Chapter 14

The first town they came to seemed untouched. Some radio song was even playing somewhere, and the electricity seemed to be on. Without the lack of working vehicles and the feeling of emptiness and abandonment you'd think it was still inhabited. They were still careful, though, when the group entered the town.

Nate eyed the buildings carefully, and Shatner stepped lightly around suspicious looking objects. The others didn't appear different besides giving off a feeling of tension. When they had finished a quick sweep of the town, they all stopped in the middle and took a rest.

"Alright," said Nate, "We need a break, and we need some supplies. Let's split up and see what we can find. Non-perishable food items, ammo, weapons, tools, anything that might be helpful."

"Maps," said Shatner, "Maps would be good."

"We couldn't read them," said Nate.

"I can," said Shatner, "4 years of French."

"WHY did you bother with four years of French?" asked Nate.

Shatner shrugged, then answered with, "Because I had four years of Spanish."

Nate shook his head, and rolled his eyes, "Did you now?"

"Yeah," said Shatner, "and 2 years of German, 1 of Russian and 1 of Arabic."

Nate shook his head, and said "And how many Chinese?"

Shatner laughed, "Oh, very funny. Chinese was in semester two, the war happened in semester one!"

Nate's mouth dropped, and even Kevin and Pandora took a few steps back. Shatner shrugged, clearly not seeing what they saw. Iawn and Charles began to laugh, Leo was busy with a broken car he was determined to get into without breaking the glass in it.

"You planning on teaching language much?" asked Nate, "War was pretty inconvenient, huh?"

"The war was inconvenient for EVERYONE, you idiot," said Shatner, "And I was GOING to major in History, thank YOU!"

Nate began to shake his head a little, and rubbed his forehead.

"What about YOU, Flint?" said Shatner, getting offended, "What in God's NAME could you have done before the war? You're HOPELESS! You can't do a THING!"

"Hey," said Nate.

"You already admitted, and obviously prove, that you worked at McDonald's before the war," said Shatner, "And, to be honest, I don't see what on EARTH you could be good for."

Nate crossed his arms. But the conversation was cut short as the group started to disperse. Leo and Charles spotted a toy store, and bolted for it, smashing through the glass and looking around inside. Iawn was about to join him, but he watched as Pandora headed towards a sportsman's shop, and he smiled, looking at his gun, and then following Pandora inside.

Nate shrugged, and headed off his own way. Shatner shook his head, feeling a little angry before cooling down. Kevin shrugged as well, looking around before picking up an iron pipe out of a pile of rubble.

"If we're trekking across France," said Kevin, "I'm going to need a gun. I don't want to be dependant on you if something goes wrong."

"Nothing's going to happen," said Shatner, "But I would feel a lot better if we could arm everyone."

Shatner walked over to several buildings, and looked around inside before sighing to himself and returning back outside.

"This is just ridiculous," he said, after inspecting a molded mess in one of the buildings, "It's like anything of interest has already been taken, by looters or raiders or whatever survivors there might be left."

"Could you really not find anyone from France in the WWBC?" asked Kevin, sounding a little bit concerned as he followed Shatner down the street.

"People FROM France? Yes," answered Shatner, "But… there is no Colony registered TO France. The closest is in Belgium. As far as we know… this place is a dead land."

"Get hit hard in the war?" said Kevin, "We always thought America and Russia was whipped off the face of the map, everywhere else just… was hurt by the war."

"So to speak," said Shatner, "But people didn't take missile defenses into account. America was maimed, and hit bad, but is still habitable and there are a lot of colonies. It was the war that really crippled us, just like the rest of the world. Blowing each other to hell, Soldiers running every which way. Now, there isn't even any 'sides' anymore. God knows what happened. Soldiers abandoned or deserted, entire battalions disappeared… It's madness."

"Yeah," agreed Kevin, "I know. We have three Welsh soldiers back at home. They made it through… just in time I suppose."

"Yeah," said Shatner, stepping through the door of another building on his way towards the sportsman shop, "We just can't ever tell, anymore. You know? Like what happened to all those refugees? What happened to the evacuation plans? There just… seems like there should be MORE people, you know?"

He frowned at the lack of items and he continued down the street and into the sportsman's shop that Pandora and Iawn now shuffled around in. Pandora looked up when Shatner and Kevin walked in. Pandora shook his head, and walked up to Shatner.

"This place was whipped out, either by looters or people trying to escape," said Pandora, holding out his hand, "All I could find is two 12 gauge shells and a 20 gauge shell… that's it."

Shatner grabbed them and observed them, shaking his head. He placed the shells in his pocket and looked around. The place looked like it had been trashed before, and he shook his head.

"Damn," he said, "Well, that means the rest of this town is hit. We won't stay long."

"Hey," yelled Nate's voice from outside, "Check this OUT, dude. Look what I got, man."

Shatner shrugged, and turned to head outside as Kevin walked deeper into the store.

A couple minutes earlier, Nate shrugged and headed off his own way. He didn't care what Shatner had to say about anything. He looked around, but his mind really wasn't on anything. He walked into the first building he could easily get into, some Italian looking restaurant. Nate sat at one of the tables and sighed, rubbing his forehead with his hands and taking off his hat, laying down on the table.

He began to examine the dust-filled restaurant and tried to imagine its hay-day. Before the war, this place would be bustling, full of frenchies ordering and eating. His eyes reached behind the counter, and he jolted up in his seat, grabbing his rifle at the ready.

He pointed it behind the counter, and he knelt down slightly and slowly approached. As he rounded the counter, he saw what he was looking for in full view. A body of an old man.

The body was definitely decaying, and had been here for a while. The old man held some sort of menu in his hand, and he pointed at the wall. His old shirt had blood stains, and Nate could see he was clearly gunned down at some point, and died… pointing at something?

Something about that bothered Nate, a lot. So, he examined the body more, he was definitely sure it was pointing at something. He followed it's pointing, and walked over to the wall. There was a bookshelf, and old, dusty books laid on the shelf. He scratched his head, looking at the shelf. Then he returned to the body.

He checked the body. He couldn't find anything, he had been robbed; wallet stolen, rings taken, anything of any value was gone from him. Nate sighed, and shrugged, picking up the menu from the old man's hands. It was a really think menu, thicker then any he had seen, and opening it up he saw it was the "master menu" with all the specials and all the recipes and prices of everything they could possibly serve.

He saw it was very dusty, and he shook his head. Then, something hit him, he examined the bookcase again. Everything was tightly stacked, every book had it's place. Then, in a small space hidden to the side, Nate noticed one book was missing. Getting up, he compared the whole with the menu, and noticed it was a fit.

"Yes," said Nate, smiling, "What are you hiding?"

Nate peeked inside the whole, and found a lever. Smiling, he reached in and pulled, hard, on the lever. Something behind the book case turned, and sliding and levers and cogs were heard turning and sliding inside. Nate smiled, and tugged, hard, on the bookcase, and it slid aside like it was on butter. Nate looked around inside, sweeping his gun from side to side, then he allowed his jaw to drop, and he stepped inside.

Shatner walked out of the sportsman shop, and noticed Nate jogging up the street, examining his arms. Shatner spread his arms out, shaking his head.

"What?" asked Shatner, when Nate was in a reachable distance.

"Dude you gotta see these," said Nate, "I totally found the coolest thing ever, of all time. Watch.

Nate extended his arm and in one, lucid motion, pulled it back, making an action face. A blade shot out of his sleeve of his leather coat from his wrist area, and extended out a good ways, past his clenched fist. Shatner looked in surprise, before folding his arms.

"Boo-Yeah," said Nate, staying in a pose, before examining the blade again.

"What is that?" asked Shatner.

"I'm not sure," said Nate, not taking his eyes off the blade, holding it in front of his face, but extending it slightly as if to show Shatner.

Shatner reached out towards it, but Nate retracted back, "No, mine."

Shatner hardened his face, and shook his head. He crossed his arms and looked at Nate.

"It's some sort of contraption that straps on here, dude," said Nate, pulling back his wrist and revealing some sort of brace-looking this strapped to his wrist, "At has all these really cool features, what does this do?"

"No, don't do-" started Shatner, but Nate hit a button.

The blade retracted, and something else shot out, from the opposite side of the wrist (back of hand) and a light flame lit. Nate's face lit up with the flame, and Shatner sighed.

"Now, what's the point of that?" asked Shatner.

"I… don't know," said Nate, "But that is one, sweet-ass cigarette lighter, no?"

"Oh, my," said Shatner, shaking his head, "Where did you find it, Flint?"

"There's this I-talian restaurant down the street, I just-"

"Stop, did you just say… 'I-talian'?" asked Shatner.

"Yes," said Nate, "You know, from Italy."

"Yes, I know. It's Italian," said Shatner, "One word, all together. Italian."

"Tomatoes, tomotoes," said Nate, rolling his eyes, "Potatoes, pototoes, taters… it's politics, dude."

"There's a difference," said Shatner, "One you sound racists as hell, the other is the RIGHT way."

"Which makes you sound racists?" asked Nate, "You better not say taters…"

Shatner rolled his eyes, and knelt down, rubbing his head, "What…a…CHILD!"

"Anyway, it was in some sort of secret passage. There was an old bolt-action rifle… looks like a Le Enfield, and an Italian Shotgun, double barreled. There's a lot of shotgun shells, but the Le Enfield won't have many shots."

"That's ok," said Shatner, "Now we can arm Kevin and one more of the Brits. So there was an entire room in the back?"

"Yeah… sorta," said Nate, stepping back a little, "But, I also found these," he referenced to both his wrists, and two blades shot out of each one.

"There's two of them?" asked Shatner.

"Oh… hell yeah," said Nate, "I feel so frickin' awesome right now."

Shatner sighed again, and said, "Well, at least you got something out of the deal, are they comfortable? Not going to hinder us?"

"Comfortable?" asked Nate, "These are great! Besides a slight weight of all the stuff, when everything's retracted it doesn't inhibit a thing. It's like nothing is there. I haven't even got it caught on my jacket, it's awesome."

"Alright, then," said Shatner, "So, show us to this room so that we can get out of here, and stop playing with it, you're going to… cut yourself or something."

"Hey, by the way, moshure," said Nate, reaching behind him, "Look what I got for you, viola!"

Nate protruded a bunch of rolled up maps from behind his back, and Shatner smiled.

"Alright, maybe this is good news," said Shatner, looking over the maps, "A lot of this is outdated… some of them are maps of Paris… Ah, here we go. It's slightly outdated, but it shows where we are, and it shows a lot of Paris. We can use this for a while, at least. Let's visit this room of yours and get the hell out of this town."

They walked out of the small French town, and they were rejuvenated with a new fire. Now dried up, they were happier. Kevin now held a double barreled shotgun, and after eight rounds of rock-paper-scissors, Leonard came out the victor of the Le Enfield, and all 4 bullets in which it held. Shatner now led them, smiling with the map or two he held.

"You know," he commented a mile or so out, "I feel really bad about all this. You know, there was a lot of documents and records and… STUFF back there that would've probably been worth a fortune back in the good old days, you know? It seems a shame leaving all that history back there to rot. I wonder what it was all about."

"I don't know," commented Kevin, "But that old dude knew how to fight, and he definitely knew how to hide things. I wish we had-"

"I think that he should have had some sort of vehicle in there," said Nate, "I am so sick of walking. I mean, oh my gosh!"

Shatner shook his head, and he had no words for Nate. They continued to walk, and then the kids began getting restless and hummed to themselves, each one humming a different song. Nate smiled, but didn't join.

Shatner began to get angry, more and more annoyed as they continued on. It continued, for a WHILE, until they all hummed the same basic tune. Kevin began to get uneasy, and he made his way beside Nate.

"So… the younger ones… the English. Do they serve a real purpose?" he asked.

Nate smiled and turned towards Kevin, thinking it over before speaking.

"Besides 'cannon fodder'," said Kevin, trying to laugh it off, then he got serious again, saying, "Unless you're serious… is that their only purpose?"

"Please," said Nate, "Don't give them so much credit. I can't imagine being in a tough situation with those clowns."

"Then why are they… here?" he asked, lowering his tone as to not be heard.

Nate smiled again, before his face hardening, and his smile disappeared.

"Umm… they are here… because…" Nate had never really thought about it.

In the short time he had been with ANYBODY, really, he never even thought about asking what their "use" was. He scratched his head, and rubbed the stubble on his chin.

"They keep Beatle Bailey, over there, from going completely insane… and they drive me insane," answered Nate after a bit, "And, truly, I don't really know. Shatner's idea to keep them."

"What's my idea?" asked Shatner, turning around.

"Nothing," said Nate, "Did someone say something?"

"What are you talking about?" said Shatner.

Kevin went to explain, but Nate shoved him, almost pushing him over. Kevin glared at him, and Nate acted like nothing happened.

"You hear that…. Music?" dodged Nate.

"Yeah, I kinda do," said Shatner through clenched teeth, and he turned to glare at the group, "Hey, what did I say about singing? No singing, at all, alright? None! You are so ANOYING!"

They all were silent, and Pandora and Leo even crossed their arms in disappointment. It was silent for a little bit, but then Shatner and Nate noticed the tune still played. Shatner through up his hands in defeat.

"Great! Now I am going insane because of you KIDS!" yelled Shatner, "Oh, I am going to-"

"Wait, stop," said Nate, throwing up his hand, "I hear it to, where's that coming from?"

"I think it's coming from him," said Kevin, pointing at Shatner.

"Oh, very funny," said Shatner, getting angry.

"No, wait," said Nate, pointing at Shatner as well, "I think he's right."

Shatner stopped a moment and listened, his face becoming very stone-like. Sure enough, a faint musical tone was coming from somewhere on Shatner's person. Nate gave a puzzeled look at Shatner, and Shatner at him. Then, Shatner's head lightened up, as if a lightbulb had been turned on.

"Good LORD," cried Shatner, digging into his clothing, "The satellite Phone!"

"Ha, ha," chuckled Nate, pointing at Shatner, "Ring, ring, Banana Phone? It was the phone… the Phone? Wait, the PHONE!"

"It's them," said Shatner, and he tore off his pack, searching for the phone.

"Who?" said Kevin.

"I totally forgot," said Nate, then he turned to Kevin and the rest, "When we contacted help back at Wales, it's our boys with the plane. They were supposed to call us. We got a PLANE!"

"Yay," said Pandora, then he stopped and thought a moment, "Wait… another plane?"

Shatner finally triumphantly pulled the phone from his back, and turned it on, putting it to his face.

"Hello?" he yelled into the phone, then he took a breath and more calmly said, "This is Brom, I got you."