Chapter 12.1

A/N

So, I really apologize for last weeks bad/confusing chapter. If anyone has any questions, please just direct them towards me and I will do my best to answer them. I've made a decision that from now on, if Tawny has to stop speaking for any reason due to some event in the present the story will switch to a 3rd person limited view from Aaron's perspective, hopefully that will help lessen the confusion and I will let you know ahead of time.  So, again, I deeply apologize for last update.

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The next morning, before the sun even rose above the ridge, a line of trucks and small vehicles were prepped to leave camp with the ferals who wished to leave. We were going to accompany them in our own truck until we had to split to go to the capitol. Our small truck had its own driver so the vehicle, topped with an archaic looking rifle and bearing the fist of resistance coupled with the wings of freedom, wouldn’t get impounded in the capitol.

The ferals milled about, some saying tear filled goodbyes to family members who wished to remain behind, others getting directed by resistance members to this vehicle or that. Both pregnant women had decided to leave and their husbands going with them. I watched from the sidelines, spying Luna several times in amongst the crowd. It wasn’t hard to do with her head of luminescent blue hair.

Vicki, Nick and Kai were helping with the organization efforts, mostly directing people to various locations. All of our stuff was packed in the truck and ready to go. I heard stones crunching and looked behind me to see my father walking towards me. He stopped next to me.

“So, you’re going back to the city?” he asked.

“It was your decision, wasn’t it?” I asked. “Send us back as soon as possible, make sure that we, I can’t be connected to a train hijacking in the mountains, considering it’s the region I said I was going to with my boyfriend because of his dying parent. Poor Nick, lost his father to sickness. However, my work is our only substantial source of income so we couldn’t stick around for the funeral. Or, at least that’s what Kai told me to tell the commandant or any dead head who questions me.”

My father smiled sadly. “Guess I couldn’t keep you around forever. It would look suspicious if you just up and vanished the same week as a train jacking.”

“It already looks bad,” I said. “I’ll be questioned anyway and I was already under a looking glass when I left, so this will only bring more scrutiny on me. My coworkers already suspect me of being a traitor. I don’t know what the Dead Heads suspect me of. Going back is equally as dangerous as staying here, but hopefully it will take some of the suspicion away. I believe we will come back here at some point.”

He nodded.

“Tawny, we roll out in five!” Vicki shouted over.

“Alright!” I called. “Well, looks like I have to go.”

“Right,” he said. “I’ve lost so many years of being able to actually be a father and I doubt I can make up for that in five minutes. So, I’ll make a promise to you, you survive this war and I will find you and I will try to make up for everything they took from us, all of those years we lost.”

“Don’t make me a promise; I’ve come to learn that people can’t keep those all the time,” I said. “Just do it.”

He nodded. “I guess I deserve that. I promised everything would be alright, didn’t I. Survive and I will. Make it through this and I will never let anyone get between us again.”

I nodded, biting my lip to keep from crying. “You stay alive, you stay alive and I will find you when this is all over.”

He nodded and held his hand out. “Shake on it?” he asked.

I threw my arms around his neck, burying my face into his chest. He hesitated for a moment before embracing me back. “Stay well, I don’t want to see any more metal on you,” he said.

“Stay whole and stay alive,” I said. “I have enough bionics for an entire family.”

“Tawny, it’s time to go,” Vicki said.

I pushed away from my father and nodded. “I’ll see you when this is over,” I said.

He nodded and pressed his lips to my forehead. “God speed,” he said.

“God speed,” I responded. He pressed his lips to my forehead and Vicki held her hand out. I took it and we started to walk towards the truck.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be safe, I’ll make sure you see him again,” she said.

I nodded, squeezing her hand tighter. She squeezed back and released me to go around the truck, before turning back and smiling. “Since this will be the last time I can show any kind of affection to you for a while,” she reached out and grabbed my waist, crushing her lips against mine. Her lips were moist and gentle and tasted faintly of strawberries. My lips responded almost automatically, twisting to fit hers exactly as she pulled my body closer to hers.

“Hey, you two! We’re leaving!” Kai shouted.

One of Vicki’s hands left my waist and gave an obscene gesture in Kai’s direction. She held the kiss for another few seconds before she broke contact and smiled. “Oh, when this war is over and the capitol is liberated, I am doing that on the steps of the presidential palace in front the line of axis military officers,” she said.

“Win the war and survive first, then make plans to stick it to the collapsing government, not the other way around,” Kai said as he slid into the front passenger seat. “Nick! You’re in the back with Tawny, Victoria, you’re on the gun.”

“So you’re going to punish Vicki for kissing her girlfriend?” Nick asked.

“Stay out of it, Nick,” Kai said.

I took a seat in the back as Nick took the other and a man climbed into the driver seat. He barely regarded us as he started the engine and fiddled with the radio. Two impacts rang out from above and the driver took the radio in hand. “Lead this is Taxi, we’re all loaded up and ready to go, over,” he said.

“Lead copies Taxi, rolling out,” the response came.

I leaned back in the seat and looked out the window, waving to my father as we passed. He waved back and Nick placed his hand on my shoulder. “You’ll see him again, Tawny, I promise. He doesn’t leave camp much anymore; it’s safer for him that way. He was a pretty infamous resistance member a few years back. Before an assassination of a high ranking resistance member boosted him into the politics of this whole mess.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Nick,” I said. “I will value every second I get with my father but I won’t get my hopes up.”

“How are you so…like…that?” Nick motioned to me in general.

“Like what?” I asked.

“So, detached? I mean, he’s your father isn’t he?”

“I haven’t seen my father in fourteen years, what do you want me to do? Run into his arms without reservations? Reservation is what kept me alive this long, keeping my head down and my mouth shut has allowed me to work since I joined the military. If I just start babbling in Tzi or decide to tell my coworker Carly that I think she has a nice ass and can I buy her a drink, I’m going to end up dead. It’s called living under the radar Nick, not drawing attention to yourself. It’s how you survive in the capitol as a feral and it’s not something you can switch on and off.”

Nick pursed his lips and nodded. “Alright, well, at least you’ll be staying with us from now on, so anything happens, we’ll know.”