Legacy

Chapter Four: Carter

They waded through waist deep waste for what seemed like miles. It had been no later than 2:00 when they went into the sewer tunnel, but when they reached their exit point, the moon shone bright overhead.

"Take a deep breath there, Jones. Clean the literal crap outta your lungs." Wrench said as they exited the tunnel.

"Oh, sweet air. Please tell me that I'm going to be glad we did that later." Carter breathed deeply.

"You tell me," She pointed to the distance, where a few small lights had appeared over the swell of the land.

He took a few steps to see over the mound and there it was. A large metal building partially hidden by the trees, the only thing keeping it in sight were the lights at the top of the fence around the place.

Wrench must've seen the look on his face because she chuckled. "Looks cool, right? We call 'er the Renaître, which is French for reborn."

"Why French?" Carter looked over to her.

"France was America's greatest ally in the first revolution. A lot of stuff around here is symbolic like that. And they went with reborn, because rebirth was taken." She laughed as she motioned for him to follow her. After Carter became confused once again, she explained, "The Renaissance? No on that, too? Ah, never mind. That's not too important to what we're trying to do here."

He walked with her to the gate-like opening of the massive metal fence and she took the lead once again. "Liam!" She yelled. "C'est moi, je suis vivant!" He recognized it then, the little accent in her voice was that of one native to France.

A man turned from the three people he was talking to and ran up to the gate. He called back to the others with a loud Irish accent. "It is her!" He looked at his watch as he opened the gate and motioned for them to come in. "Who bet that she'd be back by eleven?"

One of the men raised his hand. Liam laughed. "And who was the one that bet that she wouldn't be back quicker than she did last time?" The man next to the first one raised his hand.

"Geez, Jimothy, you have no faith in me?" Wrench asked with a faked frown.

"Stop calling me Jimothy." The man said as she passed by him, punching him in the shoulder while doing so. "I thought we weren't allowed to bring in outsiders anymore." The one Carter knew as 'Jimothy' commented.

"Considering he helped me out on my escape, and that I stole him from one of their cells, I think he'll be an ally. Right, Jones?" She looked to him.

Good going, Carter, you've gotten yourself into something. But, maybe that wasn't bad. "Yeah, sure." He did not sound as confident as he wanted to.

"Hear that? 'Yeah, sure', this is gonna be great."

"Hey." Wrench snapped. "Strength in numbers, and I think the Colonel will agree with me when he meets him. We just escaped federal prison, can we have a breather for a moment?"

"Yeah," Liam agreed without hesitation. "You should probably hit the showers and mess hall before doing anything else. Smells like you guys took the underground here."

"Sadly, that was the quickest way here."

"That's the next thing we're doing, forget the uprising, we're finding a better short way from the city to here." 'Jimothy' responded.

"I'll point you in the way of the guy's barracks and showers." Wrench said before he followed her.

"Oh, what's your real name, by the way?" Carter asked while the group was still in view.

"Oh, not telling!" He called back while Liam laughed.

"Let's just say that it's worse than Jimothy!" Liam yelled giddily.

They walked between the tents and buildings. While it didn't look like much at first glance, Carter tried to look a little further and saw actual happiness. He didn't know how, but there were somehow smiles on some faces and even a few children playing games by the 'chow hall' that Wrench had pointed out.

The base was surprisingly large and completely functioning. He was told there were duties assigned to groupings of people based upon where people were staying, which he assumed was information that he needed relatively soon. Wrench stopped when they reached their destination.

"Welp, that's you." She motioned to the building to their left. "Obviously, do what you gotta do, and meet back up with me. You might have to talk to people, since the girls' barricks and showers are on the other end of the territory for obvious reasons."