The End of the Beginning

by Eichholz, Zachary

  “No…” Hernandez mumbled.

  The sound of the engines sucking in air became deafening. William felt the raindrops on his skin stop. The massive wing of the plane swept over top of him, as he lay flat on his back on the roof with his feet towards the cab. His patrol car broke free from Hernandez’s truck as it was crushed into the Phoenix’s engine. The roof of the patrol car was sheered off and sucked up into the engine, destroying its intake fan and sending shrapnel deep inside the turbine.

  Hernandez cleared the planes tail as the engine exploded. William rolled onto his belly to see. The explosion spread into the wing above, igniting the fully fueled wing tanks. The entire wing blasted apart in fire. Debris pierced the main fuselage of the tanker and its interior fuel bladders. These exploded all at once, releasing an enormous detonation that formed an instantaneous condensation dome around its shockwave. It reverberated out across the airport, hitting William like a wall, nearly pushing him off the roof of the truck. Every window in the truck shattered.

  With his ears still ringing, William composed himself. He swung around and crawled over the cab looking for his P90. It was gone.

  “Get ready Pate, here we come!” he shouted over his radio.

  William grabbed the top lip of the windshield and looked down. He saw the glass was gone. He threw his legs out over the front of the cab and swung them back in, pounding his boots into Hernandez’s chest. It caught Hernandez by surprise who gasped for breath from the hit. William kicked the chief down over into the middle seat. William quickly took his place at the wheel and turned the truck south into the adjacent runway. They sped across it only to come to the bases second runway.

  Hernandez drew his handgun but William grabbed his arm and knocked it down against the dashboard, dislodging the gun from his hand, sending it flying out the broken windshield. Hernandez drew his knife instead. He plunged it towards William’s right arm, striking through his uniform and into his skin. William didn’t even feel it though he was on so much adrenaline. He took his left hand off the steering wheel and grabbed Hernandez’s knife, driving it up into the ceiling of the cab. Hernandez picked his right leg up and kicked William in the face so hard a tooth came out. William fell against the driver side door, giving Hernandez the chance to get back up and try and take control of the truck.

  He took his knife out of the ceiling and held it at William’s throat, slowly pressing it against his skin.

  “Did she tell you to kill me?” he asked bluntly. “Did she?!”

  “I don’t need Hammond to tell me to do that,” William scowled.

  “Ha,” Hernandez laughed. “I would think she’d do it herself.”

  “I trusted you as a friend. You used me. You used our friendship to distance me from Hammond, and even John! You tried to turn me against everyone!”

  “Hammond doesn’t care about you! All she cares about is finishing her mission of individualistic retribution,” Hernandez said through his teeth. “She is just a selfish old woman, who does not care for this world or for the many in it. All she seeks is for someway to have her own failures be forgiven while hiding the true reason for those failures.”

  “W-What, what are you talking about?” William choked. “What is she hiding?”

  Hernandez smiled. “History, in more ways then you know, belongs to Terra Nova. She knows this history, this secret; a secret about what this place really is…”

  “What s-secret?” stuttered William.

  “A secret that, should the world discover, would bring UNIRO down, and with it, her last chance for retribution.”

  “You’re lying,” said William, beginning to feel the knife slice into his skin.

  “Hm. I wouldn’t expect a feeble mind such as yours to understand the bigger picture here. You are weak, Will. Your search for stability blinds you, just as it blinds this world. Civilization will trust anyone who comes along and promises greatness, even if they are monsters.”

  “No one w-will trust Terra Nova!”

  “Who said anything about the world trusting Terra Nova?” Hernandez grinned. “You see, I don’t serve the monsters blindly, you do!”

  Hernandez began moving his arm back to cut William’s throat but William kneed him in the stomach. Hernandez dropped the knife. He viciously grabbed Hernandez’s scalp and started repeatedly smashing his head against the dashboard. Blow after blow cracked the dashboard’s various monitors, cutting Hernandez’s head. William grabbed the wheel again with his left hand and took the truck out of the second runway and began heading over to the airports southern hangars.

  “We’re in position, Captain!” DJ called over the radio.

  William tried to answer but Hernandez, now bleeding profusely from his head, tackled him, pushing him out through the driver side door. William held on to the doorframe with his right hand and the inner door handle with his left. His boots were dragging across the tarmac.

  Hernandez kicked William’s left elbow, breaking it. William screamed in pain despite the adrenaline.

  “How appropriate! Your grandparents were in the exact same position as you, with death so clearly ahead of them!” Hernandez shouted, looking down at William, retaking control of the vehicle.

  “Maybe you should look and see what’s clearly ahead of you!” William shouted back.

  Hernandez looked up to see the horizontal stabilizer of a Phoenix aircraft. He swerved hard to the left. The stabilizer tore through the roof of the cab, just missing Hernandez. It continued back through the length of the truck, decapitating the trucks entire roof. The roof pillars of the cab, now twisted, held up nothing, letting the driving rain pour in.

  With his good arm William lifted himself up and bit Hernandez’s left thigh, breaking deep into his skin. Hernandez shouted in agony. As this was happening, the truck found its way in between two grass-roofed hangars. Through his pain, Hernandez looked around for his knife. William crawled his way back into the cab to where he could rest his feet on the runningboard. He punched Hernandez as hard as he could in the left temple with his right arm. William reached out of the truck with his good arm and grabbed a fire extinguisher just behind the doorframe. He pulled the pin and sprayed Hernandez with the extinguishers fine white powder, clogging his eyes, nose, and mouth. William then hit him over the head with it, knocking him to the seat. Hernandez was not unconscious but he was severely dazed.

  William shoved his groaning body over and took the wheel. He turned the vehicle right, running along the back of a hangar. William put his foot on the brake to slow down but nothing happened.

  “Crap,” he mumbled. He pressed the pedal again. The truck stayed at the same speed. “Pate,” panted William, “you copy?”

  “Copy, sir. You coming?”

  “I’m coming to you. There’s no going back now. My brakes are out.”

  “Copy, Captain. Are you sure about this, sir? Have you thought about how you’re going to get out?”

  “No, but, hopefully very carefully.”

  Hernandez coughed some powder out of his throat. His daze cleared. On the floorboard Hernandez saw his knife protruding out of some debris. He silently grabbed it, squeezed it, then shot up in a cloud of powder and tried to savagely stab William. A bump in the pavement made Hernandez miss his mark of William’s abdomen though, instead making him stab William’s right shoulder just over his collarbone. Blood squirted out. Hernandez left the knife in and then punched William, kicking his head back to the corner of the cab.

  Hernandez moved back over the soaked seats to the wheel. William opened his eyes to see the unbuckled seatbelt fluttering in the breeze of the open door. With an animal like groan William ripped the knife out of his shoulder, cut the seatbelt just above the clip, and threw the knife out the door. He elbowed Hernandez in the head with his right arm, giving him the quick opportunity he needed to extend and thread the belt through a series of zip tie handcuffs on Hernandez’s vest. William pulled the belt further and looped it through the steering wheel. He wrapped it arou
nd the wheel several times and tied it off.

  William felt around Hernandez’s vest. He opened one of the pockets and found the flash drive Hammond desired. The truck passed hangar number seven. William was waiting for them to pass in between hangars eight and nine. They were a hundred feet from this location.

  “Pate,” William radioed. “We’re almost there. Just a few more seconds!”

  Hernandez grabbed the hand William was holding the flash drive with. Blood was dripping from his mouth, soaking into the fire extinguisher powder on his face.

  “Change is now destined. No matter what happens after today, Terra Nova will win. It’s only a matter of time,” Hernandez warned. “We’ve made our first cut to societies few… just the first of many. It’s their turn to bleed, their turn to be afraid…”

  “No one is going to be afraid after today,” William said ardently, “least of all, me.”

  The end of hangar eight was just feet away. They were moving at forty miles per hour. William removed his foot from the accelerator, and his hand from Hernandez’s grasps.

  “Now, Pate! Now!”

  William jumped from the moving vehicle and rolled across the pavement, landing on his broken arm.

  Hernandez lunged after him but was held back by the seatbelt wrapped around the wheel and through the zip ties on his vest. The zip ties tightened with the strain. It was to late by the time Hernandez realized his entrapment. He heard the thundering of jet engines. He looked over the dashboard to his right as the truck came out from behind hangar eight into the day’s first true sunlight. Phoenix 17, an Antonov An-124-102 four engine cargo aircraft, second largest by volume in UNIRO’s fleet, stood waiting, its tail pointing due south.

  ...

  “He’s behind us, man!” cried Simba, in the copilots seat.

  “Have a nice flight, bitch,” smiled DJ, throwing the planes four 51,000 pound thrust capable engines to full throttle.

  ...

  Hernandez shielded his face with his arms. The truck entered through the first engines jet blast, exposing it to a hot stream of air moving at well over a hundred miles per hour, even at fifty feet behind the plane. The truck shuddered violently. Its antennas were ripped off. Loose debris was stripped away. Rushing hot air got under the large truck and lifted it clear off the ground, flipping it in midair at a height of twenty feet.

  William managed to watch the truck crash back into the ground cab first, crushing it. The jet blast continued to push what was left of the vehicle for another thirty feet or so until it came to rest against another planes fuselage.

  As adrenaline faded, the pain across William’s body increased. He couldn’t move his broken arm. He tasted blood in his mouth so he spit. More than enough came out. He put pressure on his stab wound. Sirens and flashing lights approached from the east. William turned on his back to see dozens of ISAF vehicles speeding towards him. He raised his right arm to show his position. The rain had finally stopped.

  An ambulance drove up next to William. Heather appeared over him, as did Hammond with additional medics. Overhead, an ISAF helicopter flew by with that sound, the sound that had followed William throughout his life. Thump, thump, thump, thump.

  “John…” William murmured. “How’s John… Where…”

  “Easy, Captain,” calmed Heather. “Your in a bad way. Just stay still. John is still alive. He’s still alive,” she smiled.

  Hammond leaned down into William’s ear and whispered, “Do you have it?”

  William glared up at her. “Destroyed,” he groaned, subtly hiding the drive in one of his pants pockets. “Destroyed.”

  Hammond stood up, looking over at the mangled truck. At least twenty guardsmen were already circling it, their guns aimed at the cab. She sighed.

  William felt himself being moved onto a stretcher. The world lost its sounds. His eyelids grew heavier and heavier with the tugging of exhaustion. Medics were checking his vitals. One was taking blood pressure. Another was holding his stab wound, putting gauze over it. Heather was wiping his face with disinfecting wipes and water. He felt someone grab his hand and gently squeeze it. William looked down his body to see who it was. He saw his grandfather, then, with a smile on his face, he passed out.

  CHAPTER 83: We’ll Rebuild

  William awoke to his team surrounding him in his hospital room. Jake and Nancy were there as well.

  “Captain,” said Seong. “Captain.”

  “Lieu… Lieutenant,” William mumbled. He had a bruise on his swollen face the size of a tennis ball.

  “How you feeling Bossman?” Simba asked.

  “I don’t feel anything,” said William, looking over his body. “Is that bad?”

  “No,” laughed Heather. “Those are the pain killers, Captain. Be glad you can’t feel anything. You took quite a beating. You have a broken left elbow, a cracked rib, your missing a molar, and you lost a fair bit of blood. Fifty-seven cumulative stitches took care of that. Compared to you though, Hernandez got it way worse.”

  “He’s alive?” asked William. “What happened to him?”

  “He is still alive… barely,” said Vega. “He is in the ICU. The crash broke over half the bones in his body they say.”

  “How long was I out?” William groaned.

  “Just over a day. It’s Saturday,” Vinny informed. “Hurry and get better so we can have a weekend. We got training again on Monday!”

  Everyone chuckled.

  “You did it, Captain,” phrased Mario. “You stopped Hernandez from taking over this base. You stopped Terra Nova.”

  “My brother thanks you, sir. I thank you,” bowed Sergey.

  “Yeah,” agreed Paul. “And, an attack never came. Terra Nova was blowing smoke.”

  “The US and Russian navies have secured St. Lawrence; the world leaders are safe and returning to their home countries,” said Jake. “The feds are here now though. FBI and Homeland Security. They are taking Hernandez once he his healthy enough to move. I don’t think they trust ISAF anymore… or UNIRO.”

  “That trust will have to be rebuilt,” said William, looking at Jake. “And it will. We’ll rebuild it, together.”

  “Yes, we will,” smiled Jake, holding Nancy’s hand.

  “Where is John?” William asked hesitantly.

  “He is currently in surgery,” said Nancy. “His second surgery… The bullet just missed his heart.”

  “I need to see him,” William moaned, trying to sit up. “I need to see him.”

  His left arm was is in sling. He removed IV’s from his good arm with his mouth. Heather tried to stop him but Vega stopped her.

  “Capt - ”

  “Let him go,” she said softly.

  William groaned as he stepped off the bed. DJ and Heather helped him catch his balance but he waved them away.

  “I’m okay, I’m okay…”

  As William reached the door to the hospital room he said wholeheartedly, without turning around, “Thank you all. I didn’t save the base or stop Hernandez, we did.”

  CHAPTER 84: Our Sins Will Continue

  Hammond watched through the glass window of the operating rooms adjacent observation area. She was alone. Doctors surrounded Colonel Morrison. She watched the electronic monitor that was displaying John’s heart rate. The room was soaked in gentle blue light. Through large screens above the room’s windows she could see the live feed from a miniature camera mounted on the end of a robotic arm that was maneuvering it’s way around John’s heart with unshakable grace. It was nearing the remains of the bullet.

  A commotion at the observation room’s door made her walk over to it. She opened it to find William outside. The ISAF guardsmen who had been assigned to watch over Hammond were not letting William enter.

  “Stand down Guardsmen,” she ordered. “It is okay. Let him in. He deserves to see.”

  The two guardsmen stepped aside. Hammond held the door open for William, letting him go in first. William hobbled over to the window, putting his right hand
on the glass.

  “I didn’t expect you to be up and about so quickly, Captain,” said Hammond, walking past William to where she had originally been standing, “especially after what you did yesterday. Your fortunate your not in their with John.”

  “Is he going to be alright, ma’am?” William asked with an uncaring tone for anything else.

  “They think so. This operation should remove the last of the bullet. It lodged itself several centimeters right of his aortic arch. He is very lucky.”

  “Is he?” said William cynically.

  “Yes,” said Hammond. “We all are, thanks to you, Captain.”

  After a long awkward pause Hammond sighed. She looked down at the floor. She held her hands behind her back.

  “Listen, Captain,” she said, “I… I know our relationship has been… difficult, since you came here. There has certainly been tension; this is no secret. But, I hope, moving forward from today we can begin to remedy that tension and work together. We live in times that cannot afford tension amongst allies.”

  “Is that what we are now ma’am, allies?” grimaced William. “You know far more than you pretend. Hernandez certainly believed so. He made that pretty clear in the cab of that truck yesterday.”

  “You’re going to trust the word of the man who nearly killed your best friend?” Hammond asked.

  William shook his head. “I don’t know who to trust anymore ma’am, least of all you. Whatever it is your hiding, it won’t stay hidden for much longer. The entire worlds attention has now turned to UNIRO, this base, and you. Questions will be asked and answers will be wanted. Are you prepared to give those answers?”

  “The world cannot know the truth. If it does, then we will lose.”

  “What will we lose?”

  “UNIRO, Captain. We’ll lose UNIRO. I, will lose UNIRO,” Hammond whispered angrily. “I will die first before this organization is taken from me. It has come to far to fall. It is all that is left to redeem this world, to redeem me. I think you of all people can understand that, Captain.”

  “My God… Hernandez was right…”