A/N: Nice, a double update.
One Day Later
Mount Ararat
They had a one-day headstart on them but that was more than enough. Cassie and company drove back to the Priest's house to gather supplies along with the treasure box, which Cassie had put the second piece inside with the first. Since they were heading for the snow, they packed up all their winter gear and rode the mercenaries' plane as close to Mount Ararat as possible. Mount Ararat was a no-fly zone and a military plane flying over would terrify the life out of people below and most likely shoot the plane down.
They found a runway four miles away from Mount Ararat and they landed and walked the rest of the way there.
They found an alternate route to get onto the mountain without going past any guards watching it.
Climbing up the mountain for about a few hours, they decided to make camp near inside a cave.
Tyler and Alec started a fire with firewood they packed with them and heated the place up.
They were all wearing the same type of combat boots, gloves, and snow boots but they were each fitted with a different top. Cassie was wearing a blue and yellow parka while Derek was wearing a blue snow jacket. The Priest and Bethany donned matching heavy snow jackets that were black and white. Tyler and Alec were wearing snow camouflage.
Cassie felt her stomach growl and she held her gloved hands over the fire and she looked at Tyler.
He removed his backpack and pulled out lunch for the day.
Bethany picked up her lunch. "What's an MRE?"
Alec took the bag from her and held it up. "It's a 'Meal, Ready-to-Eat'," he answered. "This is the kind of stuff you would eat on a battlefield or in situations like this." He opens the bag for her. "There's coffee, Gatorade, chocolate, gum, goulash, crackers, everything to get you through the day." He pulled out the FRH. "This is a flameless ration heater that will warm your food up." He began warming up the goulash for her. "These meals were designed to give you the energy to get through the day. Honestly, if I was too lazy to cook, I would go out into my garage and take an out MRE for me to eat. They were mostly MREs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, which was nice. I think I was living off of MREs for two consecutive years one time."
The goulash finished heating up.
He poured it into a bowl he brought with him and handed it over to Bethany.
Bethany had goulash before and eating warm food in this cold weather made her feel all tingly inside. "Thank you," she said with a mouthful of goulash.
"Don't mention it," Alec shrugged off.
"Do you have any nieces or nephews?"
Alec nodded. "I have four siblings. I have two nieces and three nephews altogether."
"How old are they?"
"The oldest is my niece, Lila, she's just turned twenty this year. And then there's..."
Cassie and Derek watched the exchange between Alec and Bethany and chuckled.
"I didn't know Alec had a soft side," Cassie says absentmindedly, "whenever I hear him, he mostly talks about wanting to kill people so to hear him say this..." She cut herself off by taking a spoonful of chicken noodle soup from the bowl in her hands.
"Tyler and Alec are both softies," Derek insisted, "you just have to be comfortable with them."
She nodded. "I'll say."
The Priest stopped himself from taking a bite of a protein bar to look at Tyler.
"You've killed people," he says like he's quoting a statistic. "Do you ever feel guilty?"
Tyler looked at the priest. "Ain't much time to feel guilt in a battlefield. When bullets are flying, you don't think about who the other person is or about their family, only to fire back before you die. The people I've killed back at the warehouse, I feel no remorse for them because they don't deserve it."
"I've killed," the Priest said, "just recently. I blew up a truck. I knew I was supposed to feel bad but I didn't; all I thought about was how easy it was to kill someone to protect my flock. I'm afraid that I'll lose the ability to feel remorse for my enemies."
"I feel remorse for the people I left behind back home. My girlfriend, my son, I stayed away from them to make sure I wouldn't hurt any of them or mistake them for a Taliban."
"Maybe God is helping you out," the Priest suggested. "Maybe God is helping you find the way to protect your flock."
"I don't believe in God."
"Even so, there's a force that helped you move away from your family to protect them." He grabbed Tyler's shoulder. "If you want my advice, however, go back to your family. Physically, you are protecting them but emotionally, you're hurting them."
"I'd rather them be alive and sad at me than dead and happy with me."
"Do you even know if your son is happy you're gone?"
"He's twenty-one," he said. "Last I heard, he went to Las Vegas to celebrate his birthday by gambling and drinking beer. I haven't seen him in so long since I almost killed the family dog." He looked down at his mug of coffee. "I don't belong in society anymore. I can be there for my son and girlfriend but at the end of the day, I can't function. I like to think of them as an island I visit occasionally before heading back to the mainland, ie, the life of a former SEAL." He looked in the Priest's direction but kept his head angled down. "Cherish the fact you have a little one to go home to because once you lose touch with your loved ones, it's goddamn hard to find your way back."
The Priest sneered when he heard the word 'goddamn'.
"Derek?" Cassie called. "Let's talk outside."
Derek nodded before finishing his meal and walking out of the cave with his hands shoved into his pockets.
They walked a dozen feet away from the cave to give themselves some privacy.
Derek sighed heavily and noticed that he could see his breath.
"You invited me out to talk," Derek pointed out, "I hope you hurry up so we can get back inside; I'm eager to heat up the hot chocolate I brought with me."
"I fulfilled my end of the deal," Cassie reminded, "now you fulfill your end of the deal and tell me what you're feeling, right?"
"What?"
"In the church, you promised to tell me why you insulted me at the school and everything you were feeling." She faced her shoulders to his. "You promised on Cousin Niko your ex's lives, and most important of all, you pinky promised." She held up her pinky.
Derek laughed. "Yeah. Okay, I'll tell you what's up."
"What were you feeling in the church?"
Derek sighs before putting his back to the rock wall beside him. He shifted uncomfortably when he felt a rock poke into his spine before he found the words to talk. "I like going on adventures with you, Cassie."
Cassie nodded in acknowledgment. "Yeah, it's fun going on adventures; looking for a lost city, traveling to different countries-"
"I thought you wanted me to talk?"
Cassie shut herself up.
"No," he continued, "I don't like going on adventures for sightseeing of exotic locations. I-" he choked up as he realized what words he was about to spill from his mouth. His face heated up a blush and he closed his eyes in embarrassment.
Damn it, DEREK! he yelled at himself.
"What?" Cassie asked.
Derek choked and squeezed his eyes shut together.
Just say it, Derek shouted to himself. Just say it and get it over with. It's not the end of the world!
He opened his mouth but he cried as he shut his mouth again.
Ah man, why does it feel like finding Noah's Ark WILL cause Judgment Day? Please, Noah, please, I-
"I like hanging out with you, CASSIE!" The words left his mouth faster than his mind could comprehend. His face burned hotter and the cold became non-existent all around him.
Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound.
"I like you, Cassie." He twiddled with his thumbs in his pockets. "I...have...feelings for you."
Cassie's breath left her. "About time you admit it."
Cassie's words fell on deaf ears. "I've wanted to tell you for so long but I'm a gutless weasel."
"Ditto."
Derek still couldn't hear the words. "Looking back, knowing that we go on so many dangerous adventures, that our luck could run out at any second, I felt worse and that every adventure I went on made me full of regret."
"Ditto."
"I feel like- I keep telling myself that I will confess sooner or later but there's an adventure we go on that gets in the way and I tell myself I will confess after but after the shitstorm we go through on a regular, I can't take it anymore. I-"
"Love you."
"Yeah." Derek's mind came back and he snapped his head towards Cassie. "What?"
"I love you," Cassie whispered. "I love you, Derek."
Derek shook his head. "No, I must be dreaming, I-"
"I'm in love with you, Derek." She grabbed his shoulder. "I've been in love with you for a long time; I could tell but I couldn't find the time or words."
Derek looked away. "I don't like killing people, even in self-defense. One of my biggest fears is that I'll become so accustomed to killing people that I'll forget how to love. I'm afraid that one day, I'll kill a surrendering enemy to keep you safe and you'll never love me back. I was mad at you because I was fearful of possibly losing my humanity in this adventure and killing in cold blood." He licked his lips and continued to stare at the ground. "I enjoy going on adventures with you because you're with me but I'm also afraid of losing you emotionally as much as physically."
Cassie touched Derek's chin with her forehead. "I'm sorry, D-Man." She closed her eyes. "I'm so sorry. I am-" She lost the words. "I am an adrenaline junkie... I love the thrill of risks going on this adventure. I have a lot of fun going on adventures like this. Whenever there's an adventure I go on all by myself, I wish that you were there with me to share it and I can't wait to tell you when I get the chance."
Derek managed a soft-hearted chuckle. "Are we compatible or incompatible?"
She shrugged. "I'm so in love with you, Derek." She grabs his cheek and makes him look at her. "And you're so tall."
Derek smiled at her. "Nah, you're just short."
Cassie laughed before grabbing the back of his head-
And kissed him.
Time paused for the two adventurers, the snow melting into warmth around them. Cassie stroked Derek's cheek and brushed a bang out of his eye. Once Cassie pulled away, her stomach fluttered with butterflies and she looked away awkwardly. Derek did the same and looked away, crossing his feet together nervously.
Cassie's moment of euphoria was interrupted when her ears picked up on something in the distance.
"What is that?" she asked aloud, looking in the direction the sound was coming from. She looked up in the sky and found a familiar figure flying in the sky.
"A helicopter," she pointed. When the helicopter flew over them, she saw an insignia on the side. "OVERLORD!"
The others rushed out of the cave armed with firearms waving aimlessly through the air.
"Where?" Tyler demanded.
Cassie ran out into the open and pointed at the helicopter flying towards the peak of the mountain.
"They have helicopters?!" Alex exclaimed. "What the hell?!"
"So it's true," the Priest whispered. "Overlord is going after Noah's Ark."
Cassie shook her head. "They found my notebook."
Helpless to do anything but watch the helicopter flying into the mountain, they looked at each other before-
"WOAH!" they all exclaimed.
The helicopter, torn in two, crashed into the mountain.
"Holy shit!" Tyler cursed.
"What the hell was that?!" Alec screamed.
Derek rubbed his eyes. "Was that actually..."
"Was that a giant dog?!" Bethany gulped.
"I've never..." the Priest panted.
"No," Cassie sighed, "I thought it wasn't real but..."
The Priest grabbed Cassie's shoulders. "What the hell kind of animal was that?"
"Oh, you mean that big animal that jumped from the ground all the way up into the air and cut that helicopter in half?" She rubbed the back of her head nervously. "Well... it's um... uh..."
"Spit it out."
"A giant wolf?"