Against all odds (Reg Slivko - Thomas Mann Fic)

Backward

The soldiers found the Sea Stallion right where Conrad said. The steel beast of almost 25 feet tall and 27 feet large had crashed on a tree area and had ended with the cockpit buried on the bushes. The tail boom was broken and the rear loading ramp was opened. It looked like a gigantic head of a green fish emerging from the earth. Slivko begged for nothing like that to ever really exist.

"Gather up everything you can, including those seismic charges," said Packard. "They got his attention the first time"

The cargo compartment was full. There were a lot of weapons; including munitions, seismic charges and five to six barrels of napalm, a mixture of a gelling agent and gasoline that could burn for hours.

"This is a bad idea," said Reles looking at the cargo.

"Let's just get on with it" ordered Cole.

The soldiers followed the instructions and Slivko got on the helicopter to gather some munitions. He found lots of boxes of cartridges for his M16 and opened one. For the first time in his life, the picture of the aligned munitions on the tiny box, made him feel sick.

Meanwhile, the night fell over the island without Meg even noticed. Hours seemed to pass at high speed, as her thoughts in her mind. She was sitting on a rock, absorbed in them, with her arms crossed and her back straight. She wasn't wailing, she was thinking what to do next.

Conrad and Weaver had gone in search of a high place from which to spot the location of the boat. They were delayed and Meg started to worry.

«Is more like a plain than a boat, let's call it a ploat» Reg's voice popped up in Meg's mind. She jumped up and started to walk around. «What was I thinking?» she reproached to herself. «I should never let him go».

"He had a picture of you," said Brooks.

It took Meg a couple of seconds to understand Brooks was talking about Randa. The images of the valley came to her mind. She shook her head and continued walking around hoping that Brooks understand that she did not want to talk about that.

"I didn't know it was you," continued Brooks. "Didn't even know he had a daughter, but there's this picture on his desk, it's an old one, a woman with a baby"

Meg wanted to tell Brooks to shut up, that she should think about the living. But she grinned.

"You know, when I first wrote that paper on the Hollow Earth theory the whole committee laughed out loud. But your father... The one guy in the crowd who actually took me seriously" Remembered Brooks. "It felt good. Then I thought he was crazy when he said the earth was full of monsters."

Meg let out a laugh.

"That's so him! Always getting things backward," said she in a clear reference of what they were doing on the island.

Brooks shrugged.

Meg wanted to take back her words but couldn't, after all, there was something true on them, in several ways.

"This is useless!" she said stopping to walk around. "I can't keep waiting" She was about to go looking for Conrad, when he and Weaver returned. "Finally!"

"Conrad," said Brooks. "Which way are we going?"

"You four need to go back to the boat. It's that way. Wait for us till dawn. If we're not back by then... just go" Explained the tracker a little hurry.

"You ain't gotta twist my arm," said Brooks and turn to leave.

"Where are you two going?" asked Meg.