The Dying of the Light (Book 3): Beginning

by Jason Kristopher

  David pretended not to notice the tears in his son’s eyes and hugged him back. “I have to, son. You know that. There’s no one else to fly the plane.”

  “Then… Then… Oh, hell, I don’t know. But you’re not going.”

  David looked over his son’s head at Kimberly with a questioning glance, and she shook her head. Neither one of them knew where this outburst was coming from, given their son’s usual steady and reserved behavior.

  George pulled at his father and tried to drag him off the plane. For a teenager on the losing side of skinny, he had surprising strength. He managed to drag his father down the ramp, protesting the whole time.

  Kimberly put a hand on her son’s shoulder, but the younger man shook it off, still tugging on his father. “We’re getting out of here, Dad. You’re not going.”

  David glanced around and saw that he had a few minutes until final loading was complete. He decided that he could take the time to assuage his son’s grief. “Okay, son, let’s go over to the Humvee and talk about it.”

  They moved over to the Humvee. Neither saw the slender shape moving out of the shadow of a crate and into the loading area of the plane.

  Eden glanced only once over at her brother as he played the sobbing son card so well for her parents. He had distracted their attention long enough for her to slip aboard the plane. She hated having to trick them and knew they would think she lied, but she’d been truthful when she said she was going to do everything she could to help. Her help just wasn’t going to come in the nice little package that they were expecting.

  She’d talked to CJ, one of her ex-whatevers, and tried to convince him to let her on the plane. But he’d already been warned by her parents against just such a tactic. He seemed resentful that she’d dumped him, but was it her fault he snored so loudly?

  She stifled a giggle as she found a spot to hide between boxes, then grew a little sad. She wasn’t proud of the way she’d treated people in the past, but she’d put that behind her now. Or at least she was really trying. She wouldn’t make that mistake again with anyone’s heart.

  Regardless, she’d had to bribe her baby brother to help her get on board. He didn’t want to either, but a date with the famously loose Sergeant Rosalinda Fernandez had changed his mind. Rosa would show him things he’d never expected to learn. He’d have the time of his life.

  She stifled another giggle and saw that her parents had run out of patience with the act and her dad was now boarding the plane. A quick kiss and hug for her mom, and then he was trotting up the rear ladder. He never even glanced her way.

  Eden settled in for a long flight, making sure her cold-weather gear and oxygen bottle were handy and accessible in her hidey-hole. It was going to get mighty cold and hard to breathe here in the cargo bay.

  The rumble and noise increased as the plane taxied and then began takeoff, and she plugged her ear protectors into her ears in a frantic hurry. It wouldn’t do to lose her hearing now, of all times.

  It was going to be a long flight.

  Des Moines International Airport

  Des Moines, Iowa

  Three hours later, the C-5 rolled to a stop, taxied for a few minutes, and then lowered its loading ramp. A cold cross-breeze came through the loading bay as the nose of the plane raised up. This drive-on, drive-off ability made loading and unloading the Strykers much easier. David heard them rumbling as he clambered down the rear cargo ladder.

  His old friend General Frank Anderson jogged up the ramp as though his seventyish years on this Earth didn’t cause him a bit of worry. David sighed and hoped that he could be in such good shape when he was that age. Hell, he just hoped he’d make it to that age.

  “Frank, it’s good to see you,” David said and held out a hand. The wiry Navy SEAL ignored it and folded David into a bear hug.

  “David, my boy, it’s good to see you too,” the older man said as he stepped back. “It’s been what, ten years? Fifteen?”

  “Something like that, I think. Longer maybe. How’s married life treating you?”

  Anderson snorted. “Never knew what I wanted till I had it, then never wanted to be out so bad.” He laughed. “Nah, it’s great. Morena is amazing.”

  “And your boy? Donald, is it?”

  “Yeah, after that sergeant who saved a bunch of folks on American Samoa. He’s great. Actually, he’s in command while I’m here. Too bad you couldn’t meet him.”

  “Maybe I will, once this is all over. Kim and I will come down for a visit, and you can meet Eden and George.”

  They had a mutual moment of silence as they remembered their revered mentor and friend, George Maxwell.

  “Man, he would’ve had a field day with this,” Anderson said.

  “Damn right,” Blake agreed. “He’d be leading the charge, and there’d be nothing anyone could do to slow him down. Age be damned.”

  “Roger that. At least I can take his place, try to do the job he would’ve done. Big shoes to fill, though.”

  “I wondered about that. Seemed a bit… risky for you.”

  Anderson raised an eyebrow. “Careful, boyo. I can still knock you into next week.”

  “I’d like to see that, I think,” said a voice from back in the cargo bay, and both men turned.

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me!” David yelled as his daughter walked toward them. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing here?”

  Eden sighed and jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “Marquez found me, or you’d never have known I was here until you’d already left.”

  Marquez saluted both men. “Sirs. With respect, I’ll dismiss myself. I’m guessing you have some things to talk about, and I need to get my men squared away.”

  “A good idea, Lieutenant,” David said. He had never been so angry at his daughter. And she was still smiling like she’d done something worth smiling for.

  Marquez exited the plane, and Anderson chuckled. “Well, well, well. Eden Blake, I presume?”

  Eden curtsied for the older man and avoided David’s glare. “At your service… General Anderson?” she said, a question in her voice.

  “I am indeed.”

  “This is… This is… I don’t…” David couldn’t get the words out. He hadn’t been this angry in a long, long time. “Your mother is probably going crazy right now!” He strode forward and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Do you have any idea how stupid this is? Christ, Eden! I thought you’d grown up at least a little. And what about that big speech you made? ‘I’m a different person now’ and all that? Was it just crap?” He let go and thrust her away from him before he stormed down the ramp. “I can’t even look at you right now. Get your ass up the ladder and strap in. You’re not leaving this plane until we get home. For fuck’s sake!”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so mad,” Eden said as she turned to Anderson.

  The general shook his head. “Me either.” Anderson looked sidelong at the young lady. “You take after your mother.”

  Eden managed a half-smile. “I’ve been told that. I’m lucky. She’s beautiful.”

  “And hard headed, stubborn, impulsive, too independent…”

  Eden stopped smiling, and her shoulders fell. “I only did what I thought was right.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” the general said. “It doesn’t matter how you got here or why you came or any of that. The point is, you’re here now.”

  “See?” Eden said and nodded. “That’s what I—”

  “Shut up, Corporal. Right now.”

  “But—”

  “You’re a Hunter, which makes you AEGIS, which makes you mine. Now shut the hell up and do what you’re told or, so help me, I’ll tie you to a seat upstairs myself.”

  Eden was dumbstruck but silent, and Anderson nodded to himself.

  He hoped she’d at least listen to him. He turned as the plane’s loadmaster approached. “Lieutenant, have your copilot take the guys upstairs over to the terminal. Take any you need for extra help to unload
this tub. For those headed to the terminal, our guys over there will show them where to set up. Move out.”

  “Sir,” the loadmaster said and jogged up the stairs two at a time. Muffled shouting came a moment later, followed by the clang of boots on metal as sixty or so soldiers descended the stairs fore and aft.

  Anderson saw three of them peel off at the front to converse with one of the other loadmasters while the rest headed over to the terminal with their duffels on their backs. Anderson turned back to Eden.

  “Now, what the hell am I going to do with you?” he said. She opened her mouth to speak, and he held up a hand. “Save it. I can guess why you’re here. You want to prove to everyone and yourself that you’re not a screwup. That you can be a team player and know the value of doing the right thing, even if it’s hard. I get it, and I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing. That doesn’t make it right. You said one thing and did another. That makes you a liar in my book, regardless of the intent.”

  He paced the width of the cargo bay. “On the one hand, I could send you back home.” He stopped pacing and turned her way as she opened her mouth. She closed it and stared ahead, hands held behind her back at parade rest. “But the truth is, I could use someone here with your skills. Not to mention your immunity, since we haven’t had time to treat the vast majority of our people yet.”

  He turned and paced back the other way. “Downside there is that I need someone I can trust. Someone I can count on to do what I tell them without question or reservation or hesitation. And I don’t know if that’s you at this point.”

  “I believe she’ll earn your trust back, Frank, I really do,” David said from behind them, and they both turned to look at him. “Listen, I hate what she’s done, and we are going to have some serious words over it, but even Dalton would tell you she’s the best Hunter he has.”

  Frank grunted and folded his arms as he looked at the young woman. “That so?”

  David came up next to him. He stared at his daughter with an expression the older man couldn’t read and wouldn’t want to even if he could. “It is. Plus, she has one valuable trait that no one else here has yet.”

  Eden nodded once but otherwise didn’t move from her position.

  “Oh?” Anderson asked.

  “Yeah,” David said, his tone sad and proud at the same time, somehow. “She’s immune.” He motioned to her sleeve, and continued. “Show him.”

  Eden nodded again and removed her jacket, then presented her left arm to the general. The scar of the bite had healed somewhat, but from his own experience with scars, Anderson knew it would always be more than a little gnarly.

  “I know she’s immune. I don’t think there’s anyone in any of the bunkers that doesn’t know that.”

  “It was from a Driebach, Frank.”

  Anderson let out a low whistle and turned to David. “No shit?”

  David shook his head. “No shit. It bit her and she blew its brains out.”

  “That true, Corporal?” Anderson asked as he glanced her way.

  “Yes, sir,” she said as she put her jacket back on.

  One of the loadmasters ran up to David. “Sir, we’ll be ready to roll in six or seven minutes. We’ll be fully fueled by the time we’re unloaded.”

  “Well done. Keep at it.”

  “Yes, sir. We found these, sir, and thought you’d want them.” The soldier dropped a gear bag and jacket at his feet and went back to helping the unloading process.

  “Yours?” David asked with a glance at Eden.

  She nodded, and David looked over at Anderson.

  “You’re in command of the ground forces, General. She’s here of her own free will, and I won’t gainsay your orders, even if I could. But this plane is going back home ASAFP with her or without her. You know as well as I do what’ll happen if Dagger spots one of these sons-of-bitches sitting here.” He looked over at his daughter again. “For what it’s worth, and as much as I don’t want to put my only daughter in harm’s way, I think you should use the hell out of her. She’ll be your best weapon against those monsters.”

  Anderson noticed as Eden crossed her arms and her gaze drifted. Was it possible that she hadn’t considered this aspect of her usefulness before? What could he do with soldiers that were immune even to the Driebachs? Even if it was just one, the potential was big. Security, scouting…

  Frank grunted and turned back to Eden. She just looked through him like he wasn’t even there, which was exactly what she’d been trained to do.

  “I could use her, David. But I won’t promise to pamper her. She’ll be like all my other soldiers. Are you willing to lose her?”

  “Of course not. But she made her choice. She’s old enough. She’s an adult now and knows the risks.”

  Eden nodded. “My job is hunting and killing,” she said without a trace of pride. “It’s what I’m good at. Hell, I’m great at it. AEGIS doesn’t need me back there babysitting. They need me—you need me—out here doing what I do best, putting every last one of those sons-of-bitches in the ground.”

  Anderson was surprised and pleased that she could be so matter-of-fact about her skills, especially after what he’d heard about her sojourn in the woods. And for what it was worth, he agreed with her. “Fine. I’m assuming you’ll want a moment to say goodbye. When you’re done, Ms. Blake, grab your gear and report to Major Mancuso in the terminal. He’s heading up our Hunter squads for this op.”

  Anderson turned and walked down the ramp a little ways, out of earshot to the father and daughter behind him.

  “What am I going to tell your mother?” David said as he looked at his daughter, more grown than she’d ever seemed and still infuriating to an astonishing degree. “How do I explain this?”

  They sat next to each other on two fold-down seats built into the bulkhead of the plane. David was still reeling over the discovery that Eden had snuck aboard, and his daughter didn’t seem eager to help him at all.

  “Maybe…” Eden didn’t look at him. She had her elbows on her knees and held her hands together as she tried to stare a hole through the deck. “Maybe you don’t need to, Dad.”

  “Don’t you get it, Eden? Don’t you understand what this means?” He stood up and walked in a circle. He could feel his heart breaking in his chest with the weight of this choice. His cheeks got hot and he could feel the tears start to well up and for once, he didn’t care. “Sure, you’ve been out there in our little neck of the woods with a few old and toothless walkers and one or two Driebachs. But this is war! War on a scale you’ve never seen or been around. This is so vastly different from everything you’ve done before… You’re asking me to abandon my daughter, my flesh and blood. To let her go off and fight and die and never see her again—”

  He turned around and faced her. “And worse, even worse than that, as if that wasn’t bad enough, you’re making me go home and tell your mother that I just left you here to die. That she doesn’t even get to say goodbye.”

  “Did any of the other Hunters or soldiers get to make a special call home? Of course not.” She stepped closer and laid a hand on his chest. “I was gone for two months. Neither of you got to say goodbye then either. I know you sent out those patrols ‘looking for Driebachs’ to find me.”

  “I’m sorry…”

  “Stop apologizing. It was the right thing to do, and we both know it. Just as we both know this is the right place for me to be.”

  “You’re asking me to choose between the mission and my daughter! How can you ask me that?”

  “Because I have to do this!” Eden shouted.

  He’d held back his tears thus far, but when she began to cry too, even though they were tears of anger, he couldn’t keep them back any longer.

  “Don’t you see, Dad? Don’t you get it? He’s dead because of me!” She wiped a hand across her eyes and sobbed. “His kids are going to grow up without a dad because of me. Because I was reckless and stupid, and now he’s gone and I can’t change it and—”
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  The next thing David knew, he had pulled his daughter against him and she was crying against his chest as he held her. He wished he hadn’t been so stupid. Of course this would’ve affected her, everyone yelling at her for days on end, hating her for years… the stresses she must’ve felt and all while she was, in every sense of the word, a teenager.

  How could he have been so blind?

  “I have… I have to do it for him, Dad. For all of you. I don’t want to let anyone down anymore.” She sniffed and sighed. “I have to be better, and here, I can be. This is where I belong. I can be useful here.”

  David kissed the top of her head and gave her a squeeze, then stepped back as he let her go. “Some days, I count my lucky stars that your brother is nothing like you,” he said with a slight smile.

  “I’m being like me so he doesn’t have to,” she said with a small smile of her own.

  “And then, other days, days like today, you make me so proud…”

  She scrubbed her eyes once more. “Don’t start or we’re both gonna start crying again.” She laughed.

  David shook his head as he wiped his own eyes. “No, no more tears. I really am proud of you. I wasn’t thinking of how tough this must’ve been for you too. That doesn’t excuse what you did, but I think I understand now. I still want to tie you to a seat upstairs, don’t get me wrong.”

  “Just try it,” she said with another laugh.

  “But you’re an adult now, I guess, and you can make your own choices. And you’re right, Anderson can use you here. And I can’t think of anyone else who could protect you better.”

  Eden looked at him under lowered brows. “So I can stay…”

  “It’s not up to me. It never was. And God only knows what I’m going to tell your mother. But you’ve made up your mind. You’re a soldier now. I hope she can see it that way.”

  “Tell her I’m sorry?”

  David shook his head. “You tell her that when you come home. And that’s an order, Hunter.”

  Eden smiled and hugged him again. “Yes, sir, Governor, sir.”