Dawn No More
Part I
The song is American Pie by Don McLean.
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And good ol' boys were drinking whisky and rye
Singing this will be the day that I die
this will be the day that I die
Vaughn stared at the tombstones, lone and gray, standing erect among all the fallen dead. And there were so many dead. He imagined that the stones were like nameless soldiers standing at attention, guarding the bodies with too many names. He remembered a time before when he had visited this cemetery and the opposite had been true. Back then there were soldiers that had names that were guarding the tombs of dead soldiers without ones. But so much had changed since then. He crossed the rows upon of rows of tombstones, making his way to a small section set slightly apart from the rest. He finally found the grave that he had been looking for, nestled between other tombstones that looked exactly like it. Like all the others it was of uniform size and color, only the name on its face distinguished it from the rest.
Vaughn knelt on the grass and rested his hand on the stone as fighter planes scratched the sky with while trails above him. He waited for the sound of the jet engines that would follow and they did not disappoint him. He looked at his watch, he had two hours before he was expected back at the new CIA headquarters located five miles underneath the earth, 200 miles from here. He had faith in his pilot though we would get them there in time.
Helter Skelter in a summer swelter
The birds flew off with the fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast
"God, what am I going to do?" He wailed quietly to the gray stone. "She's out there somewhere, and I don't know where. And things are getting worse by the minute. They've sent in some special forces units to find him, they've tried all the small islands in the south pacific, but I don't think he's there anymore. And I think that people are getting tired of listening to me. I think they blame me for this and Sydney… that I should have been able to foresee this or stop it before it got this far…God, maybe that's why they aren't bothering to look for her. They told me to assume she's dead, but I can't. I can't give up hope like that.
Well I know that you're in love with him
'Cause I saw you dancing in the gym
You both kicked off your shoes
Then I dig those rhythm and blues
Will looked off in the distance at the figure of Michael Vaughn, begging on his knees for a dead man's help. He shook his head sadly and plugged his ears with his fingers as another squadron of fighters flew overhead. When the screams of their jets had passed he stood up off the car he had been leaning on and got inside the back seat. The driver looked at him through the rear view mirror and asked if he thought they would make it back in time. Will nodded assertively, though secretly he was a little worried. If they did not get back in time then they would be stuck on the surface tonight and nobody wanted to be in a vulnerable position when night fell. Bad things tended to happen in the dark. He closed his eyes as he leaned his head back against the leather headrest and felt the familiar ache in his chest whenever he thought of Sydney. He still loved her; he probably always would, though he accepted the fact that she would only ever see him as a friend. He accepted it because he knew that life was tragic that way. He also knew that she loved Michael Vaughn more than anyone else in the world and though it ripped him apart to know that, in a small way he was happy. He was happy because Michael Vaughn loved her more than life itself and he would stop at nothing until he found her again. Once he would have thought it impossible to understand that when the whole world was falling into a fissure of hell that one man could be so devoted to finding and saving a single other human being…but now he was not. Now he knew that if they didn't fight to save a person they loved then it was pointless to try and save millions of others that they did not. They had learned that lesson the hard way. Now it was just him and Vaughn, trying to save Sydney so that they could preserve their own peace in this hell.
There we were all in one place
A generation lost in space With no time left to start again
So come on Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candle stick
'Cause fire is the devil's only friend.
"I'm so sorry that I stopped you Jack. I told you that I would find her and that we needed you to go and stop that second bomb. And you did. You saved so many lives that day but at what cost? You know after that first bomb detonated in South Carolina, I thought that it couldn't get any worse…they think the death toll was just over two million, and that doesn't include all the people that are going to die this year from radiation poisoning. But it got so much worse…you probably saved five times that many people by taking that bomb out in Washington, but for what? He's got ICBMs now…you saved Washington but five months ago he got Los Angeles. Sometimes I wonder if it wasn't just a part of his sick master plan, that maybe the Washington bomb was just an excuse to get you out in the open to kill you. If anyone could have foiled—heck I'd settle for understanding his plans, then maybe we would have some way of coming out of this war…now that you're gone we have no one. All Will and I can do is continue to look for Sydney while the powers that be try and negotiate. And we thought he was dangerous when he was in charge of SD-6…"
I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside,
The day the music died.
Vaughn paused in his ramblings to rub his forehead. For some reason he thought back to the horrible day eight months ago when he'd had to tell Irina Derevko that her husband was dead. Nobody had known how she would take it and most were quite willing to admit that they had no desire to find out first hand. So he had volunteered. He had not volunteered as some sort of sick revenge for the crimes she had committed against his family. He was still not entirely sure he understood his own reasons suffice it to say that he had been the one to send Jack to his death. But she had not said anything to him. She had just stood there silently until he finished, and then she had turned and gone to her bed and stayed there for days. As far as anyone could tell she did not weep, she did not cry but neither did she eat or sleep. She just lay there, for days. When the CIA had moved its headquarters, the Joint Task Force had moved with them as well and Irina was now imprisoned in the bunker with everyone else. She ate and slept now but she still did not talk.
He checked his watch again and realized that it was late. "We have to go…I'm so sorry Jack. I will find your daughter and bring her home, I promise. Be at peace."
As I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in hell
Could break that satan's spell
Crowded in the underground bunker Vaughn managed to get to his makeshift desk before the broadcast began. Kendall shot him a dirty look for pushing his arrival so close to the curfew time but Vaughn barely acknowledged him. Will squeezed his way around the desks and agents so that he could catch a glimpse of the small TV they had set up in the common work area. The feed flickered but as the picture stabilized a tense silence came over the room. Sloane's pale face smiled at them benevolently but his eyes were dark points of fire.
"I have made you blind by blocking your satellites, I have made you deaf with the shock-waves. Don't make me kill you altogether. The United States of America has no more control over my actions than anyone else. I control my own destiny now. I want to make that very clear. I have established a base, I have troops, I have an army. I also have more bombs. Arrangements have been made between my organization and other countries around the world for peaceful co-operation. I hope that similar agreements can be made with this country. If not, then I am in a position to impose these agreements. I want all nuclear weapons that the US owns to be on stand down in two hours. If they are not, then I will pick off another city. Any attempt to find me will also result in disastrous consequences. You have two hours." The camera panned out showing Sloane standing in a dark room that looked like a warehouse. His white suit looked out of place amongst the boxes and dust, but the most shocking revelation was that he was not alone. On the floor by his feet sat a young girl, though she looked almost like an animal. Her hair was all tangled and matted and it looked like patches had been pulled out. There were scratches on her face and her lower lip was swollen and bruised. She wore more dirt than rags, but as the camera focused in on her she looked up. She snarled at the camera but the fire in her eyes could only belong to one person. The transmission cut out immediately and was replaced by white static.
The shock in the room held everyone rooted to their spots while the static echoed throughout the compound. The cry of a child in the background broke the trance and Kendall leaned forward and turned off the TV.
Will turned to look at Vaughn and noticed that his eyes were closed. He saw Vaughn's hands lying on the desk, rolled up into fists so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. His face was pale and his lips were set in a thin line of determination. Will had never been more scared than when Vaughn opened his eyes and looked at him. Will had seen that look just minutes before. It had belonged to the devil himself. Now, Will thought that perhaps he felt scared for the devil.
And as flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw satan laughing with delight
the day the music died.