Valknar
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Epilogue B
🕑 Added 2023-08-19 15:23:05 +0000 UTCRemembrance Day 2066 – London.
She walked with confidence along the galley. Her knee-length boots made her feet click every time they made contact with the polished floor. She was dressed in a business suit with a knee-length skirt. On her jacket, there was a line of medals.
She ignored the people standing alone or huddled in groups. All are looking at different displays before them. Behind her, a group of girls in their exclusive private school uniforms followed.
The four girls watch the woman in front of them. She was heading with purpose to one part of the building. The National Incursion War Museum was nearly five years old. When it opened, the woman they were following was there as a guest of honour. They had all watched from the school as it was a big event with one of their teachers being so honoured.
Morgana was leading the small group. She was watching every little thing noting them for the future. They had all been warned not to interfere with the woman until she allowed them to approach. Morgana needed to observe everything for the book she was planning.
They were walking to the mid-section of the museum. She stopped and looked around. She found who she was looking for and walked towards them. The two men turned to face her.
“Alana, you made it.”
“Of course, Henry.”
Henry was older like she was these days. He was still well-built but was greying at the temples. His smile had been back for many years, but she was still happy to see it.
“Glad to see you too.”
“Gregson.”
Alan Gregson was leaning on his cane. Age had caught him up as his hair was thinning and white. Both men were wearing their medals.
“Will any of you call me by my first name?”
“No.” They both answered in unison. He snorted and looked behind Alana.
“This that your fan group?”
She turned back to the four girls and looked them over.
“Those young women are some of my students. One of them is trying to write a book about my part in the Incursion War.”
Henry snorted.
“I still think that name is terrible.”
“We know.” Gregson said. The exasperation was evident in his voice. This was a point of contention the last few years, and he was fed up with it.
“Well, we know why we are here.” Alana said to stop things from getting sidetracked.
They all turned to the display that they were standing before.
The reclaiming of Paris.
The display had information about the collapse of one of the largest zones in Europe at the time. It went into the mission of how a group of operatives, support personnel and technicians travelled into the zone and sealed one of the breaches. From there, the city was reclaimed slowly. Within a few months, the other two zone breaches were also closed, allowing the city to be fully reclaimed by humanity.
Around the world was hailed as the first great victory and what was to become called Incursion War.
“I still have dreams about the zones, you know.” Alana said in a quiet voice.
“I know. I have them now and again too.” Henry said.
“Why did he always do what he did? I never dared to ask him. I never understood even after all these years.”
They both looked at the older woman. Would now be the time that you might answer some of their questions? Gregson thought.
“Don’t bother. You know I can’t say anything even if I knew.” Gregson said to them. He was weary of what he had seen in his life and what he knew. It had all taken a toll on him—more than he admitted to his husband in their private conversations.
“Even after all this time. John’s file is still so classified that they barely even admitted it exists.” Alana was bitter still, for she had so many questions and no answers. She ran a hand over part of the display that had become the focus of their attention.
Operative John Harrington – Missing in Action.
“I know; remember I was at base camp when he brought you back. The search teams spent two days in the abandoned city looking for him. They never found his body, just a lot of his blood. But I saw the medical reports and there was no way he could have survived without much blood loss unless he got immediate medical attention.”
“Because we never found his body, we buried an empty casket. And then we had to bury his mother a few months later.” She said quietly, lost in thought.
“We lost a friend that day and have no answers to his fate.” Henry added. “How many of us got to the end? God, I don’t even think about the numbers any more. It’s too saddening.”
“You are right. When we lost Lou the next year in Madrid when we retook the city. I don’t know; even when we were pushing back the zones and beginning to get our act together, we lost so many.” Gregson reminisced.
“Paris was the changing point. Reclaiming it got the Europeans back into the game. They had lost hope, but then I found it again. But it really changed when we sealed the super breach in Switzerland.”
“We were there, Henry. We all know it started in Europe and it spread out from there. Slowly we retook our world. You know the casualties we took in Switzerland to do it, but we did it. In the end, how many did we lose in total? The best estimate is one-quarter of the population of the world.” Alana said.
“But all of them died in the zones, remember.” Henry pointed out.
The three fell silent, reminiscing about the years after Paris and the losses they took in people. Friends, enemies and acquaintances lost in the brutal war against the zones.
“Things changed after Paris. It was like the zones became less dangerous in some ways.” Alana thought out loud. “It was like they stopped changing and adapting and became stagnant.”
“We noticed.”
“So many questions even today. Will we ever answer them?” Henry mused.
They all fell silent their thoughts going back to those dark days.
“What now, then?” Alana asked the two men.
They both looked at each other for a moment thinking over the question. It was Gregson who answered.
“We live.”
