Chapter XXIX

Charlie's Help

Back at the manor again, Alan walked through the junk from the enemy encampment that Dave had found. As far as he was aware this was just a colossal waste of time, he knew who had performed the raid and was now only focused on getting revenge for it.

“Not a bad haul, but I still don’t see how any of this is important.” Alan said as he approached where Dmitri was standing, Charlie having left a few minutes prior to begin her attempts at getting Jack memory back.

“Trust me Alan, this is going to be interesting.” Dmitri said gesturing at one of the heavy guns that sat on its own.

“But this…” Alan started. Looking at the engraving and not wanting to believe his own eyes. The engraved eagle however was proof that he had been wrong. And had potentially damaged a perfectly good relationship with Codsworth over his misbeliefs.

“I know. It’s one of ours.” Dmitri said sadly, he had not wanted to believe it, it had been much easier to go along with the information they had had, that the attack came from Lord Boris.

“How did Boris gain access to our armouries, unless he was stockpiling them before he declared war.” Alan said. clinging onto the fact that Boris had committed the raid, as it was the easiest to believe.

“Two days ago, I would have believed you. But new evidence has come up.” Dmitri said and walked towards another part of the haul, followed hesitantly by Alan. When he stopped, he found Dmitri holding up a black hooded robe and his heart sank.

“But…” Ala stuttered.

“Dave found the encampment first. The lad has a knack of getting into trouble. As he was exploring the site, a person wearing this attack him. Said he was here to clear up.” Dmitri said hollowly.

“Where is the man?” Alan asked and looked hopefully at the cell.

“Dead. That’s something else your son has a knack for, killing potentially valuable prisoners.” Dmitri finished, first Patrick and now the strange unknown man, he was starting to think that someone should teach the kid how to take people in alive.

“So… It looks like we were celebrating prematurely about defeating them.” Alan said, it had always been too good to be true, but it had been nice to think that they were dealing with one enemy at a time. But that was clearly no longer the case.

“There is some good news, however. Whilst yes, The Answer are almost certainly responsible, then men they used were Boris’. Meaning…” Dmitri said before Alan finished his train of thought.

“Meaning that their manpower is so depleted that they have resorted to working with Lord Boris.” Alan said, and wondering to himself whether the old fool knew what he was doing, getting into bed with those madmen.

As Charlie walked into the medical lab. She saw that Jack was already waiting for her, although he didn’t look entirely eager at the prospect that whilst he still didn’t know who she was, he was willing to trust her. A small victory but a victory none the less. She walked towards a panel on the wall and turned one of the dials. the windows began to become opaque and the doors locked themselves.  

“What are you going to do?” Jack asked.

“I'm going to put you under hypnosis.” Charlie said. she had no idea whether this would work or not. It was still disputed as to how valid hypnotherapy was, but it was worth a try, as there was no medical way to recover memory loss and the alternate was simple waiting and hoping that his memories would come back naturally. “You will hear my voice and only my voice as you try to recall your recent past.” Charlie said as she handed Jack a black pill.

“What’s that?” Jack asked looking at the drug with unease.

“Something to help your mind relax, as well as that. It will make you more receptive to my commands.” Charlie responded, as Jack still looking at the pill shrugged and downed it. “Now. Close your eye. And breath in and out slowly.” Charlie instructed in a slow and careful tone of voice.

As Jack closed his eye. He began to see things blurred images of his recent memories came into his mind, but he couldn’t properly make them out.

“What do you see?” Charlie voice asked. As he continued to look around at the blurred outlines of wherever the fuck he was.

“I don’t know. It’ll all blurred.” Jack said. Charlie sighed and was about to bring the kid out when something happened. The lights began to flicker. “Doc, get me out of here.” Jack said panic starting to come into his voice.

“Okay. You’re going to wake up in. Five… Four… Three… Two… One.” Charlie said and the fourteen-year-old woke up. “What happened?” Charlie said getting closure, to see the beads of sweat coming of Jack’s forehead.

“There was someone in my head. She was telling me to go no further.” Jack said a look of pure terror on his face.

“Who was it?” Charlie asked. But he only shook his head.

“I don’t know. I know I’ve seen her before. But I can’t remember.” Jack said mopping the sweat off his brow. “I wish I could just show you.” Jack finished sitting up on the reclining chair.

“Maybe you can. Jack how good are you at drawing?” Charlie asked, handing the boy her pen and paper.

“Not bad.” Jack replied.

“Draw this woman. That might help you understand who she is.” Charlie said, walking over to the windows and letting light back into the room, as Jack began to sketch. Five minutes later he handed the piece of paper back to her.

“Here.” Jack said almost thrusting the artwork as if he didn’t want to see it again. As Charlie looked down at the drawing, her heart skipped a beat. She had never been an overly religious person, but even she knew who that picture was of.

“Wait here for a minute kid.” Charlie said as she bolted out of the room and returned a few minutes later with a book from the library. ‘Searching For The Gods.’ In her hand, with a page marked about a third of the way through. She opened the page and showed Jack the image of Xyla. “Is this the person?” Charlie asked urgently. 

Jack backed up slightly to get the image into a better focal range, he looked at the image for a few seconds and nodded. It was the same woman that had come to him when he was still in the coma that had destroyed most of his previous memories.

“Jack. Is this the first time you have seen her?” Charlie said seriously.

“No. She came to me when I was in the coma.” Jack replied.

“Alright, when you were in the coma. What happened?” Charlie asked. And Jack began to tell all that he could remember. From the burning room, to seeing the world. But when he got to the end he stopped talking and gulped. “Was there anything else?” Charlie asked leading him on.

“Yeah. She showed me what was beyond the eastern coasts.” Jack said, starting to sweat again, this time however the beads came down faster and harder than ever before. “And I saw something.” Jack finished.

“Saw what?” Charlie asked but Jack would not speak anymore about it. No matter how gentle or forceful she was, the lad refused to speak of what he had seen in the Unknown Lands.

Later that night, Dave sits on the edge of the roof looking out at the distance, trying to get a clearer idea about where Mia was, but other than being trapped inside Boris’ fortress he had no idea. If she wasn’t there however, then where was she. As enough time had passed for her to make her way back here. Whilst he was deep in thought, a sound comes from behind him, he turns around to see Nick walking out onto the balcony and taking a few steps before noticing him, Dave who had turned around at the noise, returns to the landscape with a smile on his face.

“I should have known. Aren't you afraid of heights anymore?” Dave asked, a year ago he would have never been able to convince his younger brother to come up here, no matter what he offered. Nick shook his head.

“Not anymore, I'm not afraid of anything anymore.” Nick said looking out at the night sky. Dave looks over at Nick, with mild surprise.

“That's impossible.” Dave said.

“Why?” Nick asked looking at his older brother, he had seen enough now to know that he wasn’t afraid of anything. He walks up to the ledge and climbs up onto the railing, so his feet are dangling off the edge.

“It just is.” Dave said, as he puts his arm around Nick before continuing. “Can you keep a secret?” He asked looking down at his brother, who looked up with a slightly confused look on his face.

“Sure, what is it?” Nick asked.

“I might have to go away for a little while, that's all.” Dave responded. “But nobody can know.” He finished looking seriously down at his brother.

“Is it because of the attack?” Nick said.

“Yeah, something like that.” Dave said, whilst his brother wasn’t entirely wrong in that assumption, it wasn’t the full reason as to why he would be going out for longer periods at a time. “Which is why I need you to watch out for this place.” Dave finished. Nick looked up confused.

“What about Jack?” Nick asked.

“I need someone with both their eyes.” Dave said looking down at his younger brother, before getting up and walking towards the door, leaving Nick to think about what his brother had just said, thinking that he clearly had lost a bit of confidence in their older brother’s ability to keep them safe.

Alan and Dmitri found Charlie in the small library that the manor had, pouring over the same book that she collected earlier that day, still on the pages relating to Xyla.

“Never took you for the religious type Sparrow.” Dmitri said, looking over her shoulder to find out what she was reading. He too had seen the book before as a kid but had never opened it. He had found all that religion stuff dull and his views hadn’t changed now that he was adult.

“I’m not.” Charlie said looking up. As Alan too went to examine the open page.

“So that’s the person Jack claims to have visited him.” Alan said pulling back from the book, remembering what his son had told him about his time in a coma.

“Yeah.” Charlie said.

“I think the kid needs some serious meds then.” Dmitri said in a mocking tone but stopped at the looks on both Alan and Charlie’s faces. “You’re serious.” Dmitri said looking at the pair.

“Yes.” Charlie said producing the picture that Jack had created. “When I asked Jack to draw who had come to him, this is what he produced.” She finished putting the pictures side by side. They were almost identical, there were a few minor differences, but Charlie was prepared to put that down to artistic differences.

“I am willing to buy that fact. But if he was in a coma, then shouldn’t his brain have been inactive.” Alan said. That was what, at least what was supposed to happen, when you fell into a coma, that the brains activity was non-existent.

“Yes. But I’m now starting to doubt that he was. But then again, we are talking about a literal god coming to him and showing the lad visions. I think it’s fair to say that we may need to revaluate what exactly happened to Jack.” Charlie said closing the book, but not returning it to its shelf.

“Alright.” Dmitri said, not entirely convinced but willing to go along with this thought process. “What exactly was he shown?” He asked.

“Effectively the world.” Charlie said putting her hand on her forehead, struggling to believe this statement herself. “All of it, including what lies beyond the eastern shores.” She finished looking up.

“The Unknown Lands?” Alan said curiously, this was certainly getting interesting as it was well known that no-one had ever returned from those cursed islands. Assuming that they were indeed islands, there could be another world beyond the storm clouds, and they would most likely never know. Every once in a while though, a mad old fool would get the idea to sail into the eastern sunrise, claiming that they would be the ones to go to The Unknown Lands and return, all had failed. The last poor sod to try it was some north-man called de’Lucur, who was something of a hero to Dave and he could only hope that his son didn’t idolise him to the point that he would share his fate.

“Yes, but he’s not willing to talk about what he saw there.” Charlie said shrugging. “I don’t know why, but something that he was shown has clearly spooked the lad.” She finished before getting up. As Vernon walked in.

“Sir. Commander Codsworth is here, he wants to speak with you. Shall I tell him your unavailable?” Vernon asked, he was fully aware of what had happened at the town hall, and whilst he didn’t agree with Alan’s bluntness, he fully supported his decision not to use the attack on their home to justify war with Bartazer.

“No. I’ll talk to him; I fear I may have been wrong about who attacked the manor.” Alan said begrudgingly, he wasn’t a person to admit to when he was wrong un most normal circumstances, but the situation had changed, and he now knew that he needed Codsworth on his side.