Good Night, Good Luck

Chapter III

I get out of the Jeep when I park it and walk up into the camp. Several people recognize me and solute. I smile and do the same back to them, then continue walking. Once I reach the middle of the camp, I see something that was never there six years ago. A huge garden with a fountain and several gorgeous flowers aligned along the edges, but in the center, there are several statues. Kevin, Rob, Aaron, Avery, Andy, and me! They made a monument to us! In the front, I am standing with an automatic rifle with a thoughtful look in my eye. In front of all of the statues is an inscription:

To honor the brave and courageous heroes that stopped a World War III between the United States of America and the evil terrorist group Isis. These people, dead or alive, will go down in American history as those that saved several thousand lives. May God bless these wonderful figures and may they be accepted into Heaven. Thank you...

Avery McCallister         Layla Cerry         Mason Harrison

Kevin Smith                   Robert Gun         Aaron Zachary

Lance Corporal Vill     Lucas Cerry

I smile and walk down a path towards Norah's office, who is the person who gives mission assignments. I look at the area where our compounds used to be. I remember that sense those terrible bombings on the camp seven years ago, that it was destroyed. All that is there now is a flat terrain with a mysterious gated fence on it. I walk over to the area and enter the gate. In the center there are three gravestones.

R. I. P.

Aron Zachary

Member of the Onix team

They did not do much for him, but he only killed three terrorists so he shouldn't be a hero.

R. I. P.

Robert Gunn

Member of the Onix team

The memories of him come back to me. How he saved me in that terrible land. How nice he was. He deserves to live. The last gravestone is the saddest and worst thing I have ever seen in my entire life.

R. I. P

Kevin Smith

Member of the Onix team

Knowing that one of your best friends is dead and will never come back is a burden that will be with you forever. I will never forget that horrible and terrorising explosion that blew him into bits. I am glad that I was able to avenge him, now that those evil people are gone.

I hold back tears and walk away back on the path that leads to Norah. Down the path that also went into the cafeteria. When Josh was alive. That evil person. He betrayed us and his country.

Finally , after five more minutes of walking down endless paths through the camp I arrive at Norah's office. I take a deep breath and walk through the door. The office is the same as it was six years ago. There is a woman sitting behind a desk in the back of the room with her face right against the computer. She looks up with her face in a way that looks like she was so surprised that she just spit a gallon of water every where.

"Lucas! You're- you're back. You look like you have fully recovered!" She yells.

"Yeah," I sigh, "What do you want?"

"Well maybe if you were watching the news this morning, you saw what it was." She says.

"No, I wasn't. Why?"

"Here just watch this," she says as she turns around to grab the remote to her TV. She turns it on, scrolls through all of the channels until she finally finds the news, and what it says is completely unbelievable.

In the city of Harran located in Turkey, there has been a serious and extremely dangerous outbreak that has wiped out its entire population. No one knows what caused this terrible thing to happen, but all we know is that it turns innocent people into man-eating monsters.

I let out a laugh, but Norah looks at me like I just committed a terrible sin.

"Do you expect me to believe this? This is fake sh*t. Are you kidding me. You took me away from my family just for a joke. You know what? I'm going home," I yell furiously.

She opens her mouth to speak, but I interrupt her before she can.

"I don't want to hear it!"

I get out of my seat and walk towards the door. I grab the handle, twist it, and swing the door open. Suddenly, right in front of me stands a man. A man that is as pale as can be. His icy blue eyes feel like daggers into my soul. He is facing directly towards me, and yet he puts his his arms around me and says my name as if it were a treasured possession that has been lost for years. And yet I can't erase the gut feeling that I know him from somewhere.

"Who the hell are you?" I ask.

"Very funny," he says. He laughs like he encounters this every day.

"Get off of me you gay pervert!"

The man looks at me like I am a villain that kills people for fun.

I enunciate my words carefully and slowly. "Who. Are. You?"

The man sighs and says, "I'm Mason"

"What? No, you are not."

"Yes, in fact, I am."

"What the heck happened to you. You look like the devil just brought you to hell and back again."

"For all I know, he probably did," he says softly, and then his face, which was full of joy a second ago, turned downcast, and I can see dark circles under his eyes and deep scars that litter his face. He sighs and then I realize that he's going to say something more.

"I was hoping to see you here so I could tell you," he says with a deep breath. I can nearly see tears rolling down his cheeks and I know it is something bad. "Avery-Avery, died. We were on a mission in Russia, and well- they blew her to pieces.

Something hits me painfully in the chest. Then I realize that it is the memories of Avery McCallister: her short cherry-red hair; her snarky attitude; her thick, lilting British accent; her obsession with rifles and pistols; and her motherly personality towards our team.

I'm crying.

He nods sorrowfully.