Dissonance Volume III: Renegade: Dissonance, #3

By Aaron Ryan

The Thrilling Finale to the Bestselling New Release in Alien Invasion Books!

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"Always remember the #1 Rule: NEVER look directly at a gorgon. One look, and it's all over."

In a world where 85% of mankind has been wiped out by a terrifying alien species, surviving means hiding in the shadows and avoiding detection at all costs. But for Cameron Shipley, hiding is no longer an option. As the leader of a rogue resistance, he must prepare for the biggest counteroffensive of all time against both the gorgons, and the murderous President Graham.

If you're tired of sanitized science fiction, get ready for a gritty and epic finale. In Dissonance Volume III: Renegade, bestselling author Aaron Ryan delivers a heart-pounding conclusion to the thrilling trilogy that began with Dissonance Volume I: Reality and Dissonance Volume II: Reckoning.

Set in a post-apocalyptic future Earth of 2042, this is a story of survival, sacrifice, and the fight for humanity's future. Cameron Shipley has gone rogue, and he's not alone. As the resistance readies their final battle, they must also confront the horrifying truth about President Graham's sinister intentions. Will Cameron's thirst for justice lead to revenge, or will he stay the course and fight for the greater good?

If you enjoy sci-fi alien invasion, military thrillers and post-apocalyptic books, you'll love Dissonance Volume III: Renegade. Don't miss the thrilling finale to the bestselling alien invasion and military thriller books trilogy. Buy Dissonance Volume III: Renegade now before the price changes!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aaron Ryan
• Release date: May 13, 2024
• ISBN: 9798990326651

Book preview

DISSONANCE

Volume III: Renegade

AARON RYAN

Plug your ears. And whatever you do, don't look.

The war for humanity ends now.

© 2024 Aaron Ryan & CM LLC. U.S. Copyright Registration #TXu 2-419-076. All Rights reserved.  Unauthorized duplication or copying prohibited by law.  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the express written permission of the publisher or copyright holder is illegal and punishable by law.  Please purchase only authorized print or electronic versions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

Published in 2024, Edition 1.

ISBN # 9798990326651

Cover art woman by Yuri Arcurs & peopleimages.com. Creature by Trivuj.

Gorgon creatures by Rodrigo Vivedes.

Edited by Denouement Editing and CM LLC.  Published independently.

This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

For Sweeps, Bren & AJ:

my true loves.

You’ve helped me to survive.

|  CHAPTERS

|  CHAPTERS

|  NOTE ON AI

|  PREFACE

1   |   PREPARING

2   |   SUBTERFUGE

3   |   TALISMAN

4   |   ROSALITA

5   |   SCRAMBLE

6   |   A RED, RED RUSE

7   |   DEWDROP

8   |   CONFLICT

9   |   DAMAGE

10   |   AERIAL

11   |   NORFOLK

12   |   STRATEGY

13   |   BREATHE

14   |   SABOTAGE

15   |   SIGHTING

16   |   TRAINING

17   |   REUNITED

18   |   SKIRMISH

19   |   GENESIS

|  AFTERWORD

|  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

|  NOTE ON AI

We live in an age of AI.  Every day, more and more services spring up promising revolutionary and innovative results using artificial intelligence.  The authoring industry is not immune to this.

I want every one of my readers to know that not once did I employ, nor will I ever employ, the use of AI to sculpt any part of any of my stories.  Those who know me know that I am staunchly and adamantly opposed to such cheats.

I’m very proud to be a verified human.  The ability to create is a gift that I was endowed by my Creator, and I will never forfeit that nor set it aside to propagate something synthetic and imitative.

Everything you’ve read by me in this trilogy, and in my other works, is 100% entirely created by me, the genuine article.  I’m a verified human, and always will be.

To my fellow authors, I urge you to preserve the sacred gift of human creation and never stoop to such lows.  Always cherish this gift you’ve been given.  If you encounter writer’s block, take a break.  Don’t cop out.  Don’t take the road more traveled by.  Don’t cheat.  Toe the line for all of us, and keep creation – true unadulterated creation – alive.

Long live humanity.

Sincerely,

A black background with a black square Description automatically generated with medium confidence

Aaron Ryan,

Verified Human

|  PREFACE

Recap from Volumes I and II:

Dissonance Volume I: Reality

In June 2026, alien beings floated silently down toward earth, holding a geostationary orbit there for three months.

Then, on September 3rd 2026, they activated and began hunting down all mankind.  To humanity’s horror, they discover that the alien beings, which they dubbed ‘gorgons,’ are able to employ a mysterious psychological, telepathic or telekinetic ability to freeze them where they stand.  Once paralyzed, they can then consume their human prey at their leisure.  Thus, the number one rule was born as it concerns gorgons: you just…don’t…look.

The ensuing annihilation of the human race took less than four months.  By 2027, eighty percent of mankind had been wiped out, along with nearly all other organic biological lifeforms on land, sea, or air.  Over the next few years, calamity, disease and natural disaster took another five percent of mankind.

Earth became overrun with weeds and foliage.  Nuclear power reactors melted down and powerful radioactive isotopes spread, killing off another five percent of humanity.  Rampant disease ensued. But on the very brink of extinction, mankind was eking out an existence in the shadows, learning about their invaders, and preparing for the largest counterattack mankind had ever seen.

Our story then fast-forwards to December 2042. Sergeant Cameron Jet Shipley and his brother, Private Wyatt Rutledge, aka Rut Shipley, are part of a military Blockade in Clarksville Tennessee.  Under fortified towers, the unit provides solace, shelter, hydroponics, education and training for military reconnaissance missions to find survivors, food, and ammunition.

They are issued a new mission: head up to Austin Peay University and investigate thermal signals, possibly survivors.  On their way, they encounter a mass of gorgons at the Cumberland River, where newcomer, Staff Sergeant Joseph Bassett, employs a manual trigger and detonates something akin to an EMP: what the military is calling a DTF, or Dissonant Tidal Flood.  This new technology operates similar to an EMP, but on audio frequencies lethal to the gorgons’ sensitive hearing, sending them fleeing, or killing them outright in close proximity.  The news of this unannounced technology catches both Shipley brothers by complete surprise.

On this same mission, while taking shelter at Austin Peay University’s Harvill Hall, they are given a new assignment: they must lojack a gorgon, installing a tracker to monitor its movements.  During this dangerous assignment, Private Shipley is tragically and violently killed by a berserker gorgon: a variant of the gorgon species that is far more aggressive, and far more lethal.  Lieutenant Allison Trudy and Joseph Bassett and Joseph Bassett provide aid, comfort and friendship to a now devastated Cameron Shipley.

For their journey back to the Blockade, they are joined by three recruits from Harvill Hall: Jesse, Liam aka Foxy, and Vera.  The team takes shelter from the gorgons at Madison Street United Methodist Church in Clarksville, only to be preyed upon by not only gorgons, but also a lone octogenarian striving for survival who has resorted to lethal desperation.  Vera and Jesse are killed, and Foxy is wounded, but the team battles their way out and is rescued by a tank squadron that employs another DTF and escorts them back to an encampment on the Cumberland River, where they realize to their surprise that military operations have been underway for quite some time now.

The revelations are bittersweet.  Mankind is finally on the precipice of launching a major counteroffensive, but the technology has existed for some time now, causing Sergeant Shipley to question why it wasn’t deployed sooner, perhaps sparing the life of his brother.

Captain Stone, whom Cam had previously trusted as a father, lets slip that the lojack mission was only a test, directed by President Graham herself, in cooperation with Stone and others.

Confronted with this news, and realizing that Rutty’s death was in vain at the hands of operations founded upon lies, Cameron is overcome by emotion, and attempts to assault the Captain.  He is brought down by Stone’s guard, and knocked unconscious.

He awakes to find himself in the Blockade brig, and is met by Joe Bassett, who informs him that the President is coming to their very blockade. Thus, Cameron’s thirst for vengeance is ignited, and his quest for revenge begins.

Dissonance Volume II: Reckoning

Eventually freed, Shipley meets with Pastor Rosie who reveals some long-honored truths to him about justice versus revenge.  He is then able to meet and confront President Graham for her role in his brother’s death.  Somewhat convinced by her to be of good intent, Cameron is reinstated in his service role and promoted to Lieutenant, assigned duty to Mammoth Cave, northeast of their Blockade, to train the new recruits stationed there.

Preparing to leave, Cameron and Bassett meet with Pete Beckinsale, a member of Halcyon Crew at Blockade DN436, who reveals to them that little Nevaeh from their first mission’s return home, is now at the encampment.  The encampment, now called Base One, came under attack recently, but Nevaeh survived.  However, Rebecca Meemaw Burgess from Harvill Hall, was also at the encampment, and she did not.  He discovers that Witherspoon and Ruby were also at Base One, and are unaccounted for.  But in a briefing with Captain Stone, he demands that Nevaeh be brought to the Blockade, and Stone grants his request.

On the way to Mammoth Cave, Shipley proposes to Allison Trudy, and she accepts his proposal to marry him.

Shipley and his new team, including Bassett, Trudy and Foxy, are assaulted on the highway en route to Mammoth Cave by a mass of gorgons, and they lose two of their own to the gorgons, ultimately launching an unprotected DTF which disables their two tanks.  Additionally, a new revelation presents itself: the existence of an even greater threat, that of ‘behemoth’ gorgons: bigger, smarter, and deadlier mutations of the berserker gorgons.

The tank is repaired and a platoon is dispatched from Shipley’s Blockade which rescues them on the highway, and they finally reach Mammoth Cave.  The Blockade there has a Captain, Vance Cardona, who has gone AWOL, and Shipley has been accompanied by another Captain named Miguel Monzon, sent to replace Cardona.

While at Mammoth Cave, they discover that Cardona has been there all along, and that he is not in fact AWOL, but rather has the allegiance of his entire Blockade in defiance of the President’s wishes. Most importantly, Cardona is preparing to take a stand against her.  It is then revealed that Captain Monzon is also in on the resistance, and knew about Cardona the whole time, but could not let the President in on his betrayal nor the fact that Cardona was still alive and accounted for.

Cardona then walks them back through history, introducing them to grim truths that the President is a power-hungry tyrant who has sent numerous people to their deaths and is preparing three concurrent nuclear strikes to take out not only the gorgons, but also the leaders of enemy nations whom she deeply distrusts.

The President is not to be trusted, Cardona cautions. She must be stopped before she annihilates most of the remaining human race through nuclear destruction and ensuing radiation fallout due to her quest for preservation of power.

After these revelations, Mammoth Cave is attacked by gorgons that are dispatched there by the President herself, using targeted DTF sweeps. The horrifying attack claims two devastating losses: Joe Bassett andAllison Trudy. Everyone else flees to rendezvous with Cardona at the appointed hour.

A deeply distraught Cameron Shipley loses faith to the point of catatonia.  He is grappling with both the loss of his bride-to-be as well as having killed a fellow soldier in cold blood. Shipley is met by Cardona and Monzon, who escort he and Foxy and other survivors to their new base.

The story concludes now in

Dissonance Volume III: Renegade

1   |   PREPARING

We had reached a tipping point, and there was no going back now.

Ally leaned into me and pulled me close.  I could feel the heat of her breath, and the warmth of her body as she drew me near.  Her heart pounded through her chest: I could feel it.  I stared at her, put my hand on her chest and felt the tremors of her pulse as I swept the hair out of her face just as I had always done.

I couldn’t believe I had almost lost her in that cave two days ago.  It all seemed so real; shockingly so.  Yet here she was, lying with me, looking dreamily into my eyes as my heart fluttered to be with her again: here, at peace, in our new hideout with Cardona and Monzon.

I thought I’d lost you, I breathed to her.

She smiled softly. I’m right here.

I returned the smile to her.  It had all seemed so real, so tangible, so felt.  That gorgon at the top of the stairs, Foxy firing at it, me running up and catching her lifeless body in my arms as she fell.

Her words comforted me, and they echoed in my ears and my heart.  I know, I breathed back.  I never thought we’d get out of there.  Losing Joe- I trailed off, looking down.  Everything happened so quickly.  When we were heading out and you were at the top of those stairs, Ally, I-

She looked at me, staring almost through me. I’m right here, she reassured me, and I smiled again.

I know, hon. I know.  I don’t question it.  We’ve just all been through so much together, it’s hard to-

I’m right here, she said once more, and this time I was confused.  Surely, she could summon the energy to say more than that, and I thought she would at least acknowledge the loss of Joe, who she had undoubtedly considered a father figure.

Babe, I get it.  You’re right here, I laughed.  "Ya know, though, for a moment I thought you wouldn’t be.  I was sure of it.  Ally smiled. I really thought for a second that we all wouldn’t make it out of Mammoth Cave."

Ally didn’t answer.  The very name must have conjured up the same fears in her as before: there, terrified in the dark.  Her eyes blurred.

What’s wrong? I asked her.

The words slowly trailed out of her, like sludge down a sluice.  "I’m riiiiight heeeeeere…." she slowly mouthed, and it was as if her words came from far away, echoing down some monstrous tunnel in a slow-moving haze of a vision, rolling toward me, while she herself appeared to float backward.

And just then, her eyes glazed over, and that’s when I recognized the cold, opaque, milky eyes of a gorgon, rolled back in their heads like a great white shark’s.

Ally’s head slowly stretched vertically, and I could hear the skin at the corners of her mouth snap.  They ripped, shredding backwards, separating into two bloody chunks and folding over themselves equally, as a large black phantom of a head emerged through it, lined with fangs, barbed with sharp points.

The thing hissed at me, growing drastically in size as it emerged from its cocoon, holding me in its stare, paralyzing me.  I couldn’t move.  Ally’s body crumpled uselessly behind it as the gorgon emerged through her shattered frame, dropping clumsily to the ground in a noisome heap behind it, discarded.

The gorgon queen leered at me, drabbling venom from its lips.  Those dead eyes held me fast. The bluish-green mist encircled us.  It towered over me, grabbed me fiercely and pinned me with two strong arms.  I was helpless in its deadlocked stare as it froze my marrow, and then opened its maw wide to feast upon my flesh.

It lunged at me, and I crammed a cyanide pill down its throat as it coughed…what?  Its face transformed and mutated grotesquely.  Was it becoming human?  I saw a head emerge, churning and writhing.  I knew that face.

Hofstetter.

"Why??  Why??"  he cried.

And then it was a gorgon again, going in for the kill-

• ​• ​• ​• ​•

I jerked awake and felt my body shiver with sweat.  My head flipped around in agony, surveying my surroundings as I panted and swallowed in terror, my eyes wide circles of fear.  Small rivulets of perspiration trickled down my neck and back.  My standard issue tan military t-shirt was soaked a dark brown.

Ally was gone.  Everything I knew to be true…was true.  The gorgon had gotten to her before I could.  It had gotten Rutty.  It had gotten Joe. All I had left now was Foxy.

I laid back down, trying to calm my heart and soothe my breathing.  In the dead of night, and in the quiet blackness of sleeping forms around me, it was all I could do to stop from shivering and turning on a light to drive away the darkness.  Even a chemlight would do.

Ally was gone. I tried to hold it in, but the ferocity and vividness of that dream scorched my peace and set hungry flames to the fields of my calm.  I couldn’t hold back the pain as my brow furrowed and my eyes let loose a torrent of hot tears, laden with anger.  My jaw clenched as I felt them run, lip quivering, my back tingling with rage as the horrible questions came to the surface once again.

I couldn’t stay there. I got up and ran out.

Someone stirred behind me.

• ​• ​• ​• ​•

It was early morning, but my watch was gone.  I didn’t know what time.  Somewhere between Mammoth Cave and here, my watch had been replaced, and I had no clue.  Maybe it had been damaged.

I looked out down the hill from wherever we were. Cardona and Monzon hadn’t told anyone; the location had to remain a secret.  I vaguely remembered blurry details after our seemingly never-ending journey in that tank battalion; though in truth it had probably only been a few hours until we stopped, got out, and took shelter the next day.

I stood before a narrow earthy parapet and leaned out over it, looking below.  There was a sheer drop below us of several hundred feet.  I knew we were up on some kind of mountain; I just didn’t know where. We weren’t all that high in the sky; I guessed it was more of a hill than a mountain. I must have blanked out during the tank ride. Dazed grieving usurps all logical sense of time.

There was a rocky path to my left, and there were five solid gray forms parked along it: the tanks from our flight from the cave. Dim blips sounded from all of them, and I felt the pulses of those DTF emitters through my skin.  They looked different, somehow, in the dark night, though I couldn’t tell what it was.

We were in some new base reinforced with additional pulse defenses against the gorgons, most likely, and the tanks had taken us here.  A lot of good that did us at Mammoth Cave, I thought morbidly.  Those gorgons smashed right through it in their kamikaze run.

Suddenly I could feel a presence at my side, but I didn’t turn.

You okay, Jet? asked a young voice.  A warm hand placed itself on my shoulder.

I breathed a heavy sigh and slowly nodded, wiping some balmy sweat from my brow.  Yeah, buddy. Just a dream.  I sniffed, and cracked my neck.

Foxy came up next to me.

You mean a nightmare.  I get ‘em too, he breathed, leaning over the ledge next to me.  He had a white, antiseptic medical blanket wrapped around him.  The night skies were clear, and the cold wind nipped at us.  A light breathy breeze wafted over us, but after that sweat, I welcomed it.

Not about to discuss my nightmare, I turned to Foxy. Where are we?

He nodded, somberly.  Washburn Hill.  About thirty-five miles outside Dayton.

"Dayton Ohio?" I turned to him, incredulously, though rather monotone.  His head bandage was missing now, replaced by a thin strip over the healing gash on his forehead.

He nodded again. "We drove to Ohio. Wow.  How long were we in that tank?" I asked.

Dimly I recalled us getting out somewhere, and they handed me Ally’s wrapped body.  Where they had gotten the linens from, I don’t know.  In all of that, I didn’t even think of gorgons or where they might be.  We took her, buried her somewhere nearby, but it had been a murky haze since then.

The drive was almost six hours.  We had to thread through some pretty heavy stuff in Elizabethtown, and there were some clusters of gorgons here and there along the way. We had to be careful and sneak through.  Can’t afford to launch any DTFs, he said, as they’d be trackable.  We made it to Cincinnati and stopped there.  We buried Ally there or she would have started to smell, Jet.  I’m sorry.  We know where we buried her though.  You got out and just stood there, looking off east. You don’t remember any of that?

I honestly didn’t and shook my head.

Yeah, we almost had the same thing happen in Cincy: big masses of gorgons.  Honestly thought we were going to see some more behemoths, but they were heading east not west.  They literally took off at our approach, like we were running at a flock of geese or something.  Cardona figures they’re all headed out to the coasts.  I don’t know why.  He seems to know though.

Cardona.  I wondered where he was at, or if he was sleeping.  I doubted it.  We were all in his hands now, and we’d have to trust him and fight like hell.  I hoped he had a plan that would afford me a little delicious vengeance.  However, I thought of Ally’s last words to me on that subject, and clenched my jaw.  She wouldn’t want that, my conscience reminded me.

Anyway, Foxy continued, "we headed east, and hunkered down here.  There’s more of ‘em here, Jet. People, I mean.  Cardona, or, no, Monzon, said that there’s an air force base about two hours northwest of here.  Plenty of available planes, choppers and more.  I think that’s where they’re planning to strike from."

Strike.  Good Lord.  I must admit I had been out of it.  If there were discussions about all of this in the tank, I missed all of it.  I had no idea what Cardona was planning, but I knew I wanted in on it.

What day is it? I asked him.

We’ve been here for three days now.  We got here early morning of the 14th, and it’s now the 17th.  Gettin’ closer and closer to Christmas.

Predictably, Rutty came to my mind.  I supposed he would always do that with any mention of Christmas.  Had it really been thirteen days since Rutty died?  Had it really been four since Ally and Joe had passed?  Since the time in that cave, learning the awful truth about the depravity of President Graham and all she had done leading up to now, it had seemed like time immemorial.

We let you sleep, he said resolutely, and I wondered then if he had to argue that to Cardona: pleading to let me sleep and recover my strength while the rest of them commiserated. I suppose it was a stroke of mercy to let me sleep, given that I had had Ally – my whole future – ripped away from me.  But the nagging guilt of Hofstetter’s murder was also eating me alive inside.  I think you got up a few times, but it was pretty obvious you were in a fog, he said.

I was in a fog.  That much was clear.  Reality had balled itself into a cruel fist and socked me hard in the chest. Almost four days had elapsed since the murder of my future wife, and my brain still see-sawed between memory and disbelief.

Shreds of memories cascaded through my mind while my body, steeped in lethargy, staring blankly at the dirt floor of our little dell, fingering my necklace, mist swirling before my eyes, unmotivated to do anything else.

And then, there were worse memories.

That awful dream.  Remembering her lying there in bed beside me back at DN436 a few mornings ago.  So real.  So tangible.  So…alive.

I didn’t respond.  We were both staring out into a moon-filled night from that high precipice.

That whole saga ushered my mind back to our escape, and my initial ride in the tank.  All of those thoughts were screaming through my brain in the Abrams as we fled: President Graham sending the gorgons into Mammoth Cave from a controlled sweep.  Me killing Hofstetter.  The jets at Saber Airfield by Fort Campbell.  Me killing Hofstetter.  Shipments and personnel heading east with nuclear warheads. Me killing Hofstetter.  Twenty-two of us against the President of the United States. Me killing Hofstetter.

I had to snap out of this fog soon, or I wouldn’t have my revenge against Graham.

Wait – revenge?  There’s that word again.  Hadn’t I already taken revenge?  Dammit, Rosie, I thought as I remembered her words.  Revenge never leads to receiving.  Revenge only ever leads to dead-ends.  Your path goes out, Sergeant Shipley. Those words would never leave me.  They had left their mark.  I was at an emotional dead-end after killing Hofstetter and losing Ally.

My beloved Ally’s words had left their mark as well: Who are you to mete out justice?  You do that, and you’re no better than Graham. The beloved woman who spoke those words to me was gone.  Forever silenced and lost in the throbbing brew of DTF pulses and deep-seated grief.  And just when I thought I had recovered from the loss of Rutty, here I was all over again.  Only this time it was more acute.

I furrowed my brow and looked down.

Slowly, a fatigued arm slung around my neck with a white blanket, and a body drew near me.  I could feel Foxy coming closer with a hug.

Still with ya, buddy, he said, squeezing my shoulder, as if he was roaming around inside my head, spectator to the warring factions of justice and revenge that were battling for eminent domain over my intentions.

I’m still here, Jet.

• ​• ​• ​• ​•

I awoke slowly to bright light shining at me through a miniscule aperture in the mountain wall. I shot straight up, thinking for a moment that I was back in Mammoth Cave. 

I looked around frenetically, and there was Foxy, snoring softly a few feet away from me on a cot.  There were a few others I didn’t know.

This was the second time I awoke to harsh reality.  Oddly, however, this time I felt comfort.  Based on what Foxy told me, things were happening.  We were a smaller force, sure, but all committed, in an undisclosed location, and all assured of which side we were on, and the objectives set before us. Doubtless there would be even more of us up at that air force base.

I looked over at my things next to my bunk.  A new watch had been placed there.  For me?  It said 0900 hours.  An alarm was going off.  I didn’t remember setting it, but it was vibrating.  Only good thing lately about being away from the Blockade was getting up later, that’s for sure.  I laid back down and stared up at the ceiling of the large cavern we were all stuffed into, nestled into the side of this hill.  There was a dell outside, where Foxy and I had talked last night – no: early this morning, rather.

An equally cavernous yawn made its way out of my mouth, and I thought for a moment my mouth would split at the ears. I stopped abruptly, and my heart skipped a beat: that thought propelled me back into my nightmare about Ally and the gorgon queen emerging from her corpse.  Terrifying.  Was there really a gorgon queen out there somewhere, over the oceans? I had a feeling we were about to find out.

I rubbed my face and thrust my knuckles into my eyes, blinking stupidly in the light.  Something in me stiffened, and I cracked my neck.  It was early, but it’s never too early to be decisive.  I had to move past my guilt, though it would have to be reconciled later.  It was impulsive, yes, and oftentimes the worst offenses are committed out of impulsivity.  I accepted what I did was wrong, and I would pay for my crime in time.  But now?  I had to move past Ally’s death as well, and get my ass in gear.

I took a deep breath.  And then, as if at the cracking of a stick or the snapping of a band, I forced blood into my arteries and strength into my legs, and stood up.

Time to find Cardona and Monzon and see what was on our collective horizon. 

• ​• ​• ​• ​•

Good to see you, Lieutenant, Cardona said.  He and Monzon had looked up from a mass of papers spilt out over a few folding tables erected under some small pavilions which had been set up at the top of the hill.  He walked toward me slowly.  I wasn’t sure you were prepared to come back to us; you were practically catatonic.

I regarded him warmly, yet soberly.  This was the man who had been closest to the President, had discovered what she was up to, and recognized it right away.  Why hadn’t I?  Why had I played into her hands twice now?

No more.  We were now in Cardona’s hands, and it was him against her, and us against them.

I-I don’t think you can call me Lieutenant anymore, frankly, I muttered, raising my eyebrows.  I think if whatever you’re planning goes south for all of us, then the least we can expect is a court martial and a dishonorable discharge.

They looked at me blankly, unsure whether to laugh or not.  I knew what I meant and shook my head.  I guess that’s better than being gorgon food, I said with a passing attempt at a laugh.

That cut the tension.  Cardona’s face brightened.  Monzon’s did as well, and he strode over to me.  You’re right, Shipley.  And if it comes to that, we wouldn’t want to be in her military anyway. We’d slit our wrists first, you know that.  Anyway, good to see you, my friend.  How are you holding up?

Alright, I guess, I answered, shivering. One major hangover, that’s for sure.

They nodded grimly. Understood, Cardona said.  There’s nothing we can say to undo what’s happened, but one soldier to another, I am utterly sorry for your loss, Shipley.

I am too, my friend.  Lo siento, Monzon said, falling back into his own tongue again, and gripping my shoulder. An old pain shot through me lightly as memories of gorgon wounds smacked against my nerves, and I winced. Oh – are you alright? he asked, pulling his hand away.

Fine, I brushed it off.  Just an old wound.

We looked each other up and down.

Well, I started, I think I’ve grieved enough.  You got anything to eat around here? I’m starving. Grief comas leave a man famished.

Cardona smiled.  Absolutely.  Then we can bring you up to speed.  You like rabbit?

"You have rabbit up here?" I asked in disbelief.

Aw, a few traps here and there, he answered.  It doesn’t kill them, so we have to shoot them or stab them dead, but yeah, we’ve got a few.

That didn’t make sense.  But – if you have to shoot them, you’re gonna lure in some gorgs, I said.

He clenched his lip into more of a smile.  I think, Cameron, he said, you’ll find that things are a bit different now.

I stared at him, wondering just how different things could have become in four days.  But then again, look how different things had become even in fourteen.

• ​• ​• ​• ​•

It was the best damned rabbit I had ever eaten, and the best damned food I’d had in a long time.  I don’t remember the last time I had eaten rabbit, but if memory serves, it was the time one of us discovered them in our Blockade.  How they had gotten in no one knew, but they had burrowed in from some unknown location.

These were delectable now, for sure: but even more palpable than the delicious taste and warm meat was the crackling fire on a hilltop in full view of any gorgons that might espy us from high above.

What had happened to the world?  What was happening, and what was going to?  We had thrown caution to the wind and were all sitting around a warm fire, cooking rabbits on spits in a wide-open space that was viewable for miles. Some of us were even laughing our heads off.

For now, I was lost in the savory taste of rabbit, I admit.  I just couldn’t stop glancing nervously all around us or looking over the shoulder and into the sky beyond the soldier who happened to be talking to me.  Supplementing the rabbit were the ever-present ration packs, but I hadn’t opened mine yet.  I hadn’t wanted to.

The wind whipped up over the hill here and there, blowing our hair around – Foxy’s was a mess – and it was masking any sounds that we had become so accustomed to freezing, holding still, waiting for them to pass.

The sounds of gorgons.

There were none.  It was over a dozen soldiers, young and old, milling around, without a care in the world.  Private Janine, aka ‘Neener’ was sitting comfortably next to Foxy, and he had his arm around her.  That simultaneously warmed my heart and panged it with pain.

There were a few other faces that I recognized from our escape.  Vetas, Larson, and Jenkins were all there.  Cardona and Monzon as well, of course.  They were off in the distance; Cardona was taking some heavy drags off an aging cigarette, and spitting.

Perhaps it was the rejuvenating taste of the rabbit…or the warm blazing fire…or the unmistakable sense of direction imparted by the forward momentum provided by Cardona…or all of the above?  Here at the top of Washburn Hill, it was as if we were on some Basic Training exercise or campout, letting our hair down with the guys.

Cardona slowly made his way over to me while I gnawed on my rabbit.  He threw a blanket over me similar to what Foxy had on earlier, which he now had draped over he and Neener over by their fire.  Cardona pivoted northwest and motioned for me to look that way as well.

Look that way, Shipley.  Sun’s up, and it’s shining down on a new dawn.  Foxy tell you about the air force base?  Wright-Patterson?

Yeah, I answered.

"That’s where we strike out from.  Tomorrow.  We’ll make our way roundabout up there tonight under cover of darkness, on the back roads.  We’ll use radar.  The President stopped there on her way to your Blockade last week before you met