After The End

CB Radio

Jackson and I hold each other's hands as we head toward the ground, the only sound other than the speeding plane is the baby crying. Our landing is anything but smooth, the five of us being jerked around in every whichaway, while trying to help Clem hold the baby steady. Soon we come to a rather quick stop and we look around at the others. "We're on the ground." Sam pats as he starts to undo his restraints. "We're on the ground."

We all undo our restraints and sigh softly, happy to be alive. Jackson walks over to me since I was next to Clem and the little one and he was on the other side, and pulls me close to him, hugging me tightly. I barely my face into his chest and sigh a sigh of relief.

"Hey, Clem?" Mitch rushes in.

"We're okay."

I let go of Jackson and turn to Mitch and Jamie, "We need to get to the barrier now."

Jamie signs, "Yeah, about that. We overshot the landing a little bit."

"Overshot? By how much?"

Jackson places a hand on my back, "Where are we?"

"We're on the wrong side of the barrier, in the hybrid zone."

I shake my head and look over to Jackson, terrified. Jackson wraps his arms around me and pulls me close again. After I minute I pull away and head into the lab and the group follows, "We need to figure out a plan."

Jackson nods and stops next to me at one of the tables as the group gathers around it as well, "I agree. We can't stay here. We have to get the dead man's switch to the command center."

Jamie shakes her head, "well, that's fine. But the blast took out everything with a circuit board, including the truck."

Mitch sighs, "So, no plane, no outside communication, no truck. Looks like we're going to be walking to the barrier."

We all tense up as we hear the growling and snarling of Hybrids outside, "Well, guess that rules our walking."

Sam shakes his head, "We can build a pheromone diffuser."

I shake my head, "A what?"

"A pheromone diffuser. The tissue lining of hybrid organs are packed with pheromones. We extract them, dilute them in water with the right mixture, and boom, a hybrid will follow you anywhere. We can easily lead them away from the plane."

Mitch shakes his head and puts his hands on his hips, "We don't know that that's gonna work. We don't even know if that's a thing. Okay? There's way to much ground to cover between us and the barrier and way too much to lose, so I think we just play this one by the book." Mitch looks over to Jamie, "do we have any backup radios or sat phones, Anything?"

"Ther might be an old CB radio in the bar. That would've survived the E.M.P. We can run it off a car battery."

"Yeah. Okay, great. So we get the IADG on the horn, and we hold down the fort and we wait for them to get here."

I shake my head, "With the systems down we need to visually check the plane for breaches."

"Right. So why don't you two go below," Mitch gestures to Jackson and I, "See if those tresses we took out left anyway for hybrids to get in. We will be on radio duty."

Jackson and I agree, heading down to the basement of the plane, checking around, after grabbing a few rifles. As we search I hear Jackson sigh, "I hate this. We keep fighting back against Abigail, against the hybrids, against sterility. I feel like all we do is lose."

I shake my head, "We are so close. Literally, the finish line in just to the east of us."

"There you go. Glass half full."

I smile over to Jackson, "Always. We can't lose sight of the end. Not now. Not when we are so close to solving sterility. All we have to do is get the baby to the barrier, and we can end this. We could have another nephew or niece. We could have a baby."

Jackson sighs, "I had a family 20 years ago and lost them, I never thought I wanted another one." He walks over to me and pulls me close, "Until I met you. Then I thought we lost our only chance to have one of our own."

I smile softly, "Come on."

When we get back the group is in the living room/bar area and we call out to them, "all clear."

Clem looks over to us, "Dariela is leading a tac team to come get us."

I smile, "So you two got the radio to work."

"Did you doubt us?" Clem smirks.

Before long she and Sam go to sit on the couch, about five feet away. Jackson is turning channels on the radio, trying to find someone before long someone comes over the radio. "Is anyone there?"

Jackson picks up the mic and looks over to me, "Logan?"

"There's something I need to tell you."

"What? What happened?"

"The tac teams are down."

"What about Dariela?" I walk over and speak into the mic.

"There's no response from anybody."

I look over to Jackson then to Abe, covering my mouth. "What now?"

Jackson shakes his head, "I don't know."

We all sit in silence for a while, before Jackson grabs the mic again, "There is no way Dariela was taken down so easily. Logan, any word on Dariela?"

"I just got ahold of her. She's alive. With any luck, she's headed towards you with an ATV."

"Okay."

I nod and look over to Jackson, "That's our ticket back to the barrier."

Mitch sighs, "Maybe. Still a whole lot of hybrids between us and it."

Abe nods, "They seem to have an appetite for moving vehicles. What are the chances they will make two trips."

I shake my head and cross my arms, "What are the chances we'd survive one trip let alone two."

"Then we build the pheromone diffuser," Sam proposes again.

Mitch shakes his head, "We've been through that."

"We carry it on the ATV. Lure the hybrids away, clearing a path from here to the barrier for everybody else."

Logan comes back over the CB. "Guys, listen. Whatever you're gonna do, do it fast. We have less than two hours before Garrison orders missile strikes to take out the beacons and the nests."

I shake my head, "that'll kill hundreds of thousands of people."

Abe speaks into the mic, "Don't let him do anything. We'll be there soon." He lowers the mic and looks around the group, "Sam's diffuser is our best chance."

Mitch sighs, "Okay, so who's gonna drive? You?" He gestures back to me.

"I will." Jackson places his hands on his hips. "You build it, I'll drive it."

"Jackson, no." I protest.

"I'm going too." Sam stands.

Clem looks over to Sam with the same look I have. "Sam, come on."

"All that matters is getting you and the baby to safety." Sam looks over to Jackson who nods and looks back to me.

Mitch rolls his eyes, "Alright, hero. You pull this off, I might consider letting you call me Dad."

"For real?"

"Oh, no." Mitch shakes his head as he leaves.