Chapter 14
Claudia felt so stunned her brain was trying to play catch up, Myka turned to Claudia a small smile playing on her lips. She grabbed the younger agents arm and walked her through the Umbilicus; her chest was so full of emotion that she couldn't bring herself to speak. Myka dragged her to her slightly run down Ranger and placed her in the car.
Myka put the keys in the ignition and the engine spluttered to life; she backed the car up and drove slowly toward the main road. Claudia looked over at her and couldn't really believe her eyes; Myka was much older and matured since Claudia last laid eyes on her, which really only felt like a few hours ago.
Myka glanced at Claudia and sighed, she could blame the little redhead for so many things and had over the years, but looking at her now, the confused young agent was staring out the window at the long destroyed stretch of trees beside the road, she couldn't bring herself too. Myka cruised for a few hours watching Claudia's face become more mortified at the aftermath of her absence, the crumbled buildings, the scorched ground, the huddles of people on the street; their homes destroyed.
Finally she pulled her stare away from the horrifying images and asked the question that was perched on the tip of her tongue "Myka, what happened after I left?", Myka looked at the sad faces blurring by, "After you left, as you know, your bronzing formula affected Nero the Roman dictator, he realised where he was and sought revenge on the Warehouse for trapping him, he unbronzed some of the other criminals and…" Myka bit off; seeing tears welling in Claudia's eyes.
"Then he killed everyone, Pete, Artie, Steve, Leena… oh gods what have I done" Claudia finished for her, Claudia circled her hands around her waist, trying to still the pain emitting there. "Why do I always hurt the people I love Myka, this is so messed up" she winced the pain getting worse at the memory of Hazels hurt face. Myka looked at the poor girl and sighed, if she was going to take off the Band-Aid she may as well finish. "The Warehouse did stop most of them, it trapped them in the Dark Vault and hasn't opened since then" Myka laughed softly avoiding the next conversation.
"So one of the escapee's, Josef Mengele, he wasn't 'subdued' with the others, he was chasing Helena in the office and she managed to get away, barely. He stayed behind after, wandering the Warehouse for an artefact to help him in the new world and picked up Bobby Jones' Golf Clubs and Harriet Tubman's Thimble, taking them to the White House. Josef turned himself into the Prime Minister of the Republic of China and started an argument about nonsense between the U.N and used the artefact to make them start a full blown WW3 argument, which in turn set the world into full war mode. Every major town and monument was hit by someone's bombs and the only safe place to be was in the smaller towns like Univille".
Claudia's face was hardening, she was realising that the boy Cameron was right, she was murderous, a killer. Myka continued but Claudia wasn't really listening anymore, she caught a few facts, over 4 billion dead, a brief part about H.G's death and where they were going. Claudia couldn't bring herself to be happy about visiting Hazel and put her hand on the car door, she couldn't rectify all the deaths she had caused, she didn't deserve to be with Hazel, that would be selfish.
Going over a draw bridge Claudia waited until the last second before jumping out of the car hitting the road hard, her jaw cracking and mashing itself together with the roof of her mouth, closing on Claudia's scream. Myka pulled the car up at the edge of the middle section of the bridge and ran to her friend who was crying silently. "Oh Claude come here" Myka whispered gathering Claudia off the road and putting her back in the car, placing the child lock on before moving again. "Damn it Claude I need you to help Hazel, you can't do that if your unconscious or dead" Myka said dismayed at the mad attempt to avoid visiting Hazel.