So this is it…the last chapter…although there will be an epilogue…this is a long author's note…sorry
In true me style, I have had a massive break in writing…I'm sorry…
There was a legitimate reason though this time…I had to do summer exams…although whether I used this time effectively or not I have no idea. It's always around exam time that I start to get funny ideas in my head like…let's learn programming or Chinese just because it means I won't have to revise but in some way is still constructive…slightly…and so revision was put on the back burner for a while…I also watched Avengers…I thought it was going to be a terrible film…but it was pretty good…it took a lot of strength not to do some referencing of the film in this chapter lol…
I also took ages because I wanted to get this right…I don't know if I have but it will have to do lol…
I finished Uncharted 3 ages ago…took me long enough…it was a nice ending to the story…it was pretty standard though…Marlowe deserved a lot worse and her motives weren't that clear but what does it really matter…Talbot was even less explained as a character lol but I don't mind …I'm happy for Nate and Elena...even if they are married and don't act like it lol…
Talking about marriage…my mum totally freaked me out by asking if there were any eligible young men on my course to marry…in those exact words…who uses 'eligible' anymore?…I ran away from her…but then she took me to an Ideal Home Exhibition…I don't like where her thoughts are going at all…
A warning…this chapter is very long compared to the others…silly long
Last time Miguel proved that he is just waste, Phil rolled up on his Segway, and Nate was finally going to end this thing…
Here we go…
Chapter 36
It was like a strange chain reaction.
The jawbone was grabbed out of the air in a second and vanished in the mass of supernatural fog that had gathered.
The Spartoi were merciless. Breaking and ripping limbs without a second's notice; fighting over something that, as a material, was practically worthless.
Occasionally, Tariq had to manoeuvre the helicopter out of the path of flying objects. The occupants of the vehicle were apprehensive at best. If this didn't work they were going to in a lot of trouble.
An arm which was missing the rest of its owner sailed into the sky, peaked in its flight just at the eyelevel of the heroes and then began its short drop back to solid ground.
'Well that's just about the weirdest thing I've ever seen,' Barry said after a while.
'You ain't seen nothin' kid,' Sully commented as he peered down, taking advantage of the edge seat he was in. Every now again the fog would disperse in patches and what he saw would sell well on pay-to-view TV. Like a really strange, late-night, wrestling match, where it was ok to rip the arms off your opponent.
The smog cleared a little.
Nate grimaced, the plan seemed to be working but whether it would totally wipe out the Spartoi was another thing completely. He was also hoping that Phil would be dead by now. Trampled by the raging Spartoi.
Nate spied a single Spartoi bent over. It was picking something up. The jawbone. It had somehow survived the massacre that had been going on. It had been lying, forgotten and alone.
The Spartoi looked at its prize, raised it about its head, and bellowed. This probably wasn't the cleverest thing it had ever done in its short existence.
Two other Spartoi locked eyes on the jawbone and ran, full pelt towards the owner. The combined tackles of the two beings, simultaneously crashing into the third's midsection made a sickening crunch.
The humans in the helicopter shuddered.
The jawbone tumbled down, the hand that had once held it crumbled away. It seemed that a Spartoi's death wasn't all that exciting. It was almost as if the God of Spartoi Deaths hadn't spent much time or effort coming up with new and exciting concepts about how such a thing could happen and instead used the time old tradition of just fading away into a fine dust while being spread by a handy breeze.
'That was just plain disappointing,' Miguel grumbled. He had been expecting, in the very least, an explosion or two.
Chloe shook her head after Miguel voiced his opinions. She was quite happy with the way things were going. You knew where you were with dust. It didn't threaten to scorch you with third degree burns and at the very worst irritated the eyes a little.
The jawbone disappeared from view again as a mass of Spartoi congregated in that very area.
Tariq dropped the helicopter a little lower so they could get a better view. The steady beat of the rotors dispelled the worst of the mist left. This was also made possible partly by the fact that there were only a few Spartoi left.
The clearing was a wreck. It looked as if a small meteor had landed there. The earth was churned and a fringe of trees had been shredded to pieces. In some cases chunks of forest were missing where vegetation had been lifted out of the ground completely to be hurled at other Spartoi.
'I wish I had a video camera,' Barry muttered, craning his neck so he could see what was happening.
'I wish I had some popcorn,' Miguel piped up.
'I wish they would just kill each other already,' Chloe said flatly and was rewarded with a cloud of dust in her eyes as another Spartoi-
'Don't you dare say 'bit the dust',' Chloe warned Barry as she scratched at her eyes and blinked rapidly. Barry slowly closed his mouth and pouted, saddened that the world couldn't share in the excellent pun he had come up with.
Ted winced as one of the two remaining Spartoi landed a blow on it's opponent's face. The head strained to stay rooted to the body. The other Spartoi retaliated by snapping an arm around. Its wrist and hand were a blur as they effectively slapped the other Spartoi in the face.
There was a moment's silence in the helicopter.
'Did he just slap the other Spartoi?' Sully asked disbelievingly. People would definitely pay to see this. He shared in Barry's wish for a video camera.
The other Spartoi was having none of this nonsense and picked up the nearest object handy and brought it crashing down over its opponent's head. The attack would have been more effective if the Spartoi had picked up something weightier than some aged fossil. The dragon jawbone hardly fazed the Spartoi as it shattered across its forehead and it slammed a knee between the other's legs for good measure.
'This one is playing really dirty,' Sully muttered and subconsciously crossed his legs.
'More importantly,' Chloe spoke up, 'I think it just broke the jawbone. That's a good thing, right?'
Nate confirmed this by rummaging around in the rucksack and bringing out the second box of teeth. He removed the lid and took one out. The tooth was flawless crystal, reflecting the little light available and winking as Nate turned it.
'I suppose that's one load of our minds,' Elena said and if this hadn't been a serious situation Nate would have told her that she sounded like a washing powder advert. More importantly though he was extremely glad that after this, he would never have to see another Spartoi again. He had seen way too many of them.
Elena looked grim, she too was more than relieved to know that no one would be growing their own Spartoi in the future but what worried her now was what would happen to the Spartoi who were left. She turned her attention back to the fight, hoping that they would soon dispatch each other.
The Spartoi brawled a little longer till the slapping Spartoi gained an upper hand and ended the fight by thrusting its hand inside the other's chest and ripping out what could be called a Spartoi heart. It's inhuman roar filled the clearing. Birds took flight. Tortoises withdrew their heads back into their shells.
The occupants of the helicopter were silent.
'Oh dear,' Chloe said finally after the Spartoi had disintegrated into a fine mist.
Nate gulped, this was what they were hoping wouldn't happen.
A victor. A survivor.
Now they had to deal with a Spartoi. Nate sighed, at least one Spartoi was better than twenty.
He was just about to say something when Barry pointed to the far edge of the clearing, past the roaring champion Spartoi. Something was moving.
On wheels.
'I think that's a Segway,' he said worriedly. Nate's hopes of Phil being dead were dashed. Even the Segway had survived.
Miguel made the connections quicker than anyone else.
'He's heading for the rocky ramp,' he said calmly.
Nate gauged the distance between them and Phil's speeding Segway. He could make out the portly man now, hunched over in determination, knowing that if he didn't make it this time he would probably die. Nate had also noticed that Tariq had lowered the helicopter enough for a plot device like a rocky ramp to actually work.
'Will he make it?' Sully asked. He wasn't exactly sure what Phil wanted to achieve here. It would be impossible to land the Segway into the helicopter cabin. That was just crazy. The only way Sully could think of this working out for Phil was if he achieved the right height and quickly jumped across to the helicopter and the chances of a one-legged man doing this were extremely thin.
'He had better bloody not,' Chloe grunted and taking a pistol from under her seat, fired a few rounds at Phil. She had no illusions as to what Phil wanted to do. He was on a suicide mission in which he would fly into the chopper rotors and bring them all down to a fiery inferno of a death. And if they somehow survived this then the remaining Spartoi would quickly remedy the situation.
The Spartoi caught sight of Phil and lumbered after him.
Tariq grappled with the controls of the helicopter in an effort to initiate a hurried ascent.
'Holy crap,' Sully said as the wheels of Segway hit the ramp, 'I think he's gonna do it!'
Elena saw it before any of the others did and grabbed Nate's arm to get his attention. The Spartoi had been fast. Unnaturally so. It leapt into the air; an arm outstretched. A giant hand closed around the villain and his Segway.
Just before the Spartoi could subject Phil to its crushing death grip, the man in question jumped down from the motor powered movement machine in the hope that the drop would be a quicker death than what the Spartoi was offering.
The Spartoi landed and opened its hand. It stared at the twisted, crumpled and slightly smoking metal sitting on his palm. There was no human.
The Spartoi growled and threw the scraps at the suspicious hovering contraption above him.
'Oh shit,' Ted muttered as the heroes simultaneously calculated the flight path of the Segway remains.
'Indeed,' Miguel said solemnly.
Tariq jerked the helicopter's joystick to no avail. It was too little too late.
The sound of the Segway screeching against the helicopter rotors was burned into Chloe's memory for life. Although she suspected she didn't have much of it left now in which to remember it.
There was a shower of sparks. A rotor blade snapped and span off into the forest, shearing any greenery it came into contact with. Smoke filled the cabin.
Tariq fought to keep control but it was a wasted effort.
The helicopter dipped to the left, swung perilously, started to spin. The lights dimmed only to be replaced by a flashing red one. An alarm went off. The type that told you everything was going wrong so you had better start saying your payers.
'We have to jump!' Nate shouted to the others, he had already undone his harness and had to hold onto the cabin wall to stop himself from falling out the open cabin as the helicopter rolled.
Sully gaped, 'What?'
'You heard me,' Nate replied, 'we gotta jump.'
'This is madness,' the older man grumbled but did what Nate had told him and unbuckled the only safety device on the helicopter.
This suited Miguel just fine and with a cheery salute, leapt out of the craft.
Sully watched him go. It was a long way down but survivable.
Maybe.
Barry spied a couple of trees that he wouldn't have minded landing in. He closed his eyes, held his nose and dropped out of the burning vehicle.
'He knows this isn't the sea, right?' Chloe asked, hardly noticing that Ted had undone her harness and was practically dragging her to the edge of the cabin.
'Yeah, he'll be fine, probably worried about bugs going up his nose or something,' Ted said but he was only really concerned with Chloe getting out safely. He stared out at the dizzying image before him. The helicopter was determined to hit the ground and there wasn't much time before it would do just that.
The problem was the spinning. It basically meant that you were flung out in any old direction. Ted didn't like this. He liked knowing where he was going to land.
Chloe tugged at his hand and he looked at her, a little surprised. Chloe read his mind and glared at him.
'I'm doing this with the mind-set that we're going to die. I think I'll allow some hand holding,' she shouted at him. She looked at the ground, swallowed and then turned back to Ted who squeezed her hand.
They jumped. Chloe screaming her lungs out and Ted with a smile.
Nate told Elena to jump.
'Aren't we doing this together?' she yelled over the sound of imminent death.
'You go. I'm going to help Tariq and the pilot so they can make it out too,' Nate replied.
Elena wanted to argue. Nate could see this and wasn't having any of it. They were half a minute or so away from dying in an explosion. Nate just wanted Elena to be safe, or what he hoped was safe. There wasn't really a safe way when all your options comprised of jumping out of a burning helicopter.
Before she could say anything, Nate pushed her. Elena looked stunned for a moment and then she was gone. Falling from the helicopter and all Nate could do was watch.
He shook his head and squeezed himself into the cockpit. Tariq gave him an incredulous stare.
'What are you doing here?' he shouted angrily, 'Why haven't you jumped yet?'
Nate grabbed the controls so Tariq could unstrap his harness too. 'I stayed to make sure you got out too.'
Tariq roughly pushed Nate to the cabin. He was grateful but it was his job to make sure people were safe. The man had just become a father and had a woman who loved him. Tariq would be damned if this man was going to die just because he tried to save him. It was his fault he had held the helicopter so low.
It seemed that the powers that be didn't want any of the remaining occupants to leave the helicopter because at that moment in time the helicopter crashed into the Spartoi.
If Miguel was conscious and able to see, he would have been satisfied with the explosion that followed.
…
Chloe opened her eyes with a wince.
The view held a startlingly blue sky and a rich green forest.
As far as she could tell she was just in the forestry that surrounded the clearing. She had somehow ended up in a tree; draped across some branches like clothes on an airer. It was certainly a better way to land than Ted, who was lying on the ground meters beneath her.
Chloe's eyes followed a trail of broken foliage from where she was now sitting to where Ted was lying. It looked as if he had landed in the same place but had the unfortunate luck of breaking everything he came into contact with and plummeting to the floor.
A quick examination told Chloe that she hadn't broken any bones and was once again ridiculously lucky. She wondered why it never seemed to rub off on Ted who was lying very still.
It was the sort of stillness that made you think the worse.
Chloe swore quietly and negotiated her way down the tree as quickly as possible. She jumped the last few feet, dropped to Ted's side and turned him on his back.
His eyes were closed. There wasn't any blood and his limbs weren't bent at impossible angles. He also didn't look to be breathing which Chloe supposed was the bigger issue.
She said his name, slapped his face.
It didn't do a thing.
A mild panic stole over Chloe at that point. What if he never woke up? A sick feeling started to rise inside of her. Fear mushed in with a bit of alarm exaggerated her grim thoughts and suppressed rational thought.
Dead.
He could not be dead.
Chloe shook Ted by the shoulders. Nothing happened. His arm flopped to the side. It was not the sort of movement she was hoping for.
'Wake up,' she muttered, trying to tamp down the dread slowly filling her up.
She sat back and stared at the man lying in front of her with wet eyes.
Any moment now.
Any moment now Ted's eyes would fly open, he'd sit up look at her and then worry about how she was and then say something along the lines of 'why don't you ever give me any sympathy?' and then she would say something sarcastic back to him and then he'd mope and then later she'd make it up to him because this time he had really scared her…
Any moment now.
…
Miguel was aware that there was something heavy on top of him. It was approximate size and weight of a British person.
With a push and shove he heaved the thing off him and sat up painfully. It looked like he had landed safely and then a man had dropped on him.
Miguel and Barry were at the edge of the clearing. In the middle was a smoking pile of metal that made up the remains of the helicopter. Here and there small fires burned merrily. Bits of scrap metal were dotted around the place.
Miguel noticed that there seemed to be a distinct lack of Spartoi. That was always a reassuring sign.
Barry came to and lifted himself gingerly off the ground.
'Bloody hell,' he grumbled and rubbed the back of his head, 'What's going on here then?' he added when he noticed Miguel was with him.
'I believe that the last Spartoi has been destroyed by the helicopter crashing into it. We are currently split up from our friends. I don't know where they are. It is also possible that Phil has survived although I haven't seen him yet.'
Barry was silent for a moment. He hadn't spent much time with the Ugandan but he had been told that he was a certifiable loony. This didn't seem to be the case at all. He seemed to be totally focussed and sane.
'That's a pretty good summary, cheers. The others told me you were crazy; I was kind of expecting a wild story about us being on another planet or something,' Barry said.
'Oh,' Miguel said with a downcast look, 'I was just about to get to that part.'
To avoid the awkward silence that was inevitable, Barry made a suggestion.
'Why don't we go look for the others?'
Miguel looked around, 'I hope they landed on the same planet as us.'
Barry was silent for a moment and then walked off.
Miguel followed with a grin.
A few moments later Barry thought he saw a flash of red through the greenery. Hadn't Chloe been wearing one of those red t-shirts?
He motioned to Miguel and the two crashed through the thin barrier of trees.
Barry and Miguel made a quick assessment of the situation.
Miguel saw a nearly crying Chloe and a very still Ted and burst into tears on the spot. Barry saw the same thing but thought he should try and help in some way.
He hurried over to Chloe and dropped to the ground.
'Is he…?' Barry motioned to Ted's prone form.
Chloe watched him with an emotionless gaze and Barry turned to Ted. He reached out and pulled down the man's collar. Pressed his fingers against Ted's neck. Found a pulse. Weak.
Barry looked at Chloe.
'Y'know he's got a pulse, right?'
Chloe stared at him, 'What?' she managed to say thickly.
'Ted's not dead. I can feel his pulse,' Barry said.
There was a moment of calm where Chloe kicked herself for thinking the worse and Barry congratulated himself on his medical knowledge.
'Um, are you ok?' he asked Chloe. Her face had darkened. She looked a little angry. Barry hoped it wasn't directed at him.
'I'm fine,' she said replied flatly and looked at Miguel who was still crying, 'It's ok. He's not dead.'
Miguel stopped instantly and resumed normal functioning, 'Oh, that's good then.'
Chloe shook her head and looked at Ted's face. Crap. This man had altered her common sense. That could never be a good thing. Her head still hurt from her encounter with the fast flowing river. It was still bleeding. Ted hadn't fared much better. He'd been in a car crash and was probably concussed to pieces. Now he was unconscious on a forest floor. Chloe was realised that this was a getting to be a bit too much for her.
Before her thoughts could gather any more momentum, Ted moved. He wasn't awake but he was getting there.
Chloe stood on shaky legs.
'I'm going to look for the others,' she said, she had to get away from Ted.
'I'll come with you,' Miguel said seriously. Barry looked at the Ted.
'I guess, I'll stay with him,' he said. Chloe gave him a grateful nod and hurried off.
Miguel followed closely.
…
Elena blinked groggily.
She was looking at the sky. It was bright blue and cloudless although there were streaks of smoke billowing in from somewhere.
As Elena tried to piece together what happened, she sat up. Her body protested.
Ah yes, Nate had pushed her. They would be having words about that later. He had a son now, his priorities revolved around staying alive to be a father. Selfish as it was. But then Elena saw him lying on the grass.
Nate.
Not moving.
Something took over. Elena picked herself up off the muddy ground and stumbled towards the man she loved. Her head swam but she kept going.
Someone was going to get there faster though.
They ran with a strange gait. As if one of their legs was really stiff or made of plastic.
It was Phil. He had attached the fake leg from the Segway to his own. He was also using the crutch. The crutch with a knife in it.
Elena did not like where this was going. A pistol lay under a piece of blackened metal. She picked it up, checked the rounds automatically and staggered onwards.
Phil loomed over Nate with a grin.
Elena saw Nate stir. Phil hefted the crutch. Held it like a spear.
The blade was shiny.
…
Nate's vision was blurred but as it came into focus, he rather wished it hadn't because it was filled with Phil.
Muddy, bloody, fat, Phil.
Nate really wondered what sort of cockroach species Phil belonged to. The man didn't seem to understand the concept of death when it was applied to him.
Something moved, glinting in the sunlight.
Nate inwardly groaned. A knife. His body was not in any condition to fight back. It had just survived an exploding helicopter crash and was now utterly useless to face this new threat.
His ribs were on fire. His hand refused to move.
It was all he could do to watch the blade coming towards him.
…
Elena barrelled into Phil just as his arm began to speed forward; knife at the ready.
There was a satisfying thud as she made contact. Phil staggered off to the side but managed not to fall over.
Elena had recovered first though and slammed the butt of her gun across his face in a fluid motion. Blood sprayed from his mouth.
This time Phil did go down but as he did he swept wide with the crutch and knocked Elena's legs from under her. She hit the grass heavily.
Phil sat up and worked his jaw from side to side. Spat out a tooth. He didn't have chance to do anything before Elena was on him. She yanked him up by his collar and punched him.
Pain shot through her knuckles but she couldn't help herself. It felt so damn good. It shouldn't have but it did. She wasn't one for mindless violence but there was something about this man that brought out the very worst in her.
She punched him again, more out of frustration than anything else. She felt helpless. One part of her wanted to continue and the other wanted her to stop before it was too late. Before she did something that she would regret.
She couldn't kill a disabled unarmed fat man…could she?
All the people Phil had hurt. He had gotten away with it all. Chloe, Ted, Sully…Nate…her son…her little baby boy with no name and hands so small they couldn't even hold one of her own fingers
A mere beating didn't seem like enough.
Blood dripped from Phil's mouth, one of his eyes was swollen shut but he still had the audacity to smile at her. His watery blue eye held her gaze, amused. Taunting.
As if he knew…knew she couldn't do it.
It was a smug grin on a smug face.
She grunted and threw him to the floor. Stood up and pointed the gun at his face. Her hand shook a little but her face was determined.
Phil's smile dimmed a fraction.
He opened his mouth to speak but Elena cut him off.
'Don't you say a word. Don't you dare say a fucking word,' Elena warned and gestured with the gun. Was that her speaking? Where had that rage come from? This couldn't be her. She always kept her cool. Who was this person?
Phil spat at her. Daring her to do her worst.
Before she could do something rash, Sully was there. Talking her down and taking the gun away from her.
'Elena, he's not worth it,' Sully said. He had come to only a few moments before but had landed in an area where it was easy to see what was going on in the clearing. As soon as he saw Elena point the gun at Phil he knew it was time to intervene.
When he had disarmed Elena, Sully turned to look at Nate. He looked to be unconscious. To take her mind off the villain in front of her, Sully pointed this out.
'Check on Nate. I'll take care of this guy.'
Elena looked at the older man. His face had taken on a waxy pallor after the many ordeals they had been through. Spartoi chases, rocky ramps, burning helicopters. Hair dishevelled and more white than grey, Elena had never been more grateful for a friend like him. She looked past him for a moment to where Phil was lying and shook her head. Sully was probably the only reason she hadn't shot the guy already.
Elena let her mind reorganise itself. Phil wasn't the issue here. It was Nate. She needed to be with Nate. He was hurt, badly.
'Thanks,' she said to Sully. She hoped that Sully felt the meaning that went behind it. There was a lot of it.
'I'm just doing my job,' Sully said with a shrug. He had no intention of letting her know how worried he was.
Elena nodded and went to Nate.
Sully turned back to Phil and trained the gun on him. Anger coursed his system. This man had been moments away from killing the one good thing he had done in his crappy life. Nate was like a son to him and Sully knew in his heart that he had done good by him, despite teaching him the ways of criminality. Nate had achieved things in his life. Things he may not have had the chance to do. He had a family. A son and a woman to love. Sully thought it was strange that Phil had managed to endanger everything. The only things he cared about in life and this miserable excuse for a man had threatened them all.
Sully was prepared to put a bullet in this man's head there and then.
'Now, don't you move a muscle,' he said to Phil quietly, 'and I promise this will be over quickly.'
…
Tariq rolled onto his back.
His head hurt. His ears rang.
He wondered if he could apply for worker's compensation. He had probably done more work in this day than his fifteen years on the police force. He also felt the fifteen years on the police force. Too much sitting at a desk and not enough running about chasing rotund villains on supernatural missions. Maybe he should think about retiring.
Tariq picked himself up off the muddy ground and watched the smouldering wreck of the helicopter, wondering how he would explain this to his commander.
His beret fluttered on a snapped rotor blade. Tariq picked it up and jammed it on his head. A hand poked out of a pile of charred metal. It seemed that the pilot hadn't made it. Tariq swore. Too many people had died today. This was going probably going to be the hardest thing to explain.
Somehow a radio had survived the explosion and was squawking at his feet. Tariq took it and then yelled in Turkish for a while. It made him feel better. Damn foreigners bringing all their foreign villains and their foreign monsters…
There was silence on the other side of the radio, while his men probably drew straws on who was going to speak next. Eventually somebody spoke.
Tariq listened to the news with a sinking heart. He closed his eyes and said a prayer for all the good it would do. He replied slowly, the reply came after a while.
Tariq grunted, satisfied, and set off to search for survivors.
…
Nate floated back to consciousness with a coppery taste in his mouth. Blood.
With a pained grunt he managed to open his eyes. He hoped this time the view that greeted him was something better than Phil. He didn't think he could take that again.
Surprisingly, Nate was in luck and his vision cleared to reveal a very worried Elena sitting beside him.
As soon as she realised he was awake, she threw her arms around him in a blur of warmth and tears.
Nate would have enjoyed this more had he not possessed a chest of broken ribs.
'Uh, Elena, my ribs are broken,' Nate said through the haze of pain that had descended upon him as he woke up fully.
Elena went very still and then suddenly let go of him.
'I'm sorry. I didn't know,' she said quickly, and then struck him across the face.
Nate wondered what he had done wrong now. Shouldn't she be happy he was alive and all that?
'That's for pushing me out of a burning helicopter,' she said angrily.
Oh, Nate thought, when she put it like that it did sound a little dodgy but he had a good reason.
'It was the only way,' he explained, 'I just wanted you to be safe.'
Elena wanted to give him a sarcastic come back but stopped herself.
'That may be so,' she said, 'but you need to stop being the hero all the time. The others can take care of themselves too. We have a son. You need to concentrate on surviving. I know it's selfish but it's the truth.'
Nate was quiet for a moment. He saw the sense in this. He really did but he couldn't just let his friends die.
'I'm sorry,' he mumbled because he didn't know how else to reply. Elena was worried about him, how could she not be? Nate grunted. This was too complicated to be thinking about now.
Elena sighed heavily and sat back. She looked down at her hands, deep in thought.
'It doesn't matter,' she said, 'I want to be angry with you but I can't do it. You're alive and that's all that matters.'
Nate sat up and took one of Elena's hands in his good one.
'I just want to go home,' she said finally.
Nate went still.
Elena had looked so small and tired when she said that. Vulnerable and defeated. It dawned on Nate that this whole adventure would dwell on her mind for a long time. It had affected her in ways he couldn't even comprehend. It was traumatising. She'd had a complicated labour, her new-born sick son had been kidnapped, the man she loved was nowhere to be seen and when she did finally reunite with him, he had gone off to save the world and left her behind and then to top things off the man had pushed her out of a helicopter to save other people and then been the subject of an epic explosion.
The fact that he had survived didn't mean much when he lived a life where the next life or death situation was just around the corner. The odds wouldn't always be on his side.
Nate realised when he pushed her out of the helicopter that it looked like his priorities weren't in the right place. Nate grunted at Elena's lost look. He had done that.
Reduced her to tears.
It didn't take more than a tug to pull Elena towards him. Who cared if his ribs were broken? He held her close and tight, savouring the moment.
'I'm sorry,' he said and meant it. If he could, he would have picked her up then and there and carried her all the way home. Nothing would have been able to stop him.
Not a Spartoi. Not twenty.
Not even Phil.
…
Chloe and Barry reached Sully.
He looked at them both.
'I won't be a minute,' he said and Chloe raised an eyebrow. Cold blooded murder? Hmmm, maybe she had arrived at the right time. No doubt Phil deserved the worst but somehow Chloe didn't think shooting a defenceless man was really the way forward. Especially, she thought as she saw Tariq approaching, when the police were watching.
'Uh, Sully, the police guy is here,' she said. Sully turned and swore.
'Just let me shoot the guy,' he said to Tariq.
Tariq looked at Phil and then back to Sully.
'Ok, but you'll have to wait until I've shot him first,' the policeman said, taking a pistol from his ankle holster and pointing it at Phil.
'Aren't you meant to stop this sort of stuff?' Chloe asked Tariq. The man sighed.
'It's self-defence,' he replied flatly.
'Chloe, don't try to save the guy. He's scum,' Sully said, annoyed. Chloe looked at the pathetic heap on the floor and thought about all the bad things he had done.
She picked up the lethal crutch weapon, 'Well, I suppose he did shoot me in the leg.'
Miguel stood there, he was getting the feeling that he too should want to kill Phil for some reason. It didn't take long to pick one, there was a whole list.
He needed a weapon though. Dropping to a knee he tugged at Phil's leg.
'Yes, this man, he is very bad. He put you guys through so much. I will kill him with his own fake leg,' Miguel said.
Chloe gave him a deadpan look, 'You're trying to take off his real leg.'
Miguel looked at what he was doing and quickly remedied his mistake. The leg came loose and he brandished it in a threatening way. This was fairly hard to do with a fake leg and Chloe had to give him points since he did a fairly good job of it.
From out of nowhere and possibly a little unnecessarily at this point, Ted joined the fray. He was holding a broken rotor blade like a sword. Chloe and the others looked at him. He was good guy Ted. He didn't kill defenceless people.
'What?' he said, noticing the looks he was getting, 'he shot Chloe in the leg. I'm allowed.'
Sully grunted, but didn't say anything to stop him.
Barry caught up with them and gave an apologetic smile to Chloe.
'Sorry,' he said, 'he just ran off as soon as I told him where you had gone.'
He noticed that everyone had some sort of weapon and were pointing them at Phil.
'Oh,' he said jovially, 'are we killing Phil now? Anyone got a spare weapon?'
Miguel looked around, 'I think there's a rock over there.'
Barry went to fetch it. Chloe wondered if this was really happening. It was surreal, to say the least. Were they really going to kill this man? Weren't there a few too many of them? The word 'overkill' came to mind. And this wasn't even the final number.
Nate and Elena approached them.
Chloe rolled her eyes. Not more people. This was getting silly.
Nate eyed them, 'Don't you think there are too many of you? It only takes a bullet.'
'Well, I'm not that bothered who does it but some of these guys really want him dead,' Chloe said, throwing down the crutch.
Barry dropped the rock, 'Thank god, I don't think I could've done it.'
Miguel looked at the leg he was holding and then set it on the floor carefully.
Ted, Sully and Tariq failed to lower their weapons.
They all wanted to kill Phil rather badly.
'So, how's this going to work?' Ted said slowly, 'Rock, paper, scissors?'
Chloe tried to appeal to Nate's morals.
'Please, stop this. They'll listen to you,' she said, 'they're being stupid.'
Nate considered this and walked to where the three men were standing, weapons at the ready.
'This man has tried to kill all of us multiple times. He shot you in the leg. He kidnapped my son,' Nate said.
Sully watched Nate, 'I'm doing this for you, kid.'
'This man is a criminal,' Tariq said without emotion, 'he has killed countless people and my men with the plans to hurt even more.'
Ted was silent, not because he didn't have anything to say, it was just that he couldn't articulate them very well. Phil was bad. That's all there was to it. Having worked for the man Ted was pretty sure he knew what he was doing. This man would never stop being evil till someone stopped him. Permanently. And he had hurt Chloe too.
Phil watched the heroes with interest.
If they had any sense at all they would have shot him in the head a while ago. Phil was planning. True, the plan he had formulated was based mainly on sheer dumb luck but it was a plan nonetheless. The main component was to stay alive. This wasn't very hard since the people who were going to kill him were having troubles working out how they were going to go about this.
Phil now had something he could work with.
Time.
With stealthy fingers, he reached for the prosthetic leg.
The burning wreck of the helicopter shifted, sending a shower of sparks skywards. Nate eyed it nervously, distracted for a moment.
He wanted Phil dead. Just thinking about the man made him angry. Not just angry but violent.
Beside him Chloe and the others argued about what to do with the man who had brought them all here. If anyone should end this it should be him. That was much clear. Nate just wasn't sure how.
He closed his eyes for a moment and felt the warmth of the flames on his face. A puddle of dread had settled in his stomach. Nate knew he could kill people. He had done it before. Many times. The conditions under which he killed people though had always been the same though. Self-defence. Not once had he killed for the fun of it. To watch a man's life drain away, that wasn't enjoyable, it wasn't a privilege. It was a last resort.
No, he couldn't just kill Phil. The man deserved the worst but it wouldn't be what he eventually got. Nate reasoned that killing Phil in cold blood made him no different from the bad guys. He had to cling on to that small patch of moral high ground he still possessed.
When Nate finally opened his eyes again he realised that the others had stopped talking. They were all looking at him, waiting for his input.
Nate looked at Phil who had managed to crawl a fair distance. Without saying anything, Nate walked up to him slowly, his body wouldn't allow anything faster but that suited him just fine. He wanted Phil to see him coming. Wanted him to think of all the painful ways he could meet his end.
Phil stopped crawling when Nate finally caught up with him. They were just out of earshot from the others who had hung back. The villain held Nate's gaze.
'You can't kill a defenceless man,' Phil murmured. Nate's jaw clenched.
'No. I can't,' he replied and Phil smiled.
'Don't smile. Just because I won't kill you like this doesn't mean it isn't going to happen at all,' Nate said quietly.
Phil's smile widened and he looked past the injured man to the group of people standing by the helicopter.
'So you're going to let them deal with me?' Phil asked, his voice mocking, 'They're worse than you are. A bunch of spineless idiots.'
Nate turned to look at his friends and then back to Phil again, his face emotionless, 'I didn't say that.'
Phil's smile dimmed a little. Nate's demeanour was rather unnerving. He was way too calm. It was then that Phil realised he only had a short amount of time in which to act. He clenched his fists and propped himself up on them.
'Do your worst, Drake. Do your worst.'
Nate's felt his hands twitch. They wanted to kill. They wanted to wrap around the man's flabby neck and choke the very life out of him. It took every fibre of Nate's being to stop himself from doing it. It would have been so easy. His mouth was dry, his ribs creaked with every breath, his hand dripped crimson. He was so tired.
Nate realised he was swaying. He had been very close to blacking out then and there. Phil monopolised on this zoning out and swung out a fist.
While everyone else had been busy arguing, as he had crawled away, Phil had felt a prickle on his fingers. Small pieces of sharpened crystal were scattered across the muddied grass. He had collected quite a few, biding his time and now he threw them at Nate. His aim was true and the tiny missiles peppered the hero's face, catching him by surprise.
Nate turned away with a yell and brought his hands to swipe away the teeth. The crystal drew blood as they scraped against skin. Staggering a few steps, Nate blinked rapidly, his face stung but he could just make out Phil who was limping away with surprising agility. He heard shouting behind him and knew that his friends had seen what had happened.
Nate watched the overweight man run. He still thought he could get away. After he had lost everything. There was no way for him to win this yet he still ran.
Something snapped. Nate let the rage fill him up. Let it take over. He ran.
Phil had just reached the forest line when Nate tackled him to the ground.
They both went down in cloud of dirt. Phil recovered first on the account on being slightly less injured. He brought his one real knee into Nate's gut and took satisfaction in watching the other man grunt and collapse onto the ground. Knowing full well where Nate had been injured, Phil body slammed the man on the ground, letting his full weight knock the breath out of his body. Nate screamed.
Phil didn't waste any time and got up quickly and stumbled into the forest. Nate rolled onto his side and panted heavily. Hazy spots encroached on his vision. Nausea bubbled away. This morning's breakfast threatened to make a comeback. But riding out above it all was the rage. Still there, still strong.
Nate cradled his injured hand and managed to get to his feet. He needed to hurry before Phil got lost in the endless greenery.
Without looking back he followed the villain.
…
Elena watched Nate disappear into the forest. She sped up but Tariq held her back.
'You can't go in there. It's too dangerous.'
Elena struggled in his grip, 'I need to help Nate! He's injured. We have to stop Phil.'
'What the hell are you doing?' Sully asked the policeman, this wasn't the time to be discussing this. Nate needed their help. Ted and the others slowed and stared at Tariq.
'There's something I haven't told you,' Tariq said.
'Well, it had better be good,' Sully said angrily. They were losing valuable time.
'Phil brought a Spartoi with him. While we were in the helicopter my men found an empty electrified cage…' Tariq let the sentence hang.
Chloe turned to the forest in front of them, 'So, you're saying that there could be a Spartoi running around the island?'
'Yes.'
'We just can't catch a break, can we?' Barry muttered, 'Do you have any idea where the thing went?'
'My men are trying to track its movements. Their preliminary findings pointed to it moving towards us. From that direction,' Tariq said and pointed calmly to where Nate and Phil had just run.
'For crap's sake,' Ted muttered.
…
Nate knew he had lost Phil. He kept running anyway.
The thought of letting that man get away fuelling him on. Something moved up ahead and Nate quickened his pace.
He thought he saw Phil moving between the foliage.
The light faded. Nate slowed. His mind reeled with this new information. There were only a few things that could cause this.
No. It couldn't be.
There were dead. All the Spartoi were dead. He had seen them kill each other.
What the hell was wrong with him? No one had this kind of luck.
There was a short scream somewhere to Nate's left. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
The shadows deepened. It was quiet.
Nate knew he could turn back. He could run away.
But he didn't.
…
Phil staggered over the uneven terrain. His breaths were short and laboured. A pain in his chest told him he was a few beats away from a full on heart-attack.
He had to keep moving. He needed to get back to the shore. Find a boat. Find anything to get him off this island.
So single-minded was he in his goal that once again Phil took no notice of fog that had gathered.
He really needed to pay attention to his surroundings.
The ground trembled. Phil lost his footing and hit the ground hard.
Phil could have sworn he felt the shadow fall over him.
He turned around slowly to find a pair of bottomless red eyes staring at him.
It would be one of the last things that the overweight villain called Phil would ever see.
…
Nate crashed through the undergrowth.
The last Spartoi on earth turned to Nate and bellowed. It was holding something in its hand. Without warning it flung it at the hero. Nate dived to the side and baulked at the thudding sound that Phil's lifeless body made as it hit the ground.
The watery blue eyes were glassy, unseeing. The head lolled on its snapped neck.
Nate should have been happy but he just felt sick. Physically and mentally. He also didn't have much time to dwell on these things. The Spartoi had been cooped up for too long. It was enjoying itself.
It lumbered towards Nate.
Nate could just about bring himself to sit up. The rage had dissipated. His energy source was gone. Pain and exhaustion held claim to his body. He was going to die here with Phil on this stupid island with its stupid Spartoi and its stupid jawbones and stupid teeth.
It was all so…pointless.
Nate could think of nothing more than wanting to see Elena and his son. Nothing else mattered. He watched numbly as the Spartoi reached out.
Something crashed through the canopy of trees.
It fell directly onto the Spartoi.
The hand that had been reaching out for Nate was now behind thick bars of metal. Sparks crackled along the metal as the Spartoi came into contact with it.
A cage.
Someone had dropped a cage onto the Spartoi.
Nate peered upwards to see a helicopter hovering way above the trees.
He was saved.
Normally, Nate would have shouted or whooped for good measure but the day's events had finally caught up with him and instead he fell into a well-deserved slumber.
…
It was the ending that everyone had hoped for. The good guys were safe. The bad guys were dead. True, people had got more beat up than usual but all in all not a bad job.
The helicopter touched down at a Turkish port.
Tariq had ordered that the caged Spartoi be dropped into the sea. The world would not be bothered by such creatures again. This was a small comfort to the policeman who knew he would see them in his nightmares.
Nate, still unconscious, was wheeled into a waiting ambulance. Elena went with him.
Sully watched the vehicle leave. Words couldn't describe how relieved he was. Nate was ok. Sure, there were a few broken bones but nothing that couldn't be fixed. He would have liked to go with them but he supposed he should give them some privacy. He was sure they had things to talk about. They were a family now.
It felt weird. In all honesty he felt a bit useless.
He didn't have much time to think about this further as a rather persistent paramedic had arrived and was trying to treat his various cuts and bruises.
Ted was sitting on a stretcher; he let someone shine a light in his eyes but pushed them away when he saw Chloe standing alone. She was staring thoughtfully at the sea.
Ted jumped down and wandered over.
'What is happening here?' he asked her. There was a moment's hesitation. A pause where someone was thinking very hard about what they were going to say next.
'I'm leaving,' Chloe said finally. Ted looked at her, the disbelief clear on his face.
'And I'm going with you?' he said hopefully but he could see the truth in her eyes.
'I'm sorry, Ted.'
It occurred to Ted that he had been waiting for this moment for a very long time. This was the moment where Chloe would speak her feelings. He was pretty sure it involved a very green hilly field and him and Chloe on opposite ends running towards each other in the blissful haze of sunshine and love.
It was definitely not meant to be like this.
Ted's face grew serious, 'I can't change your mind?'
'No.'
'Can I at least ask why then?'
Chloe was silent for a moment, 'I like you too much. To the point where I might think the word 'love' might be involved.'
'If you like me and I like you then I don't really see a problem here,' Ted said and this wasn't an unreasonable assumption.
Chloe wore a tired smile, 'Yes. Normally, that would be enough. But this situation isn't normal. I like adventures. Adventures aren't conducive to relationships. Back there in the thick of it, something clicked. The worry, it eats me up. You meddle with my head, the way I think. In the lives we lead, it wouldn't be unheard of to get hurt, or worse. I don't think I can cope with that. I can just about take care of myself. If something happened to you….I can't change who I am…'
Chloe trailed off wondering if she had made any sense. It just seemed that everything she had bottled up was making a comeback. She looked off to the side and downwards. Anywhere was better than seeing the broken expression on Ted's face. Why'd she have to go muck everything up? At that time Chloe couldn't have thought of a time where she had felt more self-loathing.
That was the thing when you were mean to Ted. You ended up feeling bad. He was too nice…too good. He deserved someone better than her. A person who was selfish enough to look out for number one only. Herself.
Ted proved his niceness once again which didn't do much for Chloe's hatred of herself. He reached out with a hand and touched her cheek, turning her head so that she was looking at him.
'Ok. Go. If this is truly how you feel then you shouldn't feel bad.'
Chloe wanted to choke. 'Who said I was feeling bad?'
Ted laughed, 'It's written all over your face.'
'Ah.'
The fact that Ted was smiling made Chloe feel worse. She felt like she had to explain herself, which wasn't something she really did.
'I feel like I've strung you along all this time,' she muttered.
'Well, you have,' Ted said, 'but I happily let you so don't worry about me. It's only my heart you've crushed and trampled on.'
Chloe narrowed her eyes, 'You're not making this any easier.'
'Good,' Ted said, he suddenly felt irritated for some reason, 'Surprisingly, I don't want you to go.'
Chloe felt a little taken aback by the bite in Ted's voice, but what had she expected. She was telling a man who she liked and who liked her back that she was leaving him for her own selfish reasons. Ted was a good guy but this was pushing the limits.
'I have to,' she said.
Ted was disgruntled, 'Well, don't hang about on my account. Chloe, if you want to go with every fibre of your being then go. I don't have the right to say anything. If you're leaving me half-heartedly then I can try whatever I want to get you to stay. By the look on your face, I'm leaning towards the latter situation. I get the feeling you're doing this out of the misguided notion that I'm asking you to change. I'm not.'
'It's the truth,' Chloe said softly, 'we can't do this. It won't work. We'd worry over each constantly if we kept doing what we wanted. Something would have to change.'
Ted wanted to shake Chloe by the shoulders in an attempt to get some sense into her but manage to control himself, 'I would have liked for us to find that out together. You seem to be convinced that our relationship is doomed.'
There was a moment of awkward silence.
'I'm not going to change my mind, Ted. You deserve better than this,' Chloe said finally.
Ted sighed. This all came down to Chloe not having much faith in herself. He had so much to say but he knew it wouldn't work. And so, against his better judgement, he gave up.
He put both hands on Chloe's shoulders and looked her in the eye.
'Chloe, I love you. You want to go? Go. I won't stop you. But one day…one day you'll see that this is a mistake. You don't have to be alone and you don't have to change. We could have made this work.'
Chloe closed her eyes, waited a beat then opened them again. She removed Ted's hands from her shoulders slowly and walked away.
She didn't look back.
…
'If this isn't the most awkward situation you have been in, raise your hand,' Barry said.
Unsurprisingly, neither Miguel nor Sully did.
Having ditched the dodgy paramedic, Sully and the other two men had helped unload the chopper and were just about thinking of rounding everyone up for a few rounds at the bar when they noticed that Ted and Chloe were talking. Seriously.
'What the heck just happened?' Sully murmured as Chloe walked away. Well, that was just rude. Not even a goodbye.
'Did Ted just get dumped?' Barry went on, 'because if he did then there's no hope for the rest of us.'
'Should we go over there and cheer him up?' Miguel asked, wishing he had brought his guitar with him. Nothing like a good sing along to get the heart mended.
Sully grunted. If this was him, and it had been in the past, he would probably want to be left alone. Not entirely alone though, a supportive Jack Daniel would be there too, as always.
Ted looked a little lost. He looked like he could do with a drink. Or maybe ten.
'Yeah, I think we should,' he said finally and then turned to Miguel, 'but no singing.'
Miguel looked crestfallen.
Ted wandered over with a dazed look about him.
The three over men shifted their feet nervously. None of them wanting to speak first.
'She didn't stay,' Ted said in an almost whisper.
Barry, Miguel and Sully exchanged worried glances.
'Uh, who? Chloe? I had no idea. It's not like we were listening to the whole conversation or anything,' Barry said, trying to sound natural and succeeding in something else completely: making a complete tit of himself.
Sully rolled his eyes. Clearly tact and subtlety meant absolutely nothing to the Brit and so Sully thought he would intervene.
'What do you say to a drink?'
Ted looked at him, 'You don't understand. She didn't stay. That last bit I said. It was a doozy. And she just left. Without saying a thing.'
Sully nodded knowingly, 'Women.'
Ted sighed. Women. Indeed.
'You want to sing a song?' Miguel asked. Sully shot him a look.
'What? I was just asking,' Miguel held up his hands in defence. Ted looked at the man warily.
'I think I'm ok for now,' he replied to Sully's relief.
'Uh, are you alright?' Sully asked. He didn't do this sort of thing. Talk about feelings. It wasn't in his nature. But Ted was a friend so he supposed that he should make the effort to ask.
'I'm fine, Sully,' Ted said, Sully raised an eyebrow for effect, 'seriously, I'm good.'
Barry didn't look convinced by Ted's apparent mood. He was pretty sure Ted was holding everything in and then without a second's notice would just break down into a crying sobbing heap.
'I think,' the British man said, 'we should go to the pub and have a proper lad's night out.'
'I think we should get some food too. I know a good chicken place,' Miguel chipped in.
'Sounds like a plan,' Sully said, a little bit surprised that the other two had suggested something sensible: eat food and then get rip-roaringly drunk.
'So where are we going for food?' Ted asked after a while.
'KFC' Miguel said.
'I didn't know you got those in Turkey,' Barry said conversationally.
Miguel nodded, 'Yeah, but it's not your American one. It's like a knock-off. Started in Egypt or something but has got pretty popular and spread.'
'Hah, I would laugh it was called, 'Kadir's Fried Chicken',' Ted said, remembering the man who had saved his life months ago. A fisherman obsessed with chicken.
'How did you know?' Miguel said, 'The man who founded the franchise is called Kadir.'
There was a stunned silence.
'He's done well for himself,' Barry commented after a while. Sully agreed.
Ted hung back for a moment and let the others gain some distance.
He turned his head, stared at the path Chloe had taken and wondered what to do next with his life. He should probably chase after her but something held him back. Maybe it was the way she had looked at him. She was determined that it wouldn't work. Ted sighed. One day…one day in the future…when his niece wouldn't scream when she saw his face or maybe when Nate finally grew a set and proposed to Elena…maybe then Chloe would decide that being with him wasn't so bad after all.
Ted shook his head at his unshakeable optimism and followed the guys to a knock-off KFC restaurant.
…
Afternoon gave way to evening as the sun sank. The air was thick and humid, filled with the smells of petrol fumes, dust and spice aromas.
In a small hospital a pair of aged ceiling fans creaked as they spun.
Tiny lights flashed and a beep sounded steadily.
In the quiet of the hospital ward, Nate and Elena sat by their son. Content. Yes, Nate was dosed up on painkillers and had enough bandages to potentially mummify someone but that wasn't an issue. The fact that he was going to be fine more than made up for the injuries.
The baby was awake, swaddled in a blanket and lying in a clear plastic box that protected it from the outside environment. The doctors said he was still too small, too weak to be exposed to the world outside for long periods of time. He looked around with wide eyes.
Nate felt a smile creep up his face. His son had looked at him, albeit with an unfocussed look and for about a split second but he had still done it.
Nate wanted to share this momentous news with Elena but when he turned to her, even though she was facing the incubator, she had a far-off look, as if she wasn't quite on planet Earth at the moment. He nudged her with an elbow and she returned with a tired smile.
'Sorry, I was thinking,' she said and turned to the baby. Checking on him. Making sure he was ok. Still a little paranoid that if she closed her eyes for long enough that he wouldn't be there when she opened them.
Nate could see this much and it worried him.
'Uh, you know the baby is going to be fine, right?' he said. Elena didn't reply but pressed her fingers to the plastic barrier that separated her from her child.
'He's so small,' she murmured.
'Yeah,' Nate said.
'He hasn't even got a name,' Elena said.
'We never even thought of one,' Nate said, 'Although, Nate Junior does have a ring to it.'
Elena cast him a baleful look, 'No.'
'Uh…and not Francis?'
'Would you let your son run around with the name Francis? He's going to be bullied,' Elena said.
Nate scowled, 'Nobody's gonna bully my son.'
Elena raised an eyebrow, silently thanking God they didn't have a daughter because Nate would probably have been the one of the most overprotective dads she would ever see. Nate, on the other hand, was glad to see that Elena was cheering up. He put a hand in the glove that was attached to box to allow access to the baby.
Elena watched fondly as the baby tried to hold one of Nate's fingers, the tiny fingers couldn't even wrap around one. And then Nate spoiled it.
She gave him a flat look, 'What was that?'
Nate shrugged, 'What?'
'You just poked him,' Elena said.
Nate grinned, 'His cheeks just looked really chubby and well - hey - it was in a comforting manner.'
The baby mewled and Elena shook her head. She had always wondered what Nate would be as a father. There was no doubt in her mind that he would be a good one. She just wondered about how he would achieve this and it seemed to her that he fell into the category of 'by being a well-meaning idiot'.
She supposed she would have to be the boring parent; the one with all the rules and unwavering bedtimes.
Elena linked her fingers with Nate's and put other her hand in the other glove. The baby stopped its snuffling and Nate glared.
'Huh, I think he likes you more than me,' he muttered.
Here they were, Elena thought, a strange little family.
'It's because you keep poking him,' she replied.
…
Nate sat back. Hours had passed. Elena was dozing peacefully in a chair beside him. His son was sleeping in the incubator, untroubled and…tiny.
After everything he had been through and fought for, he was here. In one piece.
It didn't feel so bad being a dad. When Elena had first told him about the pregnancy, Nate thought that his life was going to be over. That was a little dramatic but he really did think it. Children…children were a lot of responsibility. Then as time passed, he rationalised his thoughts by thinking that he was doing this for Elena. He loved Elena and Elena wanted the child so he could live with that and give her the life she had always wanted.
It was only until very recently that Nate actually finally pieced together his jumbled feelings on the matter. Elena being alone in Turkey. The baby being born without him being there. His son being seriously ill. Phil kidnapping his son before he even had the chance to hold him himself. These past events and their associated emotions all collided together, meeting at that one point on the dock where he had finally done it.
He had held his son, looked in his eyes, saw himself.
Nate had worried about seeing his son. He was worried that he wouldn't bond with him or not feel any connection at all. These doubts were unfounded because when he looked at the tiny baby in the dirty rags, he just knew.
This was his child.
He would do anything to protect him.
Elena leant into him and he put an arm around her. This was the woman that he knew without a doubt he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
It was quiet.
There would be troubles ahead, there always were but somehow it would work out. Nate would make sure they did.
The cosmic forces of the world were telling him that he had a chance. A shot at a real family and life filled with support from the people he loved.
Nate was only too happy to take it.
I apologise to you guys, the readers, for the cheesy end…it was up there with the Stilton
I apologise to Miguel, I was never going to make up something spectacular for a Spartoi's death…
I apologise to Ted who was unfairly treated by Chloe…there was no real reason to do this…I could have just let them be…
I also apologise to Ted for giving him lame dialogue…
You could tell where I had to shove in that Spartoi who had got Phil out of jail lol…
Thanks to Anna Marie Raven who came up with the idea of Kadir opening a chicken restaurant a while back…I managed to get it in lol…
Now that I've written the chapter I feel like most of it is very unnecessary…probably a few of the chapters are as well lol
I asked a friend who had never played the games or read this story how this should end…her version was pretty good…it had a pterodactyl in it…in terms of Uncharted it could have been possible lol…
I have to admit that I never saw this story turning out the way it did…I think when I started out it was meant to be totally about Nate and Elena and the baby situation…very domestic…instead it's totally been owned by a dodgy backstory about dragon bits and bobs and not really to do with Nate and Elena at all…this is what happens when you don't plan stories lol…I spend more time talking about other characters
…
To the people who read some of this, so in reality, aren't seeing this now…thank you…the fact you read a bit of this is awesome
To the people who read this or wrote a review…thank you
Uncharted was one of things that's really good at capturing people's imaginations…the characters, the stories…I was sucked into the games and at the end of the second one I was like…I need more…you can't just leave it there …so I wrote this lol…something to tide me over till the next game…I'm glad people read this and enjoyed it…the fact that this story has got this many reviews is pretty damn cool…
I hope they make a fourth Uncharted game…and I hope it is as good as the last three…I really want to see ninjas
I have rambled way too much…sorry…I'm also acting like I've won a bloody Oscar
I'd be honoured if you guys stuck around for the epilogue lol…it will wrap up Ted's 'One day when blah blah' line and all that
And now for that bit in the middle of the credits that people miss if they're in a cinema and have gone home as soon as the film ended lol…
A hotel bar somewhere in Turkey
Barry cheered as Ted downed another pint of beer.
It wasn't even that late at night but the four men had managed to drink a fair bit between them.
Miguel ordered another round for the table.
'Ok, ok, I got a joke,' he said drunkenly.
This got another cheer from Barry who was the type of drunk likely to cheer at almost anything anyone did or said.
Sully washed down his whisky with another one and shook his head. Young people these days. Christ, he thought, I really am old. With a sigh he ordered another drink.
'What did Ted say when Chloe left him?' Miguel continued.
Barry raised an eyebrow, he may have been drunk but there were limits. Ted stared at Miguel and then drank heavily from the beer that had just been delivered.
'Please save me,' he muttered to Sully.
'No can do, kid. You're on your own. For some reason I want to see where he's going with this,' Sully replied.
'I don't know, Miguel, what did I say when Chloe…left me,' Ted said.
'But you didn't have to cut me off!'
Barry groaned. Ted finished his beer and quickly got another and then paused. What the hell? There was no point in getting angry at the guy. It was kinda true. Ted was getting on in the scale of drunkenness, it was a good thing that he didn't have a phone on him otherwise he would have gone down the classic 'text drunkenly to ex-girlfriend' route.
He raised his glass to Miguel, 'But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough,' he finished the chorus and Miguel clinked glasses with him sloppily.
'Ok ok, I got another,' Miguel said.
Barry looked to Ted, 'Oh no, look you've gone and encouraged him now.'
Ted grinned lopsidedly, 'It's alright, the guy's having fun.'
Sully looked confused, 'I don't get it.'
Barry and Ted looked at him with pity and Sully felt very left out.
'What did Phil's leg say to him when it got amputated?'
'Oh God,' Barry said and shook his head. He was not nearly drunk enough to take this.
'But you didn't have to cut me off!' Ted and Miguel shouted in unison.
Sully raised an eyebrow. Even Ted was joining in.
'Care to fill me in?' Sully asked Barry who was looking rather grim.
Miguel had another joke to share.
'What did Phil say when the Spartoi bent over to kill him?'
Barry and Sully were quiet.
'But you didn't have to stoop so low!'
Ted and Miguel were an unstoppable Gotye force.
'I hope they don't start taking their clothes off,' Barry muttered. Sully choked on his drink.
'What? Why they would they do that?'
Barry turned to the older man; he had found that he had sobered a lot quicker than he would have liked. 'Well, they're using a line from this song and in the music video the man hasn't got any clothes on and he gets painted on.'
'If they start taking their clothes off, I'm leaving,' Sully said.
Barry looked bemused as Miguel tried to open a can of paint that had, for some inexplicable reason, been left next to their table.
'Where the crap did that come from?' Sully asked.
Barry wrestled the tin away from Miguel before anything could happen. 'I don't know,' he said, 'but I do know that there isn't another bar for ages and I am not letting these two get us kicked out.'
Miguel blew a raspberry at Barry and got up unsteadily and struggled over to the bar where he ordered some more drinks.
It was at this point a woman who had been also ordering her drinks caught the attention of an inebriated Miguel.
Barry went a little grey, 'Oh dear, this isn't going to end well. Somebody should stop him.'
Both Ted and Sully looked at their glasses busily and Barry huffed.
'Fine. I guess, I'll do it,' he sighed and got up in time to hear Miguel say something to the woman.
'Hey, I just met you and this is crazy-.'
As Barry dragged the jukebox that was Miguel away from a shocked woman, he got the feeling that it was going to be a very, very long night.
He wasn't wrong.
While I managed to hold back the Avengers referencing I couldn't stop the Gotye ones lol…sorry…the xylophoney bit thing in this song reminds me a lot of ba ba black sheep…
For anyone who doesn't know this song, I apologise because this scene probably didn't make any sense, it's called 'Somebody that I used to know' by Gotye…it used to be played a lot…its comprised of a fair bit of mumbling and then he just shouts 'But you didn't have to cut me off!' etc…
Obviously, I don't own this song or anything…
The other song at the end is called 'Call me maybe' by Carly Rae Jepsen and I definitely have nothing to do with this song lol
…
I apologise for all the spelling and grammar mistakes that I have made throughout this story…there are quite a few
Thanks for being patient
Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy but… you read this story, so review it, maybe?
I couldn't stop myself…since I'm stuck with this song in my head I'm going to try put it in yours too lol
Pfft... mine were fairly lame but if any of you have song puns I'd love to hear them