The look on the Hulk’s face as he took his last breath flashed before my eyes. Then I thought of Rodgers and the terror in his eyes as I pulled the trigger to cripple him in that underwater grave. I’d known what I was doing. I was killing people so that I’d be able to keep going. So I’d be able to save my son.
Running a hand over the backpack filled with the meds, I wasn’t sure what, if anything, made me better or different from anybody else out there who was willing to do murder. At some point, in order to survive, we’d all lost a little humanity, and mine was clearly gone. Was I really doing what was right in a world of shit? I’m not sure I have the answer to that. However, I can only hope that what I’ve done to keep going… to keep my friends and family safe will be worth the trade for my soul.
Feeling my eyelids weighing down as if they’d been carrying boulders, I finally slipped off to sleep. Images of death filled my mind, but it had been a while since they really felt like nightmares. Now they were just dreams. The same ones I had every time I closed my eyes.
Some time later, I was shaken awake as the rotor of the helicopter hit some turbulence while we shifted to the side, making a wide turn. Sitting up, I wiped the sleep from my eyes and leaned forward to brace my arm against the cold metal side of the vehicle.
In the distance, I could see the familiar walls in the open field that surrounded Avalon. Sitting up straight, realizing we were so close, I had a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach as I thought about what I’d find there.
“Why are we circling around?” I asked into the mic on the headset.
“Gordon’s army is sitting out front. Looks like they started pulling into the field. We need to fly around them. Don’t want to get shot at, or worse,” Cooper replied while keeping his eyes fixed on the ground below.
Nodding my head, I shifted my body to look out the window as we continued to make a wide half-circle around the field. From the air, I could see multiple grounded helicopters, cars, and men running around and setting up all their equipment.
“It’s a rear operating base,” Kyle said.
I noticed both he and Mia had their faces plastered to the windows as well. Kyle appeared to be counting, trying to get a lock on how many men we’d be up against.
Nobody took as much as a shot at the chopper. Closing my eyes, I tried to calm my nerves as I realized I was more frightened at the fact that they let us pass unscathed. We were simply flying into Gordon’s web, and he was happy to let us do it.
Cooper lowered the chopper onto a landing pad that sat atop the Greenbriar Hotel, or what was left of it. A few months back a group of marauders had tried to enter our Avalon bunker through the hotel, which looked and felt like the size of the White House. After unsuccessfully attempting to break through the blast door, they decided they’d set the former immaculate hotel on fire. With nothing and no one to put it out, nearly half of the structure burned to the ground before a lucky rainstorm passed overhead.
Fortunately, the landing pad on the less burnt side of the building was still mostly structurally sound, and we knew we couldn’t exactly land out in the field at the moment.
Feeling the skids touch down, I was out the side door before Cooper had taken his hand off the yoke. Shooting my gaze out at the field, I felt like I ran into a wall as I realized what we were up against. A field of men all pointing at us as they moved back and forth, preparing for the attack. For some reason, it looked a hell of a lot more real from that rooftop than it did flying above.
With the rest of the group in tow, I bolted down a set of charred black stairs until we hit the ground floor and made our way through a series of hallways, some of which still had elegant paintings that had only been singed in the fire—a subtle reminder of how prestigious the Greenbriar Hotel had been long ago.
With a bottle of the lifesaving medicine in hand, we reached what seemed like a large yellow wall with green horizontal stripes running down the side, circa 1970s. Kyle ran over to a small hidden seam and pulled the entire wall back to reveal a large rectangular iron door that led into our underground base. This back door had been used by the original builders of the Greenbriar to gain entrance to the trade show floor. When opened, it looked like a natural hall that led into a giant room where the Greenbriar staff would host enormous events. The unsuspecting guests would be inside the underground base and wouldn’t even know it. When closed, it created a seal that was as hard to get through as the rest of the cylindrical entrances to the bunker.
We’d done battle in that trade show room, as it was the very same place that Gordon’s Arena had been set up in. Though it had since been dismantled, I still got the chills every time I stepped into the place. So many people had died there in that first week.
Maybe they were the lucky ones.
Standing back and looking up, Kyle waved his hands at a camera pointed directly down at him. “Hello,” he mouthed silently.
A few moments later, a circular handle on the left-hand side of the door started to twist, popping open the seal as the door cracked, providing us safe passage into our home.
Stepping into the room, I lifted my head to find Tyler’s baby blue eyes staring at his father. I don’t know how else to explain how I felt, other than to say that I was simply filled with joy… a feeling that I hadn’t had in far too long. The joy of getting home. The joy of being reunited with my son. The joy that he was all right. I felt no pain, no worry. Just Tyler and I there reunited. It was a moment that is hard to explain, but one that will be left in my mind as a bright spot until I’m gone from this earth.
As Deanna slid him into my arms, I thanked her for watching after him, and pulled him to my chest before raising him above my head “Lion King” style. He started to giggle as I wiggled my fingers under his armpits. I brought him back down and kissed him on the thin, light blond hair covering his head.
With the nebulizer in hand, Deanna was busy sliding the canister of medicine into the small machine when I heard a small girl’s voice cry out.
“John!” I looked down to see Olivia push past Deanna and run up to grab my leg, I nearly lost my balance as she exclaimed, “I’m so happy you’re back!”
Reaching one arm down, I patted her on her back, simply saying, “Me too, Olivia. Me too.”
Beyond Deanna and Richards, who had already pulled Jarvis to the side, I saw those beautiful blue eyes watching us through the crowd. When she saw I’d noticed her, she stepped forward slowly with both hands clutched in front of her body.
“Olivia can’t stop talking about you,” she said with a slight grin, before looking to the ground.
Fumbling to find words, I finally replied, “I heard the two of you have been helping Deanna out with this little monster.” I twisted my finger under Tyler’s armpit again, eliciting a sweet giggle that brought Claire’s head up from the floor, now with a full smile.
“Well, it’s the least I could do after you saved my little girl’s life. Besides, I love kids, and that one’s a sweetheart.” She stepped closer to rub Tyler’s back.
“Well, thank you. It truly means the world to me,” I said in a near whisper, while gazing down at my son.
Breaking the moment, Richards called over to me.
“John, I have something you gotta see. Think you can stop by the bunkroom?”
“What is it?”
“Better that you see, John. It’ll just take a minute.”
Looking over to Kyle and Jarvis, they both shrugged their shoulders in near unison.
Nodding toward Richards, I turned and thanked Deanna and Claire. I didn’t want to give Tyler up. Every bit of fatherly instinct told me to keep him within my sight. I’d been away too long, and I felt a physical pain at the thought of handing him over to anybody in that moment.