By Cutieboy90
Two decks down and 50 feet aft, Jake Jackson had been on an inside service stairwell on his way back from the storage room when he’d been thrown over the railing by the ship’s pitching. His cover had been lost in his fall. In the violent shuddering and ensuing darkness, the young marine had tied himself to the handrail with a couple of the belts he’d been carrying. Ear-piercing metallic crashing and rumbling echoed up the narrow stairwell, overwhelming and disorienting him. Sitting on the landing and clinging to the metal banister, Jackson prayed.
In the toolroom, Quinn-Timothy James had been slammed to the floor. He lost sight of Caleb Bradley behind a curtain of fire and a thunderous crash. He stayed down and waited for the lights to come back on. When they didn’t, he felt his way to the bulkhead and pulled himself up. He grabbed a flashlight out of the maintenance cabinet, its narrow beam of light revealed to him an unrecognizable scene of twisted chaos.
“Wha-?” James was speechless for a moment. The tool room… Was gone. Whatever the fuck he was looking at wasn’t anything. Just a huge, circular door. And the smell of burnt… Stuff. Or something.
“Bradley?” He called into the darkness. “Bradley??” James’s voice echoed in the tubular structure next to him. Where was Bradley? James felt his stomach and chest tighten. Now that his brain was catching up with his eyes, he realized what the circular doorway was. It was an engine exhaust cowling from one of the F-18s. The hangar was the deck above. The fire must have been an explosion!
Continue reading Buying Love – The Admiral’s Origin Story: Part 02