First, Nina slipped her arms under his legs and shoulders, grunted, and lifted him to the couch. He lacked weight. The Order had provided just enough nutrients to keep his body functioning.
With him secure on soft bedding and under the quilt, she turned her attention to the fireplace. On one side of the stone mantle a pile of yellowed newspaper, on the other a stack of dried logs.
Nina used the paper and twigs for kindling and a match from her survival kit to ignite the heap. After allowing the flames to build, she added wood to the mix. Soon a respectable blaze warmed the living room.
She slipped off her jacket and chugged from her canteen, careful to keep a healthy supply ready for him when he woke.
If he wakes up.
Nina found she had no appetite for rations. Eating could wait until morning.
With that in mind, she settled in for what promised to be a long but hopefully quiet night. She sat on the floor and propped her head against the side of the couch while he slept above and Odin remained in the corner. An hour ticked by, maybe longer, and the world outside grew dark while the fire inside cast the two in a warm glow. Nina’s eyes grew heavy and sleep beckoned……in a flash, her instincts chased off that sleep. She drew her weapon and leapt to her feet to confront the intruder. 'Easy…easy there, missy.'
He took a cautious step from the shadowy hall into the light of the living room. Odin glanced in the newcomer's direction, but to Nina's surprise her K9 friend appeared unconcerned.
Nina held the gun sure and steady.
'Hold it right there.'
'Oh now, calm down,' the Old Man spoke with his hands held up and his back slightly hunched. 'I’m not your enemy, you know that, don’t ya’?'
She did not know that…or…or did she?
'Who are you?'
'Oh, now, that’s right. You don’t remember a lick, do ya? Probably for the best and all. Yep, definitely for the best. But now…well, now it’s a damned nuisance.'
The Old Man’s words suggested he wanted to come across as flippant, but the tremble in his voice fell far short, sounding sad, maybe scared, to Nina’s ear. Still…she saw something familiar in him. Not visions, but feelings. Feelings of wonder and awe.
The sight of Trevor lying on the floor had made her see the Emperor as just a man. The newcomer standing in the light of the fire…she kne w-she knew — to be much more than that. 'Now what is that I see in them eyes? Could it be…naw…could you be thinkin’ you recognize lil’ old me?' Nina did not react as the Old Man dropped his hands. 'I…I don’t understand.' She did not feel threatened by the stranger; merely puzzled. She tilted her head and studied the lines of his face. 'We had a talk once, you and me, about our friend here.'
The old timer nodded toward the sofa. Nina followed his motion, glanced at Trevor, and then returned her attention to the newcomer. She turned the pistol in her hand, thought, then slid it into her holster.
'Mighty obliged,' he smiled a forced grin. 'Anywho, I couldn’t really do you no harm even if that’d be my intention, seein’ how I’m not really here and all. At least, not the way you would be thinkin’.'
As if to emphasize the point, the man took another step forward on the wooden cabin floor, but his footfall made no noise.
Nina had seen enough in the decade since Armageddon to maintain her cool. Nonetheless, her voice dropped to a whisper. 'Who are you? What are you?'
He walked in a clumsy gait suggesting frailty. Nina guessed that to be an illusion, too.
'I’m a friend. Now, you can’t tell me you haven’t heard all them stories, right? You know, the stories ‘bout Trevor walkin’ off into the woods and comin’ back with fancy notions.'
Nina had not heard those stories in recent years, but she had heard them.
She crinkled her brow and remembered the early days at the estate. However, to her memory those early days began nearly a year after she and Shep had crashed in northeastern Pennsylvania. From what Shep had explained, she had been spirited away by The Order and implanted with two dormant parasites before being returned to Trevor’s band of survivors.
Her mission, it appeared, had been to unwittingly collect intelligence for The Order. At some point in the process the parasites activated, recalling her to one of The Order’s bases. Or so Shep had said. Her discussions with Gordon and rumors of Trevor's own imprisonment by The Order at the same time made her wonder…had she once betrayed Trevor Stone?
Regardless, the survivors raided The Order’s base and freed her, removing one of the parasites but not knowing of the second implant’s existence. That second implant had been tied to her memory. Months later doctors found and removed the second implant but, in the process, she lost her memories between its removal and when it had been first inserted.
Seeing the Old Man standing in front of her and feeling a sense of recognition for him confirmed what she had long suspected: more had happened during those months than Shep or anyone had shared. Indeed, Nina’s decision to unravel the mystery of Trevor’s assassination had been driven by Ashley’s promise to shed light on that hole in her memories.
'Hello? You awake over there, missy? Now, I can’t go fillin’ you in all over again and besides, I don’t think none of that matters right now.'
The Old Man hovered over the sofa. Nina watched as his shoulders sagged more and glints of moisture sparkled in the corners of his eyes. The Old Man’s words continued but she could sense his struggle to maintain composure.
'Guess…guess I just don’t understand as much as I’d like. No…not at all. I’m really sorry over this, Trevor. I always said, it ain’t about you. Maybe…maybe just this once…maybe we can make it about you.'
'What’s wrong with him?'
His lips quivered, 'He’s alone.'
At first his answer confused her. But as she stared at the sleeping man named Trevor Stone, she began to understand. Her heart sank.
'What did they do to him?'
The Old Man chewed on his thoughts as if to sculpt the right words. 'Now, let's see. From where you’re standin’, Trev has been gone for, what, two months? That right?'
She nodded and resisted the urge to correct him that from her point of view, Trevor had been dead for two months.
'For his part, well, its felt more like a decade.'
Her head snapped around and she asked, 'What do you mean?'
The Old Man snickered, a little, but without any good humor. 'See, now, I keep on tellin’ Trevor time is irrelevant. It’s just a state of mind, really. What they done to him…they filled his head full of misery, stuffin’ it with visions and whatnot. Memories, if you will. Yeah, a whole bunch of bad memories. Nasty stuff.' The Old Man focused his eyes on Nina. 'Bad things that he’s done and bad things happenin’ to people he’s got feelin’ for.'
Nina grimaced and asked, 'What? You mean, they tortured him?'
'Trevor, he's been tortured before on the outside. Messed him up real good, too. I was able to help out back then, to sort of undo the damage. Well, no, I'd say more like I took the edge off. This isn't the same thing. This time they cut a shade deeper.'
'I still don’t understand.'
'Honey, Trevor’s mind has spent ten years re-livin' all the bad things he ever done; all his guilt, all the decisions he made that ate away at his soul. They brought his demons to life.'
'Dreams? You mean they gave him bad dreams?'
The Old Man shook his head.
'Nah, sweetie, reality. As real as you and me standin' here. What are we if we ain’t the sum of our memories, right? I suppose he coulda pulled on through but they took all those feelin’ of guilt and fear and-what would you say? — oh yeah, they amp-la-fide them.'
'Ampli..fied?'
'Yep. Drove him over the edge, too, but I think you can see that. Scrambled him up good. Tell me there, missy, how good a day would you have if someone tore you up like that? Now make that day seem like ten years.'
