Reconciled in the End

Chapter 25: New Home

After two careful days on foot, a wide expanse came into view. Thomas felt mildly relieved to find the area mostly unbothered. It was a bit of torched grass and concrete runway. Finding several lumps in the distance, he reached the bunker hills nestled in reinforced mounds.

He opened the creaky steel doors with anticipated resistance. They were old after all, and the fires probably didn't help any. In the darkness, he attempted to peruse the supplies. Siren brought out a lantern as she silently commended what they had to work with.

"Welcome home guys," Thomas meekly answered in the hollow sounding space.

Sonji nodded uncertainly, "Thank you guys for at least getting this stuff. I would be dead not knowing what to do. There is nothing else anymore!"

Thomas sat on a crate as he groaned, tired from carrying a pack and staying up as sentry when the others took careful naps in the city. Danger and hostility lurked everywhere. He finally felt he could rest.

"We ought not think of death as a misfortune now. We only linger here to bring truth to the masses. It's only a visit, and then we slip home to where we really belong. The trip will seem only like a blink of the eye. We will endure for one last hope to the blind and stumbling. To those willing to listen," Thomas instructed carefully.

"Like a rescue mission," Siren added.

"Yes," Thomas nodded passionately. His military minded head understood this quite clearly.

"Well soldiers, let's make camp, shall we?" Siren beamed, "I wanna see what Thomas has in here. And Thomas gets all the omelet MREs. I hate those."

The other two laughed as Thomas put his hands in the air. "I knew you didn't like those ones. No worries, you won't have to eat those."

Making light of their situation, all in the party decorated the space. Sonji tried not to cry as she made a cozy corner. Siren helped her cut out cardboard stars to dangle on strings above her using a box cutter. Thomas let them de-stress, a little play was good for them as he focused on inventory. What had actually came? He honestly couldn't remember after such grueling days. Now the turmoil would be long gone. There was no city left, let alone power for network security.

After several days of settling into their quiet existence, Thomas went outside to study the landscape intently on top of the bunker. Smoke rose from a factory over the fence. It wasn't really producing anything, no power to turn on lights or machines. This was a controlled fire, perhaps to keep warm. He wondered about that deeply. They obviously had neighbors here. The question was, who?

The airport itself looked deserted, no lights, no fires, and a huge gash filled the west part of it. The insides burnt up in a horrific way. Most probably ran for their lives, then the field caught on fire all over, trapping and killing in a rampage. The smoke alone suffocated many. Thomas doubted any chance of survival. Now, only charred black laced the outside perimeters.

Thomas just couldn't get used to the environment now, so much soot, and darkness. He had been so busy in his job, so much communication with people until the end, he sat just lost into the silent blackness he now observed.

He honestly felt happy spending his time with Siren now. They had been very discrete in their relationship to respect Sonji, but sleeping next to his wife without the strain of his job had been a dream even in the nightmare of now. To give encouragement, the three studied the Bible throughout their day.

After two weeks holed in their home, Siren grew anxious to explore the remnants of the airport. She wished to see what might work and what supplies existed. They trudged along the crisp ground, a somber reminder of the World's scarring. Thomas came to the building itself, a charred wreck inside. That fire had been devastating as all that was left was a hollow core. Outside, the skeletons of planes set in their permanent graves lined rows of terminals in the once massive airport. Even at night, the ever busy area would have been packed.