Samantha grinned as they pulled into the driveway of the cabin, finally they were back to a safe location, well, safer. Chris quickly climbed out clutching Tyson and opened the back door, Catalyst and Jess raced out the front door and Catalyst damn near burst into tears before racing over and wrapping her arms around her father.
"It's ok Cat, it's ok."
"I thought they killed you! Dad, if you were gone, where would I go!" Chris pulled back, grinning.
"You don't have to worry about that, I'm never going anywhere." He lifted Tyson, "who would take care of my stuffed animal collection?" Catalyst facepalmed.
"What is that? Three hundred?" He shrugged, gesturing for them to go inside.
Samantha paused as they say in the living room in silence. "So, is anyone gonna tell me what your connection is with The Cook?" Chris and Jess sighed.
Jess explained first, "when I was a kid my family was important to the Militia, Jacob didn't like that, so he ordered The Cook to hunt us down, they caught us, starved us. We grew sick, The Cook didn't like that so he strung up my parents. Cut off their toes and offered them to us to eat, once the sick fuck ran out of toes to cut off he pulled back and lit then on fire, their screams are forever burnt into my memory. The smell. That's how he got his name."
Jess gestured to Chris who was playing with his bison, "hm? Oh, right. Before Finley and I had a falling out we chaperoned for a school trip out to Fort Fizzle down highway 12, turns out those bastards turned it into their playground. It was a massacre, we got out of the bus and The Cook lit up the class, Finley stayed to try to save as many people as possible. I ran, grabbed my daughter and ran like a fucking coward." He sighed, "every day since I've been trying to make amends, not to anyone but myself. But still make amends. I've been trying to stop running."
Samantha nodded as three dots appeared on the screen behind Chris, "what's up with that?" He turned.
"Three helicopters, I've got a radar, helps me know when it's safe to take-off." The helicopters stopped circling something for a short while before beginning to move again, "looks like their hunting." He grabbed his sunglasses off the table next to them.
"Cat, did you run the modifications while we were gone?"
"Yep, demilitarization has been reversed, skies are clear for take-off." Chris smirked.
"Hey Sam, you know anything about controlling the gunner seat in planes?" She nodded, "alright, Cat you and Jess watch the radars, radio when any new vehicles appear and identify them for me. The list of known PEG planes is in the drawer." Catalyst nodded. "Alright, let's get to it."
Samantha hesitated following Chris back out to his barn where they were greeted by a heavily armed fighter jet, the man grinned climbing into the pilots seat and she climbed into the one behind.
"Canopy, check. Harness?"
"Check."
"DEECs, check. Flaps," they looked over their seats at the wings, "check. IFF, check. Trim, Check. Alright, tower this is Foxtrot Niner Sierra Tree Two Fife Niner requesting permission to take off Runway One."
"Dad, go." Chris smirked, pushing the thrust forwards and pulling up on the joystick. The jet quickly climbed altitude and banked right into the Bitterroot valley, the screen in front of Samantha lit up as the form of a helicopter entered her view.
"Once you've got a shot, take it." She nodded, waiting for it to be in the crosshairs. Once it entered she wasted no time firing a pair of rockets into it, the tail and cockpit splintered apart showering the earth below with metal fragments.
"Great hit! Comin' around, get ready." Samantha waited and the other two choppers came into view, she pressed down on the red button on her joystick and with a loud buzz a solid line of bullets tore through the sky and destroyed the helicopters. "Great shot, let's make sure there's no others. Then we'll land Ace."
"Ace?"
"Ace Pilots, pilots who beat other pilots in fights. Most of the time their dogfights but I could against helicopters." She nodded.
"Alright, let's do it then."
"Two Fife Niner this is a tower you've got several known Peggie's closing on your location, heading one right zero."
"Copy that tower, Samantha, keep weapons hot."
"Right," the jet quickly made a sharp turn before accelerating once more, Samantha made out a squadron of 1946 Adjudicator in her screen. "We've got twelve Adjudicators!"
"How are you on rockets?"
Samantha fired into one of the Peggie planes as her crosshair got a lock, it spiraled out of control as the jet passed over where it was previously flying. "I've got six sets left and around fifteen thousand rounds!"
"What about bombs?" She paused and looked at her count.
"Three." Chris nodded, swinging the plane around and lining it up, Samantha fired a volley as they strafed two of the twin seat planes, sadly they only got the gunners and not the pilots.
"Ten thousand rounds!"
"Damnit! Coming around again, get ready."
The plane made a hard right bank as the flew towards the nearby mountain, a beeping filled the cockpit and Chris pulled back on the controls and dropped thrust, the plane moved to a vertical position facing straight up as it dumped flares, Samantha waited however the man wasn't so patient.
"Fire now!" Samantha did as commanded and fired a pair of rockets into the sky, one of the Adjudicators flew overhead as they climbed. The back of the Peggie jet burst into flames falling to the ground with a crash, Samantha gasped as she was forced to the back of her seat when the plane righted itself and hit the accelerator.
"How'd you know he was there?"
"I saw him, made an estimate based on the top speed of an Adjudicator and just guessed the rest."
She nodded as the jet banked back to the left, a line of rounds trailing behind them, "can you get them off our back?" Chris nodded.
"I can but you won't like how!"
"Just get them off us!" He nodded and shot down the crevice highway 12 lay on, a few minutes passed and Samantha tapped her finger next to the firing controls. "On my mark fire rockets, ready? Mark!"
Twin rockets fired from the wing tips slamming into a rock in front of them, the wobble as part of its supporting structure was blasted off, Samantha turned as they passed under it. The boulder gave way falling into the valley catching two of the Adjudicators underneath it.
The jet spun around facing one of the Adjudicators without a rear gunner and Samantha fired the last set of rockets with them detonating right on top of the enemy plane. She paused as Chris lowered his microphone.
"Tower, call up Nick, tell 'em we'll go to him!"
"Copy."
The man pulled the plane up inverting them before flying over one of the Adjudicators, in his part of the cockpit he flipped the lower pilot the bird, "get ready to drop a bomb!"
The plane righted itself rolling over and Samantha opened the bomber window, she saw the tip of the Adjudicators propellor. She quickly dropped a bomb down onto the planes fuselage, the jet shook but you should've seen the other plane fractured into two.
Chris rolled the jet under another plane before going straight at another. "No way to miss take 'em out!" Sam nodded letting loose on the plane in front of them, a wing tore from the fuselage and the Peggie spun to the ground. "How much ammo?"
"Two bombs and five thousand rounds!" Chris nodded off further down the Bitterroot, the plane lurched and stray bullets flew past them, the plane pulled up flipping before Samantha let loose the remaining rounds into it. "I'm out!"
"Four left c'mon!" The cockpit filled won't beeping and the two looked at their radars, flares falling from the bottom of their plane as the surface to air missile blazed towards them. The missile spun as it struggled to find an even heat source before exploding a safe distance away. "C'mon, Nick where the fuck are you!" Samantha looked to the side seeing Peggie's prepping the surface to air to fire once again.
"We gotta take out that launcher or we'll go down!" He grunted before rolling the plane to the side and flying over, Samantha quickly tapped the release for on of the two remaining bombs and off it went down to the ground. "One left."
"Alright, we've got four of those assholes left and no ammo or assistance." He turned climbing, "Samantha, I'm gonna get you over one, drop another on and we'll go down with nine kills under us, we'll be actual Ace Pilots."
And that's what he did, Samantha got a view on one of their planes dropping the last bomb onto it, Chris turned back.
"I would say it's been an honor, but let's be honest. There's no honor in this world." He smirked, placing his hands back on the joystick and banking to the left putting him on a course for one of the planes. Samantha covered her ears as he began to scream out, "I'm ready! How 'bout you!" The two planes collided as the jet banked to the side, the nose tore through the left wing of the plane and the plane spiraled to the ground as the jet began leaking fuel and smoke.
"Make that ten." He inhaled as the two remaining planes began to fire at them, "look, we can do that ramming trick one more time but it'll take us out, I need you to make a decision, you can eject. Maybe make it to the ground but I can't radio for help, long distance radio is down. Or stay up here and die with me." Samantha put her hand on his shoulder.
"We die together." He nodded, changing their path to directly on top of the nearest enemy plane, Samantha left her hand there and Chris moved his hand over it.
"It's been a good run." He pushed the accelerator all the way forwards as the two planes closed on eachother.
Samantha closed her eyes as Chris leaned back in his seat, a loud bang caught her attention and her eyes opened to see the plane in front of them explode in a cloud of fire, a yellow water plane flying overhead firing into the other plane.
"Nick Rye here, I'm not too late am I?" Samantha smiled leaning back as Chris moved his hand back to the controls.
"No, ok yes. Would've been preferable if you got here a few seconds before we rammed the first plane." The planes turned facing Chris's airfield and Nick snorted.
"So that's why your plane is such a mess, though it was because you're not that great a pilot."
"I'm sorry the Deputy and I just took our ten planes. Ok she took out nine I rammed a tenth." Samantha interrupted.
"It was more him getting us into a bad situation and telling me how to shoot our way out." Chris sighed.
"Alright Nick, you can either land here or head home, tell the Mrs. I said hello."
"Have a good one Chris, Deputy, see you around." The water plane flew off and Chris shrugged, "nice guy." The pair landed jumping out of the plane as soon as the ladders connected.
"Dad, what did you do to the plane?" He shrugged.
"Ask Samantha, she's the one who did it, not me." And with that Chris ran.
"When we ran out of munitions he rammed one of them, tore their left wing clean off." Catalyst shook her head.
"You go inside, I'm gonna get to work repairing the jet. Nice job Ace." Samantha nodded and walked in, she quickly ascended the stairs to the area with the bedrooms and looked at Chris as he stared at himself in the mirror.
"You ok?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah, I'm fine, just, never been that close to being shot down before." She nodded. "Your room is the third door to the right."
She nodded walking past a restroom into the bedroom. She was greeted by a large master bedroom, two doors on the side, and a queen sized bed with a desk next to it and some writing.
She slowly picked up the papers noting the old fashioned typewriter, the manuscript was titled The Fallen: Genesis. She turned around to make sure he wasn't there before she read only to jump when he was a few feet behind her.
"I'm sorry but could I keep that to myself? I prefer to let my writing stay with me until it's ready to publish." She nodded, passing him the paper which he put in a folder before grabbing the typewriter, "thank you."
She nodded again as he left before opening one of the doors to a closet, the other one opened into the master bathroom, she shook her head.
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Chris grinned as the heat of the kitchen dried his wet hair, behind him his DVD player blared the song Sharks by Imagine Dragons. He smirked, placing the kettle on the burner and getting out some tea bags and sugar.
"Are we British now?" He sighed.
"Shoo Cat, I'm working my magic." She shook her head walking halfway up the stairs before turning.
"Whatever it is smells good." He smiled as she ascended the stairs.
He quickly pulled the ham and sweet potato casserole from the oven as the microwave beeped; the corn was ready. He quickly lowered the heat in the oven to 165 Fahrenheit putting the ham back in and the others in the fridge.
"Once you're ready, dinner is good to go." Cat, who had just gone up the stairs, launched herself down then as the door at the end of the hall behind her opened and Samantha stepped out wearing Chris's college Griz shirt and a pair of shorts.
"Alright, how many pieces do you want?" He clarified, "ham, everything else you get yourself." Catalyst held up her hands showing four and he shook his head, "four it is."
"I'll take three please," Chris nodded, putting the ham on their plates before grabbing five pieces himself and covering the remaining in tin foil.
"Alright we've got sweet potato casserole and corn not on the cob." Catalyst smiled grabbing about a fourth of the casserole, Samantha grabbed a third and Chris grinned menacingly, taking everything left.
"Where are we gonna eat?" Samantha asked as she scooped herself some corn from the bowl, the chef looked outside.
"The gazebo over by the pond has a bench, let's eat there." They nodded and off they went.
Once they were settled they began to eat, Chris spent a good amount of time just tossing corn into the pond for the koi but still ate enough. "So, Samantha, where are you from?"
"Oh, I'm from Portland, born and raised, moved out here cause my cousin told me he knew a guy with the cops."
"Hey, I lived in Vancouver for a while, small world. So, did you go to college or just straight into work?" Samantha hesitated looking at the shirt she was wearing.
"I went to Washington State, what about you?"
"University of Montana, my dad went there for his degree so I decided to get my degree there as well, why was your major?"
"I got a bachelors in Criminal Justice, then I moved out here, figured I could finish up at the university." Catalyst groaned.
"This is supposed to be summer, no school talk." The two adults laughed and Chris finally noticed what Sam was wearing.
"Hey, I left some clothes out, didn't you see?"
Samantha nodded. "I thought you wouldn't mind if I wore these, they're more comfortable." He nodded understandingly.
"Can't blame you. Something about Griz shirts just makes me feel at home."
Samantha turned to Catalyst as the younger woman stared into space. "What're you thinking about?"
"Dad, you mention that you had me when you were a junior, but I've never seen a picture of you and mom when she was pregnant with me?"
The man sighed, placing his head in his hands, "because she left me. After a while she got bored of me, so she just left, six months later you popped up, she texted me out of the blue to come get my kid and never come back. There was never any question you were mine, she was always loyal, never cheated. Just. Wasn't happy with me."
"So, she didn't want me?" Chris frowned thinking for a moment.
"I just, I don't think she was ready, if she was ready she wouldn't have let you go, I know because we talked about when we had kids and she swore up and down that she would never let anything happen to them."
"Then why didn't she come to me?"
He gave up trying to be gentle with this, using his own experience with bad news it was best to rip off the bandaid. "Because, she got amped up one day, was driving over to my apartment, no one's sure if she intended to kill me, take you, or both. All we know is she was high, spun out of control, and went over the bridge into the Columbia with a few other cars."
Samantha paused, "this was sixteen years ago?" Chris nodded, "my sister died, her car was hit while she was on her way to pick me up from work, a car spun out and hit her, they tumbled off the bridge together… I think your girlfriend and my sister died in the same accident."
Chris leaned back in his chair. "Holy fuck."
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Chris sat breathing in the summer air watching the sunset, the bench he sat on was cold, lonely. He smiled as the sky lit up orange and purple, around him the air went still leaving nothing but the sounds of running water and the wilderness.
Samantha hesitated as she glanced at the man, the light framed him as though he was just a shadow against the sunset. She smiled, deciding against going over to sit with him before deciding to sit on the foot of the deck.
Together, but apart, the two watched the sunset wondering what was to come the following day.
