My Immortal

Chapt 2: 97 Years Before - Part 2

Master Gunnery Sgt Mako Via:

My body felt heavy and tight as I slowly came to. I quickly realized it was my girlfriend's body on top of mine that I was feeling, but that couldn't be right. It meant we'd survived, how could that be? We should have been incinerated at the worst. We should not be whole and relatively unharmed. That was certain.

Kiran moaned softly, as she rolled onto a pile of concrete, off my body. "My head hurts." Her words were slightly slurred, signaling a head injury of some sort.

"We should be dead." I whispered softly as I slowly sat up. "I remember burning..."

Her fingers traced over a fading mark on my arm, a burn that looked years old, as she looked at me. "Either this is hell... or we did survive..."

Climbing to my feet, I slowly turned in a circle, looking beyond the crumbled walls to the destruction that lay around us. The near open sky above us showed that the building we had taken shelter in had been leveled completely. We would need to climb out of this hole, but I spotted an easy looking path. That would be our way out.

"Mako... what happened?"

Turning back toward her, I moved to kneel down next to her. I lifted her chin to look me in the eye. "Kiran... We just did the impossible and survived a nuclear explosion..." I explained softly.

"That's not possible."

"Don't you remember seeing the missile coming? Running for cover in the Medical Building?"

She shook her head. "All I remember is kissing you, a big boom and waking up."

Reaching out, I grabbed her arm and helped her to her feet. She stumbled slightly, unsteady. "Look around you."

She looked around, slightly foggy, but gasped as she saw the wreckage. "What the hell happened? Were we attacked?"

"The nuke, Kiran... I'm pretty sure someone just started World War Three. The world isn't going to survive this. The protection of mutually assured destruction no longer exists." Tugging on her arm, I began leading her up the path I had spotted, and away from the crater not even a full hundred yards away. "Come on, even if we both miraculously have a strong resistance to the radiation, we still only have a small window to get out of here."

She followed, stumbling once again. "Mako, please, what's going on? We were having a picnic and suddenly an explosion, and I'm waking up in a pile of rubble, my head killing me." She was rambling at this point, her thought process clearly altered by the head injury.

"I'm trying Kiran, but we don't have the time for us to wait around and you get your bearings."

She nodded, grabbing a hold of my arm holding her tightly. "Where do we go?"

"As far away from here as possible."

"Ok. Lead the way." Still slightly dazed, she followed step by step. It took nearly 3 hours before we both fell over in exhaustion, on a river bank. "Mako, I can't go any further."

Breathing heavily, I slowly nodded. "I just don't understand how we weren't burned alive." I mumbled more to myself than anything else.

She quickly pulled me into her arms, holding onto the only thing she knew. "Where are we going to go now? The base was just blown to smithereens."

"And everything in a couple mile radius. Honestly, I don't think the base was the target."

"What do you think was the target? The base or the city?"

"The city, but they missed..." Shaking my head, I rubbed at my eyes. "Which likely means that it is someone not very familiar with the layout of the states, which means someone further east into Europe."

"They missed by nearly 75 miles." She ran her fingers through her brunette hair. The short locks still somewhat matted with blood; causing her fingers to get caught in the tangles. Even the slightly shaved section at the back of her head was tinted red. "We have to get to Charleston, and hope that it hasn't been leveled too."

"Kiran... We've been walking for the last three hours in the opposite direction of the city."

"Fucking hell." Leaning against a pole, she took a deep breath. "We can't very well turn around and go back the way we came, so what do we do?"

"Keep moving... We have to get as far away from the radiation zone as possible."

"And after that? They probably think everyone from the base is dead... What do we do then?"

"Lie, tell them we were able to get away in time. Otherwise they'll quarantine us."

She sat quietly for a moment, looking at the river. "We should probably clean up. I doubt they would believe us if we show up looking like we've been beaten, nearly to death in my situation." I could follow her thoughts. She did look like she took a bath in blood.

Gently helping her strip her jacket and shirt off, I led her to the water's edge and helped her clean the blood off. It took nearly twenty minutes for her hair to actually rinse clean. She nodded to me, my arms speckled with blood as well. Once the two of us were clean, we redressed and stood. I watched her deep brown eyes as they cleared up finally. She no longer looked dazed, which filled me with calm. Head injuries are notorious for being extremely dangerous; but it seemed the two of us had healed from the injuries that had been inflicted upon us. She rubbed at her head, as if the pain was fading.

"We were either in Charleston or on our way back when it happened? Do you think that will work?" Her concern echoed in her voice. Our story had to be solid or there would be some questioning that neither of us wanted to get into. "The missile was guided, yet, they missed."

"Do you realize just how old some of these missiles are? How long have they been waiting? I'm not surprised it malfunctioned."

"Still, it wobbled. Almost as if it was trying to correct itself, before we started running."

"It still missed." Grabbing her hand, I pulled her with me as we started walking again.

For the next four hours we walked in near silence, watching as the world fell into chaos around us. I could feel Kiran getting more and more upset. Knowing her, she was likely to lash out and try to fight something. As we passed another crater of a town, bodies everywhere, she snapped. With a scream she launched herself at a still standing tree, her hands swinging wildly. I knew I couldn't get in between her and the tree, she needed to work this out for herself. She would be hurting after this, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. Her arms slowed, she was running low on energy. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pressed my head against her shoulder.

"My love, listen to my words." I spoke softly, knowing she would be able to hear me. "No matter what we see, I will always be with you. The people that did this will pay, the lives lost will be honored. This blood will be answered with blood."

She calmed at my touch and sank against me as I spoke to her.

----------------------------------------------------------------