Episode 15

John could hear the commotion as he made his way back to the cabin. With each crunch of snow under his feet, the voices became clearer. When he heard Jennifer raise her voice, his pace quickened from a motivated walk to an all-out sprint. As he emerged from the last row of trees and could see more than fifty feet ahead of him, he noticed a groggy Cyrus shaking his head, attempting to shake the hangover loose.

Reaching into the waist of his jeans, he grabbed the gun that he used on Merlin and tossed it. The gun landed by the corpse of Nick, ironically enough. Kimberly was nowhere in sight, and he thought it was safe to assume that she was mourning inside of the cabin. Cyrus approached the gun and picked it up, inspecting it like a child with a new toy.

“Don’t,” John said to Cyrus, “put the gun down, Cyrus. I don’t trust you with a weapon right now. I was throwing it to Jennifer.”

Jennifer glanced at Cyrus, who returned the look, and hesitated to hand it over. She extended her reach, inviting him to trust her with the responsibility.

“Give it to her. She is a badass when she needs to be. You see this blood in the snow? You see those wings?”

John pointed both out with his hands as well as his words.

“Yeah, all her. Give her the gun.”

Cyrus handed her the gun. The cold from the handle of the matte black handgun sent a chill down her spine, and she placed it against the small of her back. As she did so, John told her that he’d be with her in a minute, and stepped over to Cyrus.

“You ok, big guy?”

“My head hurts,” the giant replied.

“Yeah, that’s to be expected. You basically killed a fifth in one shot, you crazy bastard.”

Cyrus chuckled, but was met with a look that would stone wall Medusa.

“You can’t be doing shit like that, Cyrus. We needed you. Hell, we needed you more than ever, and you’re in there sleeping off the bender of a lifetime. Nick died out here and you could have helped save his life. You have blood on your hands. Welcome to the club, bud.”

Cyrus looked like he was about to break down in tears. John didn’t know how to react, as he never expected such a massive man to have feelings.

“You can’t be serious. Look, Cyrus, stop crying. It wasn’t your fault, I was just saying that we could have use an extra pair of hands. Preferably, your massive ones.”

Cyrus nodded and wiped his eyes clean. He began to trod off back inside the cabin, when John called out for him.

“Wait! We aren’t done here. I have to tell you guys about what happened out there.”

“I’m not staying outside,” Cyrus retorted. “It’s too cold out here and it’s making my head hurt even more.”

John agreed and ventured over to Jennifer, laughing to himself at the way she held the firearm. “You’re doing it all wrong. Nevermind, I’ll show you later. I’m gonna tell Cyrus and that Kimberly lady what happened out there, but I’ll tell you first.”

“Why? Just tell all of us at the same time.”

He thought about her question, which was a valid one, and said, “Because that’s how I want to do it. Why’d you take that lady’s wings?”

“I have my reasons. We have a history.”

John didn’t push any further, but wondered what she meant by that. She had just gotten her wings not too long ago, and it didn’t seem as if she had any deeper knowledge of their current situation. He decided that he’d bring it up when he felt that the time was right.

“In the woods,” he said, pointing in the direction that he trekked back from about twenty minutes ago, “I chased my twin guy there, Marlot?”

“Merlin,” she corrected.

“Right, yeah. Merlin. Well, I chased him down, and he scaled a tree like some kind of animal. I managed to hit him once but it must’ve been a flesh wound. I think he’s a part of the facility. After I hit him, a helicopter came through here and picked him up. Guy had a machine gun. I managed to avoid any shots that came my way. Did you guys see the chopper?”

Jennifer thought back and went over the scene in her head, and had no recollection of any helicopter coming through here.

“I didn’t see or hear a chopper. Seems like that would be a hard thing to miss, but there was a lot going down. I wasn’t entirely focused on anything but what I was doing.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. You probably didn’t even notice. Do you think I’m off base by assuming that these people were from the facility too?”

“I think it’s a good theory,” she said.

“Yeah, ok. Let’s head in to tell them about the chopper.”

Jennifer and John headed towards the door, and as John reached for the door handle, he heard a voice from behind him.

“I’m guessing you have some questions for me.”

They both turned around to see Charles standing by a navy blue helicopter, the same one that picked up Merlin earlier in the day, surrounded by 3 men holding machine guns.