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Maynia -- Day Eight -- 1,539 words
I had a bad feeling about this. I hated the being led around like a blind duck, but orders were orders, and right now we had to secure the perimeter. I waited for further instructions thru my comm as we waited for the first batch to report what they’d see inside the building.
“Area cleared. Preparing to infiltrate the next room over Sergeant.” I heard the first static of convo.
“Roger that. Keep your eyes open on anything that moves. There shouldn’t be any unarmed civilians left there. Do you copy?” I held my rifle tight, I’ve long since learned that even the armed ones didn’t really want to have to do anything in this war. They were only doing it to survive.
“Copy sir. We have a barely open door blocking our entrance, how do we proceed?” I tensed at that, not really able to shake off the feeling that something just wasn’t right.
“Proceed as ordered, Private. We can’t lose anymore daylight.” Shit. I didn’t really want them to open that door.
And maybe I should have at least tried to stall them from doing it, ‘cuz the next thing I heard was a loud blast coming from behind me as shattered glass started raining down on us. Fiery flames licked at my back as I felt something warm dripping from the right side of my face.
“Clancy! Move it!!”
Suddenly opening my eyes to harsh sunlight, I blinked back and turned over as I buried my head under the pillow. Those fucking dreams again. And fuck this headache!
But I couldn’t help the grin splitting my face as I remembered having dinner with Ms. Shiela last night. Turning on my bed as I let my eye adjust to the sunlight, I frowned as I remembered that I wasn’t the only one who had dinner with her. That’s gotta change soon.
Sitting up on my elbows as I glanced at my clock, I then completely sat up and started getting out of bed whilst grabbing a shirt along the way. I just about pulled it on as I made my way into the kitchen, when I spotted that Luke wasn’t in his clinic.
“Hey, the doctor not in today bro?” I passed by him as he sat at the table drinking a cup of coffee, grabbing a mug I helped myself to some too.
“Nah, everyone in town’s heading to the tower site for its inauguration. They’re probably just curious about Ms. Shiela.” I caught the smile on his face as he glanced back towards me, before it turned into a frown as he saw me drinking some much needed caffeine. Grinning, I slightly raised my mug in a way of thanks.
Still frowning and now shaking his head as he turned back to his own coffee, he then mentioned he left me some breakfast on the stove before me continued saying, “I’m also planning to attend the inauguration after I pick up gramps, he said something about Mrs. Twiddle bringing in Augustus again. You wanna come with?”
Giving my affirmation on wanting to attend the public event, I sat down across from him with the breakfast saying, “I’m telling yah Luke, that Mrs. Twiddle ain’t no missus. It’s either she’s after your gramps or she’s after you, but I’m betting on the latter. I laughed at the memory of seeing her chihuahua the first time, all bug-eyed and jittery. At one time, I actually considered him my spirit animal. I thought bitterly at that.
Luke’s laugh took me out from my sudden morose mood and I glanced up just in time to see his expression suddenly turn serious, “You sure about that? ‘Cuz I’m actually planning on having someone in my life right now.”
He leaned back in his chair and regarded me, I also stared back at him, not wanting to back down. That was until his phone rang. Breaking his gaze first as he glanced down at his phone, he then stood up with it as he proceeded to dump the contents of his cup in the sink. “It’s Diana, probably wants to know what time we’ll be there with Jack. How ‘bout we leave in half an hour, sound good?”
Not really giving me a chance to answer as he picked up the call and walked out of the kitchen, I could only grumble as I popped the last piece of bacon in my mouth. So much for a doctor-patient relationship.
Something wasn’t right. I kept glancing up at the tower, checking its foundations but coming up with no concrete answers. I’m sure I felt it thrum to life just now, I should be the only one to feel its vibration but—
A nudge at my side had me looking back at Ms. Chip as she was sitting beside me and held Jaden in her lap, she gestured for me to listen to the mayor’s speech but that wasn’t really my top priority right now. I had to find out what was wrong with the tower before—
“—and so it’s my pleasure to introduce you to our generous benefactor, Ms. Shiela Lancaster.” Mayor Heins turned toward me and continued to usher me from my seat. Standing beside the older Heins as he kept talking, I couldn’t help but wander my gaze and sneak a quick glance at the Jack. He looked intensely at his father, seemingly avoiding my gaze, as he stood closely behind Mrs. Heins who listened attentively to her husband.
We didn’t really talk about what happened last night, not that we needed to but still, I had hoped he wouldn’t have made such a big deal out of it by trying to avoid me like this. That was my last thought before the mayor now demanded my attention.
Breathing deeply, I put my game face on and smiled sweetly at the people of Samheinrock.
“Now give me the scoop Dr. Alfred, what’s with you and Mrs. Twiddle? Why does she even have to make her dog visit the vet this often? No offense with you doc, just really curious.” I glanced back from the shotgun seat as I addressed Luke’s grampa.
Luke shot me a glare before he focused back on the road. Dr. Alfred however kept chuckling as he leaned into the backseat, “It’s just a curious case of Augustus being too jittery as of late. I keep asking myself too you know? He wasn’t always like that..”
I heard Dr. Alfred trail off in thought as I threw a glance at Luke, this time he had his eyes narrowed as he looked on further down the road. Curious at what he could possibly be looking at, I straightened and looked out the windshield in search, “Something wrong, bud?”
Luke still kept looking out the windshield in deep concentration, “Yeah… I just thought I saw something down the road just now..”
I had just furrowed my brow at his statement when I suddenly felt like we ran over something huge and I immediately grabbed the ‘oh shit’ handle above the car door. I watched in what felt like slow motion as Luke seemed to lose control of the steering wheel before we crashed.
I wondered why Mr. Clancy and Dr. Luke wasn’t here yet, Luke mentioned that he’d go pick up his grampa before coming here. Glancing around past the locals who stopped and thanked me for my company’s contribution to their town, I knew something was up the moment I saw Deputy Diana Heins whisper urgently into Jack’s ear.
I saw him tense as he and the Deputy started walking away from the event so I excused myself and briefly informed Ms. Chip before I followed him heading towards his pickup. I called out to him, and he thankfully stopped and slowly turned towards me. “I was actually just wondering if you got any news from Mr. Clancy or Dr. Luke? Weren’t they supposed to be here?”
I saw how his look hardened at thee mention of his friends, “That’s what I’m going to find out.” He vaguely told me as he turned back towards his car before I grabbed hold of his forearm, “Tell me what’s happening.” Suddenly hearing warning bells ringing in my head as I saw the hesitant look Jack had on his face.
“What’s going on here boy?” At the sound of the Mayor’s voice behind me, Jack gently took off my hand and calmly looked at his father. “Two vehicles were seen in a traffic accident. I’m heading there right now.”
“You do that boy, make this town a better place. Ms. Lancaster, why don’t you leave with us?” I managed to contain the irritation I felt towards his apparent indifference to the situation. I then turned towards him and made a decision, “I’ll leave with Sheriff Heins. I’m sure you understand Mayor, if you want me to further invest in your town, I’ll need to know everything that’s going wrong here.”
I only got his shocked expression as a reply before I turned expectantly towards Jack. He looked at me with a fire in his deep blue eyes as I saw his jaw tick, “Get in. We’ll talk on the way.”
to be continued...
Image from Pixabay, by Phan Minh Cuong An: https://pixabay.com/users/minanfotos-9565064/ (edited with dreamscopeapp)