Free Fall

Chapter 7 Dead inside

Once she was released to return to her home after more than a year of surgery after surgery to help repair the damage to her head face and shoulder, Scarlet was taken to the American Embassy dressed in her class A Dress Uniform. Sure technically she had been proclaimed dead, and she was also given two purple hearts along with the medal of valor, , but all she wanted now was for her honorable discharge to be finalized and to return home where she could hopefully start to rebuild her life. After two years and many surgeries that made her hair have to be carefully shaven off, it was finally grown out to a point that made her look more like a man if you were to look at her from behind. It did nothing to hide the hideous scars that had badly maimed the right side of her body. The plastic surgeons in France even had to construct her a new right ear because of the damage that was done to it when she had been burned. According to them, it would have been far worse had she not shielded herself with her right arm losing it in the process.


She had tried to relax and to do a bit of sightseeing while the Embassy arranged her documents, and her ride home. It was taking longer because she absolutely refused to get onto another plane even if it was to go home, so a ship that crossed the ocean was her only option. She had started out attempting to do some shopping and relaxing, but cut it short after several children screamed, and ran from her and other's called her quazi Moto. Still others looked at her as if they pitied her and more looked down right afraid of her. It depressed her greatly, and had her debating upon how her family would react when they saw her again. Would they fear her? Would they pity her? Worse what if they wanted nothing to do with her at all? She didn't think that she could stand it.


She tried to get ahold of her family only to get no reply, and then tried to call J.J., but his phone always seemed to be turned off or dead. She didn't know which, and prayed that she could get ahold of someone before she got home, otherwise she'd more than likely be walking from the greyhound station. She had no idea that her family would greet her so coldly, or that her beloved J.J. had been forced to take a vacation, until he could get over her loss which he still refused to acknowledge. After a month of travel at sea she made it into the Port of Galveston and walked to the greyhound station there to get a ride into Houston.


While on the bus she tried to call her family and J.J. again to get nothing, and to sink lower into depression. When she stepped off of the bus in Houston, she stepped out onto the streets of down Town Houston, and sighed thoughtfully. Luckily she knew that Eagle lived in a small apartment not far from the station so she started walking through the cold wet night until she reached his door and rang the buzzer repeatedly to rouse him even if he was drunk. He finally answered after five rings in a row with a grouchy tone, that clearly said that he had been asleep. "Damned it, whoever is down there better be dead or dying, because I'm going to fucking kill them." Eagle snarled through the speaker of the intercom.
"How do you feel about those who have risen from the dead who are the walking dead? Furthermore Lieutenant is that any way to speak to your commanding officer after she risked her life to save your worthless ass?" Scarlet growled as her teeth began to chatter slightly in the cold.


"What the fuck, Major Yates, is that really you, or am I dreaming from too much to drink?" Eagle asked in shock.
"Get your lazy ass down here and let me in before I freeze my tits off, you sorry panty sniffing bastard." Scarlet laughed into the intercom. There was a buzz and the door opened to let her in out of the rain, and as she stepped in out of the weather she found herself wrapped in a pair of strong arms and squeezed tightly before she was pulled into the apartment on the ground floor by Eagle who instantly offered to take her coat, and to make her a coffee to warm her up.


"No coffee, please, but I wouldn't object to something a bit stronger." Scarlet said as she removed her coat and hung it by the door before removing her hat.
"Holy Hell, Major, you look like shit! What the hell did they do to you?" Eagle said as he handed over a full tumbler of Jack Denials with no ice.
Scarlet took a long grateful drink of her glass before she spoke. "Let's see they shot me down with armor piercing rounds that started a fire in my cot pit, and burned my face and half of my head, while shattering my right arm beyond repair, and then they did a fucked up half assed job of healing me only so that I wouldn't die while they raped me repeatedly, beat the shit out of me, and then got their desert jewels and their man snakes cut off by me before I slit their sand rat throats." Scarlet said flexing her fingers around the glass.


"That's our Major, give them Hell, and then send them there. Ace and I hoped that you'd make it back. I really didn't want to give these back to J.J." Eagle said as he removed a set of dog tags with two silver and diamond rings on the chain from around his neck and handed them over to her.
"Oh, my god, I thought that the sand rats had taken them from me in my sleep. How did you get them?" Scarlet asked in tears.
"They were found hanging from the left side shoulder strap of the seat in side of your fighter jet. I figured that you'd want them back if you ever returned, and if not, that it would be nice to hand them in to your family. I was going to go and do that tonight , but for some reason, I just couldn't do it. Now I know why." he said as he watched her remove her glove with her teeth and fumble with the chain to remove the rings struggling to put them back on her finger where she hoped that J.J. would think that they still belonged just to change her mind at the last moment and tuck them into her bra where she knew that they'd stay until she removed them.


"Eagle, do you still fly?" she asked in a thoughtful tone.
"Not often, but yes. Why do you ask?"
"Eagle, I can't drive my car any faster than Granny gear, and I'm not quite ready to fly again. If I was to call you up, and ask you to come and get my plane or something else, would you do it for me?" Scarlet asked feeling unnerved.
"Major, Ace and I both owe you our lives. We'd have been killed if not for you taking their attention away from us. There is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing that you could ask either of us to do for you that we wouldn't jump to do. Just say the word, and it's yours. God it's so good to have you home. Speaking of home, does your family know that you're in?" Eagle asked as he poured her another stiff drink.


"No, they haven't picked up the phone. I don't know why but I have been getting funny vibes ever since I arrived in the States. It's almost like they forgot about me and think that I'm dead or something." Scarlet said as she looked down into her glass
"Major, I hate to say it, but to my knowledge that's exactly what they think. They were given a flag and a government document that says that since there has been no news and no sign of your body, that you have been presumed dead. They even put a cross in the Memorial cemetery with your name and such on it. Hell seeing that was what made your brother finally crack I think. As for J.J. he has been in a funk since your plane went down and it's gotten worse. His family insisted that he take a vacation in Wisconsin, though T.J. hasn't told me where." Eagle said in a somber voice.


"Eagle, please take me home, the living dead is about to open a few eyes. I've thought of nothing else accept for getting home. I'm sure that I can straighten things up with J.J. when he comes home, but I really just want to go home, get out of this uniform for the rest of my life, and stay up my families asses for a while." Scarlet said as she drained her tumbler again feeling much warmer now.
"No problem Major. As for tweaking your car so that you can drive it, Ace and I will be over first thing in the morning with parts and will get straight to work on it. I'll just go and get dressed, I'll be right back." he said as he leapt up from the table feeling as if he could do anything at that moment his joy was so great .


---0---

Eagle drove Scarlet home and offered to stay until she got inside, but she told him to go home and to get out of the weather. She stood in the driveway gazing longingly at J.J.'s house as the lightning pierced the sky making J.J.'s house seem so warm and inviting although she knew that he wasn't home, and turned then to run and get into her hanger which was locked . She dropped her duffle on the ground and bent to open the lock with her keys dropping them a few times as she struggled with only having one hand to do this with as the rain pined her body making her cold all over again.


Up in the house Mrs. Yates had gotten up to use the restroom and noticed that someone was at the hanger trying to get into it. She couldn't make out who it was, but if they were stupid enough to be out in this weather they could only be up to no good. She woke her husband who grabbed his gun and a rain coat followed by T.J. who held a bat in his hands. Before T.J. could get a good look at who was at the Hanger door sliding it open with a large heavy looking bag on their shoulder he dropped the bat in shock as the shot from the rifle in his father's hand rang out, shortly followed by a loud feminine scream of pain as the bullet made contact with its target bringing the person at the Hanger door to her knees.


Scarlet had just managed to get the lock off and had just slid open the hanger door about to step inside out of the rain when she suddenly heard a shot from a rifle, and felt the intense burn of the bullet as it hit her directly in what was left of her right shoulder making her scream in pain and shock and sink to her knees in the gravel driveway instantly slumping and grasping her wounded shoulder tightly with her left hand bringing it away to find blood covering her hand. Before she could think she heard the sounds of running feet and was suddenly kicked from behind to land on her face, and then kicked in the ribs to roll her over onto her back by her father of all people.


She blinked in shock as the rifle was leveled between her eyes, and then started to cry in pain feeling as if she just wanted to give up and die as her brother ran up and screamed at his dad to hold his fire. "This is one hell of a welcome home. I guess I should have saw this coming after being missing for two years and reported dead. It's okay, T.J. I'm already dead inside. The crash didn't kill me, the terrorists with their rapes, their starvation, and the daily beatings didn't kill me, the year in rehab and many reconstructive surgeries didn't kill me. Go on dad, Finish me off. I have nothing left to give anyone. Kids run from me in fear, adults either fear me or pity me, just do it. You'd be doing me a favor." Scarlet said as she grabbed the barrel of the rifle and lowered it to her heart.


Confusion, and tears clouded Mr. Yates's eyes and he placed his finger upon the trigger. "Dad, it's Scarlet, don't do it. She's alive." T.J. said as he pushed his father aside and held out his hand to help his sister foo of the ground. They watched as their father walked numbly back into the house slamming the screen door behind him. "Scarlet, fuck, I'm so glad to see that you're alive." T.J. said as he hugged her tightly completely forgetting about the bullet until she winced and clenched her teeth in pain. "Fuck, he did hit you. Come in side. Let me get a look at how bad it is, and we can get some bandage to bound it until we can get you to a hospital." T.J. said as he tossed her duffle into the Open Hanger and pulled his sister into the house.


As they entered the house their mother was serving their father a cup of whiskey and trying to find out what had happened, when T.J. pulled his sister into the kitchen light and ordered her to take off the jacket knowing that she always wore a short sleeved shirt under her uniforms to get a look at the damage. The jacket was soaked in her blood and T.J. frowned when he saw what was left of her arm, well there was no arm, and not the shoulder had a deep hole in it. Their mother screamed when she looked at what was left of her daughter and hid behind their father who frowned seeming not to even care that he had shot his little girl.


"Damned Dad, I told you to hold your fire. The shell went in deep. You could have killed her." T.J. said as he grabbed a big load of gauze and packed the bleeding wound before attempting to wrap it as best as was possible.
"T-that's not my little girl. Scarlet died, she's dead." their mother sobbed turning away from the horrendous sight of the strange looking woman who was bleeding all over the kitchen. That remark made Scarlet's emotions snap, she had, had enough and could handle no more. She knew that it wouldn't be easy but her own emotions drove her over the edge.


"You're right mother, father, I am dead. I'm dead inside. I had come home to my loving family in the hopes of healing and regaining life, but I can see now that , that will not be happening here. You've already accepted my death, a death that was marked by an empty grave. Fine, I can accept that. If you don't want me in your lives, then I'll leave. Before I go though, please allow me to give you something to burry at my grave, since they couldn't give you ashes or a body." she said as she ripped her dog tags over her head and slammed them down on the table before spinning on her heal and marching to the door angrily.


"Oh, and don't worry about my personal things. They'll be out of here by morning, and you'll never have to look at my fucked up mutated face or my missing arm again. I'll send Eagle and Ace over to get my things." she said as she stomped out of the house followed by T.J. who called after her to stop. She managed to get to her car and pulled it out in the lowest gear before T.J. could stop her, and he turned back to his parents and snatched up her dog tags placing them around his neck.
"Mom, Dad, I'm warning you now. If you don't apologize to her, and she leaves. I'm going to move out of the house because I don't want to see your faces after this. How could you treat her so badly? Couldn't you see that she needs us? She's been hurt badly emotionally, mentally, and physically , and has faced death to come back home, and this is how you treat her. Like she's nothing but dirt under your boots. You make me sick." T.J. said as he stomped out into the rain and into the Hanger to help his sister pack her things. He didn't know where she would go, but he knew that he had to get ahold of J.J., before she did something stupid.


He waited up for his sister to return only to have Ace and Eagle show up instead around four in the morning. To say that they looked extremely pissed was an understatement. They packed Scarlet's things into Eagle's truck, and Ace started up the plane and flew it to only he and Scarlet knew where, while Eagle gave T.J. a look that said clearly that he'd keep an eye out for Scarlet and drove away with her things not to be seen again for three weeks. Scarlet had even changed her cell phone number and her other contact information. She had gotten in touch with an old friend of hers and even went so far as to have her name legally changed to a name that J.J. used to always call her when they were alone.


The last thing that she did before vowing never to return to that neighborhood was to place the rings that J.J. had given to her into an envelope addressed to him, with a short letter , and place it into his mailbox. She wasn't seen in that area again, having no desire to live where she obviously wasn't wanted. She moved instead into the exact house with the private beach that J.J. had rented for them to get married at, feeling at peace near the water hoping that when he did return home that he'd not treat her so coldly. If he didn't want her anymore, at least they could hopefully remain friends. He was a handsome man after all, and she was less than she was ,. He could do so much better with another woman far more beautiful, far more pretty than her, and she intended to give him that chance if he wished to take it.