Madge Boxer (madgina) wrote in beeocalypse, @ 2009-08-10 00:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | alice, gabe, gideon, madge, slate |
Farm to base; Gabe, Madge, Gideon, Slate, Alice; backdated to last week
Gabe had been working in the wheat field when he'd heard some of the other workers nearby talking. Normally, Gabe just zoned out and ignored them. He never tried to talk to anyone. He kept to himself to avoid confrontation. It was the subject of their conversation that set him off. They were talking about a new report about water contamination in Madison. He knew specific code words in their conversation and his eyes widened.
Just as one of them noticed him standing there and staring and was about to start shouting at Gabe to get back to work, Gabe took off running. He ran towards the northeast side of the crop area, where he'd last seen Madge. He was sweaty and out of breath by the time he reached her and wound up leaning over to rest his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. It was hard to do that with an already bruised stomach area. "Code...Talking...about a...code." he said as he forced himself upright, that was a long run from the southside. "Water," he added. "In Madison." he was making oh so much sense.
Madge was taking a break and drinking from a water bottle when she heard someone bounding over. She lowered the bottle and turned around, arching her eyebrows when she saw it was Gabriel. She looked past him to see if he was being chased by a posse, but nope, it was just him.
After he finished sputtering, her eyebrows arched higher. She'd never seen him act like this, particularly since he came to work for her. "Slow down, slow down." She held out the bottle for him to take. "What are you talking about?"
Gabe shook his head at the offering but then thought better of it and took the bottle. He took a couple of big gulps from it before he lowered it and handed it back.
He was still a little winded as he spoke. "Merle and Jonah. They were talking about water contamination. In...in, in Madison. I need to use your computer." He frowned as his brow creased up into a mess of worry lines. "I-it's coded." he dropped his eyes to the ground shamefully as he shifted on his feet.
Madge's eyes widened as she took the bottle absently. "What do you mean? It's the WA?"
Gabe glanced up at her. "I'm not positive." He said. "But they, Merle...and them...they were talking about it and I heard specific things and I need your computer. Or you need to look it up for me. Someone needs to...if you could even just print it out for me I can try and, and go through it." he stammered a good bit through that. Clearly it was important to him to figure it out.
Madge looked up and around the immediate area. She and Gabe were alone, and for a few moments she wondered if this was some kind of trick. If Gideon (or Peter) were around, they would never do what Madge did next.
"...all right, Gabriel. Let's go." She gestured for him to follow as she hurried toward the farm house. She had her gun and her wits about her. If he tried anything, she would be ready.
Gabe stared at Madge. Even coming to suggest such a thing was risking getting reported and thrown back into a cell, or worse. Much, much worse was possible. He was so shocked when she actually agreed that it took him a moment to follow her. With a start he hurried to catch up to her but stayed a pace or two behind. He was too afraid to say anything that might possibly change Madge's mind. So he didn't speak until they reached the room that held her computer. Gabe eyed the thing warily. Computers had caused him much trouble in the past. He cleared his throat but stayed in the corner by the door, hands fidgeting with the bottom of his shirt hem. He shifted from foot to foot. "W-water contamination," He said as he cautiously lifted his eyes to look at her.
"It was the, the...the fallback. It wasn't the first one though," He shifted on is feet again and dropped his eyes. "Bird..." He clenched his eyes shut tight a moment and then his face scrunched up as he went on. "Bird watching was for updates - where the flocks were heading. Supply runs. Weather, that was for hazards - sunny skies meant you were in the clear for...for, for attacks or, or moving forward with plans. Cloudy with a chance of rain, it meant no go." He cleared his throat. "Water contamination..." He hesitated, maybe going a little pale.
Madge turned on the computer and looked over at Gabe, listening as he stammered a not quite comprehensible explanation. "What, Gabriel? What was it?" The look on his face worried her, and not in a way that made her fear for her safety. Just the entire town's.
Gabe swallowed hard against the lump in his throat as he lifted his eyes to look at her. "It means they're ready." He told her. He couldn't believe they'd actually stuck with the old code after having no doubt heard all about what had happened with Gabe himself. "Your town's in immediate danger." He added hoping to keep her from changing her mind. A lot of the color was drained from his face. He had no idea how he was going to get this information into the base properly without being blamed himself.
Madge's eye's widened. "How can you be sure? Water contamination...what if it just is?" She looked down at the computer monitor. "Where do you want me to look?"
"Code words." He answered. He'd heard them when the ranch hands were talking about it. He inched closer to her and the computer as if it was a contagious disease. "Start with news articles. In the area around us." He said.
As Madge searched, Gabe's color continued to drain from his face. Once she started printing, he'd grabbed a notepad and a pencil and had started circling, underlining and writing notes down so fast, he was hardly sure they were legible. Once they had what he thought was enough to decode and hand over to the base, they'd climbed into Madge's truck. Gabe was still hurriedly jotting and circling as he mumbled to himself and squinted his eyes closed in concentration.
Madge had called Peter to try and get him to meet them at the base, but he was on the northwest portion of the wall that day and she was unable to reach him. So they were going in without much warning. As she droved and Gabe mumbled, she repeatedly glanced over at him.
"Are we too late?" she finally ventured to ask. The way he was scrambling and sweating with this information, she was pretty sure the answer was going to be yes.
Gabe's pencil lept moving. He didn't feel like he had time at all to try and spare a reassuring glance at Madge. Surely just stepping foot on the base would more or less guarantee his execution so he had to get as much of the code keywords down as he could before they reached the base.
"I don't know..." he lied if only because he didn't want her to crash or something. He was sweaty and pale and the hand with the pencil was shsking a little bit.
Madge swallowed and gripped the steering wheel tighter. She glanced at him again before tearing her eyes away to focus on the road. As she stepped on the gas to run a stop sign--no one was ever at that intersection anyway--she pulled out her phone. Her hand was shaking slightly as she hit the button that dialed Gideon directly. She didn't want to leave him out of this. On top of that, he'd likely be of help once they reached the base.
Gabe felt the car speed up and started writing faster while trying to keep everything legible.
Gideon was out patrolling in the northeastern part of town in his cruiser. His direct calls on those days routed to his cb radio in the car. "This is Figgs, go ahead," He said after lifting the cb up and holding the button down until he was done speaking.
"Gideon," Madge began as she took a sharp turn with one hand, holding the phone with the other, "I'm driving to the base. It's important that you meet us there."
Good thing no one was around to see Gideon's face fall before it took on a rather scary murderous expression. "Are you hurt? Where is he?" he asked before reaching out to flip on the lights and sirens. Then he pressed the gas pedal down and sent the cruiser peeling down the road with screeching tires.
"He's with me, no one's hurt," she said quickly as they approached another intersection. She thought she would be able to make it across without slowing down, but another car showed up to her right and she had to slam on the breaks. "Hold on!" she shouted to both Gideon and Gabe before the truck came to a sudden, squealing stop.
That didn't give Gabe enough warning, and without a sestbelt on since he'd been too occupied when he'd climbed in, he wound up slamming forward and catching his right temple on the dashboard. It started bleeding as Gabe let out a groan. He reached up to wipe at it with his forearm. Moments later when his thoughts came back to him, he forced himself to sit back and start writing again. He tried to keep blood splatters to a minimum.
Gideon's eyes widened. "Madge! Are you alright?" Tires were squealing. "Madge, are you there? Are you hurt? Whats going on?"
Madge dropped the phone into her lap, forgetting about it momentarily as she looked over at Gabe. "Are you all right? I'm sorry!" she said, short of breath and even shakier than she had been before.
The other car made its way across the intersection, its driver making some rude gestures in Madge's direction as he went. Madge wasn't paying attention. She still looked at Gabe as she put both hands back on the steering wheel before hitting the gas once more.
Gideon sped through town, sirens wailing. People were staring out their windows and word was already abuzz with possibilities. "Madge!" he kept shouting her name to get her attention.
Once a soldier always a soldier, Gabe ignored the pain in his head. "I'm okay." he answered. "Keep going." he kept writing. "Start honking." he added, to try and give her a way to avoid break slamming again.
"Right," Madge nodded, bringing her attention back to the road. And then she heard the tinny sound of Gideon yelling. "Oh!" She picked up the phone and fumbled with it for a few seconds, almost dropping it to the floor. Instead she managed to pin it between her palm and the steering wheel before she lifted it up to her ear.
"Gideon! We're okay!" she shouted, both because of the sirens in the background and that she lacked the concentration to modulate her voice. "Almost hit a car! Meet us at the base! Gabriel's discovered alarming news about the WA! No one is hurt!"
"What? I'm on my way!" he said before they got disconnected. "Madge? Madge? What news?" he grunted and flipped the channel to call in what Madge told him as he sped his cruiser along as fast as the machine would go.
Madge let the phone drop back to her lap. She glanced over at Gabe again to see his injury, but then turned back just in time to lay on her horn at the sight of another approaching car. She swerved around it and continued on to the base. Luckily it was mostly smooth (but agitated and worried and nervous) sailing after that.
Gabe worked right up until Madge stopped the car. He set the pencil in his shirt pocket and unclipped the papers from the clip board. He rolled them up and held them firmly in his hand. After taking a deep breath, he looked at Madge. Soldiers were already watching the truck and heading thier way. "If I tell you to run, run." he didn't leave her time to respond, just climbed out and started walking to meet her by her door, worried about keeping her safe from possible attacks.
"Wait!" Surely he'd be safer and considered less of a risk if she was with him. Especially if he had a bleeding head wound. The soldiers might think she'd given it to him in self defense. Madge unbuckled her belt and jumped out of the truck.
Gabe waited for her by the back of the truck. He contemplated handing the papers over to her as the started walking but by the time they'd gotten a few steps from the truck there was already a sea of stunned soldiers bearing down on them.
"Go get help." Gabe said, wanting to get Madge away from his side so she wouldn't be collateral damage. Demands of what he was doing here started loudly emerging from the approaching group. "Run." he told Madge before he tried to tell the soldiers why he was here. Halfway through the first sentence, someone landed the first punch to his jaw. Gabe tightened his grip on the pers as he wound up on the ground. He curled up into the tightest ball he could and hoped he'd wrotten enough of the code down to save them. He lost track of each hit and soon he just lost consciousness from a blow to the back of his head, clutching his knees and protecting the papers.
Madge stood her ground, yelling to get the attention of the soldiers, but most of them were all to happy to take an opportunity to get some revenge on Gabe. She started shoving her way through them to get to Gabe.
Slate had been on his way to the base to meet his physical therapist, for a change pf scenery from the hospital, when he heard all the noise. He started slowly making his way toward the doors.
Gideon came screeching into the parking lot, leaping from his cruiser just in time to see some young soldier's elbow clip Madge right in the cheekbone as he was reeling back to swing at Gabe. He was almost on the pile when he drew his gun, intending to fire warning shots, only to be disarmed. Thinking he was here to protect Gabe, Gideon wound up trying to fend off the soldoers closest to Madge as he tried to stop her from shoving any further into the mass.
Madge reeled when she got hit in the face, but quickly recovered. There were only a few soliders between her and Gabe. Once she got to him, surely they would back down enough so she could tell them what was going on.
"Stop!" she shouted. "He has important--" She was cut off when she got elbowed in the stomach.
"Hey! Hey!" Gideon finally reached Madge as she had the wind knocked out of her. He grabbed her arms firmly and fought to drag her out of the mass. "Stay here!" he ordered firmly before he tried to start pulling people off of Gabe, who was a bloody mess by now.
Slate had reached the parking lot by then and since he wasn't fit enough to start swining at people, he stopped a passing soldier, drew their sidearm and fired off some warning shots into the air. He took a deep breath and started shouting out orders in an autboritative tone to call the soldiers to attention, and off of...Gabriel? What the fuck? Without thinking much about it, he jogged the last few yards over to try and untangle Gabe to reach in and see if Gabe had a pulse. Thst's when he spotted Madge. "Boxer!" he called out, already winded, fantastic. "What's going on?"
Madge couldn't do much to protest as she caught her breath when Gideon pulled her out. She hadn't even realized he was there. She shouted after him when he went back toward the pile, but it was pretty useless. And right after that, there was gunfire. It took Madge a few long, shaky seconds before she realized they were warning shots, not holes plugged into Gabe.
She blinked and looked over at Slate. "Gabriel found evidence of a planned attack!" she said, not shouting as loud as she had before as she jogged over to him. "Code words, notes...he wrote it all down!" She looked down at Gabe and for the first time realized just how still he was. Her face fell.
Slate's eyes were wide. He looked toward Nyx, who had heard the shots on her way into the base and come running. "Radio to Crossfire, tell him I need a medic, and a corps unit.
"Is he breathing?" Madge asked, hurrying the last few steps toward Slate.
Slate was calling Gabriel's name when Madge asked that question. He nodded as he ordered a soldier to hand his jacket over. After balling it up, he managed to wedge it under Gabe's head as he rolled him onto his back. He was hardly recognizable with all the blood on his face, stemming from some head wounds, which alway bled worse than they really were usually.
"Get General Pastor over here too." he told Nyx. "And let the wall know what the gunfire was about." Slate noticed the papers clutched tight in Gabe's hand and he reached to pry them free as carefully as possible as he thought back to what
Madge said about the codes. He handed them to Nyx and then looked at Madge as he plugged up a wound at the side of Gabe's head with his t-shirt, which wound up giving a nice nasty view of the scars on his chest and back from the shooting. "Are you all right?" he asked her as Gideon stood near them both, his reclaimed gun drawn and ready as he eyed the soldiers aroumd them standing at attention.
"M'all right, all right," Madge said distractedly, still overcome with relief that Gabe was still alive. Alive for now, at least. He looked awful. She should have done something to make sure he didn't jump out of the truck first. She should have told him beforehand to stay, made a plan, something.
She crouched down next to Slate. "I'll get that," she said, referring to the wound. She pulled off the light cardigan she had over her shirt. Slate had to stay in charge, not tend to wounds. "The papers he's holding...he took notes..."
Slate nodded gratefully and let her take over. He wiped his hands on his pants and nodded. He took the stained papers back from Nyx shortly before a unit of eight riot patrol guards came to take the soldiers standing nearby into custody to throw them in the brig. Four more showed up for additional protection.
"How did he get these?" Slate asked as his eyes scanned them while going wider. Roberts wasn't supposed to use the internet or a computer so Slate would need to know this answer when asked. Gabe let out a few bloody coughs and murmured something unintelligible.
"I helped--" Madge looked down at Gabe. She leaned over and assured him that help was coming before she turned back to Slate. "He overheard some of the farmhands talking about Madison, and it tipped him off to some code words. He came to find me and I helped him. He told me where to look." She swallowed and turned from Slate to Gideon. "He was pale, worked up. Scared. I don't doubt he was serious."
Gideon seemed a little skeptical. "Seems more to me like he had a death wish," he muttered degrudgingly. "An' he almost took you out with him." Gideon was not pleased about that.
Slate, on the other hand, was already noticing the similarities between the bird watching code and this new one. His forehead was scrunched in concentration as ge read.
"He was trying to help us," Madge frowned. "He was desperate to, or else I could have stopped him from running out of the truck."
Gideon was quiet after that. He didn't want to argue with Madge. He was just damn glad she was alive.
Slste looked up from the papers and over at Madge. "Thank you." he told her sincerely because it looked like she was right and anyway he knew Madge wouldn't lie, especially about something like this.
The medics arrived with a combat stretcher that they set down next to Gabe once Slate moved out of the way. They started, first by trying to clean him off to see whst wounds might need stitches and also by waving something under his nose to wake him up. As soon as his right eye, which was only partially swollen shut, popped open he started rambling choppy and pieces about the code.
Madge stayed close by, considering she seemed to be his only spokesperson.
"Colonel Buckner has the papers," she said, leaning past one of the medic's shoulders to get a look at Gabe. "He's bringing them to the General. He says thank you." Sure he said it to Madge and not Gabe, but she was passing it on anyway.
Gabe's eye rolled up into his head a bit before it went wildly searching for Madge after she spoke. He had to make sure she was okay after dragging her into that.
"Madge," Slate spoke up once he spotted a transport vehicle being driven toward them with Alice as the drover. "Sheriff, why don't you both come with me and we'll sort this out while the medics take care of Roberts?" he suggested.
Madge slowed a little, but still followed the stretcher. "How do we know he'll be safe at the hospital?" she asked. The place was crawling with soldiers, after all.
Slate nodded. "Because Nyx is taking a unit with her and going with them." he assured. Nyx gave Slate a proper salute and then started ordering the armed guards, who immediately obeyed her, so atleast it looked like Gabe was in good hands for the time being.
"She won't let anything happen to him if she can help it." Slate assured Madge as Gideon put his gun back in its holster and moved his arm around Madge. "If they clear him tonight, he can go home with you," he added. "So long as the General approves." he added to cover his ass.
Madge turned back to Gabe. "All right..." She had to explain what happened with the codes anyway. She assured Gabe that he was going to be all right and then made her way back over to Slate and Gideon.
Gideon stuck close to her side as Alice pulled up in the transport truck to get them across the base faster. Slate was thankfull for that. He climbed into the passenger seat and Gideon opened the back door for Madge.
Madge climbed in and once everyone was in the truck, she started going over what had happened after Gabe found her on the farm in greater detail now that she had time to calm down a bit.
Slate and Alice listened attentively as they drove. Gideon was more concerned for her well being, he kept an arm around her shouders as he tried ti inspect her cheek for damage from that elbow to the face she'd gotten.
Once Madge was finished, she took a deep breath and turned to Gideon. "I'm all right," she assured. Though how much longer she (and all of them) would be all right remained a mystery, with that new information Gabe dug up.
Gideon nodded and dropped his free hand but left his arm around her, skeptical. He had a few cuts and bruises from taking part in the scuffle as well.
Once Alice parked by the doors, all four of them piled out. "I'll take a briefing to the General. You take them to conference four." she instructed.
"Yes, sir." Slate nodded and gave her a quick salute before he started to lead the way for Madge and Gideon. He asked a passing secretary, who was staring at their injuries and bloodstains, to find him a clean t-shirt before they headed into the conference room.
Now that the initial relief that Gabe was alive had passed, the reality that there was something much bigger going on was beginning to sink back in. Madge gave Gideon a worried glance as they headed into the conference room.
Thankfully the secretary returned shortly after with a standard brown army t-shirt, and he felt much more comfortable once it was on. He was nervous and wanted to pace, but there were more important things to do. He finished reading over the papers and then pulled the closest phone over. He dialed the right numbers to place a call to Flask. Flask had deciphered the first codes, so it would be important to have Flask in on this and comparing the two.
Gideon pulled a chair out for Madge and then went to pour the three of them some glasses of water from the pitcher that was on the middle of the table. The gravity of the situation didn't escape him, of course, but at the moment there wasn't much he could do about it at this very moment.
Madge thanked Gideon for the water. As she took the glass, she realized how he'd gotten roughed up as well. She asked quietly if he was all right.
Gideon glanced at her after he chugged down half of his glass. He had a fat lip, and a welt on his left cheek bone, a slight bloody nose and a big bruise on his right jaw. He glanced at her and leaned a little closer. "I don't know, do you like tough guys or coddling them better?" he asked, hoping to help calm her down a little more. There was nothing they could do until everything was fully deciphered, right? And even then there wasn't much they could do other than batten down the hatches and ride out the storm, in his opinion.
"I think I maybe have had my fill of tough guys for the moment," she replied, not looking nearly as light as her tone would imply. She was quiet for a moment before adding, "Thank you for coming."
"In that case, it hurts real bad," Gideon nodded and mustered up the most pathetic puppy eyes he could. He sobered a moment later though and moved his hair closer. "Y'know the saying," He told her, "Wild horse couldn't drag me away." He shrugged as if he hadn't put a second thought into rushing to get there, because he hadn't.
Madge gave him a very small smile. "M'sorry the phone call was so confusing. It was hard to concentrate while driving."
"Understandable," He nodded. "Try not to give me a heart attack next time though, okay?" He forced a severely small smile. "And don't go barreling through a pile of monkeys again either." He added, though he'd though her heroics were...well, heroic.
"Matters of life or death, Gideon. Couldn't and can't be helped," she shook her head.
Gideon let out a sigh. "Yeah. I know." He glanced at Slate, who was busy at work on that phone, looking flustered and anxious. He looked over at her. "Whether he comes back to the farm or not tonight, I'm staying at your place." He added, just to make sure she was awaref this fact, if she hadn't figured it out already.
Madge let out a drawn out sigh. "Who knows if any of us will be able to go home tonight." She turned her eyes to Slate.
Slate definitely wasn't making it home tonight.
"I'm just saying." Gideon reached out to pick her hand up and give it a squeeze. He wasn't going to let her get very far away, unless he had to go somewhere tht might involve some form of danger.
Madge turned back to him and gave his hand a small squeeze in return. "Well, in this situation, I probably wouldn't object."
Gideon nodded. "Good." He gave her another small smile and glanced at Slate again. He lowered his voice but it wasn't like Slate could even think to listen to them. "Did Roberts give you a time frame for when this is all going to happen?" He asked, unsure of what, exactly, was on those papers. After every call that Slate made, it seemed like there was louder noise moving through the halls. Some soldiers came in carrying clipboards and paperwork to give to Slate before rushing right out again.
Madge shook her head. "I asked and he said he didn't know. But judging by the way he was acting..." She looked up as another clipboard was passed to Slate. "...and here, I'd say there isn't much time. If there is any at all." She frowned, wondering where Peter was, if he was still up on the wall or rushing around like the other soldiers here.
Gideon frowned. He squeezed her hand again and eyed Slate again. Alice came in a few moments after that with a few soldiers taking notes behind her and running off whenever she sent them for something.
"General's got some of the code breakers and is trying to contact the surrounding cities," She told Slate. They needed to actually figure out which cities were really already in trouble based on the information Slate had been calling around.
Madge wanted to ask just how bad things were, but she knew better than to interrupt military personnel, especially when something like this was going on. So she stayed quiet and shared some more glances with Gideon as they waited to be addressed.
After exchanging more information and while still radio relaying information, Alice turned to Madge and Gideon. "Madge, Sheriff," she greeted them both again. "Is there anything we can get you both?" She asked since they'd both gotten a few scrapes and bruises. It was a little too hectic right now to get severely detailed statements from them. Soon she was going to jet off go meet Ketty on the wall to discuss the situation in detail with her.
Madge glanced at Gideon briefly before turning back to Alice. "Some reassurances would be nice, I suppose." The worried frown hadn't left her face in a while.
Alice gave her a severely tiny smile. "You saved us from a blitz," She replied. "Now we'll be as prepared as possible if it's unstoppable." Some crackled information came over the walkie in her hand and Alice looked at Madge and Gideon. "Stay here for now while we sort this out. Sheriff, you might want to radio in and warn your people ro be ready. Don't give too many details just yet, just get them out patrolling and on alert."
Gideon nodded. He probably likef Alice best of most of the soldiers, aside from Peter since they were friends and had grown up together. He'd served with Alice though. Anyway. "I'll do that."
That was a little reassuring. More so than 'oh my God, we're all going to die', anyway.
Madge let go of Gideon's hand so he could go about his duty.
"I won't go far," Gideon assured her. He moved to push his chair back and stand up and then leaned over to kiss the side of her head before he moved to the other end of the room where there was another phone.
Alice nodded. "If you need anything, just let one of the soldiers coming in and out know." she told Madge before she stepped over to Slate to let him know she was heading to the wall, to the main entrance, but that she'd be in touch. Slate nodded and they exchanged salutes before Alice left and Slate got back to work.
"I'll be all right," Madge assured both of them. "Go, do your jobs." She gave Gideon a small smile before he went to the phone.
Alice left the room and headed for her truck. Once she hopped in, she took a breath and gave herself a moment to wrap her head around the situation. Then she brought the engine to life and headed for the front gates of the city. Once she'd gotten there, she parked and grabbed her clipboard of information. She used her military ID to let herself in the look out building and gave the guard at the desk a nod before she went to start climbing up the tower, where Ketty would be.