Chapter Nine- Secrets Revealed
Dawn broke above our heads, spreading its light over the tip of the jungle we ran in, signifying the end to the whole night we had spent running in fear. A fear of being stuck here, abandoned in a run-down war. My feet pounded the ground, the continuous ache renewing itself at every touch of earth. The Vietcong were in close pursuit, determined to kill us with undying hatred in their eyes; fighting for an ideal that they failed to see was wrong.
Then we had to slow, a rickety wooden bridge stretched over the river ahead and the four of us skidded to a halt.
"Wheres the lieutenant?!"
"Who cares, lets go!"
"We can't, he's got the fucking radio!"
Man, so much for eating the lieutenants dust, he was slower than all of us. Just then the lieutenants head bobbed above a boulder a few yards away.
"Alright, get over that bridge!"
We ran one by one, cherry, junior, hoss then me. Ragman stayed and waited for the lieutenant to get close before dropping his guard and hurrying across the slightly swaying bridge.
"RPG!" Junior cried.
Without warning, as ragman crossed the final few meters a vc appeared from the other side and launched a grenade into our side of the bridge, blowing the wood to pieces. It was lucky ragman jumped automatically and he cleared the bridge, smacking face down into the ground as the lieutenant finally reached the gap.
He turned and valiantly shot the approaching vc. A few fell, and his Beretta clicked as his ammo was depleted.
"Oh shit!" he raised his hands above his head in surrender, only to be shot in the head. The body fell back into the river, hitting a rock and drenching it with newly formed blood. The radio went with him and floated downstream.
"Waste em!" ragman roared and we jumped back up, spewing them with hot led. We didn't stop til they all fell and even then the sound of gunfire still resonated in my mind. We sat on our haunches behind a large boulder to confer what to do now.
"What now? this is some crazy giant shit man!" ragman clutched his head in his hands.
"What now? he had the goddam radio!"
"Just shut up junior, i'm trying to think"
"Alright, we'll head to the extraction point and hope that the chopper is still on its way, there's nothing else we can do" As we reloaded and stood again, i finally noticed the clouds above had broke and rain poured in rivulets down my face and through my hair. Absentmindedly i brushed the hair from my eyes, wondering if we would make it out of this one. Well i would, but if they didn't; well i would be abandoned again. Melanie still wasn't here either.
"Man does it ever stop raining in this place" cherry too wiped the drops from his face, smearing dirt across his cheeks as he did so. A tint of red shone on his face and i blushed as he turned and caught me watching him.
'Aw, how cute. Your actually blushing'
'Melanie! your back, finally. I thought you'd abandoned me'
'I wouldn't do that, i just had some business to attend to'
'That must have been some pretty interesting business then huh'
'Ohh i see, your mad at me. Oh well, you've got a chopper to catch i see'
Ragman and the others stalked of through the trees and i followed behind. Behind a rock-face we treaded in a shallow river, it sat at the bottom of an unusually quiet clearing and nothing above could be seen because of looming greenery. The water itself flooded into my shoes, making each step harder to take as they filled. Again was the feeling of everything being surreal, a calm before a storm. Although we were already in one on the outside. The stretch of river ended at another rock face and the only way was up. We turned and we were ambushed. Now that we could see, we saw a whole mass of vc just sat there on automated machine guns and in crevices of rock face.
"Oh..my..god"
"Its an ambush!" junior yelled and the vc swung to face us.
"You idiot! Run!" And so we ran. I couldn't see where we were going as clouds of smoke blew up from grenades and bullets tore up the ground and air. In the split second before junior had opened his big mouth though, i had seen a little pathway in the top-right corner.
"We need to get out of here!"
"Head for the top right!" i warned them and heard cherry groan from behind as he was hit by an impending bullet.
"I cant walk" i turned and saw he had stopped. What was he trying to pull? i dodged backwards and slid my arm around his waist, pulling him fiercely but not painfully back up the clearing.
'A little help here melanie?!'
'Oh sure' the bullets then stopped aiming for me and cherry as melanie deflected them invisibly.
'Well at least your useful sometimes'
I couldn't see the others nor hear them, but i knew i wouldn't be doing anyone any favors by going back and getting cherry killed. We were the only medic's after all. I mean sure, ragman could do simple first aid; but hoss an junior were a totally different story. Either that or they just liked to inflict pain on themselves. Time dragged on but at some point the smoke around me cleared and i saw i was at the entrance of the little path. Okay, i can do this. The shooting behind ceased a little and ragman and hoss limped up to join us, carrying junior between them. With my sixth sense attuned i noted there were Vietnamese soldiers closing in on both sides of the pathway. Damn, i had to think quickly since the others weren't aware. Cherry's head was hanging loosely and i realized he was unconscious. Peering around to the rock face i suddenly saw a minute crack. Pushing my hand on it, the crack widened until it was enough to fit through into the cave inside. The others still hadn't seen. All right then, time for phase two. I rummaged around in my backpack and pulled out two MK18 red smoke grenades; flipped off the clasps and threw them either side of us. As the smoke filled the air i pushed a unaware cherry inside and gestured to the other three to follow. Hoss came first, pulling junior behind him and ragman last. The smoke started to clear and i hurried to board the crack up with loose rocks, until only a little peep hole remained. Through this i could see the smoke dissipate and the soldiers rushing past without even noticing the rock face. I leaned back onto my feet and breathed a sigh of relief. This would buy us some time at least. Then i could deal with everyone's injuries.
I turned around and placed a finger on my lips, silencing them so that i could speak.
"Look, we need to lay low for a little while. We've got injuries to tend to and they need time to heal. Another-wards, a little rest wont do us any harm. The chopper isn't due here for a few hours." i kept my voice at a low whisper and ragman nodded approvingly.
The cave only just about fit the five of us and enough light flitted in from the peep hole to allow us to see. Ragman took care of his own minor bullet wounds and much to hoss's disgust, he dealt with hoss's too. Junior was harder and i had to extract three bullets from both arms and a leg. It was lucky i had a little morphine and after i stuck the needle in he fell straight to sleep. The same with cherry, although he was already asleep. Hoss and ragman lay back and soon i could hear snoring. I lay back for a moment then thought since everyone was asleep maybe i should actually heal cherry's injuries. After all he was unconscious and he wouldn't have known how bad it was anyway and the others would probably not even notice if they faded away. Slowly i got onto my hands and knees, crawling over to cherry so i didn't wake anyone. Throwing out my hands and placing them on his softly rising chest, i stilled as i gathered energy into my palms. White light building as the energy flowed through my hands and into his chest. Spreading through his body to heal his injuries. As the light intensified his breathing got less sharp and his eyes stopped creasing in pain. This was the first time i had used my power to heal on another person, no less a human. I guess war really does change a person, even if its not my war. They'd still been no sign or marissa either. I mean, i know she isn't behind the war but i was brought here for a reason and what else could it be than her? Its not like i had no other purpose in life.
The healing stopped as it was completed and the light begun to fade back into my hands. A sharp intake of breath came from behind me and i swung around as fast as light itself. Hoss was sat upright, staring at me open mouthed like a shock-shelled cat.
"W-what was..that?" he gaped and i crawled forward and clasped my hand around his mouth.
"Be quiet, you'll wake everyone else up!" i released him as he nodded and sat back on my heels studying him. He took a moment to close his mouth and gather himself some dignity.
"On one condition" he whispered finally. Oh great, blackmail no doubt. I knew i never should have wasted my energy on that human. Now i had been found out.
"What?" i snapped.
"That you explain, what are you?"Huh? that was what he wanted?. Well, i guess i have no choice.
"Fine..but not here" he turned his head.
"Where do you propose then? the enemy is outside, in case you have forgotten"
"My house" I never thought i'd be saying that one, but i knew the humans wouldn't be there so it was an ideal place. I didn't actually know how to teleport there but melanie was speaking for me. Without will, she used my own hand to grab his and pulled the both of us away in a flash of white light.
When my senses finally came to, i was standing outside of a brick house; rain drops sliding down the gutter above. To my left was Lessa, she was inserting a key into the door of the house and after it twisted, she pushed it open with one hand. She then turned to face me.
"Well? do you need a written invitation or what?" she was being sarcastic so i'm guessing that she's mad.
"Sorry, its just traveling between realms makes me a bit sick" she apologized upon seeing the look i wore.
"Its fine, i don't feel so good myself"
"Well don't go throwing up on my front door, kay?" I smiled.
"Sure thing" I stepped through the open door and onto the steps. My trousers dragging on the carpet of the stairs, dripping water everywhere. I myself had come from a farmhouse an i'd never really been in a house that had carpet. I tried to lift my legs higher to avoid soaking the carpet but only fell backwards into Lessa who was making her way up the steps.
"Ow, watch what your doing. You don't need to worry about the damn carpet. Its had worse than your boots all over it"
"Oh, right. Of course" Five more steps and i reached the top. Two rooms lay straight ahead, another to my left. The one to my left must be a bathroom as it has a toilet in there. The first room ahead looks like a kitchen and the other had seats so i assumed it to be the living room or whatever the city people called it.
"Just go sit in the living room, ill be in a second" She pushed past and walked into the kitchen, kicking of her boots as she went. I did what she said and stepped into the living room, plonking myself onto the nearest sofa. In terms of how places go, this place didnt seem to shabby. It was better by far than my old ma's farmhouse thats for sure. I looked around, taking in the pale blue walls and dark curtains that were drawn across a large window. The two blue, long seats; and the fluffy blue carpet. It seemed whoever had decorated this place really liked the colour blue. I pulled of my own boots as lessa reappeared, grimacing as i saw the tattered state of my grey colored socks.
Lessa frowned too and placed the two red towels she carried onto a table stood opposite me.
"We need to get out of this wet clothes, here, take this towel and go have a shower" She lifted up one of the towels and threw it to me. I clumsily caught it and stood awkwardly as i pondered how i would ask her.
"Well, what are you waiting for? You know where the bathroom is" i shifted my feet on the floor nervously.
"Well...i don't exactly know what a shower is" Her mouth dropped open in a wide 'o'.
"W-what! my god, i know your from the past and all but really. Gosh, i didn't know you wouldn't know what a shower was. I guess i'll just have to show you" She folded her arms and tutted. My interest perked up, was she going to have a shower with me!? Apparently she could read minds as her eyes narrowed and glared at me.
"No, i will not be having a shower with you. What gave you such an idea. I'll have one after you and then i'll explain" Oh right, of course. And here was me thinking i was going to get lucky. She turned of her heel and stalked of to the bathroom, me following meekly behind. Once we stood in the bathroom i realized it was bigger than it looked from the outside. Behind the door was a tub and above it some kind of lever thing with a pole that had lots of mini holes at the top.
"This is a shower" she pointed towards the pole thing with the holes.
"Water comes out when you turn the lever, and you wash in it" It was really that simple? "Well, ill leave you to it. I'll put some clothes outside the door, call if you need me"
After i had my own shower we sat down in the front room. On the table i had placed some coffee for hoss, and milk for me. I laughed inwardly for the fifth time as i looked over the clothes i had given him to wear. They were my stepfathers and he didn't have very good taste. Brown jeans and a grey t-shirt, although i must say he filled them out quite well. I guess underneath all the camo, had been a heck of a lot of muscle.
"Well, are you going to tell me now?" hoss asked, taking a sip of coffee from the ceramic mug. Well then, he asked for it.
"I'm a witch, from the future of your time. About 44 years into the future to be exact. I stumbled across your world by chance since i'm looking for someone" That was all i was going to tell him, i couldn't risk telling him anymore; i would have to kill him if i did. For some unfathomable reason, he didn't look surprised.
"I always knew there was something different about you" huh, well that wasn't what i was expecting.
"Yeah, i mean for a start. A women in the marines, defiantly odd. When i saw you healing cherry, i wasn't exactly surprised"
"So why make a big deal out of it then?"
"I just wanted to hear the truth"
"Oh" i gazed out of the window, noticing the red sky of sunset. "Well, i think we should stay here the night. We could use the rest after all, i've missed the luxuries of the future"
"Wait, what about the chopper? we'll miss it!"
"No, you wont. Time doesn't pass in your world like it does here. I'd explain it to you but its quite complicated. Not for your human ears to say the least"
"Melanie!" i hadn't planned on telling him about Melanie but it seemed the cat was out of the bag now, as the goddess herself was leaning against the living room door.
"The name's Shiva; ice goddess, lessa calls me Melanie. I'm her spirit guide and that's all you need to know" she explained quickly.
"Well, that's one way to introduce yourself" i said sarcastically.
"On second thoughts, staying the night sounds fun, can we go to bed now?!" Melanie chuckled.
"Sure, you can have my parents bed. They don't need it anymore" He walked hurriedly out of the room and into my parents bedroom, eager to get away from the things he didn't understand. Wish i could do the same.
"Its time you went to bed as well lessa"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm going" i pulled the duvet of the sofa and crawled into a warm cocoon of fluffiness as i drifted into the dreamworld.
From the door, melanie watched with a smile.
