Flies were buzzing. It was hot. It didn't help there were six people in a cell. The pungent smell of human sweat and leathery skin fumigated over the smell of rotting garbage and defecation. Outside the jail cell walls, it was easy to get anything but inside it was a lot harder.
His guilt kept eating him away of trying to smuggle shrooms. The first few days of the stench got to him much more than the actual punishment. He repented by apologizing over and over again. He wouldn't ever do it again, just let him out. However, few knew where he was actually at. His dad wasn't going to come save him. He barely had enough funds to keep afloat. He probably wouldn't save him and let him learn his lesson.
He was leaning back on the wall trying not let the stench give him another headache. He was hoping to become nose-blind but it never happened. He heard a commotion. The people started to become talkative. It was like an uproar. He watched as some guards were leading a man in a suit, the warden, and a US soldier decked out in combat gear with aviators. He had long brown hair though. That was odd.
The two were speaking Spanish. The soldier lifted his chin towards the man leaning on the wall.
"Travis Welker," the warden made a motion with his hand. "You are being handed over to the United States to deal with." The warden turned to the soldier and thanked him in Spanish. The two shook hands.
Travis was surprised yet hesitant. He was finally leaving this actual Hell but he was not too fond of the US stepping in. Travis came out of the cell to be handcuffed.
"Oh, come on," Travis complained. "I'm not going to run. Also do I get my stuff back? I'm guessing not the shrooms though." A chain was put on his handcuffs. He followed it back to the soldier. "What am I, a kid?" The soldier tugged on it, bring Travis forward. The two headed out. "Come on! I'm not a dog! You don't need to put me on a leash."
The other prisoners were yelling and whistling at him. Travis made faces at them. "Yeah, yeah. But least I am getting out of here. Enjoy smelling the la crème of la crème here."
Once out of the prison, the two got in an upscale vehicle. The two were driven to a small airport. Travis looked around. The soldier was holding a bag of Travis' belongings. "Oh nice, get to go back in style." Travis was tugged again as they headed to a helicopter. "Wooh! Black Hawk. Everybody, get to the chopper!"
The two got into the helicopter. The soldier cuffed the leash to ring on the floor. He placed the bag in storage. The soldier placed a headset on Travis before setting one on him.
"Yo, Tarzan," Travis saw another soldier close the doors on them. "Where we going to next?" Travis was ignored as the soldier spoke a foreign language. "Is that Grecian? Are you like Adonis or something? Maybe even Hercules?" The scoffed while speaking in the foreign language to the rest of the crew. Travis hated feeling left out. He thought they were talking smack. It was going to be a long flight but he didn't no it would only be four hours.
The helicopter ride started to rock jolting Travis awake. He looked to see dust clouds all around him. The helicopter landed on the ground. It started to power down. When the dust started to settle, he noticed he was in a desert with sage brush.
"Where are we, Area 51?" Travis asked as the soldier took of his headset. The soldier then unclipped the handcuff from the ring. "Ah, man, come on, don't do me like that." The soldier grabbed the bag out of storage waiting for the doors to open.
Travis noticed a jet black supped up Ford. The doors opened. The two other crew members were also soldiers decked out in military combat uniforms. The two were asking the soldier with the long hair questions in a foreign language still. The soldier with the long hair chuckled before answering back. The other two laughed with him.
Travis was taken to the truck while the other two locked up the helicopter. Travis got to sit in the back seat with one of the crew while the long-haired guy drove. Travis kept looking out the window. He had a sense of familiarity. He glanced around the truck. His eyes stuck on the screen that had a small blue screen.
"Is that a seismoscreen?" Travis was in awe. "Why would you have such a thing?" He looked at all of them trying to gage their reaction. All of three gave no reaction. Travis looked back out the window. Where did they take him, he wondered. He watched as he came upon a town, it had a few buildings, not many. "Hey! That's Chang's! We're in Perfection?" Travis looked around. He started to smile. "This place really grew from the last time I was here. Wow!"
The truck was parked in front of the market. The three got out first. The long-haired soldier opened the door for Travis. He pulled on his leash. Travis didn't complain as he was taking in the scenery. It really had changed since he was there. Travis didn't notice the one pulling his leash had switched hands.
The person holding onto Travis waited until he noticed. Travis was looking around before wondering why they stopped. He followed his leash again to see his mom holding onto it with a look of utter disappointment. "AH!" He flinched back but his hands pulled tight. "M-mom! Wh-why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be some-somewhere else?"
"You didn't tell him anything, did you?" Dr. Jasmine Welker kept starting at her son while asking the long-haired soldier.
"No," he finally spoke English.
"Good," Jasmine tugged on his leash. "You've got some explaining to do." She turned around, tugging him to Nancy's place.
Travis was being dragged along. "Tarzan! Tarzan! Take me back! Take me back!"
Tyler came up to the long-haired soldier. "So, you didn't tell him you two were brothers?"
Wes smirked. "She said not to explain anything to him until she had a word with him first. Have to respect her wishes. Don't think I would be able to say anything anyways, when he doesn't know what happened."
Tyler swallowed. His throat had become tight. "Yep. Rose got back today with Lewis and the rest." Tyler kicked a pebble around with his shoe.
"It's as we suspected, isn't it?" Wes looked into the distance. He still had his sunglasses on.
Tyler nodded. Looking down at this shoe. "They cremated what all they could find of him. She won't say anything else. Little Bertie hasn't left Heather's side at all. It only seemed like yesterday he was making his rounds, checking seismos, and just being his old regular paranoid self."
"Has everyone shown up?" Wes let out a breath.
"Yep," Tyler looked up. "You were the last ones to arrive."
The two stood in silence before heading off towards the restaurant. The other two soldiers met up with the rest of the group who went with Rose and Lewis to Dark Island. It was a somber time in the valley of Perfection. The whole town closed down for a week.
The next morning, the atmosphere felt heavy. There was some cloud cover setting the melancholic mood. The private room in the restaurant was setup with rows of chairs with an aisle down the middle.
People from all over were filling up the chairs. The local Perfectionite, Earl, Kate, Grady, Val, Valerie, and Rhonda. There was Twitchell, Mindy, and Lucas next to Nancy. Melvin, Patricia, and Jack. Cletus, Lewis, Casey, and Roger. Jasmine was with Travis and Jimmy up at the front. On the other side was Wes, Rose, the kids, and Heather.
At the front was a picture of Burt to one side with flowers, both were on easels. The podium was on the other side with the white screen pulled down in the middle. The projector showed pictures of Burt on a slideshow.
Nancy came up to the podium first. She looked out to the somber crowd. "I would like to welcome you to this celebration of the life of Bertram 'Burt' Gummer who entered into eternal rest. Burt was a dear friend of mine, and I am very honored to be here today as we remember him and reflect on his life."
Melvin read off the poem 'Do not go gentle into that good night' by Dylan Thomas.
Tyler was next as he gave the life tribute. He let out a breath before proceeding. "As a transplant to Perfection, we all knew that it was not an ordinary town. An unordinary town had an extraordinary person, Burt Gummer.
'From the first day I met him, he saved me from becoming El Blanco's next meal. He was equipped head to toe in tactical gear, standing in front of his Jeep, with his gun propped on his leg. A man, a hero, a legend." Tyler talked about the history of Burt; where he was born, how he grew up, his achievements throughout life. He talked about how Burt's paranoia and stubbornness that helped him and went against him. He talked about the sacrifice Burt made as he saved Jimmy's life while killing the last graboid. "Burt always made sure to protect the people around him. It didn't matter how much time you spent with him, if he saw you needed saving, he would put his life on the line every time. And unfortunately, that was the last sacrifice he made. We're thankful and honored to have Burt in our lives. May we aspire to inspire, to protect, and to hold steady as our beloved and dear friend, Burt Gummer."
There was a moment of silence. Then it went to open mic that allowed to people to speak up to two minutes. There were lots of tears staining cheeks. Some laughs and chuckles.
Jodi was up next. She had tears streaming down her cheeks. "I want to thank you all for coming to celebrate the life of our dearest friend, our mayor, and our guardian. Perfection has become a family and our family can't express how much your generosity has meant to us during this difficult time. Even though Burt's health affected him enough to leave our family the time being, but he went out to save others around the world. Saving those families as best as he could. We may not know one another and just have met this week, but when you become a part of Burt's family, you become part of a big family that will have your back just like he had ours." She sniffled. "We especially want to thank Rose and Lewis for going to retrieve our hero, our legend, bringing him back home where he belongs."
There was a dinner afterwards. It was filled with some of Burt's favorites. Little Bertie stuck to Heather's side. He would rest his head upon her arm. She would stroke his arm and kiss his head. Although, she had divorced him, she still held him in her heart. She got along with Jasmine Welker just fine. The two reminisced over Burt together. They laughed about having secret sons and hiding them from Burt. It was a nice bonding moment. The two were together with the kids while Rose, Wes, and Travis were on the other side of the table.
"You didn't want to warn me, at all?" Travis stared at Wes.
"Couldn't," Wes had his arm draped on Rose's chair behind her. "I am a man of my word. Your mother wanted to be the one to break the news."
"So then what were you talking about that I couldn't understand?" Travis really wanted to know.
Wes let out a low chuckle. "Ah, just that yes you were my brother. And then when we got back to Perfection, the guys were teasing about how I wasn't allowed to drive her rig when it came to hauling strangers."
Travis looked over to Rose. "I'm your brother-in-law. We're not strangers!"
"Mm," Rose shrugged her shoulders. "I have the read the file we have on you but meeting you in person is different."
Travis looked back to Wes. "Your Jane is so weird. She read the file on me?! Are you not like jealous?"
Wes glanced over to her. "I know but somehow that's one of the reasons why I love her."
"So gushie!" Travis exclaimed. "Didn't know my brother was a romantic. Adonis in the house!"
After the dinner, everyone gathered around the three life cycles. There was a tall figure with a white cloth draped over it that stood in the center of the triangle the life cycles made up.
Wes and Travis went over the figure. The two uncovered it together. Under the white cloth was a bronze statue of Burt Gummer. It was him in his tactical gear. His shades in his pocket. Wearing his Atlantic Hawks hat. He was posed as if he was ready to give another pep talk or update the town on the latest need to know information. There was a plaque in front of him that read.
In Loving Memory
Bertram 'Burt' Gummer XX/XX/1955 - XX/XX/2020.
"Just doing what I can with what I got"
Legendary Monster Hunter. Survivalist. Hero.
April 14 is hereby recognized as Burt Gummer Day