Bound By Purpose

1991: The Changing Tide

More dead bodies litter the floor in the newly discovered room. There's a soft blinking red light hanging from the ceiling. We get quick glimpses of the horror scene around us. "He was here." I say kneeling down beside one of the dead. 

"How do you know?" He asks. I glance behind me and slowly point to the chamber hidden in the shadows. He spies it as the light goes in and out again. He draws his gun slinging his bow behind him. He steps forward as I search the guard. He quickly clears the area behind it and then turns back to me. When I make no move to follow he pushes a button and a long drawer extends itself from the false wall. This time it's enough to get me up. The items inside confirm he was here. I have to take a step back for a moment to shut my eyes and breathe. Clint grabs my shoulder.

"Are you okay?" He asks. When I open my eyes he's right in front of me baring into them. I shrug my shoulder back embarrassed.

"I'm fine. I just want to be done with this." He nods in understanding. I put my hands on the created shelf and let my gaze run over the contents. Guns, files, extra clothes."Here." I say handing over the top file. I turn away from it and go towards the chamber. It's not all unlike mine, maybe a little newer, but it's the same encasing coffin. I run my fingers down some of the glass thinking. My pointer finger gets caught on something sharp and as I pull it away I feel the warm blood start to run into the palm of my hand. I pull out my flashlight to get rid of the color of pulsing red. The glass is caked in dirt and as I move the light down I see shrapnel lodged in certain places. Everything finally makes sense.  "Clint did you find anything?"

He closes up the files on hand. "No. Nothing that can help us find him." I could press for whatever information it did give, but I don't think it'd help me in any way. I find myself back on the ground trying to think everything through. 

"He was here." I say looking up at Clint how has come over to sit himself down beside me yet again. "He fought his way out of here. What if he's finally found himself again..." I can see the doubt on his face. "You don't think so? What explains all these bodies, the falsified information, everything is still here, he'd have to of known that this place would be left rot right?" I'm grasping for any straw he's willing to give me. 

He reaches forward and lightly rests his gloved hand on my uncut one. "If this was him... I don't think it was by his own will. He would've made contact with someone or left clues... Something to demonstrate where his head's at."

I can feel the tears of realization coming, but I stay strong for one more futile attempt at coaxing him to my side. "You can't know, you didn't know him." I pull my hand away from him and stand back up. I go to the control panel and start to trash the contents. Everything is blurry through the tears, but I continue to pull papers from their resting places. 

I hear my name in an almost whisper behind me, "Evelyn." I don't turn but I stop tossing the papers about. "Evelyn, you're bleeding." I whip around, hands in fists. 

"I thought..." I wipe the tears away quickly feeling foolish. "I thought I'd have him back for sure this time." I force a ridiculous smile. "I'm sorry. You shouldn't have to see me like this." 

Clint surprises the cosmos by stepping froward and enveloping me in a hug. In an ideal world we could've been the best partners and maybe someday more than that. He holds me for what could be an eternity, but he does let me go eventually. "You can tell me everything if you want. You've been holding these emotions in for decades... Have you ever spoken to anyone about them?"

"There never was enough time to." He nods again. He pulls some gauze from his pack and hands it to me.

"We're gonna get our stuff. We're gonna go get on that plane, go home, and then we're gonna start to look for him. In the meantime we're gonna talk." I nod, swallowing the rest of my emotions. We are, after all, still in a hostile nation.