Memoriam

Veronica and Gear perform surgery on Luke while Andrew re-counts their early life.

“Family... it’s a strange thing. You will never be closer to any one person, closer than you are to those who share your blood.”

Andrew felt the apparitions control over his body fading, and stepped in to take its place as he and Veronica quickly walked in to the door of the lantern lit cabin. They quickly walked through to the living room, where Luke was still lying on the couch.

“How’s he doing?” Andrew asked Gear. The mutants big hands were wiping Luke’s face with a wet cloth.

“He has a fever, not the worst of the ones he’s had, but it is a bad one. Did you gather supplies?” He asked, looking up at the two.

“More than enough.” Veronica said.

“Then we must get started.” Gear responded, standing up.

“What are we doing, exactly?” Andrew asked.

Veronica turned and faced Andrew, “If you want Luke to have any chance of surviving, we have to operate now.” 

“What do you mean by operate?”

“Gear and I both have... enough... medical training. I’m going to get the bullet out of his leg, and Gears going to stitch up his stomach.”

“His stomachs fine...” Andrew said.

“No, it’s actually not.” Gear said, standing up. The seven foot tall mutant looked at the two of them. “I checked the bandage while you were gone. He’s been bleeding through it, and it’s beginning to show sign of infection. I will need to clean it, stitch it up, and then he’s still going to need Antibiotics.”

Andrew walked over and lifted up Luke’s shirt. Sure enough, the bandage, scraped together with some old tape and cloth, was completely blood soaked.

“What can I do?” Andrew asked.

“Keep him calm. All we can ask is that you do that.” Veronica said, already starting to take out her supplies.

“He’s knocked out though.” Andrew said.

“It’s due to blood loss,” Gear said “He’s going to need a transfusion too.”

Andrew stuck out his arm, “Do it.”

“Are you a match?”

“He’s my brother, alright? We don’t have much of choice here so do it!”

Luke slowly woke up. He looked around the dimly lit room and saw his brother, Andrew, sitting on the old coffee table beside him, “Hey kid, how’s it going?” Andrew asked.

“Ya know... I’ve been shot and slashed so... as good as it can be.” Luke responded.

Andrew smiled, “Always with the sarcasm?”

Luke smiled back, “Always. Ahhh!” Luke screamed and began to wiggle around. Veronica had just made the first cut in her attempt to get the bullet out of his leg.

“Keep him calm!” She told Andrew. Andrew pushed Luke’s leg down.

“Luke, I need you to listen to me. Your a big boy, you need to sit still or Veronica and Gear can’t help you.”

“I’m not a big boy, I’m eleven.” 

“Thats big enough to suck it up if you want them to help you.”

“What... what are they doing?” Luke said, grinding his teeth while tears rolled down his face.

“Getting the bullet out of your leg right now.”

“Oh god.” Luke said, he threw his head hard against his pillow.

“Luke, it’ll be alright, just talk to me.”

“I’m trying to think of something... OW oh god!” He screamed again.

“Don’t you have something to numb the pain?” Andrew shouted.

“Don’t you think we would have used it?” Veronica shouted back.

“Alright, Luke.” Andrew said, turning his attention back to his brother, “What do you want to talk about?”

“What was it like, before the bombs?”

“Well Luke, that’s a hard question to answer.” Andrew said “I was only alive for five years before they fell. But I can tell you what I remember. We lived in a house, bigger and nicer than this one. It was bright, with several windows all over the house. It was just the right size for us, the four of us. I had my own room, you had you room and... Mom and Dad had their own room. We had this big backyard that me and some other kids, I forget who they were, used to play in all the time. Mom would come out holding you, and the bunch of us kids would run over to see the baby. Then the other kids would go home, Mom would put you in your high chair and I would sit at the kitchen table. She would make us dinner, mostly for me, you just ate baby food, and then she would put us to bed. Dad would come home later, and then we would do the same thing over again the next day.”

“What were Mom and Dad like?” Luke asked.

Andrew opened his locket, on the right side was a picture of his whole family, His Mother, Father, Baby Luke, and himself. On the left side was a picture of Luke now. “From what I remember, Mom was this sweet and compassionate women. Every time I did something wrong or got in trouble, she didn’t yell at me, she corrected me, told me she was disappointed. She didn’t want to be a mean Mom or anything, she just wanted me to act right. She loved you by the way, every moment of her life was spent with you. She woke you up, made you breakfast, brought you on a walk, made you lunch, brought you shopping, made you dinner, and then put you to bed. Every moment she could, she spent with you.” Andrew noticed Luke smiling as he closed his eyes.

“And Dad?” He said.

“I didn’t know Dad as much. He must have worked during the day because he was never really home. He was just as loving as Mom, playing games with the both of us, tossing us around and what not. He was stricter though, and if you got in trouble with him, you were going to have to endure his wrath.”

“Hehe” Luke giggled weakly. “What happened that last night?”

“Well, that’s the hardest to remember. I remember a lot of screaming, both from Mom and Dad and outside the house. It was late at night, and i was confused why they had me sitting on the couch holding you. Mom and Dad then brought us out too the backyard and down into a shelter. Mom gave me the locket and I asked where she and Dad were going and they just said they were going to help. Then they closed the bomb shelter door, and it didn’t re-open for a hundred years.”

Luke opened his eyes, “Don’t lie to me, i’m only eleven and your only fifteen. We were in their for ten years.”

“Luke, I found out during are travels, I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to know. We were in there for a hundred years. The technology of the shelter just made it feel like ten.”

“Who told you?”

“That’s a story, for another time.”

“I got the bullet out!” Veronica said “Gear, get on that chest wound!”

Andrew sat back out on the porch, watching the sun rise. It had been a long, but successful night. Luke was going to live, and he was going to be fine. He then heard the door opening and closing behind him, “You know you didn’t have to tell him that right?” He heard Veronica say.

“You didn’t have to tell me.”

“Well the circumstances were a little different then, I was shocked when you said you had only been in the shelter ten years but had seen the old world.”

“Yeah well, he had to know sometime. Besides, in all honesty, I thought he was going to die.”

“Yeah well, he and Gear are off to sleep and I’m right behind them, you coming?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m coming.” He said.

Author's Note

An attempt to clear somethings up for people, tell me if it worked

Reviews

[Jacques]

I really liked this chapter and it felt like it was going back to the first chapter like in it's element and surroundings and it was an character ensemble . it don't think this chapter has any faults or weaknesses . it's definetley my favourite of the three and there's some forshadowing which is pumping me and gives the readers in general some expectation of what to expect from this story .

there was a sentence where you said [ you had you room ] that's an error

i don't have anything to really say or give you advice because this chapter was linear and following one storyline while giving us some little spoilers for the future . great write

[Broken Wings]

I really like this...yea I know I skipped a few chapters..but that doesn't change the fact that this is a great write :D

[Niko Timmy]

Really great chapter, really enjoyed reading it. I love the story about Luke and Andrew in the bomb shelter, very well detailed. The only thing though is that I felt the ending was kind of rushed, you could add something like what Andrew was feeling, explain how scared he was that Luke would die. Add a little more emotion to Andrew's character just so the ending won't seem as rushed.

Good job on everything else, though. It's a good chapter and really well-written. Great job.