Operation: Healing Shadows

Landing in America

Mason's POV
I stepped off the ramp and onto the shores of Anchorage, Alaska pulling up my scarf to cover my nose as Luna stood next to me "So how are we getting to your camp?" I spoke motioning to the garage "Our sedan is in there waiting, come on let's get moving" she chuckled softly before speaking "The Danes land in America bringing trouble" I looked at her as she fixed my aviators on her face, "You're crazy, you know that?" She looked at me with a small smile "Ja, Ja I do" she gripped my hand and pulled me towards the garage. I jogged to keep up with her excited dragging until she stopped infront of the door to the garage, she groaned "lort(shit), it's locked. How the fuck are we supposed to get in now?" I didn't reply instead I walked to my left and picked up the plastic plant and saw the key to the padlock, I crouched and unlocked it heard the satisfying clang as it bounced on the concrete. She looked at me surprised before it turned to a half hearted glare "You knew I'd ask that didn't you?" I nodded before replying "I had my suspicions" she lightly punched my shoulder as I pulled the keys out of my pocket and walked to the driver's side door "you ready to go?" She walked around the front of the car before taking my face in her hands "After we get everything set up, why don't we have that date we've been talking about?" I smiled before replying "My lord, sounds like heaven" she nodded with a small smirk as she released my face and walked back to the passenger side.
I got the engine running and sat in the seat waiting for it to warm up enough that the heaters would work, I looked at Luna "How does a day of Ice Fishing sound for the date?" She replied somewhat nervously "I've never gone ice fishing" I nodded before she took my hand "No time like now to learn" she smiled before replying "it sounds lovely" I squeezed her hand as I shifted the car into drive and pulled out onto the road. We drove for a while until the highway turned to gravel back roads as I attempted to minimize the chance of getting pulled over as much as possible, Luna looked around before asking "Is this where you grew up?" I shook my head no "We came up here a couple of times but not often" she watched the brush pass as we headed towards the huge expanse of private land. She excitedly watched a moose run across the gravel ahead of us, I chuckled at her child like wonder causing her to look at me in suspicion "hvad?(what?)" I stared at her blankly as she said again in English "What?" I replied with a small twinkle of amusement in my eyes "It's cute how excited you're getting about a moose crossing the street" she flushed red before replying "I've always wanted to see a moose, they're just so weird looking. I love them" I replied as we started driving again "they're pretty common around here, you'll be able to see a lot of them"
     I felt her excitedly squeeze my hand as she asked "really? How often can we see one?" I replied distractedly as I glanced back at the road for a second "Pretty much every morning" she smiled brilliantly as we continued on our drive. 6 hours later we arrived at Fairbanks, Luna looked around at the city as we passed through "Wow, this city looks gorgeous. I wasn't expecting this in Alaska" I laughed softly "Alaska is pretty developed, but from here we take a bush plane. The roads don't reach our safe house" she sighed but asked "What about the car?" I sighed before replying "we'll have to leave it" she nodded and grabbed her bags as we climbed out and she grabbed my hand and we headed towards the airfield. We walked in and I saw the older man with a large platinum beard looking at the newspaper "damn shame, I had my hopes on that kid" I spoke "Good afternoon sir" he looked up with a sharp look "what can I do for you son?" I asked "Is the pilot in?" He nodded as he folded the newspaper "Yea, you need a ride somewhere?" I looked at Luna for a second before replying "My wife and I need a plane ride to one of our hunting camps, can you do it?" He leaned on the counter "Son, I can fly anyone anywhere for a price."
      I smiled slightly "Just what I wanted to hear, name your price and I'll write the check" the man adopted a large smile "Wonderful, I'll get the plane ready. You and your Mrs. go get your bags in the back" I nodded and grabbed Luna's hand as we followed him out onto the airfield, Luna leaned over and whispered "Your wife huh?" I shrugged before replying "Have to keep our cover, besides I think you'd make a pretty good wife" she nodded before poking my chest "you'll find out in time, won't you?" I chuckled "I hope so" I opened the door and tossed in my bag before taking Luna's and tossing hers in, I pulled out my checking book and filled it out leaving only the price unwritten while we waited for the pilot to finish getting the plane ready. A couple minutes later he climbed into the cockpit and yelled back "I need the coordinates before we can take off!" I yelled them back and then asked "How does 3 grand sound for the trip?!" He turned back with a large greedy smile "Sounds perfect son" I wrote it out and handed it to him, using my fuck up account instead of my main one. I leaned back and heard the pilot "We'll be there in 5 hours!" I gave a thumbs up before resting my head on Luna's shoulder "You know even after all this..... you still smell like cinnamon"
      She buried her face in my hair "You know what you smell like?" I asked innocently "Cupcakes and rainbows?" She chuckled before replying "nej(no), you smell like a fire. You know that smoky smell you catch a whiff of and just relax? That's it" I smiled to myself "you're good at flattery" she mumbled "I'm serious" I nodded as I leaned against her and she had her eyes glued out to the bush below us, searching for any sign of her elusive moose. I slept for most of the flight, getting woken up several times by Luna excitedly showing me a moose she spotted until we finally landed at the airstrip 3 miles out from the cabin. I was placing the bags on the back of the ATV when I heard the Pilot "Son, I gotta ask, have you ever been told you look an awful lot like Mason King? Like a spittin' image" I smiled softly "Yea, I get it a lot. It's kinda weird at first but I've gotten used to it. I could probably get a job being a doppelgänger for him" he sighed sadly "it's a shame what he did, he was a hero and now look at him..... killed two pilots and running for it.... I was hoping he'd follow his father into politics maybe he'd get shit done but I guess that dreams over" I looked up at the sky "Hopefully the news is wrong about him, maybe he didn't do anything wrong. Hell, I don't know maybe I'm being too optimistic" the old man spoke tiredly "You know, sometimes it's good to be that optimistic. Alright son, I'm heading back. You and your mrs. stay safe" I nodded as I replied "You too" he climbed into the plane and I sat on the ATV with Luna as we watched him take off, she looked at me "So how'd it feel talking about yourself in 3rd person?" I sighed over dramatically "Weird, really fuckin weird" she replied with an indeterminate tone "I figured, so let's get to that Cabin. I wanna see what it's like"
       I spoke teasingly "What? Excited to see the moose?" She nodded before I spoke "Jeez, it's almost like you love the moose more than me" she asked "Are you jealous?" I glanced over my shoulder "Nah, just teasing" she got a grip on my jacket before I started along the barely discernible trail that heads to the cabin.... and the bunker. We bounced around the trail until a large bull moose stepped out onto the trail, I looked back at Luna "Shhh, he won't freak out if we don't move" she froze and watched the Moose slowly graze his way across the path as if God had come down from heaven and said she would be his replacement. Once we were clear of the moose Luna was in my ear "Was he a big one? His antlers were huge! Oh my god, he looked so stupid I love him!" I patted her leg with my free hand as we rode through the bush, Luna made me stop everytime we saw a moose so it took longer than normal to get to camp.
When we arrived I pulled out the stock of my R5 and attached the flashlight "Come on, we'll go to the cabin you can get settled in and I'll check the bunker." She gave me a weird look "We have a bunker?" I nodded as I pulled my sling over my shoulder and under my right arm "My father had it built a while ago in case someone tried to take us hostage or if another world war broke out. It's mostly unused but sometimes animals get in it" she nodded but followed me as we headed towards the Canin sitting on top of the hill surrounded by trees overlooking the clearing below. I pulled out the keys and fiddled with the lock until it decided to cooperate and the door was pushed wide open, I motioned her through and followed her into the dim, shadow heavy room of the cabin quickly pressing the back of my hand against the wall and wildly moving it around until it found the light switch. I flicked my wrist and blinked a couple of times as my eyes adjusted to the new brightness, I motioned to the bedroom at the end of the hallway "There's the bedroom, I hope you don't mind sharing it with me. The bathroom is directly to the right. Feel free to explore" she nodded before disappearing down the hall, I pulled back on the priming handle and saw the Full Metal Jacket Armor Piercing round laying lazily in the chamber before I let it close and I turned heading out the door and down the path towards the large concrete barrier that surrounded the outer edge of the bunker, I pulled down my scarf and lifted my beanie so my eyes were clearly visible as I reached the retinal scanner and leaned forward, seeing the green grid shift up and down before turning blue and the doors to the bunker slowly started creaking open.
      I took a couple steps back and lifted my R5 so it was at the low ready stance, I reached forward and pushed on the small button that turned on my flashlight. I sighed as I spoke to myself quietly "Why the fuck did we put the generator in the back of the bunker?" I slowly made my way through the dark damp halls until I heard something crash, I felt every hair on my body stand up as I froze. I stared at the door as my urge to ignore the sound and flat out leave grew but I knew I had to make sure it wasn't serious, I slowly walked forward keeping my light squared away on the door until I was just next to the doorframe in a breach position, I took a deep breath and stepped around the corner shining my light around the room, the kitchen, checking everything until I heard another crash in the back. I shifted my aim up as I slowly made my way through the shelves and lanes of kitchens until I got to the origin of the sound, I noticed a mixing bowl rolling on the floor before I turned and used my flashlight to search the room until I saw two small yellow dots in a dark corner, I shifted my focus off the wall next to it and straight onto it seeing a fat Raccoon trying to hide in the corner "well what are you doing in here? Well we'll have to get you out, I can't have you stay in here causing havoc" I pulled out one of our Lynx traps and placed in on the kitchen floor setting it up with some raw bacon before I backed away and headed back into the hallway continuing on my quest to get the generator running. I reached the generator 2 minutes later and got that running, I headed back to the kitchen just as I heard the loud clang of the metal door slamming shut behind something in the trap. I walked in and turned on the light seeing the Raccoon looking around frantically, he hissed and stroked at the cage while I picked it up and turned off the lights before walking outside and closing the bunker doors behind me I took a small walk to the tree line and released the Raccoon watching him as he disappeared deeper into the almost midnight dark forest. I walked back into the cabin and saw Luna sitting on the couch reading causing me to ask "Ready to go on that date?" She looked over tiredly "Can we do it tomorrow? I'm beat" I sat behind her and nodded "of course, we've got time before we have to go and try to hit these targets" she leaned back into my chest before rolling and wrapping her arms around me sighing happily as I rolled my eyes at her antics "if you wanted to take a nap, you could've just said so" she nodded before mumbling "Ja, but it's cuter seeing the second you panic before realizing what's going on" I chuckled but closed my eyes ready to take another nap to ease the ache in my ancient dinosaur bones.