Crashing Into You

Chapter 27 - The Departure

“What’s that have to do with this?” I asked him, even more confused.

“The base is still about a thirty minute drive away. Nearest hospital is about 15 if you floor it.” Chris said, reaching behind him.

“Chris what are you doing?” Lisa asked him, she sounded nervous. Chris brought his hands back around to his front and I saw him holding that old revolver he got at the funeral. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a single bullet and loaded it into the revolver. He walked towards me and pressed the gun into my hands, the barrel pointed towards him.

“Chris, what are you doing?” Christina asked him, panicking. I stood there, too in shock to do anything. I could feel my hands shaking.

“Lauren, right here, just above the knee, if a bullet hits me there, I will be confined to a wheelchair for a few weeks, maybe a month; and in crutches for a while after. It’s relatively painless too. If you were to accidently pull the trigger and hit me there, you’d have about 35 minutes to get me to the hospital, but I wouldn’t have to leave.”

“You can’t be serious.” I heard Amy say.

“You need to choose Lauren. This is your last chance.” He said.

“Chris, I… I can’t”, I said, my hands shaking even worse.

“Lauren, you don’t need to pull the trigger. Like I said, one word from you and I’ll do whatever it takes to stay.”

“Chris…”

“Lauren, the decision is yours, it always has been.” He said, leaning against the side of the van. I looked down at the gun between my hands and trying to stop my hands from shaking.

“Take it.” I said after a moment. “Just take it”

“Ok,” He said, stepping forward and taking it out of my hands. “So what’s it gonna be? Stay or go?”

“Go. I don’t want you to hurt yourself just because I don’t want you to leave. Isn’t there another way?”

“No. I don’t show up, they’ll declare me AWOL, and then you really will lose me.” He said.

“Go.” I said.

“Alright.” He said softly, unloading the gun and putting it away. “Let’s get going then.”

Christina

“We’re here.” Chris said after a while. He stopped the van at a gate and pulled out an ID card before showing it to the guard. The guard pointed at us and looked at Chris. “Guests” he said. After that, the guard pointed him towards a building nearby. Chris nodded and drove the van that way.

“Where are we going?” I asked him curiously.

“You all need guests passes to be in here. We’re going through the security building real fast to get them.” He explained.

“Ok.” I said, satisfied. We followed him into the building and started talking to a man at the front desk. He handed Chris a few lanyards and Chris came back over to us.

“Here, keep these on you at all times” He said, handing each of us a lanyard.

“Ok,” We all said.

“Now, lets go see if the big man himself is in. The majors office is upstairs.” Chris said, leading us to an elevator.

“You seem almost at home here Chris.” I pointed out.

“Yeah, spent most of my adult life inside bases like this. In a way it is home.” He replied, pressing the button to the elevator and leaning against the wall.