The World We Once Knew

Chapter Fifteen

Akoni

As soon as I open the door Kenzie gives me a hug and then gives one to Finn. Skyler puts Brayden down in the play yard and walks over to us; "Hi! They were wonderful. You have very funny and polite siblings." 

I look at her; "Thank you. Umm how much do I owe you?" 

She smiles; "$80" I take out my wallet and give her the money, "Thank you again. Will you come tomorrow, around 0730?" I ask her. 

"Of course, I will be here." She tells me then she leaves. 

Finn and I hang around with the kids for a while then we all go for dinner. Once back we get the kids showered and into bed. We wait for them to be asleep and then we start getting our plans in order. I pen a letter to Leonardo Sano, maybe he knows of any other diplomats going back to Earth that would help us. While I'm doing this Finn fills out the papers to get my brother Ian out of the Academy for a week. That should give us enough time to get out and make sure no one notices for a while. I finish my letter and Finn brings it to his contact to give to the diplomat. I never knew that my friend had any contacts. Come to think of it I don't know much about him at all. He would always elude or turn a question around when I or anyone else asked about his family.

Kenzie wakes up crying and comes over to me; "I miss mommy." she says. 

 I look at her, "I know. I miss her too." I have her climb into my bed and hold her until she falls back asleep. 

Finn returns and looks at me; "Good news, Leonardo says that there is another diplomat here, he's going to be stopping over in New Orleans but then he'll be going to Denmark. But he said that the diplomat is willing to help us. All we have to do is get to bay fifty six by 0430 in two days."

"Good. We'll do that then. Tomorrow go request Ian from the Academy, if they give you a hard time tell them I sent you. I'll get everything else in order. But I want you to know something before we do this." I tell him, he looks at me listening, "I want to find Logan Tylerson. The girl who's family I'm responsible for killing. So we might be in New Orleans for a while."

He looks at me like I have five heads; "So let me get this right. You want to stay in New Orleans to find a girl, who you don't even know and you killed her family. Besides I've seen her on the screens in the Monitoring Room, she can definitely handle herself."

"I know, but I feel like I know her from somewhere. Almost like from a past life. And I want to make sure that the soldiers that O'Connell has stationed there can't get to her and hurt her." I say to him.

He shakes his head then sighs, "Fine. I will contact a guy I know down there, his name is Desmond, and see if he can extract all seven of us. But I think that the real reason as to why you're doing this is because you have the hots for her and you want the kids to have a female role model. I think you're trying to create a family here."

I just shake my head. He gets up and walks into the bathroom, then we go to bed. I wake up around 0300 to Kenzie crying again. I rock her in my arms and she eventually falls back to sleep. It reminds me of when I was back home, how I would do this for Ian, then Erik, and now Kenzie. I wonder when I'll be doing it for Brayden. I fall back asleep and wake up to knocking at the door. I get out of bed and open the door, it's Skyler. Shit! We all overslept. 

"Can I come in?" she asks politely. 

"Yeah. Sorry we overslept and the kids aren't ready or anything." I say walking over to wake Finn up. He jumps into the shower andante he's done I do the same. Finally at 0800 we are walking to our post. After about thirty minutes he hands me the papers to sign so he can release my brother from the Academy. I sign off then he leaves to go get him. After lunch I go back to the office and then when I get there Dr. O'Connell is sitting in my chair again. 

"I see that both your assignments are completed, Colonel. Good job. I see so much potential in you and your little brother Ian. I understand that he's in the Academy here. Well it would be so sad to see such potential go to waste. I'm just saying, people have a tendency to do stupid things. Any way I have loads of work to do. I just wanted to check in on you." She says. She gets up and when she walks by me the scar on her left cheek seems to shimmer in the light.

Once she's gone I sit down and finish the papers I was doing. Then I get up and turn off the lights to the office one last time. I look back at the desks and then shut the door. I go get some food then I go back and give Skyler her money. I tell her that she doesn't need to come for the rest of the week because Finn and I took it off. She smiles and leaves. A few minutes later Finn and Ian walk through the door. I give Ian a hug; "Did you bring your weapon?" I ask him he nods then hugs Kenzie and pats Erik on the back then goes over to Brayden.

We go to the mess hall, eat, then head back to the quarters. Ian showers then goes to take a nap so he's well rested for what's going to happen. Finn and I have the kids get showered and then we put them to bed and set the alarm to wake us up at 0230 so we can pack everything up. When that alarm sounds we drag ourselves out of bed, shower and pack the kids as many clothes as we can into backpacks. Finn and I had gone down to the shopping center the other day and bought Erik and Kenzie black backpacks to put their stuff into. We wrap Brayden in a blanket and then strap him into the car seat. Ian puts a stuffed animal into the seat with him and tucks it under the straps so it can't fall out if anything should happen. I wake up Kenzie while Ian wakes Erik, and Finn makes sure that we have everything we need and that all the weapons are loaded and ready to go. Once Erik and Kenzie are dressed we all put our backpacks on and then we head out the door with me in the front, Finn in the rear and Ian carrying Brayden and Kenzie and Erik in between Ian and I. We make it to bay 56 without any trouble. As soon as we see the plane we hear a shot and we all get down. The soldiers found us. We just have to make it to the plane.  The captain starts the engine and I see a man at the door waving for us to come to him.

"Alright, Ian take the kids and run for the door. Finn and I will cover you." I say. He nods and we count to three then they run. As soon as we poke our heads up the soldiers start firing. Finn hits one in the shoulder and I kill one right off the bat. Then we start moving to the door, the kids are all on, it's just us left. We are dodging fire the entire six hundred feet to the plane's door. We end up killing another six and wounding a few more. We got lucky, none of us were hurt. Once on board they shut the door and the plane leaves the bay. The soldiers are still shooting at us. We make it to the runway and are in the atmosphere within seconds. Finn and I get up off the floor and look around. The kids are all strapped into seats and there is a very round man sitting in one of the seats.

"Have a seat boys." says the man, gesturing to the two seats in front of him. We get up and sit. I sit feeling freer than I've ever felt in my entire life. We sit in silence and nobody turns around to see if we are being followed.