Aftermath

 “Gaetan!”

The shout woke me up. There were a couple of people around me. It took me a second to realise they were treating my wounds. One of them injected something in my arm. In a moment my mind was clear and focused. The pain was just a dull background. I still heard the sounds of firearms so it couldn’t have been long. I looked around and saw several motorbikes and even ATVs parked around the perimeter. I didn’t even think the entire Ferroviaire had that many petrol based vehicles. The air was thick with the smell of exhaust. I was in awe of the sight.

“Gaetan!”

The voice was unmistakable.

“Estelle,” my voice was slurred and weak.

“Oh my God, are you hurt?”

I looked down at myself. “A little.” I gave her the best smile I could manage.

“You fool!” Estelle’s words were a mixture between laughing and crying.

A loud bang sounded from the building followed by several crashes. A cloud of dust came pouring out of the large hole on the wall. After a brief silence the entire building began to collapse on itself.

“It’s over,” Estelle whispered. “We did it.” As she turned around I could see she was still favouring one leg.

“What’s going on, who are all these people?” I asked. Before she was able to answer I heard another dreadfully familiar voice.

“Hello there you little shit,” Ruben said. I almost jumped from the improvised bed. Estelle laid a hand on me to still my heart. “I thought you’d be happier to see me given the circumstances.”

“Estelle, what is going on? There is so much I don’t even know what to ask first.”

“Calm down Gaetan. It’s all going to be OK now.”

“Is Nicodeme alright?” I interrupted Estelle. She seemed shocked by that though I couldn’t tell if was the interruption itself or the content.

“He’ll live. They are patching him up. Same as you.”

It was hard for me to understand why that fact made me feel such relief. I was fairly sure I still hated the guy and would punch his lights out given the chance. Perhaps it was a thought for a different day.

“What about him?” I gestured towards Ruben.

“I’m right here you know,” Ruben said in a sarcastically hurt tone.

“Well, one thing led to another,” Estelle said.

“Don’t sell yourself short lassie. You were incredible. It wasn’t something we planned for but somehow everyone immediately liked her. She must have some supernatural gift for talking and making people follow her. After she filled us in on what was going on, there was no way we could stand by without doing something about it.” He leaned in closer to me. “I was actually going to leave her back in Ferroviaire but she was having none of it. She can be quite scary when she wants to.” Estelle gave him a mean look when he straightened once more. He just shrugged. “It’s the truth.” Estelle was giving him an even harder look but didn’t say anything. “Right. So. Ehm. I’m sorry Gaetan. I’ve treated both of you poorly.” He lifted his hand as if wanting to put it on my shoulder but changed his mind and left with only a brief nod.

I stared at Estelle. She stared back. After a while her face coloured and she looked away. “What?” She asked.

“What on Earth did you do?”

“Nothing really. I just talked to them. They were immediately on board when I told them what was happening. I don’t really know how exactly it happened.”

“You never cease to surprise me.”

“Well, I am your older sister after all. You have to depend on me at some point.”

The sound of grunting came from behind. I turned my head and saw a solider help Nicodeme towards me. He sat him down next to us.

We sat in silence for a couple of minutes. I didn’t know how to feel about it. He had betrayed us and I hated him for it. On the other hand we fought together. We fought for our lives and perhaps even for the future of the world. We had both saved each other’s lives and the thought of him dying in the facility had filled me with dread. So I said nothing and just sat laid there.

“There are some things I want to tell you two,” Nicodeme said. Estelle and I exchanged a glance and let him continue. He retold what he had already told me during the fight about his parents and other things. “That device we called the artefact could open a tear into space leading to the homeworld of an alien civilisation. It came from them after a CERN experiment briefly managed to do the same. There was a short war between the faction of CERN that opposed using it and one that wanted to. In the end that led to what is known as the CERN incident and a split second opening of the spatial rift that allowed that creature to pass into our world. It also caused the weird phenomena that occur in the Zone and the mutation of various plant and animal species. Though some of that might have actually been also among the things that physically came into our world.”

Despite that fact that we had just witnessed what he was saying, it was still a lot to take in. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to think about it all.

“Be that as it may, at least we can put it to rest. Everything inside that building is dead or destroyed. No one will be able to open another portal. Maybe things will slowly start to get better,” I said.

“Well probably,” Nicodeme said with a thoughtful expression.

“What do you mean?” I said. “It’s over right?”

“I wouldn’t bet on it. The artefact has been here for so long. I’m inclined to believe that in all that time they were able to create more than just one.”

“Oh no,” Estelle put buried her head in her hands.

“It would make sense. There are several regions in the Zone where anomalies tend to appear. It’s possible there are several locations that contain similar technology,” Nicodeme said and sighed deeply. “In fact the entire fight right now seemed way to weird for me.”

“Please don’t say it,” I said in a childish wish to make the unspoken also not real.

“That mecha could very well have been an empty suit. There is a lot more work to be done here.”

“Bloody hell.” Ruben’s voice from behind startled me. “I lost good men today. Are you telling me it was for nothing?”

“It wasn’t for nothing. It was an important step. The first step. We will need to go all the way.”

I put my head back to the ground and looked up at the first stars appearing in the sky. Despite everything it was a peaceful and clear night. I looked at Estelle and she nodded and held my hand. The hardest battle was yet to come but just for one night we would rest and mend our wounds.