2089: Love in the Time of War (Part 3 of 3)

They left the field and continued across a large open prairie before entering the woods by the river. They would be safe there for a while but Cody knew they could not stay there. They built a small fire and ate some of the bread and berries that they were able to snatch before leaving. They ate in silence and gazed at the stars through the treetops. They were both thinking about the future and wondering what tomorrow would bring.

Sonya wondered if she would ever have a real wedding in a real church, though finding one still standing would be a challenge in itself. She had a lot of faith in Cody being able to get them clear of the invading forces, enough that she entertained such hopes. She imagined a bright day in autumn in an old, small country church that Cody had restored to the best of his abilities. There was a stained glass window facing the west and the sun shone through it at sunset just as they were saying their vows. They were surrounded by dozens of friends that didnʼt exist. The reception would be a Bacchanalia held outside, with the golden leaves, around a bonfire that lasted until dawn when lovers fell asleep in each others arms and children fell asleep in their mothers laps. And old men fell asleep with their bottles. It would be grand and right.

Cody was more worried. His earlier optimism had worn off and he had never been more scared in his entire life. The life of the one thing that he treasured most was in his hands. He had never had to protect her directly, though he had thought about it a lot. Earlier that day in the field his fear nearly cost them both their lives. He had become afraid that the soldiers would find her hiding in the grass while he was, one by one, dispatching the rest. If it had been one of his infantry mates hiding in the grass he wouldnʼt have been afraid because he knew that, even injured, they were still a lethal force. Even Daniel could protect himself.

Cody had become spooked and fired on one of the men, not only to kill him but to draw the others closer, away from Sonya. Instead he had given away his position. By the time he was hidden again she had been found. Sonya had never had to deal with enemies like this before. She didnʼt know that you should never show fear even when all was lost. Sonya almost died today and it would have been his fault.

Codyʼs battle now was fighting back the lump in his throat. He didnʼt want Sonya to know his doubts. If she did, he didnʼt know how she would handle it. He knew the likelihood of them getting out of there alive was slim-to-nil but Cody knew that Sonya was confident and he wanted to keep her that way. Hopeless and distraught refugees easily broke into hysterics, he knew this from his time overseas. Sonya couldnʼt loose hope.

When Cody knew something bad could happen he always tried to imagine the worst possible outcome so that maybe he could handle it when it did. But at the first thought of Sonya being caught by the soldiers in any way, alive or dead, he couldnʼt hold back the tears anymore and they streamed down his face. Cody hoped that Sonya wouldnʼt notice, but a minute later she realized that the hood of her jacket was getting wet on the edge and looked up at his face.

“Whatʼs wrong?” she asked.

“Iʼm just tired thatʼs all.” Cody replied. Sonya just stared at him, resting the back of her head on his chest, completely unconvinced.

“I donʼt want to worry you, so I donʼt want to tell you.” He said bowing his head and letting more tears drain from eyes.

“You can tell me anything.” Sonya wiped his face with her hand. Cody sobbed for a moment.

“Iʼm going to do all I can but I donʼt know if weʼre going to make it tomorrow.”

Sonya thought for a moment, “What do you mean you donʼt know if weʼll make it? Of course weʼre going to make it.” Cody looked at her.

“You donʼt understand, there will be more of them tomorrow. More than I can handle. I mean, Iʼve never had to take on that many all at once.” Sonya watched him carefully taking in his fear of loss as the greatest compliment she would ever receive. She thought about the dangers for a moment and the grave nature of their condition began to affect her. Then she wrapped her arms around his head and kissed his forehead after squeezing him to her chest. “Whatever tomorrow brings, I will always be with you and youʼll always be in my heart, in this world and the next.”

Cody whimpered something that could not be understood, his face smothered by Sonyaʼs jacket. He looked up at her and said: “But I canʼt loose you, youʼre what I live for.” She just smiled and they held each other all night even after finally drifting off to sleep.

Upon morning the reinforcements had arrived. Cody and Sonya had seen them coming early on and were well hidden as they snuck around the forces undetected. It was like swimming upstream, their direction taking them directly into the oncoming troops. They often had to backtrack and find a new way around the different regiments. The fact that they had made it as far as they had was giving Cody some hope, but it wasnʼt to last.

Cody and Sonya had snuck around yet another brigade and continued into a large gorge, cut into the ground in the middle of the forest by a small stream over the years. The banks were very steep but they needed water. Sonya drank while Cody scanned the trees with trained eyes. He decided the area was secure and joined Sonya at the stream.

“How are you holding up?” Cody asked her and wiped some dirt from her face.

“Alright,” she said letting her eyes drift closed for a moment from fatigue. Cody reached out and touched her face, stroking her eyebrow with his thumb. Cody was about to say something else when she just, out of nowhere, kissed him. That was one of the many things that he loved about her, her spontaneity and not being afraid of going after what she wanted. They milked this moment for all they could. They hadnʼt kissed like this for a while. The moment was interrupted by a loud explosion in front of them.

Codyʼs armor took some shrapnel from the grenade but Sonya wasnʼt hurt. Cody whipped around, rifle in hand, and shot the two soldiers whoʼd discovered them. Fortunately, Cody had put the silencer on his gun that morning which would buy them time to escape. There was no time to hide the bodies, they had to leave— NOW! Sonya and Cody followed the stream and ran. They rounded a bend in the gorge and found a pack of soldiers waiting for them. The three soldiers who noticed them first raised their rifles. Cody told Sonya to climb the opposite bank and run away. She took off and they opened fire.

Cody took a round in his chest plate armor and another grazed his shoulder. He held his rifle in his left hand and began firing as he reached into his pouch for a grenade. He hit one of them and wounded another, the third ducked and rolled. The fifteen other soldiers were now completely aware of what was happening and reacted accordingly. With no spare time Cody pulled the pin on the grenade and lobbed it at them. There was no chance for them to react and the grenade blew, killing a few of them. Cody fired a few more shots at them before running to catch up with Sonya. She was just hopping over the edge of the bank as he came racing to her side. The trees in front of them exploded with shards of bark as the troops opened fire again. Cody and Sonya ducked and ran.

They were suddenly surprised by a man aiming a large tactical shotgun at them but Cody drew his pistol-faster than any Old West legend and shot him. Cody thought maybe if they ran fast enough that they might get out of this and soon they would be free. A single sound changed all that. Somewhere from behind a rifle released a round at the two and made contact with itʼs target. Sonya fell. Cody snapped around and threw a knife into the snipers chest from thirty feet and the man collapsed. It was silent now, for the moment. Cody sat down next to Sonya and propped her head up on his leg, cradling her in his arms.

“Your going to be fine,” Cody said, knowing he was wrong but saying it to comfort himself just as much as her. She just looked up into his eyes for a long moment with a kind of quiet, resigned, sorrowful dignity.

“I would have grown old with you,” she whispered to him. “I always loved you, you know.” Cody crumbled over her and rocked back and forth sobbing out loud.

“I donʼt want you to go, I donʼt want you to go, I donʼt want you to go.....” Codyʼs chants were in vain. He gripped her hard as though this would keep her trapped. He couldnʼt influence her living any longer, any more than he could change the course of the sun through the sky. They gazed into each others eyes for a moment. He wanted to speak, wanted to say everything he ever wanted her know, wanted to make sure that she knew... But she knew. She knew everything about him, there was nothing left to be said. Sonyaʼs fingers, interlaced with Codyʼs, without warning, went limp. “I... love... you... wife...”

Tears streamed down his face and fell onto hers. He threw his head back and wailed like a banshee as he held her. Cody glanced down at his side arm considering how he would end himself now that he had no purpose, so he could be with her again. But before he could make up his mind he was interrupted by a soldier from the stream. The soldier ran at him and screamed at him telling him to stand up and put his hands on his head. Cody stood, but when he turned around he yanked the machine gun from the soldierʼs hands and emptied the entire magazine into him. His rage was unmatchable and unstoppable. Cody took off running straight for the soldiers. He leapt off the high bank and attacked them all at once with reckless abandonment. It surprised them. The next moments were a blur, every second another man fell to the ground. One by one he took them out, he was like an animal snarling, growling and screaming at them as he went. All he could think about was the life, the wonderful life, that they had stolen from him and he considered them all culpable.

At the end he looked around at the fifteen or so men on the ground. Thinking back on the fight he realized that he had never fired a shot. Heʼd killed them all with his bare hands. He wondered what kind of person that made him but decided he didnʼt care, they deserved punishment. He drew his pistol and fired a couple of shots randomly at the deceased soldiers before returning to Sonyaʼs side. He knelt down next to her and touched her face making sure her eyes were closed and thought back on their life together. How they would have grown old. He imagined what their wedding would have been like; in a small, old, country church, surrounded by friends that didnʼt exist and celebrating until dawn. It was only another lost hope now.

Without saying a word he put the pistol to the side of his head and pulled the trigger. Click. Silence. He was sure that it had at least one more round in it. He pulled back the slide to check the chamber and sure enough there was a single round waiting to be fired. He pulled it out and looked at the back end. Must be the primer, he thought. He cleaned it off on his shirt and reinserted it.

Just before pulling the trigger again he remembered that Sonya had told him once that she wanted to be cremated after she died. He dropped the gun and carried her away. All through the night he walked and when morning came there was no sign of soldiers anywhere. He went to work building a bon fire, cutting down trees and building them into a platform and then put longer, thinner branches on the sides making a sort of A frame. Cody placed her inside and let the fire burn. He cried all through the night as he watched the blaze. He felt numb in his soul; he couldnʼt feel his soul. Maybe it had gone with Sonya and left him empty, abandoned. There was no hope, there was no fear — just nothing. The next morning he grabbed a hand full of ashes and threw them into a strong wind to be carried away.

Next, for no apparent reason at all, Cody just started walking. Maybe he was hoping to be found and shot, or maybe he just wanted to get away from that place in the woods. He walked for hours. Suddenly and without warning he collapsed of pure exhaustion and slept. When he woke he stood and continued as if no interruption had occurred. He walked until he came to a large hill that looked out onto a large factory of some kind. It said ʻNuclearʼ on the side.

There had been some rumors in the intelligence sector of the military that the enemy had already infiltrated this part of the country and was secretly building nuclear warheads on the very soil of the country they intended to bomb. Somewhere in Codyʼs mind the idea of coming to this place and turning it against them had been growing ever since Sonyaʼs death.

Cody easily broke through the security and found his way to the core of the place. The facility was severely understaffed and only a few technicians ran from the sight of him. It was a nuclear bomb factory with pounds and pounds of weapons grade plutonium. Only a few ounces were required to make the most destructive device of the last century. With this much plutonium all in one place it could wipe out everything for a hundred miles; more if the winds carried the fallout radiation. Cody knew, the only thing that was still alive within a hundred miles were the invaders. For Cody the next course of action was rather obvious and simple. He found himself a completed warhead and armed it. Then he went through the entire factory finding as much plutonium as he could, not bothering with protection and placed it all in one room near the reactors. He stacked the canisters all very nicely atop the bomb which was no more than a small refrigerator in size. Finally, he picked up the detonator in his hand and looked up not to the ceiling but to heaven above it. He felt the power of this moment, the certainty of it. He said, “Iʼm cominʼ my love.” And he pushed the button.

The winds blew the fallout straight in the direction of the attacking forces and wiped them clean away like an eraser. As a result the invaders were severely weakened and the war ended later that year.