02: I Did Kill You, Didn't I?
They came back. She didn't think it was possible, but they came back. First Manila, then Cabo and another city. Each time they brought the possibility of an attack closer and closer to home. They lived under the pretense of keeping their son as comfortable as possible without ever completely lying to him. The latter was relatively impossible to do, anyway. Everyone was talking about it, Chuck wasn't stupid and he prided himself on being a master eavesdropper. Even when they thought they were being careful, Chuck would let slip that he managed to overhear them anyway.
What they could and couldn't tell him, what Herc could and couldn't tell her, it was limited to say the least. Both she and Chuck were a pair of cats crawling up the wall, waiting for some kind of confirmation they knew they couldn't get. Still, she tried her best to function as though they were completely normal, even when Herc's absences garnered more questions than she cared to answer.
September 2, 2014 was a completely normal day. Herc was gone, Chuck was fast asleep beside her. Getting him up was as easy was promising him candy for lunch, even if he turned his nose up at it with all the air of an "grown up". She normally let him walk to school, but she was running late and she wanted to spend just a little more time with him, show him his parents weren't deliberately ignoring him.
Chuck hugged his backpack to his chest, chin resting on top of the bag. He kicked the bottom of the glove compartment out of boredom. "When's dad coming back?" He asked. His mum shrugged her shoulders. "I dunno, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow," Angela reached over to ruffle his hair. Chuck ducked lower in his chair, frowning at the public display of affection. "He'll call, Chas, don't worry."
"Why does he have to be gone all the time anyway? It's not like the Kaiju are attacking the city," Chuck argued.
"Well, no, but they're- I guess their kind of close, so we just have to be prepared, you know? The teachers at school, they've been running drills right?"
"Yes. Leave the class rooms in an orderly fashion, don't leave you're group, head for the gym until we're told it's safe. If it's not, we get into the buses, remain calm," Chuck recounted the procedure almost in one breath. Angela nodded in approval. "Good on ya, man," She raised a hand for a high-five. Her son gave her something of a long suffering expression, almost pleading. "Oh, c'mon, don't leave your mum hanging," Angela wiggled her fingers. Chuck obliged her request as the car rolled into the school parking lot.
"Alright, Chas," She smiled. "Be good in school, you hear?"
"Yeah, yeah," He was out of the car before she could request a kiss on the cheek. She watched him rush across the parking lot and fall into the crowd of children, at ease and completely focused on the situation at hand. Rubbing her temples, Angela pulled out of the lot and headed for work.
Everytime she heard a jet flying somewhere overhead it was hard not to think Herc was in every single one. Work distracted her but only so much, playing on the computer she worked on finishing her project in-between a game of solitary and losing three rounds of Mummy Maze. Angela fished her cell phone from her purse. She stared at the illuminated screen in contemplation. Herc wouldn't have his phone on him, she didn't think, and she doubted they would allow him to answer it.
Still, didn't hurt to shoot one down the electronic ether. "Hope you're doing well. I'm bored (sad face)". Angela nodded in approval of her own typing skills and sent the message in concurrence with a rumble strong enough to rattle the glass and the very foundation round them. She grabbed the edges of her desk, her heart jumped into her throat and she looked around her environment, unsure if she should start laughing or questioning what just happened.
Her question was answered when the sirens drifted out from the background like an old memory, breaking her train of thought. The pencil fell from her hand as her co-workers rose from their desks and approach the windows. The wide expanse of city suddenly became daunting from their floor, the sixteenth. She knows better than to look directly toward whatever it is that's captured the eyes of her comrades. Get up Angela, move toward an exit, don't get caught in the headlights.
Rising slowly from the desk, she lays the picture frame sitting next to her printer facedown and opens the back. Taking the picture out of the frame, she folds it until its small enough to fit into her palm and stuffs it into her bra. Angela stepped away from her cubical as one of their supervisors, Madeline, entered the office.
"Okay, guys, I think we should really get moving," She snapped her fingers and gestured toward the door.
No one moved from their position, they were all enamored with the possibility of seeing something outside the window.
"Alright, let's go!" Everyone moved once Madeline's voice became sharper, their eyes lingered on the windows but they were moving calmly toward the exit. Angela remained on the outside of the crowd, moving toward Madeline. "Maddy, what's going on?"
"Isn't it obvious? There's a Kaiju somewhere off the coastline. Military's been deployed to prevent it from reaching the city, but I'm not sure they can stop it," Maddy whispered.
"But, why-"
"Whoever you have to call, whoever you have to get, I'd do it now," Maddy warned, pushing Angela toward the office's exit with the others. Angela remained on the outskirts of the crowd moving toward the emergency exit. The sirens got louder the further down into the building they went. The cell phone vibrated in Angela hands, she looked down, her pace on the stairs slowing.
"Hey, move it, lady!" Angela braced herself against the railing when she was pushed. The cell phone fell from her hands and over the railing. "No!" Angela could not stop the crowd behind her from shoving her along. "You bastard, that was my phone!"
"Keep moving, lady, we don't wanna die because of you!" Angela turned, falling back on her temper, and thought to give the stranger a piece of her mind. Another tremor hit the building followed by another, this time stronger. The walls around them actually groaned. She felt the energy the crowd around her shift from distressed to full blown panic. Angela felt her legs buckle as she pushed down the stairwell. She threw her hands out in front of her to brace herself for the fall. Instead, she hit a woman right in front of her and they both tumbled, taking a number of others with her.
The woman fell on screamed right into her ear, but her pain went unnoticed by the people around her. Angela cried out when her hands were stepped on and her head kicked by the rushing mob. Without so much as thinking she made sure her body covered the woman below her and shielded her head with her arms.
Angela navigated the empty stairwell in a daze; her head throbbed furiously from the beating it took and her body was in no better shape. The woman she fell on was still conscious when she came to. She'd barely managed to pull herself out from under her presumed dead weight. Angela rolled away from the woman's legs find her periwinkle cardigan and shirt was now a pale red.
Staring down at her hands she slowly began register the blood that soaked her hair and clothes, realizing the young woman lying against the wall was bleeding out somewhere. Their eyes met, her eyes were clouded and barely registering what was in front of her, but she had half a mind to realize what happened. "They just ran over us… why would they do that?" She sobbed.
Angela didn't have an answer.
Angela draped an arm over her shoulder and pulled the girl up to her feet. She cried all the way down the stairwell, thrashing against the pain in her leg. The interior of the building had seen better days; everything in the halls was overturned, shattered or broken. Angela coughed at the smell of dust and iron, the steady rhythm of explosions let her know the fighting couldn't be too far away from where she was now. She hoped Chuck and Herc were safe.
They entered the basement. A group of employees who didn't make it inside the sheltered rooms were either pounding on the door or wandering around, praying nothing fell on them. Madeline stepped out of the spooked crowd, astonished to see her. "I thought you were dead," She whispered as she helped her lay the girl on the ground. Angela held her tongue, unsure if she should be angry on behalf of the girl or herself.
Staying in the building was a mistake, she thought. The Kaiju had survived whatever the military had thrown at it at first and breached the city. The alarms appeared to be roaring twice as loud now as the basement doors and emergency exits opened and let everyone out and left them to their own devices.
"What's your name, sweetheart?"
"B-Becky, Becky Rinehart," The girl lying on the floor next to her whimpered. She couldn't have been any older than eighteen or twenty.
"Angela-"
"Okay, Becky, I know you're hurt, but I'm gonna fix you up, alright?"
"Are you doctor?"
"No, but I've watched plenty of ER back in the day. I think that counts, right?"
Becky started to cry.
"Angela, c'mon, they're going to leave us behind!"
"Am I g-gonna die?"
"No, no of course not, sweetie," Angela forced a smile as she fumbled to tie another torn piece of her shirt around the girl's leg. "You'll be fine, I promise."
"Angela, please!"
"I am not leaving without her, Madeline."
"She's dead!" Madeline cried. "She's already lost too much blood, we can't help her."
"Listen, Madeline, just go without me!" Angela snapped. "Go, don't wait for me. Just go." Her supervisor stared her down like she was crazy, but she left without another word. Angela listened to her leave, biting the inside of her mouth when the basement door screeched open and Madeline's panicked cries echoed further and further away.
Angela had no means of communicating with her family, she wasn't running as blindly as everyone else, but she was trying to help someone. Even if she didn't get them out of this situation, she could at least say she died trying to do something for somebody. "How's the leg?"
"It hurts," Becky hiccupped. "Is it still bleeding?"
"Just, a little," Angela answered. "But I think it's okay for now." She paused. "Listen, we've got to get out of here, okay? But I'm gonna have to move you."
Becky shook her head frantically. "No, no, please don't."
"Becky, I have to," Angela reaffirmed. "Just hang on, alright?" Giving the girl's arm one final squeeze, Angela rose to her feet and headed for the door in concurrence with the roar that was no longer as distant as she remembered. Angela froze for a second, her heart beating wildly in her chest. "Okay, just—just hang on Becky, I'm gonna get the door open!"
Angela hobbled toward the doorway. Next to the door was a trashcan. Grabbing it by the rim, she moved to push the door open with her shoulder and block it with the trashcan. She tapped it slightly with her shoulder and the door swung all the way open. Angela's eyes became wide as saucers.
"Herc," She sounded both terrified and relieved to see him. Herc seemed to assess the situation in front of him in mere seconds; his expression shifted to mirror hers before becoming hard, focused. He grabbed her arms, pulling her out of the room. "We need to move, now!" He bellowed over the noise growing the background. Angela nodded and shook her head all at once; she looked back to the door kept half opened by the trashcan she left on the threshold. "No, I can't go, I can't leave Becky-"
Herc doesn't dignify her with a response. Angela struggled despite his belief. It wasn't like wrangling a child, grabbing them up and just running would be simple. Angela was strong enough to pull him away from the stairway. "No, I cannot leave that girl behind-"
"Listen to me, we cannot stay here!" Herc bellowed. "We will die and our son will have no one."
"She's right in the room-" Herc turned as another tremor hit the building, this time strong enough to knock them both over. Angela's head hit the floor, white light burst behind her eyes and vanished almost immediately afterward. Another tremor shook the building; she let out what sounded like a scream and clung to the body hovering over her. Her head throbbed and vision struggled to fall back into focus. She felt herself being lifted off the ground by her husband.
Time seemed to pass every time her eyes opened, but she couldn't see anything beyond faint impressions and outlines. The beat of her heart falls in sync with what might be a rotor (and if that's the case, she should be worried). Everything was off balance. She thought of Chuck and hoped she'd be home in time to make dinner.
The helicopter landed at the base just half an hour after the others. The civilians and soldiers crowded around him made him keenly aware of the woman hanging in his arms, head lulled against his shoulder. He doesn't feel like a hero, he doesn't feel as though he's accomplished much of anything despite the evidence to contrary.
Medical was standing by and waiting for them to arrive. Herc watched as the women and children around him was tended to. Angela hadn't moved since he reached the exterior of the building where the final helicopter was waiting for him. He hoped against probability that he was wrong - or right - for making the choice to come and get her. He followed the gurney she was laid upon as far as the makeshift hospital they set up inside the hangar.
Herc would've gone further but it was hard to dissuade Stacker's grip once it got a hold of his arm. The man seemed to appear out of nowhere, yet his dark blue suit stood out against the faded greens and browns of the hangar. "I need to talk to you," Herc turned to face the RAF pilot with fire in his eyes. On any other occasion he would oblige the man, allow him take him aside and talk. But he was rattled, not thinking straight or according to how he was taught. He had half a mind to yank his arm from his grasp and tell him piss off, but his next words stopped him cold. "It's about your son."
Herc's heart stopped, he cast a look behind him. Angela was already gone from his sight, left completely in the hands of the doctors. He faced Stacker, the man's expression was unreadable.
"Stacker, what about him?" He dared to ask. "Is Chuck alright?"
"No," Stacker's expression, squinted eyes and the faintest glimmer of sympathy, drove home the single response quicker than the sound of his voice. "The buses weren't able to escape the Kaiju under the required hour. We're not sure what happened."
"Not sure?" Herc's tone slipped past his sense of control, booming within the space of the hangar. "How can you not be sure?"
Stacker's expression remained consistent. "I'm sorry, Herc."
Sorry won't bring my son back. Herc fell short of breath. He stepped away from the stalwart man. His knees buckled under his weight, he hunched over, pressing the palms of his hands against the space between his thigh and his knees. The world around him seemed to become twice his size, out of focus. He can hear voices behind him, maybe around him, but it doesn't matter. His son is dead.
Chuck is gone.
When Angela regained consciousness, her fingers instinctively curled around the hand holding hers. Her body systematically began moving as her senses become aware of the dull throb in her head.
Her eyes opened slightly, she can smell the colorless fragrance of the hospital as a hand caressed her cheek. "Angie," Herc's voice was hoarse. Angela eyes shift, the vague outline of her husband's upper body is all she can see.
Her head is fuzzy from the concussion and the drugs, but she falls back on the memory of his expression at her office building; she cannot stop thinking of Becky Rinehart. She raises her hand from off the bed, ignoring the IV sticking out of her arm and grasped his.
"Hercules," Angela doesn't recognize the sound of her own voice, but it elicits a sort of delirious laugh - or sob - from her husband. He presses a kiss to her bandaged forehead and squeezes her hand. "I thought I lost you," Well, that's impossible, I'm lying right here, she thought as he continues to caress her face with his thumb. He comes in and out of focus, he's not wearing his pilot uniform anymore, just a worn gray t-shirt and jeans.
"How long have I been out?"
"Just a day," Herc breathed. "Doc's says you got a concussion, I should probably go get him." She heard the chair he was sitting in scrape against the floor, the hand that was still holding her was beginning to untangle itself from her fingers. Instinctively, Angela's hand gripped Herc's as hard as she could, the muscles in her arm tremble, her fingers fall loose but he reasserts his grip. Herc's face is clear enough that she realizes that his eyes are red and his five o'clock shadow is missing.
He moved closer to the bed, she felt her weight shift when he braced his hand beside her pillow on the right. "Hey, I'm not goin' far," He promised. Angela hardly concerns herself with his distance, she does her best to keep her tone steady when she asks, and "Is Chuck alright?"
The faint smile falls from his face, his lips become a thin line. His Adams apple bobs up and down, Herc can't rid himself of the ache that blooms in his chest when he looks at her. "Angela, they were- something happened after I left-"
"Tell me what happened," It wasn't request, it was an order. Her voice is sharp, deadly. She struggled sit upright, reactively she flinched when his hands touched her shoulders. Herc's expression gradually broke as she stared him down. "He didn't make it-"
She shook her head. "That's not true."
The heart monitor quickened in succession with her heartbeat.
"-The Kaiju, it killed him and everyone in the school before they could get out."
"No."
"I'm so sorry, baby. I didn't think-"
Angela felt as though the ground fell out beneath her. She stared at him, her mouth hanging open.
"Angela?" Herc felt her hand go lax in his grasp, his throat closed up when she started to convulse like she was trying not to scream. "Angie, Angela, look at me," Angela moved to rise from the bed, Herc wrapped one arm around her and waist held her back as he shouted for help. Angela Hansen's world collapsed in on her. Her mouth was open, but there was no sound. If she was screaming, it wasn't aloud and it was nowhere Herc could hear her.