The Fall of Bangor (Part 7)

Posted on Sat Mar 9th, 2024 @ 9:25pm by Hale Stratton [Major, United States Army] & Calista Sutton & Vienna Quinn & Killian Sutton & René Rouen & Reuben Baptiste & Victoire Olaffson [Lieutenant, United States Navy]

2,187 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Bangor or Bust
Location: Safe Zone, Bangor, Maine
Timeline: 4 September 2010 - 07:30 p.m.

[Vic's House]

"Are you alright?" Vienna gave René a concerned look as she sat down on the couch next to him, having heard his sigh. She smiled as her eyes looked into his, being this close to him was always a temptation given how they felt about each other.

René glanced to the East before turning to Vienna. He looked like someone who carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. "I'm afraid I won't ever see my family again. Yet, I don't want to leave you either. I just wish I knew if they were safe and if what is happening here is also happening in France." He paused for a moment. "I am a stranger in a strange land and...you...your family.... I don't know what to do anymore."

"We do whatever you want to do René, whatever it is I'm going to be right there with you." Vienna offered a caring smile. "I'm not leaving you, right now you're all I've got."

René returned Vienna’s smile. He was thankful for her being a part of his life. He hugged Vienna. Something he had not done since that morning on the dock of the rustic resort. "Je vous aime." His words surprised him.

Vienna was enjoying the hug as she leant back to look into René’s eyes. “Je t'aime” She smiled hoping her pronunciation was good enough. She barely recalled most of her French lessons.

René was twice as surprised when Vienna uttered her words. Staring into her eyes, he could easily lose himself in them. After a long moment, he did something else that he had not done since the dock. He kissed her softly.

Vienna returned the kiss, letting it linger and deepen as she let her feelings for René truly show. Having to come up for air she blushed as she looked into his eyes. “Sorry I couldn’t help myself.”

The kiss had left René speechless and breathless. It had let him know that Vienna had as much desire for him as he did for her. He finally found his voice. "You've nothing to be sorry for. It was...incredible."

Vienna smiled warmly. “I know, and I could do that over and over again!”

[Stash House]

Hale followed Reuben up the stairs to a small landing. One door facing them across the landing, two on their right, and the last at the other end of the hallway. All of the doors were closed which would not be an impediment to the dog who was currently sitting in front of the door toward the front of the house. He signaled the other two to move up. Reuben to breach with the dog, then Vic, with him going in last.

Reuben knelt down and gentle checked the doorknob, it wasn’t locked. Here comes the part I hate most about breaching and close quarter combat. He looked back at the other two and held up three fingers. He slowly brought each finger down, in a countdown. When his hand was a fist, he opened the door hard, so it slammed against the wall, in order to make a shock and awe effect, he and Kenny, snarling and growling, dashing forward but keeping low to allow the other two to follow through and get proper aim, and not hit him.

Inside the room, Mrs. Quinn lay on a dirt-stained quilt, one hand clutched to her side. With her head angled so that her face was directed toward the newcomers, she let her gaze travel to the double-wide closet with its nearly closed folding doors, return to the crouched man's face, and then back to the double doors again.

Reuben watched as Kenny ran straight past the woman on the floor and straight toward a double-wide closet door. Reuben watched this and then saw the woman on the floor, she was holding her side but kept looking toward the double-wide closet. Doing a quick sweep of the room he slowly made his way towards the closet, improvised spear ready. "Sostengatu {Hold}" he whispered to Kenny in Basque.

Inside the closet, a young man, no more than eighteen years old, leaned against the back wall and wondered just what the hell he was going to do now. Not for the first time did he mentally curse his older brother who had never played by any rules other than his own. "Don't, you know, shoot or anything," he said after a few minutes. "Not armed and that lady is bit. I didn't do anything to her."

Reuben stated in a very calm, but clear voice, "Okay then, come out with both hands up. If you try anything stupid the dog will rip your nuts off as the rest of us fill you full of holes. Same goes for anyone else who is with you."

Threats. Well, that was nothing new. And while he didn't exactly want to get his nuts ripped off, he didn't exactly have a lot of great options. "Stay here", he muttered under his breath in a singsong voice. "Watch the stuff." He rolled his eyes expressively and then, straightening his thin shoulders, stepped into the room with his hands up and waited.

Leaving Vic and Reuben to watch the kid, Hale circled around to the far side of the bed and checked the woman. "Mrs. Quinn," he said softly. He saw her nod as he looked her over, lifting the edge of her shirt to see a set of large bits on her torso. "Vic, you want to come take a look?"

Paid close attention to the scene as it unfolded, Reuben halting the dog, the kid in the closet and then Hale moving to Ms. Quinn’s side and she started to move to the bed before something fired in the back of her mind and she locked the muzzle of her gun on the kids forehead for a moment while she gave a visual once over before slowly turning her attention to Ms. Quinn and swiftly pulling gauze out of the medkit she unslung from her back, trusting in Hale to watch her back. “Fuck, fuck this is bad.” She muttered under her breath.

He stepped back as she approached and turned his attention to the kid who was shifting from one foot to the other. "I saw the stuff downstairs," he said but before he could draw breath to continue, the kid interrupted.

"Scavenged," he said as he jammed his hands into the back pockets of his jeans. "Outside the walls."

Hale shook his head slowly. "I know the marking system the teams used when we were going through houses. Those were stolen from the warehouse."

"They said they was scavenged. Been bragging about how easy it was," the kid said. His gaze dropped to the ground. He could go to jail for this. As an accessory at least. He'd have a record. No. Not anymore. His head dropped lower as the reality of the situation settled around his shoulders. Would they freakin' kill him for babysitting his brother's stash?

"They," Hale asked. "Who's they?"

"My brother and some of his idiot friends. Maybe four in all. They're setting up a house, a nice one, here in Bangor where we's all going to live. That's where they are now. Clearing it out. Moving stuff over."

"Reuben, secure him to the pipes in the bathroom and make sure he can't call out. Vic, can we get her back to the house?"

Vic spat out the cap of the syringe she had just pulled off, holding it up for a moment before she stuck Ms. Quinn and after a few moments the nurse was unconscious and steadily breathing, her pain relieved and fear stripped by the morphine. Vic packed up the medkit and tied off the gauze bandages and stood to look Hale in the eye.

“I’m gonna shoot straight with you. She’s bitten and she is most probably infected. I have no idea how long she has among the living. It’s a risk and not one that I am necessarily comfortable with Hale.”

"Can't bring Vienna here, not when his..." Hale jerked his head toward the the young man who remained where he was, watchful and waiting, "friends are due back. Let's take her to the field hospital, keep her in isolation." His voice dropped as his expression turned somber. "Give her daughter a chance to say good-bye."

Vic wiped blood off of her hands and then poured the remainder of a bottle of isopropyl over them to ensure they were thoroughly cleansed of all traces of blood or infection and then she stood turning her back for a long moment as she bit her lip and fought back a welling of emotion. When she had mastered herself she turned back and grimly nodded. “Vienna deserves that much at least… more than a lot of others are gonna get”

She stepped outside the room for a moment to breathe and there was some part of her that just felt useless; she knew that this time her efforts as a medic had been worth nothing and all she could think about at the moment was how many more times like this were in the near future, let alone the far?

[Somewhere Outside of Bangor]

Calista was hurting all over. It had only been an hour since they had potentially crossed paths with someone in the forest, but they hadn't found anything yet in the means of a shelter. The sun had set and they couldn't keep walking through the darkness for much longer. They had been quiet since the crossing with whatever or whomever that had been. Just now, it seemed like the night was going to swallow them whole without them being able to find a place to stay.

Looking over to his wife, Killian felt bad that they hadn't been lucky to find anything. It seemed like they were getting closer to the freeway because they had been coming across more and more creatures throughout the day as the day progressed. They had no idea how things were going since they had left Millinocket all those days before. He looked towards the darkening horizon. With a click noise, Calista looked towards him. He pointed upwards as he had found a tree that had some good places that he could climb.

With a nod, Calista walked over to the tree and waited as he proceeded to make the climb of the tree. There was nothing down here, at least for now. The animals and insects were about, as they had crossed paths with some, but they were not well enough equipped to go hunting, and they were beyond hungry having finished off their last of the packed rations that they had that morning. It seemed like forever that he was up in the tree. Finally, she stepped back allowing him space to come down from the tree top.

"Looks like the trees are thinning," he whispered quietly to Calista.

"Thinning good or thinning bad?" she responded, whispering in kind.

He slipped back into the bag that he was carrying. "Possibly good. Means we might be able to make a run for it and find something shelter wise. We might be coming across some farmland and might be able to find a house."

"Food would be nice," she lamented, hopeful that he was right.

"This way looks promising," he commented. It had been too dark to see anything, especially without power being available throughout the region.

Calista sighed and followed him. Their pace was quiet and quick. It was the way that they needed to be with wanting to find someplace safe for the night. They had been out the last two nights. Once was on top of a large boulder, and the other two nights were just finding a hill side to lie against. "It'd be so much better if we had a tent or a bed," she said quietly.

"I know, Cal. I'm hoping that we can find something soon. There's not much twilight left. If we can't find anything quickly, we may just have to stop," Killian stated.

"Kil, we don't have moonlight, it's partly cloudy. I mean at least we can see the stars and all but that doesn't do us any good walking through the darkness."

Killian looked over to his wife. "I know. Let's just keep going until we can't go any further. Just a little bit longer tonight, I promise."

"Yeah," she breathed back. "It's not like we'll be back home tomorrow though."

"I know, Sugah, I know."

Calista opted to remain quiet. There was no point to continue on vocalizing her thoughts with how much needed to be put between them, Maine, and the death of her friend.

Looking over his shoulder to keep eyes on their surroundings, his hand found hers and squeezed it gently. It was their silent means of signaling strength and love to each other when words just wouldn't cut it.

 

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