“Erik are you ok with this, just letting the issue go.
Letting Jackson go.” “Derricc, think about it, we don’t have any leads.
Right now Jackson is our only connection and we don’t know anything about him.
Do you think we could win if we somehow found Jackson and find that he’s protected by something bigger than we plan for.” “You’re right Erik, I’m just worried.
It feels like we’ve stumbled into something we can’t fight and it’s eating me from the inside that I can’t protect or even try to do anything about this.” I put my hand on Derricc’s shoulder.
“You forget, sometimes, we have to play the waiting game in order to lure the villains out.
They’ll make mistakes and that’ll be how we can start bringing the fight to them.
Remember your leadership training, you have to know to make the tough calls.
When to fight, when to pull back.
You have to make the call that may cost some lives to protect other lives.
I don’t envy you.
All I can do is stay here by your side and trying to prevent you from making choices that hurt the team.
You also have the do the same for me.
It’s how we have always done things.” “I know you’re still reeling through the trauma of losing people you care about but you have to learn to use that trauma to continue to be the leader you’re always meant to be.” “Alright alright, let’s enjoy the hot spring now.” I reserved a private hot spring room for us and had the staff leave everything we would need so we could have the time for ourselves without any interruptions.
I don’t want any eyes on any potential conversations we may have that don’t need to be there.
We get to the hot spring and the water feels really nice.
Derricc and I are having a good soak and it feels like my I can finally relax.
About 5 minutes later, the girls walk in and have a soak with us but I can tell immediately something happened because they look a little down and afraid of something.
“Erik, do you always keep the exits in your line of sight.” Anna asks uneasily.
“Of course I do, Derricc and I developed the habit after some time and it’s never left us.” “Don’t you two ever get tired of always staying alert.
It’s got to be eating you mentally.” “Well, when you’ve done something for so long, it’s hard to turn it off.
Now that you two are with us, it’s even harder to have a reason not too knowing that you’re ensuring your entire safety and well being to us.” The girls ponder for a minute, then both stand up, and insert themselves between Derricc and I and ask the question I didn’t think we’d have to answer so soon.
“Boys, you have the answers we need.
Please let us in, I can’t keep going blind like this.” Derricc looks at all of us asks “what questions, we can only say so much” “Derricc, don’t give me that.
You two know what’s going on and what’s going to happen in the future don’t you.” Ashley replies, “Anna and I overheard your conversation about Jackson earlier.” Anna follows “we also heard you both talking about some kind of apocalypse.” “You’re allowing us to follow you on this journey to your parents house with information that we don’t even know the questions to ask for it and you just expect us to follow you blindly.” Both girls are on the verge of tears from frustration.
All I can do is look at Derricc but he has the same desperate look I have.
“Look girls, it’s not that we can’t say anything, it’s just that you’ll never see us, see the world, or even your very in existence the same again and we can’t put the burden on you.
Even Derricc and I don’t exactly know what we can do with what we know.” “So what, you can’t tell us or won’t.
I didn’t come with you just to be denied the chance at truth, I’ll go find it myself.” With that Ashley and Anna both get ready to leave the hot spring.
Derricc and I immediately grab the girls with defeated looks and pull them back down.
We put the girls against the wall while we kneel facing them, backs against the exits.
“Look,” I say with a gentle a voice as I can muster while trying to hold back the tears welling in my ears, I take a quick look at Derricc who’s going through the same trauma.
“If we spill everything, you’ll have to forget everything you ever knew about the world and people in general.
You’ll never be the same, and you may not be able to go back to a normal life ever again.” “Both of you need to ask yourselves 2 questions.
“Can you trust us?” I ask with a slowly growing determination “Can you handle potentially having everything you ever thought you knew turned upside down even further by learning the truth from what we know?” Ashley and Anna sit in silence for a few moments.
Anna looks at us and nods.
Ashley looks at me with a very fierce look.
“We’re entrusting our lives with you for now.
You should trust us to be able to handle whatever you throw at us.” “Very well” Derricc and i nod in agreement and spend the next 4 hours trying to summarize everything.
15 years of military work, omitting the unnecessary and extra secretive stuff while also not downplaying what we went through.
The group the formed in those years.
The 10 years of the apocalypse, the search for our family, the continuous loss of team members as we navigated the apocalypse.
Derricc’s injury and surviving the apocalypse.
Our last stand in the hospital.
After this part, I allow Ashley to let it out.
It can’t be easy hearing that you killed the person you’re spending time with in a previous life after all.
Once she recoups, I take over as I talk about this entity who made me roll dice and finally, the villa we restarted in then got destroyed and the bunker that we escaped to.
As I finish, I look around.
Ashley and Anna, who both cried throughout after hearing what we went theough, are just stunned, shocked.
Probably can’t function.
Derricc looks like he got hit with a large vat of onions.
He’s completely cried it out too.
Having to relive our failures to protect our loved ones is never easy.
I can’t admit I’m any better right now.
I’m only barely functioning right now because I had to tell the end of it and couldn’t do it crying.
Otherwise I’d be a sobbing mess as well.
No one moves, no sounds.
I’m pretty sure for a full 5 minutes, all 4 of us just sat there, letting the tears fall, trying to accept everything that was said.
Eventually Anna speaks up, “if this is true, this will change everything.
I can’t afford to lose out on being a part of this.” “Anna, you’re right.
Erik, I’ve already suffered alone to long.
You even longer.
Let’s us in.
If Jackson is going to continue to come after me, I can not only be safer here with you but I can also do what I can to help you with all this.” “Ladies”, Derricc warns, “are you sure you want to do this.
It’ll be dangerous and our future isn’t very clear.” “Boys”, Ashley says, “you’ve been unknowingly dragged into something big that the world isn’t prepared for I assume.
You’ll more than likely need all the help you can get.” Ashley says as she turns to me, “and right now, you owe me 15 years of affection.” Ashley leans in and I cave in and give her a moment in the hot spring with a long single kiss that conveyed everything that needed to said about the loneliness we both endured.
After we seperate we go back against the wall with Ashley and Anna in between us brothers and we just soak to calm down and release the 4 hours of tension and sadness.