faint green, deep inside darkness of the winding cave. Its giant barrel chest heaved with each breath, and its claws wrapped around itself as it slept. The thing was exactly what the witnesses had reported: a giant wolf. Its tail whipped back and forth, and when it shifted, Josie's trigger finger tensed.
It had to be eighteen feet high, five feet wide. Starved, slim, and weak. It was obvious by the food wrappers and broken boxes scattered sporadically throughout the cave that the monster had been eating the supplies, but it hadn't satiated him.
"The thing's near dead," Charlie observed.
"Don't forget to take in desperation of those who are starved and would kill anything for food. Remember: we're probably its food source," Josie told him.
Even thought their voices were hushed, near silent, the creature twitched.
Amineh gasped when it shambled up to its legs. It was awake now. And it had heard Amineh when she sucked in that breath.
Wildly, it spun around and dizzily fell before snarling at them. Its blood red eyes glared at them at first, as if accusing them of waking it, but then widened. It sniffed the air, and-
A horrible, ear-splitting cry cut through the air and echoed among the hollow cave. The four had to cover their ears from the sound. The animal was dying, they knew that. But it had just found its key to life.
And it wasn't going to let them go, under any circumstances.
"This is serious," Josie told Amineh. "We need to finish this now, and I mean NOW."
Amineh nodded. She picked four grenades off of her belt and handed one to each member of the team urgently. With steady hands, they held it as the beast advanced crazily, its stride uneven. It walked like a drunk raccoon, but managed to smash against walls and hobble towards the team, deranged.
"Fire!" Josie cried, and they threw the grenades. The beast dodged one of them, but it hit the wall next to it and exploded. One hit the ground in front of it, falling just short of the beast's front paws. One fell onto the beast's flanks. The thing burst into flames. The air was immediately permeated with the smell of burning hair and the goop that was Fusion Matter. The stench wound through the air, intermingling with the anguishing cries of the beast.
"Shoot!" Josie screamed, and the four unleashed a torrent of bullets. "Aim for the throat or head!"
The team gladly obliged, and the thing screamed out again.
And lunged.
This, Charlie would later think about, was where "the shit hit the fan", as Nick had once said.
Amineh dropped her weapon in her haste to get away. The thing snapped its mangled jaws inches from her face. If Amineh had been holding a sword, she could have decapitated it.
Nick fired again, placing a well-aimed shot to the things ear, and it wailed, wheeling to face its assaulter.
Sadly, Josie was standing between the smoldering thing and Nick. Thinking Josie had fired on it, the barbequed mutant swiped at Josie's head. Josie lifted her rifle just in time to cover her head. This subsequently led to her weapon being cut in half. She reached for her secondary pistol as the wolf lurched forward.
"Josie, move!" Nick shouted. Josie took his advice and ducked to the side, pulling her pistol out of its holster and firing as she rolled away from a giant, heavy paw two times bigger than the size of her chest. If this thing was weak now, she didn't know how big it would be if it was at full health.
The bullets made contact, but the crazed wolf felt nothing but the hunger in its being for the four soldiers. Charlie and Nick continued to shoot, and Amineh was throwing another grenade, but the lasers and explosions did nothing to the skeleton animal.
"It's numb! We're going to have to starve it out and close the entrance!" Josie called to her team. "Head for the entrance!"
Charlie was the first to run. He put his rifle to his hip and covered Amineh's right flank as they retreated. Nick sprinted just in front of Josie, who was heading the back.
As the wind cut into their faces and Josie's hair whipped around her neck from underneath her helmet, she could still feel the pull of her heart towards her sister. She could still feel the cool metal of the necklace from where it sat from what seemed like so long ago. She could still feel the love from her heart radiating towards Nick.
She could feel the vibrations of the wolf behind them, hitting walls because of shaky legs and pounding the earth with its paws in a last ditch attempt to get life back into its bones in the form of human meat.
She could feel her breath labored as she ran. Since when did they get this far into the cave? They ran, ran, ran, and then ran some more. The light from the top of the cavernous abode of the creature was like a beacon to sailors or a porch lighting fixture to moths, and the four pushed themselves faster and faster up the steep hill that led up to the entrance.
"Go, go, go!" Josie urged. Turning into her communicator, "Molly, we're coming out! This thing is chasing us!"
"Understood. Snipers and the machine guns are trained on the entrance, ma'am." Molly's voice was always calm, so it came as no surprise to Josie that she was utterly tame now.
"That won't help!" Josie was about to say.
But the hill was too steep. The only thing Josie could say before she her feet fell out from under her was a simple, "Tha-ack!"
The beast was advancing. Josie's ankle hurt like hel-heck –it was odd, but as Josie was about to think of a swear, she could just feel her sister's disapproving look and modified the sentence- and she couldn't move quickly. Nick was still running.
"Nick!" Josie shrieked. Nick turned on a dime, staring at her with calculating eyes. It took him one hundredth of a second to realize what had happened. He rushed to her side and tried to help her up, but she stumbled. "Nick, listen to me," Josie demanded, utterly serious, "I need you to do something for me. I understand you love me, and I'm going to ask something of you that's going to really test your faith to me."
"What is it?" Nick inquired. He glanced up at the beast.
"I need you to close off the exit in one minute. I'll be out. I need you to run out there and trust me." Josie stared hard into Nick's green eyes. She reached up and wove her fingers into his curly red hair. "And I want a kiss before you go."
Nick pressed his lips to hers, and they hugged each other close before Nick was bolting up the hill. Josie looked at wolf drawing close to her. She didn't see the worried glance Nick cast her. Josie stood up hastily, realizing she didn't have much time. Her ankle hurt, yes, but she could run with a sprained ankle. She'd done it before.
But she underestimated her opponent. As she started to run, she felt her enemy reach her, and a claw ripped through her uniform and back. She felt the skin tear and she screamed out.
Later, she would remember this as one of the last sensations of pain she ever felt.
The wolf screeched in victory as it leapt towards its prey. It sniffed at Josie, and Josie saw something pass through its eyes. Guilt…anger…sorrow…mourning…before it was swallowed by its insane need for nourishment.
This thing…those were human emotions...? Josie thought, picking up her grenade from her belt. She had never thrown the grenade from Amineh. Something had told her that she would need it later. She was absolutely right.
With a throw that would have made the Arabian demolitions expert proud, Josie launched the explosive at the wolf's gaping maw and landed it right inside the roof of its mouth.
It was…human?
Human…
Human…
It was a Fusion Werewolf.
I'm infected.
She gazed at the wolf as its head burst into angry fire, the flames spreading over the things body and incinerating it. Its crying and howling never reached Josie's ears. She sat down, tears started to well in her eyes. The flames reflected on the tears dribbling down her cheeks.
I'm going to turn into that.
She wiped away the tears and stared at the exit. It was so close…maybe they could find a cure…
No.
There was no way they could save her before her transformation came. She could feel the virus spreading through her system even then.
She lifted one hand to her communicator and shakily pressed the button. "Molly, destroy the exit."
"But, ma'am, you still have ten seconds. You can make it!"
"No. Just…do it."
"But-"
"Just do it, Molly!"
Molly was silent on the other end of the comm.
"Molly?"
"Yes, ma'am. I'll…I'm activating the explosives now."
"Can Nick hear this conversation?"
"Yes, I can."
Josie started to cry. "Nick, I…I love you so much, but…don't…come rescue me this time, okay?"
Nick's fury could be felt through the communicator. "No! You are NOT going to be stuck in there!"
"Nick, I need you to know something, okay? I'm infected. That thing, it…it hit me. You couldn't have done anything to stop it," Josie sobbed. "I'm going to turn into it."
"What? No! We can-"
The exit rumbled, and then the loudest BANG Josie had ever heard went off behind her in what sounded like the exit.
"NO!" Nick roared into the communicator.
"I love you, Nick…" Josie whispered. "Tell Amineh her explosions were that of a master, that Charlie needs to learn how to prick someone's finger like a man, and Molly that her aim's the best there is for me, okay?"
"Josie! Josie! No!"
"Please, just…"
"Josie! I love you! You can't do this!"
"Nick, you'd better quit smoking, babe."
And she shut off her communicator.
Oh, Gemma…and that necklace…
How would her family ever forgive her? Her grandmother would be ashamed. The great Josie Apollo, taken down by a monster and turning into one herself.
Gemma would be destroyed by this, and the necklace wasn't even around Josie's neck for this.
The virus was still spreading. She could feel it in her arms and legs, slithering through her veins and burning like a poison.
"I'm so, so sorry, Gemma."
Those were Josie Apollo's last words.
Nick rammed the exit once the explosion died down. Tears streamed down his dusty face, creating clear, salty trails. He was screaming.
Screaming for Josie.
Screaming for help.
Screaming in denial.
Eventually he fell to his knees and pounded on the rock, but the only thing he could hear was the howling of that wolf. It rang in his ears, the pain it must have felt when the deed was done. Josie had killed it. He knew it, even though he could see it.
But now Josie was…
He hit the rock until his knuckled bled, and then he slapped the barrier with his palms until they were scraped and raw. His voice ripped out of his throat with the sheer intensity that only grieving and misery could cause.
And when he couldn't scream anymore, and his hands hurt too much to move, Amineh came up, took him in her arms, and cried with him.
"She's going to turn into that thing," Nick hoarsely whispered.
"I know. I heard." Amineh ran her fingers soothingly through his red hair, letting him ruin her uniform with his sobs.
"Why? Why did she have to be so good?" he yelled into Amineh's shoulder. Amineh winced and pulled him closer.
As Nick clung to Amineh like she was his key to continuing on, Charlie was staring at the cave. Amineh had caved in the entrance. The wolf's death cries were still heard. The explosion was heard, too. Is this what people deal with every day? He wondered.
Charlie vowed that his first day in the field would be his last.