ADAM

 

Thursday January 9 - 0720 MST

Six days until Turbocharger activates

 

 

It might sound dumb but one of the things I missed most about the Air Force was breakfast at the chow hall. In a way it was part of the reason I was so happy to join the CTTC, they had their own chow hall. The ham, cheese, and mushroom omelette I got was amazing. For once I could actually sit and enjoy it without some existential burden weighing me down.

As I dug into the omelette a young woman came up to my table and cleared her throat. "Mind if I sit here?"

She was a brunette. Her hair was curled up into a tight bun with thick rimmed librarian glasses in a very sharply pressed Air Force blue blouse and skirt. Despite all that she was quite easy on the eyes. How could I possibly say no?

I waved a welcoming hand at the seat across for me. When she sat she smiled. "Adam? Is that really you?"

That caught me off guard. She knew me, yet I didn't remember her. "Uh, I think so."

She giggled at that. "You look so different now. What's it been? Two years since Lackland?"

And then it clicked. Back when I was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base I was working in a warehouse doing what I do best, drive forklifts, when the logistics group commander sent down one of his graphic arts airmen to get some pictures for a presentation. That's when I had first laid eyes on the out-of-place hottie that was Jessica Brighton. A lot of guys used to tell me "pretty girls don't join the military". Jessica proved them all wrong. She was someone that was hard to forget, which made me wonder why I hadn't recognized her at first. Of course back then she was blonde and didn't wear glasses.

"You look different too."

She took her glasses off and winked at me. "Is that better?"

"To be frank, I think you look great either way." And I was being honest. She was quite pretty with or without glasses.

"Isn't that the funniest thing?" she said. "You got rid of your glasses, and now I'm wearing them. But that wasn't what I meant about you being different. I don't mean to be rude, but you were kinda chubby before. Now you look great. I mean, it's such a drastic change. You look like you're taller too."

She was right though. Back then I was really out of shape. Which was why I found it so hard to believe that we had briefly dated. But then she figured out she could have any guy she wanted with her looks, and she moved on.

Now that I think of it, I had really changed since then. Not just physically, but I've done a lot of things since then that I never would have had the courage to do as the old me. The old me was more likely to run away from danger than towards it.

"Yeah, a lot's happened since then." I wasn't even sure where to begin explaining it all to her. Of course I wanted to hear about her too. "Hey when did you get here?"

"About three months ago." Then her eyes wandered off and her features softened. She wore a troubled look. "Adam, they said you were dead. One of my first jobs here was to make memorial pictures of you. What happened?"

If explaining the Change her was tough, this would be impossible. How do you tell someone you carried a backpack nuke into an interdimensional pocket of space-time with an Old West town full of people that never died, fought past an army of zombie Incas, and killed a demon-god before being warped seven months into the future? I mean I could say it just like that but her poor mind would probably explode.

To make matters worse, right as I was contemplating my response Carlie Chase chose that awkward moment to walk into the chow hall and look right at me.

"Uhh…" I said without a clue as to what I would even say.

Carlie looked like she wanted to say something, but then she looked over at Jessica. After a confused moment she turned and walked out. Jessica looked at the door in time to see it close behind Carlie.

"Who was that?" Jessica asked.

"One of my teammates." It wasn't exactly true since we hadn't been formally assigned to a team together, but it made sense that all of us would be put together some day. Still, that beat having to explain everything else. I would need time to think up a good way to go over it all. "Hey, want to get together tomorrow after work? I can tell you all about it then."

She smiled and nodded. "Yeah. We should do that. And I have to get to work in a few. See you later, Adam."

And with a sidelong glance and a grin that did all kinds of wonky things to my heart, she was off to her office.