Future Memories

Chapter 17

The next day...

We had risen early in the morning. We ate breakfast, got changed into more suitable clothing, and boarded the chopper. "Are you ready to go?," Tim asked. "All good back here. We are ready to fly," I replied. "Alright, here we go," yelled Tim as the blades started spinning. We lifted off and began our journey to find the twins. We were going from our small town in Pennsylvania to Chicago, Illinois. We were to arrive roughly 3 hours after we left. We passed the time telling stories and looking at the scenery and remnants of destroyed towns and cities. There were places that were lucky enough to be untouched, but those were few and far between. We arrived in Chicago and were immediately met with force. We got out of the chopper and were instantly questioned. "Who the hell are you?," he asked violently. "I am Sergeant Xavier Hudson of the United States Marine Corps. This here is Corporal Brayden Wheeler of the United States Marine Corps. The pilot is First Lieutenant Timothy Elliot of the United States Marine Corps. The woman and the child are my wife and son, sir." I could tell he was a military man by his uniform, patches and tone of voice. He was a major, maybe in his late 30's or early 40's. He was a tall, muscular African American man. He stood at least 3 or 4 inches taller than me. I saluted him and he saluted back. "What are you doing flying a helicopter into this hell hole sergeant?," he asked. "We are looking for two siblings that reside here named Denise and Samson. Our pilot knows them and would like to talk to them," I replied. He looked me in the eyes for a second. "Get me Samson and Denise," he told his men. They went and came back with a pair of people. They looked so much a like. They looked to be my age or a bit younger. They had bright blue eyes and reddish-brown hair. As soon as Tim saw them, he ran up to them and hugged them. "It's been a long time," he said to them. " "It really has," said the boy. Tim brought them over and introduced them. "Xavier and Brayden meet Denise and Samson," he said with a smile. "Nice to meet you," I said with a smile extending my hand. "Likewise," they replied with a smile as I shook their hands. They didn't seem like the fierce, fighter type. Brayden also introduced himself. "Can we have a word with them, um... what's your name sir?," I asked him politely. "Major Johnson is my name," he replied. "Well major, may we have a moment with them to discuss our situation?," I asked. "Go ahead, take your time," he replied. We pulled them aside and explained our situation. "We're in," they said with a ferocity in their eyes. Now I could see the fierce siblings Tim was talking about. We went back and asked for the Major's permission to take them with us. "We have some of their family near our hometown. Lieutenant Elliot would also like to bring them home. They are childhood friends and he would much appreciate having someone he feels close to with him," I explained. "What's in it for me?," he replied. We pulled out some food and water we had found on stops along the way. "We'll give you some of our supplies in exchange for them," I replied. He looked at me and signaled to his guards. They pulled their weapons on us. "I think we'll just take what you have instead," he said with smirk. There was cover right near us. We looked back and forth at each other and knew what to do. We jumped for cover and they opened fire. Thank god Aubrey and Oliver were in the cover of the helicopter. We pulled out our pistols and began to fire back. We heard a few scattered screams meaning were hitting enemies. "You guys run for the chopper, Brayden and I will cover you,"I yelled to Samson and Denise. They nodded and got ready to run. We began to open fire on the enemy and Samson and Denise ran to chopper safely. Brayden and I ran for the chopper and got there safely, or so we thought. I mounted the helicopters mounted machine gun and began to open fire. "Guys, help," Brayden said with a wavy voice. When I turned around, his left arm was bleeding profusely. "I know how to help, I was a nurse and surgeons assistant before the apocalypse," Denise said. "There are bandages in the metal box on the bench!," I yelled to make sure she heard. I heard feet shuffling and began opening fire. The chopper blades began to spin as fast as Tim got into the cockpit. I took out quite a few enemies before we lifted off and got away. After they were out of sight, I went to check on Brayden. He was out cold. "Is he alright,?" I asked frantically. "He'll be fine, he passed out from the pain of removing the bullet that hit him. Luckily it didn't hit any vital blood vessels." I sighed in relief. We talked the whole way home about our early lives and began to get acquainted. Samson was a star athlete and popular kid growing up. He had good grades, lots of friends, and scholarships waiting for him. It was his home life that was bad. He and Denise had been abused growing up and were forced to get strong and fight back. By the time they were 15, they were able to defend themselves from their mother and father. They left home at 16 to go live with a friend. That fell through and eventually became homeless. When Samson was offered a scholarship he instantly took it. He went to school to be a nuclear chemist. When I learned this, I realized he was a necessary asset to our team. He told about how Denise had followed in his footsteps and had equally good grades. She had went to school to become a nurse. She later went on to become a surgeon's assistant. They talked about life after college and how they were finally able to live comfortably for once. They were happy for 5 years, then the apocalypse broke out. They had both just turned 27 years old. Within the first 3 days of the week the apocalypse had been going on for, they lost everything. Their house was destroyed and anything left was taken by the government's military. When we came to get them, they were thrilled to finally find someone willing to stand up to the government. And that led us to now. "That's a very touching story," I said. "You guys are a true inspiration. I'm glad to have you with us in our fight," I said with a smile. "We are glad to be apart of it. We arrived home and found a few more attempts to break in, all failed. We disabled the security system and entered the house. We gave them one of the many rooms of the house to stay in. We gave them pillows and blankets and gave them food for dinner. The rest of us unpacked and settled down and went to bed...

Finding Samson and Denise proved to be a great thing. They helped and are still helping so much in our fight against the government. I can't thank Tim enough for telling me about them....