Chapter 29 – Untitled

“I wait for something real.”

- SOiL – Something Real

Sam felt Vanessa move against him slightly. He readjusted his arm and slowly sat up, pink sheets rolling down his naked body. He shook his head slightly and looked around in the gloom. Their clothes were strewn all over the place, some of his had landed on the side of the closet, and the clothes gave off a shape of someone standing in the shadows. There was nothing but silence. The music had been off for the past five hours and the two had stopped three hours ago. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, resting his head in his hands. He felt and heard Vanessa roll over, still asleep. He stood up, the springs in the fold out bed/couch creaking. If it hadn’t been for the thick walls, the black painted window and the heating system in the room, his naked body would be extremely cold.

Instead, he felt a still warmness, almost like he was back in Tauranga, during a summer night. He strode over to the door and put his ear against it. He couldn’t hear any voices, and there were no other sounds, meaning no one had arrived back from the apartment complex yet. He turned around and stretched his back, bones clicking throughout his body as each one was moved, extended and warmed up. He held a hand out and carefully made his way towards the closet, looking for either his shirt or pants. He stumbled a bit over something on the floor, but kept moving towards the closet. He couldn’t see much, but the light coming from underneath the door lit enough for him to know he was heading towards something hanging off the edge of the closet.

He reached out to grab what looked like his shirt hanging from a hook on the side of the closet. But there was something wrong with it. It felt different, like it was made out of different material. And it was warm...warmer than it should be hanging from a hook. There was something else too, it was on something, like a warm mannequin, or a—

“Don’t move.” A voice whispered an order. He heard a click and felt cold steel shoved against his chest. The shadow in front of him moved, and he let go of the clothing.

“Do you have any idea who I am?” Sam whispered to the shadow.

“Yes. I know exactly who you are, which is why we are here.”

“We?” Sam raised an eyebrow. There was another metallic click and the cold stabbing sensation as another barrel of a pistol was pressed against his back. There was a third off in the distance, possibly pointing at Vanessa.

“Tell us, Sam. Why? Why did you turn on us?” The voice asked. It sounded familiar, but it wasn’t Oliver or Miles. Or anyone he could even remember.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Bullshit. You know exactly what I’m talking about. You sold out everyone, you get Oliver and Miles captured, and then you run all the way to the ass end of the country. Why?”

“I have my reasons.”

“And we want to know them.”

“Fuck yo—” Something hard and metal collided with the side of his face. He fell to one knee, blood dripping from his mouth. He spat out as much as he could, including a tooth.

“I could just shoot you now, then shoot your bitch over there in her sleep. Have you already forgotten about Jessica?” The voice asked, putting the barrel of the pistol against Sam’s forehead.

“THEN JUST FUCKING SHOOT ME! I’VE ALREADY BETRAYED EVERYONE I KNOW!” He screamed, flailing his arm upwards. He knocked the gun away from his head and pushed himself up and forward, driving his head into a stomach. There was a gunshot as the two collapsed against the closet. Arms wrapped around his throat and threw him to the floor.

“Blair, stand down!” Another voice yelled. Another familiar voice, only this time he could place it to a face and name.

“Miles? The fuck is going on here?” He asked, getting to his feet.

“Sam, what’s happening?” Vanessa’s voice echoed out from the darkness. There was a plastic clicking sound and the lights came on, nearly blinding everyone. Miles and the guy called ‘Blair’ were standing around Sam, while Oliver was standing by the door, finger leaving the light switch.

“Vanessa...stay there. And don’t say anything.” Sam said quietly, not looking away from him. He was scared. Not because he thought he was about to be killed, but because for all the shit he had put them through, Oliver didn’t look even remotely pissed off. Just...normal.

“Hey, man. How’s it going?”

“Just fucking shoot me.”

“Shoot you? I’m not going to shoot you, you idiot. I’m here to get you out of here.” He put it simply.

“What the hell do you mean?” Sam asked. Oliver stepped forward, grabbed some pants off the floor and threw them at Sam.

“First, put on some goddamn pants. I didn’t spend two weeks getting down here, and one week trying to find you for you to waggle your cock around. We’re going to pack up this shit up and leave. We have very, very important things to talk about.” He explained.

“Yeah...I probably know them.”

“Like what?” Miles stretched his arms.

“Well, Oki is back with Mathers. That fucker went back on his word first chance he got. Gave us a tank, gave that German guy our location then came down here. The Russians have the Northern part of the South Island as their own. A lot of forces have moved up to the top of the North Island, something about some kind of shipment in a few weeks, and they need a lot of men up there. The Australians have tried three times to launch an assault on the New Order and each time they have been stopped. More than fifty insurgents from different countries have been captured, interrogated and then executed. Or sometimes just executed. The rest of the world wants to help us, but they can’t because no one knows what the hell they would be facing. Not to mention the New Order has set up a few hundred missile sites around the country, stopping a large amount of planes trying to get over. There have also been rumours of them being able to take down satellites.” He explained. Oliver, Miles and Blair stared at him.

“We knew about Oki and the Russians. But nothing about anything else. Jesus Christ...thank fuck we decided not to leave.” Blair suddenly said amidst the silence.

“Sam...what’s going on?” Vanessa asked, getting out of bed, sheets wrapped around her slender body. Miles raised an eyebrow.

“Oh...right. Vanessa? This is Miles, Oliver and...Blair. Guys? This is Vanessa. A friend”

“Girlfriend?” Oliver took a step forward.

“No. Just a friend. Miles, feel free to get laid if you wish.”

“Fuck you.”

“Please...her. Not me. I don’t swing that way.”

“Who are these people?” Vanessa questioned.

“These are who Mathers is looking for. Oliver killed his kids who tried to take over Tauranga. Instead, they just ended up destroying the city. I helped. Miles was involved with everything after, mainly over the past year. And Blair...didn’t you try to kill us?” Sam suddenly stopped and looked at him, who in turn raised an eyebrow.

“Didn’t you hand them over to Mathers?”

“Yeah, but that was to keep them alive.”

“Sam, he’s with us. That’s all you really need to know.” Oliver interrupted. “Before we leave, we need to sort out how this is going to play. We’ve got word that Mathers will be leaving here tomorrow on a plane, heading back up to the North Island. We’re going to get aboard the plane, kill everyone, torture Mathers fly over to Australia and throw him out the side of the plane, preferably into the turbine.”

“Oh god...don’t remind me of that.” Sam flinched.

“Yeah...poor guy. That’s what we’re doing. We assumed you’d come with us, we just wanted to make sure you really had tried to keep us alive, and didn’t really hand us over. As for Vanessa; we hadn’t really planned on anyone else.” Oliver explained.

“What are you going to do to me?” She asked him.

“Err...nothing?” He replied, raising an eyebrow. He looked from her to Sam. “What are we going to do with her?”

“She comes with us.” He responded. “Vanessa has been the only one that hasn’t treated me like I’m some dictator.”

“Well, what did you expect? To be praised for going around the South Island and killing people you were ordered to? The amount of people we talked to that feared you, more than Mathers himself.” Miles spoke, stepping forward.

“Alright, cut the shit. We need to get out of here, and pretty fast too. It’s nearly quarter to six, which means that a lot of people are going to be arriving soon.” Blair cut in.

“All of them will be women.” Vanessa added.

“We know. We also know why they aren’t here. We also know how old, or more...how young, most of them are. We need to kill Mathers, kill Oki, and get out of this country. I don’t know about you guys, but from the look of it, I don’t think New Zealand will ever be itself here again. We have the population size before the war in soldiers here. Even if we take out the leadership, this place will dissolve into a massive war zone for years to come.” He explained, talking over her. No one said anything for a while; they just stood in the room in silence, Sam quickly dressing himself, fetching his clothes from around the room. Vanessa walked t the closet, opened it, grabbed some clothes and got behind the curtain, pulling it closed. Sam could see a hint of fear in her eyes.

“He’s right.” Oliver muttered gravely. “The North Island is basically a barracks, the South Island has become a cross between a refugee city, and another barracks, and I don’t even know what’s happened to Stuart Island.”

“It’s been bombed. It’s nothing but a nuclear wasteland.” Vanessa called out from behind the curtain. “They did it a few days after the invasion. There was no strategic value; it seemed like a waste of energy to take it over. So they nuked it.”

“How do you know this?” Miles asked, and then he turned to Blair. “How do you not know this?”

“Because the moment Hamilton was attacked, almost all contact with everywhere else was cut off. We were fighting inside a giant circle just trying to survive.”

“...shit.”

“Yeah.” Vanessa pulled back the curtain, standing in tight fitting jeans and an even tighter fitting pink shirt. Everyone stared at her.

“What? It’s not like I have anything decent from the old days. All that was replaced with this shit.” She answered the unasked question, looking somewhat offended. Sam shook his head, smiling.

“Seriously, Miles. Take her.” Vanessa laughed, as did everyone else but Miles, who stood there, redder than all the blood he had spilt.

“Okay, let’s get going.” Oliver said, walking towards the door. He slowly opened it while Sam went to a draw at Vanessa’s desk and pulled out two pistols. A Colt 1911, and a 9mm Beretta. He threw the nine to Vanessa, tucking the Colt into the back of his pants.

“Time to get back to work.” He whispered to himself.