Chapter 4

My mind resurfaced. A couple of seconds later, my eyes opened up. I looked around, saw the cave we were camped in, saw gray light trickling in from the entrance, I glanced down beside me and saw Crimson asleep in my arms. I took in a deep breath. I smelled the forest, the cave and Crimson. If any scent gave me peace, it was Crimson's. I closed my eyes trying to concentrate on her scent.

My mind went back to the dream. I had that dream again. I never truly remembered it but I always remembered being almost at peace when I woke up.

I began to stand up, making sure not to wake or let Crimson slide onto the ground. I put The Last Word back into its holster on my thigh as I walked to the cave entrance.

"Hey, Spart. What's the weather looking like today?" I asked looking out into the forest and realizing why it seemed gray.

"Looks like it's going to be mostly like this all day, but we may need to watch out for pockets of rain." Said Spartan appearing by my side.

"Anything new from the Fallen?" Meaning, anything we need to worry about?

"No, but from what I've gathered, I think they may be stopped for a while. Could be to rest, or, they found whatever they were looking for."

"So we may have a chance to strike today?"

"Most likely, I would wish you do contact the Vanguard before you develop any, unorthodox plans."

"Come on Spart. I'm crazy not suicidal." I said turning back to the cave.

"Well good morning there sleepy head." I said a few minutes later as I noticed Crimson waking up.

"Hey," she said groggily. "What's it looking like out there?"

"Well, the Fallen have set up shop, and Spart and I were just discussing a plan. You see, we're going to sneak in close, then when they're not paying attention. Wham! Go in guns a-blazing, and then blow the rest of them beyond hell with anything and everything explosive that we have and that they have." She gave me a look that says that she knows bullshit.

"The Fallen have stopped for the time being, and I've asked Kanin to contact the Vanguard before we truly began planning something." Spoke up Spartan.

"Come on, what was wrong with my plan?" I asked.

"Everything." The two of them said simultaneously.

We sat and ate our breakfast, we contacted the Tower to let them know what was going on, shut down communications to stay under the radar, cleaned up our site to leave no trace (just as we were taught as kids), and headed out.

We needed to truly be on our best to be walking practically head first into a relatively unknown enemy.

A couple days before the mission, the Tower had in its possession, a Fallen ship. Miraculously it still functioned properly, or at least what qualified as properly with the Fallen. So the Vanguard wanted to give it a test flight to find out more about this new equipment. And what a coincidence that Holliday wanted to test fly it around Old Europe a bit. And what an even bigger coincidence that the Guardian assigned to aid and protect Holliday, just so happened to be leaving on a mission in a few days' time into the same area.

And if that same Guardian remembered correctly, the Fallen were set up near or in the ruins of an ancient warehouse or factory or something.

Soon we began to enter what appeared to be some ruins of a small town, or a neighborhood. And now we had to be extra mindful of what may be hiding in the ruins. I stopped in the middle of the street, and turned to look around at the ruins. "What do you think it was like back then?" I asked.

"Who knows if you go by the stories, it was men and children that left in the morning to go to work or school while the women either stayed home to take care of the house or go to jobs of their own. But that's all we know about back then, right? Just stories passed down through time?" Crimson replied.

"Do you think they had to deal with any of the wildlife in regularity, or was it laid back and quiet?"

"Like I said, who knows?"

"Guess that's kinda why we're here isn't it? To get humanity back to what was, but better."

"Yeah, that may be right, but let's try and concentrate on right now." We began walking again.

"Would be nice though. Nice quiet surroundings, disturbed only by the shouts and laughter of children. Relaxing around the home, maybe playing with the kids, and maybe a dog." I said.

"You know, ever since you found that music from before the Traveler you don't stop listening to, you seem like you think it was much better back then. But you don't realize, throughout history at some point, people begin to think that it was better before, rather than thinking about the future."

I stopped and turned to Crimson. "Then what better time than the present?"

Crimson looked at me in what I assumed was confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Come on, Crims. We both know we can't do this forever. It is only going to end with us leaving and walking away alive, or dead. And if that happens, I am not going to stand beside Hana as they lower you into the ground. I'm not going to put her through that. So I say, we start planning now for what we're going to do afterwards." I knew Crimson didn't like to talk about it, let alone anything about starting a family, but I knew we were going to need to have this talk at some point.

"We're not having this conversation, Kanin." She said with a hint of anger wishing for me to drop the subject.

"I know, but we need to talk about this Caira." I knew that using her name like that was likely to draw out even more anger, but I needed her to take the hint.

"We'll take about this when we get home." She said solemnly. She started walking and took the lead while I stood there.

"You know, you very well maybe suicidal, right?" said Spartan, appearing beside me before following Crimson.

Yeah, but sometimes you have to endure punishment before you get to pleasure. I thought as I started to follow after.