Morse Code by J.D Miller

Author:J.D Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2019-12-13T16:00:00+00:00

23

The sun sank like a stone, vanishing over the mountains.

The twilight sky, a brilliant purple haze, lingered for a little while before plunging into darkness. It was such a beautiful sunset, on a truly horrific day.

Ash fluttered his weary eyes. He wanted nothing more than to pull over and stretch his legs, but it would be far too risky now. Instead, Ash took his hands off the steering wheel for the first time in hours and switched the car into self-drive mode, setting the coordinates for the west coast. The car took over the controls. Ash was glad to offload the power for a while.

Ivy hadn’t spoken a word for hours either. She had become taciturn and restless. Ash cracked his aching fingers and then put his hand to her cheek. She flinched.

“What is it?” she asked, startled.

Ash pulled out the Skye-Scroll tablet from his backpack.

“Are you OK?”

“No. I don’t know. It’s just that – I feel weird that we didn’t stay to help people back at the campsite. Maybe we could’ve done something.”

She cared more about people than what he’d given her credit for.

“The bombs were falling. I did what I thought was best – protecting you.”

“I know, and I’m grateful, but I can still hear the screams in my head. It’s driving me insane. You know, I’ve never been exposed to this side of war before. Usually I’m the one in the sky dropping the bombs, but this time I was on the ground...”

Her voice trailed off. Seeing the opportunity at hand, Ash put an arm around her. He swore she would break any day now.

“I’m also scared,” she continued, exhaling deeply. “About the repercussions.”

“What repercussions?”

“I took your advice, Ash – I’ve kept my survival a secret. I should’ve contacted my army the second we returned to the mainland. But I didn’t. It was an act of dishonour. You talked me out of it, I guess, but maybe I do fear death after all.”

“We all fear death to some extent. If we didn’t, we would’ve died long ago.”

“Yeah, I guess I am afraid – even more so considering I can’t see – but I still want to defend my home. How can I turn my back on the country, right when it needs me the most?”

Ash had an answer for her. He took a moment to compose the message.

“We are just people, Ivy. We’re on a rock, orbiting around the universe. Even though we like to pretend we’re the big picture, I assure you, we are not. We’re just an insignificant speck in space compared to the entire galaxy. We can only make the most of the time we have here on Earth. Don’t feel as though you owe anybody anything, because you don’t. You are in charge of your own decisions.”

As Ash finished typing, he listened back to his own words. The electronic voice buzzed through his ears. It had dawned on him that he never took his own advice. Ash didn’t owe his army anything either, yet the loyalty remained.

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