Jacqueline Druga - Protocol One

Believing Gil was confused, and refusing to hear that it wasn’t his son who aided him inside, I tried to explain. “Gil, listen to me. Enough about Tony. Things… things happened. They didn’t go as planned.”

“What are you talking about, Anna?”

I lowered my head and sat on the bed next to him. “We ran into problems, and the trip kept getting delayed. Road blocks, curfews…”

“What are you trying to tell me?”

“We were out there when the comet hit.”

“I know. I saw the van with Texas plates. I figured you broke down. I didn’t….”

“There was an earthquake.”

“I know this too.” Gil pulled his hand slowly away from me. “What’s going on?”

“Jackson… Jackson…” I couldn’t even say the words, they stuck in my throat and cracked with emotions as they seeped out. “He was injured in the quake and…”

“Oh my God.”

I grabbed his hand again. “He was hurt pretty bad.”

Gil closed his eyes and kept them closed.

“I’m sorry. I am so sorry I couldn’t protect him. I am so sorry. Jackson didn’t make it.”

Gil didn’t look at me. Slowly, I slipped my hand from his and stood.

“Wait.” He grabbed for my hand. Still not opening his eyes, he whispered. “Just stay. Please.”

I sat again.

“My son is gone?”

“Yes.”

I watched him. His expression stayed stone, but a single tear rolled down his cheek.

“My son is gone.” His head lowered and a soft groan of a sob flowed from him. That was the start. Gil brought his knees up to his chest, pinched the corners of his eyes, clenched my hand tighter and shoulders shaking, silently wept for the loss of his child.

I stayed with Gil, by his side, while he drained a lot of his emotions. I knew it would hit him hard. Gil loved Jackson. He was a good father.

He wanted to know about it all. Did Jackson suffer? What were his last words?

I had to relive it all and in doing so, I relived that pain, and ended up crying with Gil.

He took comfort in knowing I had Jackson’s things, his tablet, his music. I told him all about the pictures Jackson had and the wallpaper that was of us three.

Gil was a strong man, and when he said he felt fine, I believed him. Craig came in, check on him and gave him the ‘Okay’ to move about, just to take it easy.

I wanted to know how he ended up at our bunker. Why Damnation Alley presumed he was dead. I had a lot of questions and I was sure he did too.

But the first thing he wanted to do when he go out of that bed was go see his son’s grave.

Craig was adamantly against it, but there was no stopping Gil. I at least got him to wear the protective cold weather gear. When walked to Jackson’s grave, I told him how Duke had made a grave marker and that once the ground wasn’t solid, we’d mark the grave.

We stayed outside for just a short while, then came back in.

He walked fine and said his legs didn’t bother him. However he stressed how he really wanted to get clean.

Problem was he didn’t have any clothes.

Gil wasn’t a small man. He was a little bigger than Duke. Since Duke was the man in charge of storage, he found Gil some clothes. They were like a lot of the other storage clothing items. Cargo style pants and tee shirts.

Fearful that he wasn’t healed, I stayed outside the shower door until he finished and then I convinced him to come with me to the lower level of Hive Two. There we could sit in front of the fire. Wood rations be damned, it was what he needed. It was what I needed. It was good to have my friend back.

During our walk back to the Hive, Gil met nearly everyone. Even the children, which seemed to delight him.

Joie was a little bashful with him. Not saying much, I took that as her way of being protective of her father.

Tony was the one person Gil didn’t run into. I was glad because I wasn’t sure how Gil would handle Tony, especially after he found out Tony and I were a couple.

I cared and loved for Gil and I just wanted to be considerate of his feelings.

On the way to Hive Two, we stopped at the Switch room.

Gil asked Tom, “Could you contact Damnation Alley 113 and tell them that Senator Jenner arrived at your station?”

“Yes, sir, right away, sir.” Tom replied in an official way that I never heard him use.

“That is what I need to ask you about,” I said.

“We’ll talk. I’m sure you have questions.” Gil said. “I do too. I also want to talk about Tony.”

Peter’s ‘Uh oh’, cause me to snap a glare his way.

“Uh, oh, I mean…” Peter covered. “I forgot it was my turn to feed the chickens.”

“Then go feed them,” I said.

“In a minute. Maybe I’ll hang out with you two. This could be interesting.”

“Maybe not.” I pushed into his chair, swirling him to face the computer.

“It’s nice,” Gil stated. “To see how well you all get along. Being so close.”

Tom cleared his throat and Peter chuckled.

I thought, ‘Assholes’, then took hold of Gil’s arm. “Gil, I have so many questions and I know everyone is curious. So since they are, let’s you and I go talk.”

We walked to the Hive and I told him how the walking and stairs would become common place. We stopped by the kitchen, I fixed us a warm drink and then we went below to talk.

“When they told me you never arrived at the shelter,” I said. “I feared the worst. I hoped for the best, but feared the worst.”

We sat on the sofa, a cushion apart yet facing each other.

“I wanted to call you but all our phones were seized during the holding process. We didn’t know where the main bunker was. All I knew was it was in Texas. I knew after the dust settled and the sun returned, they wanted to be able to start a society near the Gulf.”

“The weather would be warmer there. Peter told me that.”

“It was planned for a long time, Anna. So it was laid out.” Gil told me. “They moved us right after I talked to you last. They took the phone, like I said, and I was worried that you weren’t making it. You know with the van and all. And I’m sitting there you know, and I’m thinking. What am I doing? The world is getting smacked upside the head with a giant rock, things will never be the same and I am gonna be sitting with the first branch of the Government while you and Jackson were here. Did I want to be part of the rebuilding process and chance never seeing you again? Or did I just want to go with what I had already built, and be with you guys?”

“So you came here. But what took so long?”

“Okay, first…” Gil held up his hand. “I was in a holding center. I had my bag ready. We were in Phoenix. The news hadn’t broken yet. They had taken us to the airport and I bailed. I didn’t have my cell phone and since you change your cell number more than a drug dealer…” He paused and smiled. “I didn’t know which one to call, so I called the house. When there was no answer, I called the police and they sent a car over. An hour later, I had reserved a car in Charlotte, because that was the first flight east I could get. I thought I had it timed. Then the news broke mid flight and a lot of flights were grounded. Mine included.”

“Where did you end up?”

“Atlanta. Now, try being in Atlanta in the middle of that crisis. At that point it didn’t matter who I was. Getting eight hundred miles north might as well have been ten thousand without transportation.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

I made a sign and kept hitching rides. But then, you know, roadblocks, curfews, I was counting the hours to impact and only made it to West Virginia.”

“I know that feeling.”