Chapter Five: Missing Mom and Dad

It's never easy to let those you've lost go. And for River and Haruo it was no exception. Losing their Mom and Dad. Fiona and Mayumi as well as Haruo's father was heart-wrenching in any case. Even if Mayumi wasn't the best of mothers, she was still Haruo's mother and seeing her pass-on while doing what was arguably the only selfless thing in her entire life; ensuring the survival of her son - it was something laudable on her behalf.

River, on the other hand, had more of a close relationship with a mother who was who sole supporter and now she, as was her best friend Haruo, was orphaned. And at fourteen, with her whole life ahead of her, was a hard pill to swallow.

The only way that RIver could unload all her feelings was to talk to her best friend, Haruo,

Mac being only three years younger than Harm, was certainly finding it tough to take on a teen when she herself was pushing the upper limits of her child-bearing years. On top of that, she had been diagnosed with endometriosis which had put her hopes of having children on very shaky ground. So being place in the role of a surrogate mother to an orphaned teen was quite a load to take on.

Meanwhile, Tosh had a conversation about the news that he'd heard about Ft. Gnome's Marine Liaison detachment CO and his desertion. "Article 85 is a pretty touch and go charge, sir." Harm said. "We can choose to prosecute him under the Uniform Code of Military Justice however these circumstances were extreme. They are after all brought on by pretty much what would be considered the end of humanity. If there was still cause and enough manpower for a JAGMan investigation, he'd more than likely be facing a long stint in the brig rather than the death penalty. The last person we executed for desertion was Eddie Slovik and I doubt we're going to go that far again."

Tosh looked at him grimly, "If you were in his boots, would you have deserted?"

Harm looked at him for a long moment, took a deep breath and said, "No...my Dad did his duty and you know what happened to him... I'd do mine too, even if it meant being vaporized into atoms at my post."

"Case Closed..." Tosh said, "He deserted at a time of war." he said finally, "However, I'm not going to line him up against a wall, but he will get a fair hearing and once the rest of this mess is over, he's going to end up going into confinement for twenty. Working at hard labor between now and Restoration will determine how long of that twenty he has to serve. Loss of rank. He drops from a Colonel to a Second Lieutenant, court-martial, loss of pay and benefits; again, whether he gets pension will be determined by how hard he works to help Sunset Valley get back on its feet again."

A sudden crack of lightning startled the both of them as a loud groan was heard from the park across the trail which was all that was left of Summerside Court Road. "Looks like someone got hit by lightning." Harm snickered, "Guess his Momma should have told him not to stand too close to high-standing trees."

Chapter Four: AWOL

"So, Commander, what happened here?"

"Sir, I was on day-leave out of the area when the missile attack came in. I received one message from high-command in the interim. And that was over an year ago. I kept eyes and ears in on the area, tried to assist survivors when necessary and kept in touch with high command who had said that they would be sending people out. But since the initial contact they haven't responded to any of my messages, sir." The frustration in Kennedy's voice was very clear to Tosh who nodded. The lieutenant commander had done what she needed to do. Her CO on the other hand...

"Who was your immediate supervisor?"

"Lieutenant Colonel Jack Bunch, sir. Our US Marine Corps liaison with the Army. He was our senior ranking commanding officer who was in charge of the Navy/Marine Corps liaison with the Army base high command. That high command was wiped out completely in the attack." LCDR Kennedy replied. "When I contacted him, he didn't want to be bothered; he was, in his words, protecting his family. He didn't want to be a soldier any more...so he said, that his family was his primary focus from now on.

Tosh raised his eyebrows, "That may be admirable to a civilian point of view. but he swore an oath to the United States Armed Services."

"That's what I tried to tell him, sir, but he just wouldn't listen. He said he didn't care about the Corps or the Navy any longer; that his primary objective was to ensure his family's survival.

"I'm glad you told me that, Lieutenant Commander. If I find him his options are going to be reduced to two rather unpalatable choices." the vice-admiral's look was grim. "Commander, you're going to be my eyes and ears within the community, if there is anything going on that I need to be kept informed about, I want you to let me know about it."

"Aye aye, sir." LCDR Kennedy responded, "Am I to assume that the Colonel is going to be up on charges."

"Dereliction of Duty and Desertion (in a time of war) for starters. I'm sure the JAGs within my command will come up with other charges." the admiral looked sour, "It's not going to go well with him if he doesn't come clean about his intentions. As it stands from what little I've heard, Lieutennat Commander, I'm tempted to throw the entire UCMJ at him, read him his charges, give him a fair trial and round up enough candidates for a firing squad."

"That's what I figured, sir."

"You did your duty, LIeutenant Commander, he failed to do so. And he has to pay the consequences of the decisions he made."

LCDR Kennedy was pensive. "I understand, sir. He has two sons and two daughters..."

"I'm not prone to being affected by the circumstances, Commander, but I'll take that argument for mitigation into mind when meting out the sentence." the vice-admiral said. "I commend you for coming to his defense in that however, he is an officer in the United States Marine Corps, he should have known the potential should he disobey the tenets of the Uniform Code of Military Justice." The rest of the conversation was the particulars. Lieutenant Commander Kennedy would remain ensconced within the community and communicating with the vice-admiral on matters that needed dealing with and Lieutenant Commander Kennedy had someone to back her up when she tried to solve problems within the community.

It was a rather relieved Meg Austin-Nakamura who greeted her husband at the gate.

"You made it back...safely..." she breathed a sigh of relief as she fell into his arms and embraced him tightly, her lips on his.

"Of course, I would, sweetheart." Tosh gave her a crooked grin, "Nothing will stop me from getting back to you..." Meg knew in her heart that Tosh would go through hell to get back to her if it meant seeing her again and that meant the world to her.

In another section of the compound, Mac was trying to console a heartbroken River.

"I miss my mom..." Mac's heart jumped at those words. So many nights after her mother left her abusive relationship, Mac had thought those same things. Why had she been abandoned? But in this case, there was no way for Fiona to return even if she'd wanted to.

Mac could only do what she could to console River's heartbreak and hope that her promise that she would alway do what she could to protect River was enough.

Chapter Three: The Reconnoitre and Meetings

The look that her husband gave her was too confident for Meg's liking...so she turned around and seized him in the heat of the moment...and kissed him straight on the mouth. "Don't get too up on yourself and think you're invincible, sweetheart. If you get killed, I'm going to resurrect you and then shoot you myself."

"I love you too..." Tosh smirked at her. Harm and Mac, the bystanders, tried to look in any direction other than the two osculating officers. Meg tried to keep the tears from her eyes, as Tosh playfully tossed her a nod and rifle at the ready, headed through the gates out into the unknown.

Mac stared down at the ground muttering to herself, "I didn't see anything."

Tosh found that the clip-on rad meter didn't waver surprisingly as he worked his way down towards the city center. It was curious, but even though he exercised caution most of the way in, the fact that the needle on the geiger counter never wavered more than a few millirads told the story that the radiation levels had dropped significantly in the past year since the Russian attacks. At least he wouldn't be running the gauntlet of radiation exposure and resultant poisoning so long as he kept his wits about him.

There were survivors; a lot of them scarred, but going about their business as if nothing was wrong with this whole picture of a nuclear obliterated landscape and going to and fro from place to place with nary an outward concern for the state of their existence. And more and more, Tosh wondered if it was even possible to set Sunset Valley aright. Was there the inkling of a possible resurrection of the town as it was or were the inhabitants in the throes of a permanent sort of shell-shock, just going about their daily lives to escape the horrifying reality that they were doomed to live out their lives in squalor.

Topaz was out scouting the area as well looking for things to dig up and bring home. Skilled enough to dig gemstones out of the ground, it was clear that the financial backbone of the whole group was in this young wolf. She was keenly nose to ground searching for the slightest odor of a buried object that she could potentially bring to the surface for her Best Friend Meg to turn around and cut into a saleable gem.

In the meantime, Mac took it upon herself to watch the cliff-side of the encampment while her boyfriend Harm watched the front. It was always a prudent measure to make sure that all sides of the perimeter were secure. There might actually be someone suicidally crazy enough to attempt an attack from the rear quarter.

By about 1200hrs of slow and steady movement from concealed position to concealed position, M-4 at the ready, locked and loaded, Tosh managed to make his way from the compound down to the center of the city. His rad-meter was showing life-sustaining amounts of radiation. The radiation levels had dropped down to the point where life was possible. He was nosing around the area when he heard a hail, "Sir?"

Startled he looked over to see a young dark-haired woman motioning him over from a picnic basket and blanket set out. She was in ACUs, "How'd you peg me for an officer?" Tosh asked her as he sat down.

"Army?" he asked simply.

She shook her head, "Negative, sir... Navy... Lieutenant Commander Erin Kennedy, sir."

"How'd you know I rate the sir? Lieutenant Commander?" Tosh asked her.

LCDR Kennedy looked embarrassed, "Well, sir. there's no diplomatic way to say it. It's just that you look like you wear stars."

He winced. Ouch..., Tosh thought to himself, Do I actually look that old? Being married to someone eleven years my junior sort of makes me forget my actual age."No offense taken, Lieutenant Commander." He defused the uneasyness of the younger woman sitting beside him.

"You're correct..." He explained extending a hand and shaking hers, "Vice Admiral Toshio Nakamura..." He volunteered his name, "Pleased to make your acquaintance."

At least she had the wherewithal to know that this, being technically considered a combat zone...was not the time or place to jump up and render military courtesies, so she kept her seat and nodded, trying to keep the exclamation of surprise out of her voice.

Chapter Two: Security Check

It was clear that remaining in this place was traumatic for River and Haruo, but they needed to find out whether Sunset Valley had even the slightest chance to rebuild, avoiding the hot-spots or finding a way to lessen the radiation risk. The adults in the group knew that there were still people roaming around in the town trying to eke out a living amongst the rubble. And if they could cobble together the semblance of a group that would work together to rebuild what was lost, then perhaps Sunset Valley had the chance to rise from the ashes like a pheonix. If not, then they would leave together as a group bent on securing their own safety in numbers. After all, what could only a group of four plus two teenagers really do on their own? Even if they were armed to the teeth.

Mac looked over at Meg who looked rather perturbed, "You look troubled. Meg, what's the problem?" she asked her.

"He's always been like this for as long as I remember. And whenever he does this, I can't sleep; I'm going to be worried for him."

Mac understood Meg's frustration all too well; it was the same argument for every husband and wife team where the husband was a 'take charge' sort of military man. Harm and Tosh were doers. When other people could only talk up a good game, they were first in to act, using their actions as the catalyst to lead. Both were leaders and both knew that to take the initiative would mean that others would follow. By setting examples of themselves they would be shown to have the stuff that it took to be regarded as fair and understanding. Nobody wanted the zero to oh six hundred watch and by taking the dreaded watch on himself, Tosh left the others the choicer assignments that they had no reason to reject. Not that they would anywys, The rest of them knew the gravity of the situation that they were in and everybody knew their role in the security of their compound.

Then again, Tosh, as a recipient, was no ordinary leader. He was considered someone who always understood that leadership in tough situations meant actions "above and beyond the call of duty..." After conducting the investigation into the award of her now-husband's Medal; no wonder Meg was always anxious for her husband's safety. Mac, having read the citation for Tosh's award, wondered just how much her own boyfriend's actions fed off of what her boyfriend's best friend did. She never gave voice to her own concerns, but whereever Meg's husband went, Harm was sure to follow. Tweedledee and Tweedledum; their friendship forever linked like brothers.

Meanwhile, Tosh and Harm were checking out the Gatling gun emplacements. Perched securely atop sandbags, they were canted in in covering fields of fire so that anybody trying to traverse the mine-field not only had to worry about being blown to kingdom-come from stepping on a bouncing Betty but getting turned into swiss cheese. Meg and Mac shook their heads wonderingly. Their two significant others looked like kids in a candy store when it came to military hardware - the more expensive the better.

Mac sighed, "Boys will be boys..." Looking over affectionately at Harm, she noticed just how enthused he was at the new toys that they would get to play with should opportunity present itself. By unspoken agreement, they headed over to join their significant others at the sandbagged positions. Meg going over to see Tosh and Mac going over to see Harm who was at the other emplacement.

"I think it's going to do us fine..." was Tosh's somber remark as Meg came up to stand slightly to his rear. Tosh was already kitted out in his body-armor and his M-4 Carbine. "Most likely they'd attempt a frontal assault rather than hit our flanks - the cliff covers our rear and we're good as far as visual on left and right flanking potential for attacks. if we would have two others to help by manning the towers, it would increase our security potential."

Mac, standing with Harm, was more concerned about provisioning. "C Rations aren't going to last with two more mouths to feed." she commented. "We're going to have to try to grow something...the soil up here at least hasn't been irradiated to the point where we can't eat anything that comes out of the ground."

Harm nodded in response; he'd known that provisioning was going to become a problem if left unchecked for too long. He'd just hadn't wanted to give voice to the thought on the pretext of making sure that morale was still up. Even couples were prone to arguing over stressful situations and Harm had enough of stressful situations over his past years as of recent. "We could try to grow stuff, if we can find the seeds to start so. At least the seeds, hopefully won't be affected by the radiation."

He heard a hail from Tosh who was walking over to his position, Meg two steps behind her husband followed. "What's our provisioning like?" was Tosh's first question.

"...with six mouths to feed, we're going to run short of C-rats really quickly if we don't get something started." he stated.

"We thought along the same lines, sir." Harm replied as he looked over at his friend and superior, "Mac thinks that we should start a garden and that the seeds are going to be our best shot at developing foodstocks to get us through this."

"OK...I'm going to take a reconnoiter to see what I can find." Tosh told him.

"Be careful, sir, we don't know what's out there..."

"No worries, Captain. I'm armed and I've got my head on a swivel. Any bandits in the area and I'll make sure that I call for Ready Five." Tosh replied.

Meg looked frustrated even though she knew that Tosh was making the right choice to go out and hunt for food-stocks. It was a wife's prerogative to be upset with her husband and Harm and Mac both knew it so they didn't say anything, "I don't like the looks of that weather, sir..." God it was tough to not just hug him tightly; husband or wife...when in uniform, one had to keep strict military decorum. Why did he keep taking these risks? "Those clouds look like they aren't too friendly."

Hang the rules and regs, "I'll be all right, honey..." Tosh told her; his face showing no sign of apprehension as to the risk that he was taking with what lay beyond the gate.

"I know I can't stop you...Tosh" Meg said, "Just keep your wits around you and come home safe...to me..."