Looking For The Light (Book 2)

Looking For The Light Chapter 23 - Elijah

Elijah had never flown in a helicopter before.  At least, not while conscious.  He was nervous.  Dinah and Ceres were nervous, mostly from being in crates, and in the air.  At least his pilot was calm.  But his pilot didn’t just find out he’d be a father in less than a month.  And it wasn’t just anxiety playing on his nerves.  Guilt racked him as well.

He had left Viktoriya with the burden of their unborn child.  Eli knew from basic health and human biology classes that pregnancy was not an easy time in a woman’s life.  There was stress, worrying about health, body changes, pain, and discomfort.  And he let Viktoriya suffer it all of it alone.  Eli’s stomach was in a knot.

Eli still had trouble believing Viktoriya’s words.  She was pregnant.  He was going to be a father.  Together, they made a life.  Through all the nervousness and guilt, there was something else.  He could barely see it in himself, but Eli was excited.  His heart was straining in his chest, already swelling with love.  Love for Viktoriya and love for his child.  He wanted to be a father, and a good father at that.  He never wanted his child to fear for their life, or worry they might die by their father’s hand.  Eli promised himself, and promised his child, he would fill their life with love, happiness, and all the opportunities that Eli himself had fought so hard to gain.

His hands knitted together, Eli’s eyes closed.  He made those promises again.  Elijah Coates had not been raised to know a god, and he’d gotten through his near thirty years without one.  But on this day, on a helicopter flying into the sunrise, Eli found himself praying.  He prayed for himself, for his wife, and for his child.  His lips moved silently as he communed with a greater power.  Eli poured his heart out until his sun was over the horizon.

“Please, please let her see past my scars.  Let me see past my scars, and escape the cycle of violence and pain that have haunted me.  She is love, and hope and fearlessness.  Viktoriya is grace upon my life.  Our child will be a grace upon my life.  Please, let that little life be born healthy.  Let that life be free of pain, and fear.”  Eli repeated his words until they had landed in Simskaya.

He really wasn’t sure what Viktoriya’s home land would look.  Simskaya, at least where his helicopter had landed, was far different from Moscow.  He was not lost in an urban sprawl, or in the middle of the mismatched collection of territories that made up the Prizrak Rytsarya base.  Simskaya was swaths of green grass, and low hills.  The buildings were unevenly spaced, most featuring a small fenced in garden.  There were large industrial buildings, factories and refineries that looked in various stages of use or disuse.  There was a rail line that looked to still be in service.  The helicopter started to lower beside the station platform.  His pilot had landed him beside a main paved road, but almost all the other roads were simple packed dirt.

Eli’s pilot helped him with his bags and the dogs’ crates.  Eli had only packed one bag in his rush, and he honestly didn’t even remember what he threw into it.  He didn’t remember getting to the airfield, or getting on the Ansat.  He didn’t remember the pilot calling for a transport to meet them at their destination.  He was lost in his own mind.  The news that Viktoriya carried his child was all that filled his thoughts.  Would he have a son or a daughter?  Would they look more like him or Viktoriya?  He hoped the baby was healthy.  He decided he didn’t care about any of the other options.  As long as the baby was healthy, and Viktoriya was healthy, nothing else mattered.

Once again, the Ansat pilot helped Eli load Ceres and Dina into the back of a pick-up truck.  The vehicle was marked with a shield.  It appeared to belong to the local sheriff.  He didn’t even see it pull up.  Eli hopped into the bed of the truck with his dogs, while the pilot sat in the cab with the driver.  Eli supposed it was the sheriff.