Dog Tags

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Nova! What's the status of those missiles?!" Aaron growled, launching himself into the control room. Nova was busy typing away, his eyes narrowed in frustration. A thin bead of sweat rolled down his forehead. 

"Command's getting codes from them. I think if we can get to their main control, we can reverse them and cause them to self-destruct." Nova stated with the superiority rolling off his tongue. Aaron's eyes narrowed. He was trying to come along, to do something helpful even with his injury. 

"How long until they explode the U.S. into splinters?" He asked, peeking over Nova's shoulder. All he saw was a bunch of random numbers that Nova was staring at like they were the English word. 

"2 hours, at tops."

"And the main control is not the same place as where they're keeping Gunner and Sloane." Aaron said softly, his heart falling at the sound of it. The logic was pointing to one choice- saving those back home. But he couldn't imagine that once they had disconnected the missiles, Salazar would take it in his own hands to murder the two. 

Nova was silent, confirming the decision. It was saving the world that was most important. "Well come on then." 

But the feeling in their gut would never change. This would always be the hardest part of war; choosing which would save more lives.

~!~

Gunner

"Come on, you lil' wimp!" Thomas said, punching him in the arm. Hagan whacked him in the stomach with a quick action, but Thomas was too fast. In a few seconds, he had Hagan in a head lock. 

"Alright you two, cut it out!" Derek said, rounding the corner. Thomas and Hagan both glanced up at the anger in their older brother's voice. His pale brown eyes were filled with frustration and sleep. Both the boys saw it, but they didn't say anything. He was better left alone. 

"Tommy, come on. We're going to see Mom." 

"What about me!" Hagan whined, running up to him. "I want to see her! She's my mother too!"

"Yeah, but you're just some little kid." Thomas said. "She's just going in before her surgery." 

Derek gave a solemn nod, one that lied through it's teeth. Hagan whimpered. What if Mom dies? He pondered, then mentally smacked himself for thinking that. Of course Mom wouldn't die. "Love ya little bro."

"Yeah, twerp. Love ya."

"No!" Sloane's scream caused him jerk awake. Her honey auburn hair was in knots around her shoulders, her eyes shut tightly in fear. The room had gotten colder overnight, but she was throwing the sheets off like they were on fire. She'd thrown them into the middle of the room. 

Gunner frowned, reaching out to pull her back. His fingertips only grazed her skin, and yet they burned with fever. She was hot. He sighed under his breath, pulling a cloth out from a small bucket filled with water and dabbing it on her forehead. Her eyes shot open, the hazel in them completely drowning in delirium. 

She let out another cry, a sound for help, and he only rubbed her shoulder with trying sympathy. It had gone on for an hour. As he tried to sleep, she would scream and wake him up. Her fever was creating horrible nightmares, one here about Davy, another there about her mother dying in a nuclear explosion.

He found out a lot about her. She loved her mother more than any thing, maybe even her little brother Finn or her father. It was because of Davy's death that she was so close to her mom. 

Sloane thrashed and turned to vomit on the tile floor. He gently rubbed her back and pulled back her hair. He wasn't bothered by it. He'd seen his mother doing it before she died. The memory hurt, but it did help.

She started to cry. Gunner narrowed his eyes, pulling her back. When she glanced up, her eyes were filled with exhaustion. There was no sign of the girl he'd seen during the mortar attack, or shooting the sniper. This was a helpless eighteen year old girl who couldn't handle nightmares about her long dead brother, who had been foolish enough to be poisoned. 

Slowly, he set her on the mattress, and she sprawled out like she'd been shocked by lightning. Her eyes were shut again from fear. 

He quickly set himself to cleaning the room up, as filthy as it was. Throwing the trash to the corner, as well as the now soiled sheets, he started banging for the maid to bring something that Sloane could possibly keep down. Glancing back at her, she was rocking in a tiny ball, crying. Her body was frail, and he was shocked that she'd been able to keep so much weight on her thin bones for the two weeks she'd been captured. 

Gunner grabbed the bucket full of water and washed the poison she'd expelled down the drain in the center of the small room. It took most of him, weak as he was. As he filled the bucket back up for a second go-round, the door opened with a small creak, and in walked the maid.

The same maid who'd called him the green-eyed child, who'd turned him in to Salazar. 

Angry, he let out a yowl and grabbed her from behind, his hands connecting with her neck. He shouldn't be in this mess. He could have gotten Sloane out and away from the poison. But it was all her fault. 

She kicked him with her little short legs and fought, until Sloane screamed. "Stop! You're hurting her!"

Her fever had broken. In the shock, he dropped the little maid and walked slowly over to her. Sloane's eyes were as big as quarters, and she was sweating from the temperature change in her body. The maid choked on her own words, before she gasped and ran out of the room, leaving whatever she'd brought behind. 

"Your fever-"

"You were hurting an innocent person! My fever," She scoffed. "Whatever. My fever didn't cause me to start choking someone!" 

This was the girl he'd first seen in the mortar attack was back. And he loved it. "She attacked me first!"

"Nuh uh!"

"Yeah huh!"

"Nuh uhh!!"

"Yes!" 

"Nuh-" Her eyes went glassy again. The fever, he thought. Gunner narrowed his eyes, racing over to her and skidding on his knees. But it didn't seem to be the fever... she was crying. 

"I miss him." She whispered, only audible enough for him to hear. "I've never missed him this much." The tears spilled over their limit, and she fell against his chest, and began to wail. 

~!~