Reconnecting with the World

Posted on Mon Nov 6th, 2023 @ 5:41pm by Hale Stratton & Calista Sutton & Killian Sutton

1,942 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Bangor or Bust
Location: Wynn Estate, Outskirts of Bangor, Maine
Timeline: 29 August 2010 - 07:15 a.m.

Alonzo reached for Hale's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. He leaned into Hale's ear. "I don't want to go anywhere without you. I don't know these people. I do not trust these people."

Hale rested his fingertips on Alonzo's hand for a moment as he nodded. "You and Ethan stay with me. No matter what." He put himself in front of Alonzo and Ethan, and the rest of the civilians, and faced the individuals coming toward them.

The mixed quartet arrived at the gate. The two in uniform saluted Hale and Victoire as the male civilian unlocked the gate and opened it. He placed his hand on the sidearm in the hip holster. "Please, keep your rifles slung and hands away from your other weapons." He then looked at Courtney. "Vivian will inspect you first and then take you to your father." He turned to Victoire and Hale respectively. "Staff Sergeant Sanchez will take care of inspecting you and Corporal Dawson you up at the house if you like. Any questions?"

"And our people," Hale asked. "Showers, a decent meal, that sort of thing?"

Charles nodded. "Of course. All that will be taken care of...once you have all been checked for bites and scratches. It is simply a precaution to prevent infected people gaining access to the main areas of the estate."

Vic looked to Charles and gave him a critical gaze. “If I hear that anyone was mistreated…. Or harmed unduly, you had best believe that there will be consequences. I have taken extreme measures to get these people here safely,” she spoke softly but her tone was serious and cold.

"Let's get this over with then," Hale said as he gestured for the staff sergeant to lead the way. As they walked, me made sure that Alonzo and Ethan stayed with him and that the others were being treated with respect.

Jordan stepped through the gate and glanced about. He stopped and turned, even taking one step back towards the now closing gate. He glanced over his shoulder and a worried expression crossed his face. "Captain Stratton, where is Vienna and René?"

Hale stepped back, taking in the surroundings, but saw no sign of either of the teens. He shook his head quietly, sighing slightly, before returning to group. "Left, it looks like ..."

Father Dominic checked the group and shook his head. "How far is it to the young woman's home?"

"... as I was saying, probably decided not to wait." He turned toward Father Dominic as he continued. "Close enough." He gestured toward the gate. "Let's get everyone checked out and settled. "They gave us no indication of where they were going or how long they'll be there. For all we know, by the time we got to Vienna's house, they'd already be headed somewhere else."

Victoire looked back at the gate with concern and spoke softly in French “be safe, René… and come back”

Father Dominic looked in the general direction of where Vienna indicated her house was on the map. He looked thoughtful but started following the others. It was time to get checked out, cleaned up and hopefully a good meal.

Wynn Estate -- Reporting In]

That it was possible to make a connection to the military authority in Bangor was a surprise in and of itself but that it was being done from a civilian residence was an even bigger one. He stowed the implications that crowded behind that thought away for later consideration and straightened as Lieutenant Colonel Josiah Danforth came online. Dressed in combat fatigues, the colonel's appearance was far from immaculate which spoke to the situation in Bangor. Higher ranking officers, at least in Hale's experience, weren't generally on the front lines.

"Sir," Hale said as he saluted the figure on the screen, "Captain Hale Stratton, 5th Special Forces, out of Fort Campbell."

The Colonel returned the salute, "Serial Number?"

"4253827238," Hale answered. There were some numbers that, once memorized, were hard to forget. Social security number. Military ID. His parents cell.

Danforth called up Hale's record and studied a second monitor for a moment. "Confirmed and that would be Major," the Colonel said dryly as he accepted a cup of coffee from someone offscreen. "Congratulations, your promotion went through. What's your status?"

Hale went through an explanation of his situation. How he had been on leave in Millinocket and shepherded a group of stranded teenagers back to Bangor, and ended up with his current location at the Wynn Estate. "I figured once I dropped the teenagers off, I would try to rejoin my unit."

The unspoken words hung between them, understood on both sides, as if they had been said aloud. Get in the war. If you could call what was going on a war.

The silence was broken by the sound of a rapping knock at the door and then the handle turning and Vic stepped in and closed it behind her, stepping up beside Hale and offering a salute, dressed in a clean set of fatigues. "Colonel, Lieutenant Olaffson. Navy Medical and SEAL Team 9 reporting in."

"Lieutenant," Danforth said with a curt nod. "Good to see you both safe and as I was about to tell the Major here, you're needed. I'm sending a chopper for you both. You'll get further orders when you arrive."

"Yes, Sir," Hale said, "but there are civilians with me, among them several teenagers who are looking for their family. Can you arrange transportation for all of us?"

Vic nodded to Hale at his request and then spoke herself. "Alongside that... there has been a few things that I have noticed in my health checks that I feel need to be investigated further, Sir."

"Report your findings when you get here, Lieutenant," Danforth said, "but I have to warn you, they're nearly overwhelmed. Too many patients and not enough staff. Your help will be welcomed, I'm sure."

She grimaced slightly but nodded her head, as much as she was uncomfortable leaving the group of civilians orders were orders and it took a great amount of reason and probable cause to disobey them. “Aye sir, she replied.”

"Well then," Danforth said. "I'll get things started on this end. See you both shortly." Hale drew breath to speak but the connected terminated the way it did with overworked officers who expected obedience and had little time for the niceties.

[Later - Sitting Down to Eat]

Hale slipped into a seat beside Alonzo as he took in the food spread out on the table. Someone had taken the time to prepare an actual meal and the aromas wafted up from the serving dishes made his stomach rumble in anticipation.

Charles led Father Dominic and Jordan into the dining room and gestured to the table Hale was already seated at. "Please, take a seat. Mister Wynn and Lieutenant Madison will join you directly."

Father Dominic took a seat across from Hale. It had been nice to take a shower and put on fresh clothes. He was wearing a similar outfit to the one in Millinocket prior to their trek down to Bangor. He looked like a priest again in his black clothes and white collar board. "Good afternoon Captain Stratton."

Hale, who had also taken the time to shower after reporting in, was dressed in his other set of clothes, a cream-colored Henley pullover and jeans. "Afternoon." It was Major now but he didn't bother correcting the man.

Jordan sat a few seats down and took a sip of water. He was anxious to get home, but traveling the streets alone was probably not the wisest decision.

Vic joined the others in the dining area later than most as she had taken time to enjoy the shower and wash every bit of grime, blood, and any other anomaly she could find off of herself and had also given Jasper a wash down. She slid into a seat across from Hale and for the first time in awhile wore a smile on her face.

Father Dominic looked at Victoire sitting next to him. "How are you doing Doctor Oloffson? Feeling better after a shower?"

[At the Katahdin Inn]

They had packed their items the night before with what little light that they had. They opted to leave first thing in the morning. The last thing they wanted was to go out at night and run into problems. They were nearly out of the supplies that Kilian had secured for them in the previous days. They were going to try to make their way around the hotel again to see if there was anything else that they could utilize on their trip outside to the car and home again to Tennessee.

"You ready to split up and do this?" Kilian asked as he gave her a small cup of room temperature weak tea.

"Not really, but I don't think we have a choice," Calista commented. "I really feel like we need to get home and get our bearings straight to figure out what's going on. We'd at least have the garden to supply us, and Tennessee is much better at winter than Maine is."

He smirked looking at her. "That is an understatement." Kilian himself was still getting used to snow and everything during the winter and preferred the dryer climates.

"Alright, so opposite directions," she said, grimacing at the weakest tea she's had in a long time, "and be back in about an hour?" she asked. While this was the first time that she was going to be up and about after everything that happened, she still planned on taking it easy through this morning.

He nodded. "I think that we won't find much. Most of the rooms are locked and there are still things out there that are going to cause us problems. This is just the last chance to get what we need. We'll meet back here, and regroup and figure out where we are going to go."

"I thought we were going to hit the road?" she asked, curious why it seemed like the plan was changing.

"We need options, Cal. We don't know what it's going to be like out there when we leave this burrow that we've trundled in."

She snorted lightly at his words. "Getting all fancy I see."

"Cal, we'll figure it out. There is that cabin people said that they were going to go to, and then there is supposed to be a refuge center at the high school, if things are up and still operational. If we can't find any place to be safe, then yes, let's get on the road. Right now, from what I was able to gather, there are roadblocks out there. We're not Savannah, we're not hiking all the way home, number one, and number two, we need to be adaptable with whatever we are going to do and be able to think on our feet. It's hard to do that with limited knowledge and supplies at our disposal."

Huffing, she looked from her tea to him knowing that her husband was right, yet again. "Fine, fine. I get it. I'm just out of my element with everything going on, with everything that happened, and I have no form of control over anything except this room. This is my first time leaving this room since we got here the other day, yeah, trepidation is an understatement."

He grabbed her forearm and squeezed it gently. "We'll see what we can find and then get out of here. We'll be okay; we always adapt, and we'll adapt to whatever this is."

 

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