The Fifth Night
A Fragile Alliance
"Mathieu, it's good to see you up and about," Ambassador Bisset offered kindly as she fell into steps with him. "How are you feeling?"
"I wish everyone would stop asking me that question," he remarked curtly although his tone of voice held no bitterness.
"I know you said that Sylvie is your leader but I've seen the way the others look for your guidance too," she said seriously.
"I like to help in any way I can," he said softly.
Thea nodded. "Which is why I am coming to you with an offering."
Mathieu stopped walking and turned to her with a frown.
"I'd like you to join us - Gerardo and me – and help us coordinate the location of other survivors. We have established contacts with a few bases around the globe but I am sure there are more people out there that we do not know about."
"Sounds intriguing but I am unsure of how I can be of assistance. I am just an ordinary airplane pilot – not a diplomat, like yourself."
"Like your group has kindly pointed out – we are not associated with our jobs anymore. There are just us now, ordinary human beings, trying to survive," she quoted.
"If Sylvie is not already involved, I want her with me," Mathieu replied seriously.
"Both of you are welcome then," Thea confirmed as they walked into the mess hall.
Ines broke into a smile at seeing the pilot walk into the room and make his way over to the kitchen.
"Ines, I didn't know you'd taken up position in the kitchen," Mathieu said in surprise as he broke into a soft smile.
"Not something I would have guessed either," she replied with a grimace even though there was mirth in those brown eyes of hers. "You might end up here too, you know," she cautioned and nodded at the soldier next to her. "This is Markus; the bunker pilot."
Mathieu smirked. "We noticed a Globemaster back at the airport," he said.
Markus nodded. "Yes, that is my aircraft. I mean, not my aircraft but-," he trailed off and broke into a tight sheepish smile.
If Mathieu was surprised that the younger man seemed so insecure, he didn't show it. "Well, you'll have to tell me more about that aircraft someday," he said kindly and pointed at the food. "Is it any good, or should I just stick to coffee?"
"It's not as bad as it looks really," Markus offered.
Mathieu looked from the soldier to Ines and then to Thea who nodded.
OOOOOO
Ayaz glanced up from his bowl of unappetizing breakfast and watched the ambassador curiously as she stayed close to their pilot.
"What is it?" Zara asked, sitting with her back toward the kitchen with her son next to her. "Are you okay?"
He looked at her and gave her a faint smile. "I am fine, Zara, there is no need to worry about me. The French ambassador just arrived with Mathieu."
The Russian woman turned around to see what Ayaz was seeing and frowned as Thea helped Mathieu with the tray. It might not have been so surprising since the pilot still had his hand bandaged but it was the way she was doing it - like she actually cared. "I didn't think she would do something out of kindness. She doesn't strike me as that type of woman," Zara remarked dryly.
"I am sure she'd doing her best to accommodate all of us at the moment," Ayaz reasoned. "You and Dominik got your own room and the rest of us aren't fairing that bad all things considered. It can't be that easy to live with a bunch of military men, trying to bring order to chaos when the entire world is upside down."
"You think she is okay?" Zara asked skeptically.
Ayaz thoughtfully stroke his chin with the top of his fingers. "I can't say yet but in this tight confinement it won't take long to figure it out."
"Maybe they are planning for some kind of mission behind our backs," Zara suggested. "What if they are sending our plane away?"
Ayaz reached out to put his hand over Zara's and gave it gentle squeeze. "No, Mathieu wouldn't go along with that."
She looked uncertain for a moment.
"Are you finished with that?" he asked and nodded at her untouched breakfast.
"Yeah," she replied.
"Come on then. Let's take a stroll around the premises and see what it looks like," he suggested. "Hey, Dominik, when we are finished exploring, why don't I show you something cool?"
The boy lit up in a big smile, excited to hear more.
Ayaz ruffled Dominik's hair and smiled.
OOOOOO
Sylvie and Mathieu shared a troubled look as the two ambassadors painted a pretty grim picture of the worldly situation.
"You mean to tell us that those few people out there-," Mathieu gestured for the map of the world behind them and the markings on it. "-that they're all that's left of the human civilization?"
"We don't know," Thea answered. "Those are the few people we have managed to get into contact with since the global catastrophe occurred."
Sylvie shook her head as she glanced down at the worn and dirtied floor. "There must have been more people travelling around the world. There must be other airplanes-,"
"Did you see any?" Gerardo asked bitterly.
"No, we saw only death and destruction," Mathieu replied.
"What about submarines?" Sylvie suggested. "Horst said water shields people from the sun."
"That would depend on the depth as well as accurate information," Thea answered. "Any submarine surfacing under daytime would be a goner. Also, the range of their radio are not that far and submarines, like airplanes, have to bring supplies onboard every now and then. Without proper information most of them are likely to resurface under daytime and try to make contact with their base."
"Great," Mathieu muttered.
"Which brings us back to another problem," Gerardo said as he leaned forward over the table. "Our future."
Sylvie and Mathieu shared a curious glance.
"NATO has a seed vault in Norway, not too far from the arctic circle," Thea explained.
"Mathieu sat up straighter. "That's good news. At this time of the year the night is stretching for months up there."
"Unfortunately, it's not within the arctic circle," Gerardo added. "Besides, we have been reluctant to send the Globemaster away on a mission like that. If something were to happen, we would be stuck here for the rest of our lives without means to acquire more supplies."
Thea turned to Mathieu. "You have been traveling around the planet for almost a week. You have been avoiding the sun for just as long. While our German pilot is good, he is not that experienced. If he gets lost on the way, there is no one out there to help him."
"Also, there have been talks of missile strikes," Gerardo cautioned. "We don't know why or from whom but they are a real threat."
Sylvie shuddered at the mere thought of being hit by a missile.
"So, what are you trying to say?" Mathieu asked. "That you want to go to Norway and collect seeds?"
"Maybe not right now but soon," Thea replied. "We have to recalculate the amount of food and supplies at the bunker now that you've arrived."
Sylvie shook her head in dismay. "So, you're saying it's our fault that your supplies are used up faster than expected and therefore we are the ones to be sacrificed."
"No," Thea assured her. "What we are saying is that, sooner or later, we have to go there before someone else does. We can't risk that our allies stab us in the back and take everything. Look, the Globemaster is big but slow and it needs a lot of aviation fuel. The Airbus A320-,"
"Forget it," Mathieu shook his head. "The tanks are empty and the filters are probably clogged because of all that contaminated aviation fuel we have been running on. The avionics bay is damaged and the radio is hot-wired."
"Mathieu," Thea pleaded.
The pilot shook his head again, holding up his injured limb. "My hand is still bandaged. Besides, we're not there yet. The situation is not critical; therefore, we'll wait," he said sternly, leaving no room for further discussion as he unconsciously flexed his injured hand.
OOOOOO
Laura grimaced at the dead rats before her. "I would never be able to get the images of these horrible experiments off my mind," she said.
Horst glanced up at her. "Science has never been cruelty free, it's just that normal people usually don't have to see it."
"I was a nurse. I took care of people, made sure they were alright-," she trailed off and sighed. "Now I am killing rats in a bunker."
"I realize that what I am going to say now won't make it any easier on you but I am afraid this is necessary for our survival," he reasoned softly.
She nodded. "You're right. It didn't help."
OOOOOO
Mathieu studied the red, angry jigsaw edge of the bullet wound as Laura threw the bandage in the bin. He pursed his lips together as he carefully flexed his hand.
"Careful," Laura cautioned as she sat down next to him and gently close her own hand around his wrist while she proceeded to examine the injury closely. "We don't want it to break open again. It's not the ideal place for an injury."
"I will be more careful the next time I try to disarm a hijacker," he muttered sourly.
She smirked at the sarcastic bitterness with which the remark was delivered.
Mathieu quietly watched her as she gently applied some antiseptic ointment on the healing gunshot wound and then sealed it with a compress.
"That would do fine," she stated softly and reached out to touch his forehead. "No fever," she deduced. "And the color of your skin no longer matches your sheet."
Mathieu chuckled at that. Then sobered as he turned to look at her; his eyes seeking hers. "Thank you," he said.
"No, thank you, for not giving up on us," she corrected. "For refusing to give in – even when you were seriously ill."
Not comfortable with the praise he shrugged like it was no big deal, then shook his head. "No, Laura. It was team effort that got us here and there continues to be a team effort to get out of this predicament."
She reached out with her hand to give his shoulder a gentle squeeze.
OOOOOO
Rik was starting to get bored. The new ordinary life in the bunker had turned mundane and everyday looked kind of the same. Unless you happened to be someone important enough to listen to that was. He would show them he was just as important as the rest of them. He was diplomatic, he was nice and friendly, surely, he could help out in the control room and coordinate things with other survivors?
He had nothing against Sylvie or Mathieu but they were pilots, not diplomats. They didn't have any experience in the field either. The ambassadors just happened to like them.
"You look troubled Rik," Ayaz noted as he walked up to him and sat down at the table in the mess hall. The lean man currently dined alone.
The Dutchman frowned and picked at the food on his plate. "Just bored, I guess," he let on casually.
The Turk smirked. "Missing Terenzio, are we?" he guessed.
Rik looked aghast. "What? No, no, no," he replied. "But you have to admit that we're all alive because of him."
Ayaz couldn't help himself as he broke into a mirthless laugh. "Is that so?" he questioned quizzically. "You mean to tell me the others had no part in it?"
Rik felt uncomfortable as Ayaz glared at him and he had to look down at his plate. Gathering his wits, he gently dabbed the napkin over his mouth, took a deep breath and offered a sheepish smile as he forced himself to face the other man again.
"I'll tell you one thing," Ayaz said seriously, his voice subdued, the tinge of his voice darker than it used to be. "Terenzio might have hijacked the plane in the first place but when it comes to our survival; I'd say it was one hell of a team effort."
"Yes, yes, of course," Rik concurred eagerly.
Ayaz quickly finished his ransom and put down the fork. "Look, this is tough for everyone. But, like Mathieu said before landing – "We're all in this together."
Rik glanced up as the other man rose from his chair and gently patted him on the back. "Just speak up if something is troubling you and we'll solve it," he said.
Touched by the offer, Rik nodded and watched Ayaz leave the room.
OOOOOO
To be continued
5/8