Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2014 4:28:08 GMT
Another good chapter. Keep it up
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2014 13:26:10 GMT
Awesome chapter, great work.
|
|
|
Post by Rock114 on Aug 4, 2014 22:28:03 GMT
Update because why not: I'm currently working on Part 4, which contains a little more Pete backstory. Also, I might as well announce this now, there's going to be a Surprise Part 3 for A Tough Hand about Luke and how he deals with Nick's sacrifice for him. It'll also have some backstory for Luke and Nick.
|
|
|
Post by Rock114 on Aug 6, 2014 0:23:45 GMT
AN: Here's the final Part of the story. Be sure to tell me what you think after you've read it, and I hope you enjoyed it.
Above the two of them the stars shone brightly down into the forest, giving a small amount of illumination to the solid darkness of night. The meek flames of the campfire crackled almost unheard as Pete stared up at the sky while Nick, conversely, stared into the flames with a cold, blank expression and his knees pulled up to his chest.
The brilliance of the sky was nearly lost on Pete. He knew from experience how awe inspiring the night sky could be from any one of dozens of camping trips he’d been on over the course of his life, but none of it was the same. Ever since he’d pulled that trigger hours ago, ended Wayne’s life, the world around him was faded, lacking color. It was all slightly off, like he was looking at it from a different perspective.
He hated it.
Luke held Pete’s rifle as he quietly circled the forest camp several dozen feet out, keeping an eye out for danger. The woods weren’t as thick with lurkers and bandits as the roads and the towns were, but danger could sneak up on them at any time. Just like it had earlier that day.
“The stars are out,” Pete said to Nick. “They’re beautiful at this time of night. You should take a look.”
Nick continued staring into the campfire. “Sure. Whatever.”
Around their camp, deep into the trees, they could hear the sounds of nature. Insects buzzing, leaves rustling in the wind. From time to time a firefly or two would make itself known with their signature glow, before vanishing again into the embrace of darkness. It was nature in its purest form. But none of it was the same for Pete.
“You alright, son?”
“You ain’t my father,” Nick hissed bitterly. The mention of “father” caused Pete to flinch.
“She died just last week. It’s okay to not be… well, okay. It’s alright Nick.”
Nick turned away from the fire, casting his eyes back over the tents. “I’m fine.” Pete’s bullshit detector was screaming at him. Nick stood, dusting off his pants before preparing to walk to the tents and end the conversation by going to sleep.
“I bet you still see her, right? Out of the corner of your eye when your mind wanders.”
Nick turned back. His trembling fists clenched, he uttered a hushed scream that barely concealed the hoarseness in his voice. “No. I. Am. Fine. Stop talking about her.”
“Listen, Nick, I-”
“No!” Nick’s face was red. Biting his lip, he interrupted Pete before the older man could speak again. “You saw me pull the trigger. It had to be done. She’s gone.”
Pete patted the ground right next to him as he craned his head back up to take in the sky. “Alright. We won’t talk about her. Come over here for a second, we can talk about something else.”
Even as he rolled his deep blue eyes, Nick obeyed. Planting himself next to Pete, his gaze followed his uncle’s until he was staring straight upward. The tiny pinpoints of light above them were innumerable. Constellations stretched over the sky, hidden among the infinite amount of stars that dotted the deep blackness that hung above them.
“Nights like these always remind me of Charlie,” the old man reminisced. “Did I ever tell you about him?”
“No,” Nick whispered as he lost himself among the lights in the sky.
Pete slipped his watch off his wrist, cradling it in his hands like a lost treasure from a bygone age. “Charlie was my best friend. We did everything together for as long as I could remember. We even got drafted in the same week.”
Nick couldn’t bring himself to look away from the sky. “Drafted?”
Pete looked back up, letting his eyes wander through the shining night sky. “Yeah. Back in the 60’s. We got sent overseas to fight. We were even in the same unit.”
A hint of curiosity entered Nick’s voice. “You never told me about that.”
“No, I wouldn’t have. I didn’t like it. The fighting, the death. I didn't want to bring any of that back home with me.”
“Well, now here we are,” the younger man replied, sorrowful. “The whole world is just a big warzone now.”
Pete agreed, keeping his eyes trained upward. “Yeah. But you wouldn’t know that anything was wrong from looking up there. It’s just so…”
“...beautiful,” his nephew finished. “So what happened to Charlie?”
“It was on a night just like this one,” Pete began. “1970. Our squad was coming back from a few days of leave in town, getting driven back to base on a truck. It was dark out, but some engineers had swept the road an hour or so before we went through so our squad leader figured it’d be safe.”
Nick took off his hat, setting in his lap as he continued to stare upward along with Pete. “But it wasn’t.”
“No.” Pete looked back down at the watch clutched tightly in his palm. “One moment we were just driving along, talking and making stupid jokes, and the next there was a loud explosion the truck just flew into the air.” Just like the rest of the environment, the watch’s colors were invisible to Pete. It was different. “Charlie was sitting right next to me when it happened. The whole truck just turned into a huge fireball, with shrapnel and dirt flying everywhere. It threw me out of my seat and into a ditch with a piece of metal sticking out of my knee. Charlie was just… gone.”
“Gone?”
“Yeah,” Pete choked out, turning his head down for a second to wipe away a tear. “He was there one second, and the next he… wasn’t. The only survivor aside from me was Al. I pulled him out of the wreck and carried him almost a mile to the nearest outpost. After a couple weeks in a hospital they sent me home. I wasn’t deemed well enough to fight with my knee, so they gave me a couple medals for pulling that guy out of there and kicked me to the curb.”
"So what was it like? The war?" Nick had taken on an inquisitive aura that Pete hadn't seen for a decade.
A few vivid memories flashed through his mind of shredded trees and burning jungles, the air thick with roiling clouds of smoke and ash. "I couldn't get out of that place soon enough."
Pete ran his hand along the watch, savoring the feel of metal and glass that bound it together with closed eyes. “For a long time I couldn’t believe that he was dead. Sometimes I’d see him out of the corner of my eye when my mind began to wander. Once in a while I’d catch a glimpse of him out on the streets, even years after it happened. That’s what happens when you lose someone close to you.”
Nick silently fidgeted, his discomfort pouring off of him like a waterfall.
“For a long time I wondered why I made it out when he didn’t. Why it wasn’t me that died, what I could have done different. I always tortured myself with the ‘what ifs’ and ‘maybes’. But you can’t do that. Sometimes bad things just happen and there ain’t no explanation.”
Nick finally broke off his gaze from the sky and turned to Pete. “Well, how did you get through it?”
“I shut myself off for a long time. Eventually I opened up about it, and my family helped me through it. You can’t keep things like this bottled up. It ain’t healthy.” Nick shifted, pulling his cap back on and going to stand.
“Hey Nick?” Pete stood with him, admiring the watch for a few final seconds before placing it in his nephew’s hands. “I want you to have this.”
“Your watch?” Nick’s eyes lit up as the trinket fell into his hands, now shaking as they held one of the few truly precious possessions his uncle had ever owned.
Pete closed Nick’s hands around the object and pushed it away from him. “It ain’t mine. It was Charlie’s.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. He wrote it in his will that he wanted me to have that in case something happened to him. And now I’m giving it to you.”
Nick, stunned, gawked wordlessly at the antique, submerged in reverence and awe. “Don’t say nothin’,” Pete commanded. “I know that things have been… hard, lately. And today I just…” I killed your father. “...I just did some thinking. I want you to have that. And if you ever need to talk about anything, I’m here. You don’t need to pretend to be fine.”
Nick was steadfast in his denial. “I ain’t pretending.” Regardless, Pete could see the pain etched into his nephew's soul, the burning grief that lit him every time a stray thought led him to the memory of his mother.
With a heavy heart, Pete turned to the tents and stretched. “Well, if you say so. This old body is telling me I’m spent,” he moaned. “Wake me up when it’s my turn for lookout duty. I need to get some rest until then.”
“Alright,” Nick replied, letting his uncle drag himself toward the tent until the last second. “Wait, Pete.”
The old man turned. “Yeah?”
Nick, fidgeting as he worked the watch onto his wrist, gave off a smile. After a few seconds he raised his hand, showing off the watch on his wrist. “Thanks, Pete.” His smile was faint with a hint of sorrow, but it was genuine.
Pete grinned back at him before ducking into the tent, taking one last look outside as Nick returned to the fire and began adjusting the watch. That was when Pete noticed something.
The colors had come back.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2014 0:41:42 GMT
Damn, that last line was such a good way to end it. Really enjoyed the backstory for Pete too, with Charlie and the war and all.
Overall, great 'short', would recommend.
|
|
|
Post by Rock114 on Aug 6, 2014 0:48:25 GMT
Thanks Jake. Since it seems to have gone well over here, I'll throw it up on FF in a couple of days. Until then, I'll be procrastinating in the nearest dark corner.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2014 3:36:20 GMT
Great fic. Want more, but looks like they won't be anymore. Damn.
|
|
|
Post by Michael7123 on Aug 6, 2014 3:38:15 GMT
This was great Rock. Only gripe is that I think what happened to Nick's mom happened after the group left.
Either way, great story.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2014 3:40:28 GMT
This was great Rock. Only gripe is that I think what happened to Nick's mom happened after the group left. Either way, great story. Kinda makes sense this way too, because Carver never asked for Nick's mother.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2014 13:11:55 GMT
This was a great story.
|
|