Fire From The Sky | Book 9 | Brimstone

by Reed, N. C.

“I was noticing that myself,” Abby agreed, also nodding like a bobble head figure.

  “I look fine,” Mikki Reeves commented, examining her arms as if inspecting herself.

  “Me too,” Danica Bennet agreed, also doing a self-inspection.

  “We all look fine, considering the day we've had,” Gray cut the rest off. “But by all means, everyone sit down. We won't have as far to fall, that way.”

  “Who's going to fall?” someone asked just as someone else collapsed. Luckily, they hit an air mattress used for spectators to sit on when watching others play video games.

  “See? She falled a lot furtherer. . .further? yeah further. Further than she had to,” Gray tried to point, but was a few degrees off. “Er'body need to si'down,” she ordered. Everyone found a place on the floor.

  “We all got a reason for being here?” Gray asked, once everyone was as situated as they were going to be. “Other than wanting to kick names and what have and so such?” She was starting to speak nonsensically due to inebriation.

  “I wanted to be here ‘cause I don't ever aim to be put in a cage ever again,” Petra Shannon said firmly. She was a large young woman, only slightly smaller than Mattie Simmons had been. Her arms were firm with muscle and her shoulders broad. “Ever, again,” she stressed.

  “Same here,” Eva Albert agreed. “I can't get any revenge, 'count of they already killed the bastards that killed my family,” a few tears trickled down her face, but she wiped them away. “But I can damn sure kill the next ones,” she raised her glass to cheers from everyone still conscious.

  And thus it was that a group of young women who had already seen the horrors that prowled the world around them now, shared their stories. They would look back in years to come and call it the Unburdening. The baring of their souls and their pain with the only people they were sure could and would understand just what they had been through.

  The only person not present was Jasmine Webb.

  -

  “Jasmine, is that you?” Nate asked, frowning at the young woman sitting Indian fashion on the pad.

  “Yes, sir,” she replied quietly.

  “Are you alright?” Nate asked, concerned.

  “I think so,” she sounded uncertain.

  “You think so?” Nate walked closer and came to her front. “Do you have to guess?”

  “I was married,” Jasmine said, completely off the subject. “Did you know that? I was married. Happy. It was a hard life, but I'm not lazy, so that didn't bother me.”

  “No, you're definitely not lazy,” Nate agreed, wishing he could make Beverly Jackson appear before him. “You proved that when you were in training. One of the hardest workers in the crowd.”

  “It was nothing,” she shrugged. “I'm used to hard work. I never minded it. But then, we left here, after all that work,” she suddenly sounded very sad. “We had made a fine place here, but the old man, he said we were going, and no one tried to argue. Mamma Webb did, just a little, but it didn't matter. Josh was a good man most times, but he was a hard man, and he was stubborn to a fault. Did you know him? I can't recall.”

  “I met him before you guys left,” Nate affirmed. He hadn't heard Jasmine say so much since she'd returned and that was months ago.

  “I guess I was more lucky that Daisy,” he saw the trail of a single tear on Jasmine's cheek in the light. “A lot more lucky than Bernice. Poor Bernie. Lost her husband, and then her baby, and then everything else. We lost so much. So very, very much.” Another tear started flowing. She looked up suddenly, right at him.

  “How do we get that back?” she asked plainly. “How do I get back what I lost?”

  Nate sighed as he folded his legs and collapsed on the ground in front of her, careful to maintain his distance. He was probably the last person this girl needed to talk to, but he feared if he left her alone to go and get Beverly, or called for her over the radio, that Jasmine would flee. Or worse, for her, stop talking. So, he stayed.

  “Jasmine, look at me,” he said softly, and she did.

  “You can't get any of that back, sweetie,” he said softly. “None of us can. We all lose so much, all the time. We look back on things, even good things, and see where they could have been better. Where better decisions could have been made. But what you went through, that can't be undone. Not just for you, but for you sister-in-law or anyone else who had to go through it.”

  “She's not really my sister-in-law anymore, is she?” Jasmine asked absently. “I'm alone, now. It took me all this time to wake up and see that, but I see it now.”

  As if the first two tears had been the signs of a crumbling dam, tears began to roll in ever increasing numbers as Jasmine finally, after all this time, broke down. Broke down and faced what had happened to her. Nate was amazed that she hadn't done this during the difficulty of training, but after what she said, he decided she had focused everything on the hardships she was going through physically, ignoring everything else.

  Sobbing now, Jasmine reached out to him, and Nate embraced her, holding her tight as she buried her face in his shoulder and cried for everything she had lost. For everything she had been through. She cried for a life she could not have again, no matter how desperately she wished for it. Cried for dreams that had been shattered by the violence brought upon her by cowards and thieves.

  She cried for so long that Nate had no real idea how long they sat there. He held her until she stopped shuddering and hiccuping, and her breathing fell into a steady rhythm.

  She had cried herself to sleep.

  As he was wondering what to do, Vicki Tully walked up, making her rounds as part of the night watch. She had a raised eyebrow but said nothing.

  “Help me up,” he whispered. “Try not to wake her.” She did, as Nate straightened his legs and then stood as Vic both help him and made sure that Jasmine didn't fall from his shoulder.

  “Will you get the door?” Nate asked the short trooper and she nodded. Together, the two of them got Jasmine to the clinic, which was blessedly empty at the moment, where they put her in a bed. Nate pulled a curtain around her while Vicki carefully loosened Jasmine's clothing but didn't remove it.

  “What's going on?” Kaitlin had been on call when they had come in, but Nate had motioned for quiet.

  “She had. . .a breakdown, I guess,” he shrugged helplessly. “I was the only one there and she started talking, and then the tears started, and before I knew it, she was bawling her eyes out. She literally cried herself to sleep.”

  “It will be good for her,” Kaitlin murmured. “Crying is the best stress relief there is, and if anyone deserved a good cry, Lord knows it would be her or Daisy.”

  “She feels alone,” Nate told them both. “She feels like she's alone now, with her husband gone. Like that somehow disconnects her from the rest of the Webb family, I guess?” He had no idea how else to explain what she had said.

  “She asked me how she could get back all that she had lost,” he recounted sadly to the two women. “What the hell do you tell a woman who has been through something like that, when she asks how to get it back?” His face looked stricken, as if he were in pain on her behalf. “It might have been the saddest thing I've ever seen,” he whispered.

  “She's strong,” Vicki assured him. “She'll make it, and we'll help her. The first thing is to probably to get Beverly talking to the Webb clan about it.”

  “I'll keep an eye on her tonight, and call Bev in the morning,” Kaitlin promised. “You look like you got other business to attend to,” she smiled at Vicki, who nodded and adjusted her rifle.

  “That I do,” she agreed. “I'll see you guys later.” She slipped quietly out and was gone, leaving brother and sister alone, save for the essentially unconscious Jasmine.

  “Want to talk about it?” Kaitlin asked, as Nate just stood there.

  “What's there to talk about?” Nate asked her. “You know, I've been all over the world, Kait, stopping shit like this from happening to other people, or hunting down the pe
ople that did it and killing them. And I come home to find the same damn thing happening in my own country,” he shook his head and looked at the floor.

  “Was it all for nothing?” he asked the tile floor, it seemed. “I used to tell myself I was making the world a better place,” he raised his head to look at her. “I did. Every time I did something that was terrible, I told myself it was to make the world a better place. For people like you, and Nat.”

  Kaitlin said nothing, just stood and listened. Her brother had never once spoke to her about what he had done when he was in the military. Never. When he said nothing else, she decided to try and speak to him.

  “Nate, you did make the world a better place,” she told him softly. “The animals that hurt Jasmine and the others are gone now, fertilizing a hay field, and you did that. The people who took those young women captive are dead and you did that. You and all the others are keeping this place safe and mostly sane for the rest of us, Nate. Think of what you've done instead of what you couldn't do. No one made the Webb family leave. Don't take the blame for decisions other people make.”

  “Is that the RN talking, or my sister,” Nate grinned at her, and she laughed, very softly.

  “Both,” she hugged him tightly. “You did a good thing, tonight, Nathaniel,” she told him as she pulled back, and held him by the shoulders to look in his eyes. “You did a wonderful thing for her. Take that with you, and go and see Cristina and baby John. Take it easy for a little while, okay?”

  “Yeah,” he nodded, smiling ever so slightly. “Thanks, sis.”

  “That's what big sisters are for,” she smiled brightly. “Now go on.”

  She watched him go, then went immediately to the phone system and connected to the house. She very quickly filled Cristina in on what had happened and warned her to watch Nate's behavior, just in case. Cristina promised to be ready and Kaitlin hung up, going to check on Jasmine.

  Tonight would be a long night no matter what happened.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Oh, my God.”

  Samantha Walters had to force her eyes open, then immediately closed them, hissing at the pain the light of day... no, the light overhead, had caused.

  “Damn,” she heard a young male voice say from very far away. “Looks like someone had a good time.”

  “Keep it down, will ya?” a female voice she didn't quite catch asked thickly. “Tryin'a sleep, here.”

  “No sleeping here,” the young male voice insisted. “Not now, anyway. Got work to do.”

  “We get today off!” someone, Abby? maybe? insisted. Samantha tried to raise up and see, but couldn't quite manage it yet.

  “Well, maybe you do, but the rest of us still gotta work!” the male voice. . .Leon? again, she wasn't sure, shot back. “Y'all wanna keep layin' there, well that's fine, but don't be complaining about noise and light. Y'all was supposed to clean up and close up when you was done, not pass out and... oh, God! What the hell is that smell!” he demanded.

  “Shut. Up.” Abby demanded, finally managing to get to a sitting position.

  “Or what?” Leon demanded. “You don't scare me, Abigail. And right now, any of the little kids could kick your ass. You can't barely open your eyes, even,” he snorted. “Someone puked all over the floor over here! I'm gonna go and look at the roster and check the Operations room, and when I get back, whatever else has been done, you better have cleaned all this. . .this, up! Or I'm telling Aunt Patricia!”

  The door slammed closed hard, causing a chorus of groans from the slowly waking crowd.

  “I hate that little shit,” Abby muttered as she made it to her feet.

  “Damn,” Talia Gray was the next to stir as Leon stomped away. “What the hell is that smell?”

  “Someone couldn't hold their booze,” Amanda Lowery grumbled. “Or much else, it smells like,” she added with a wrinkled nose. “Good grief. We need to get the door open and air this place out. Maybe turn the fans on.”

  “I got it,” Abby said, staggering slightly as she began to move. Samantha had managed to make it to a sitting position and was now trying to get to her feet. Abby grabbed her friend's arm and helped, hauling the much smaller woman upright.

  “I'll get the back door,” Sam told her.

  “Like hell,” Abby was already past her and moving away. “That's where the bathroom is! I'll get the back door, thank you. You get the front door, and then hit the fans.”

  “I called it first,” Sam was indignant. Or at least as close to indignant as she could manage in her state.

  “Today doesn't work like that,” Abby insisted. “And see if you can find out who threw up!”

  -

  “What's in your bonnet, Ace?” Millie asked as Leon stomped into the radio room. Millie had the morning watch alone since there wasn't much traffic lately.

  “That bunch of wanna be soldiers ruined my club, that's what's wrong!” Leon told her as he grabbed the clipboard with the roster and looked at it. “Someone puked all over the front and it smells like someone was too lazy to go to the john, too. All I asked was not to mess things up, and to clean up when they were done. Now I ask you, is that too much of a burden?”

  “Apparently,” she shrugged. “Sounds like they tied one on.”

  “You'd have to see it to believe it.”

  -

  “I am not cleaning that up,” Sam said as she stepped past what looked like Jena Waller, sprawled on the floor next to a puddle of... ew.

  “Neither am I,” Kim Powers muttered, right behind her. “She should have stopped after one.”

  “I think we all should have,” Sam remarked as she reached the door. “Once we get some-, ahhh!” She cut herself off with a yell as she opened the door to bright sunshine beaming down on them.

  “Close it, close it!” Kim shouted. Sam did so, effectively blinded for the moment.

  “That was a mistake,” Sam mentioned.

  “Never been drunk or hungover, have you?” Kim snorted.

  “Never,” Sam agreed.

  “Well, it won't get better for a while,” Kim promised. “And like it or not, we're gonna have to face that ball of fire. We have to vent this place before a bunch of much more hungover people start waking up to smell this-,” In the background, someone retched, followed by the sounds of someone losing whatever was in their stomach.

  “Too late,” Sam muttered.

  “Okay, I'm gonna need to get outside, or I'm gonna make it worse,” Kim was holding her hand over her mouth and nose now. “Move!”

  The former cheerleader bounded to the door and was outside before Sam could even reply. Amanda Lowery followed, opening the door and propping it open. A small breeze coming through indicated that Abby had opened the back door in a similar manner.

  “Where are these fans at?” Amanda asked Sam. “The last thing we need is any more to clean up.”

  -

  Leon resisted, barely, the desire to bust back into his club with an air horn, blasting the deafening tone through the building. He was still angry, but he wasn't that angry. Though that might change if things weren't cleaned up. He had waited an hour with Millie, doing busy work that he would have done sometime during the day, anyway, visiting with her as he did so.

  The two of them had danced around each other for a while, he more than Millie, before admitting their feelings out loud to one another. Both had pretty much figured it out by that point, but it still needed to be said. Once it was, the two had settled into a comfortable relationship with each other. Much faster than his sister and Heath Kelly had, in fact. Not that Leon was keeping score or anything.

  Seeing the door opened, Leon prepared for the worst as he stepped into the open doorway. Inside, Talia Gray was finishing up with mopping the floor while others straightened the room and put things where they belonged. The building now smelled of lemon and pine and disinfectant. He noticed that not everyone was still there.

  “Looks like the others ditched the rest of you,” he mentioned as he stepped
inside.

  “They were just making it worse,” Gray shook her head. “Light weights, the whole bunch,” she snorted. “The ones who could manage the smell stayed to clean things up. And sorry, by the way,” she told the much younger Leon. “That wasn't the plan when we met up over here. Nate gave us that bottle, though, and, well, here we are.”

  “I assume you at least had fun getting to this point?” Leon asked, mollified now that his precious club was being righted. That had been a lot of hard work.

  “Well, we did at first,” Gray sighed. “Went downhill somewhere around maybe the third shot, I guess. After the fifth, things are really fuzzy,” she snorted. “We're almost finished. Give us another twenty minutes, maybe, and things will be right. Promise,” she crossed her heart with a pained grin. “We might want to rent this place again, after all.

  Over my dead body, Leon thought as he headed out again. Knowing that if they asked nicely, he'd cave in and let them. Dammit.

  -

  Jasmine Webb came awake slowly at first, but when she didn't immediately recognize her surroundings she panicked, sitting straight up in bed and grabbing instinctively at her clothing. Which was why neither Vicki nor Kaitlin had tried to remove them, merely loosened them enough to let her be comfortable.

  She recognized the clinic after a few seconds of panic. She was on a hospital bed with a curtain pulled around her. She also realized she felt better than she had in a very long time. As if some great weight that had been pushing down on her had been removed. She moved her legs to the side of the bed and stood, stretching just a little, before tightening her belt and shirt. Presentable, she stepped around the curtain to find Beverly Jackson and Jaylyn Thatcher talking quietly.

  “Why am I in the infirmary?” Jasmine asked. Startled, the two other women jumped slightly before laughing at each other.

  “You needed a place to sleep, honey,” Beverly told her, smiling. “You had a long night, after you had already had a long day. How do you feel?”

  “I feel pretty good, actually,” Jasmine admitted, the words sounding strange in her ears. “Better than I have in a long time, to be honest.”