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It’s late afternoon and the day is just beginning to cool off. Women sit in the shade and talk while a small group of kids kick a soccer ball around. Heads turn as a covered military truck drives toward them. One of the women jumps up and shouts at the children when she sees it’s an American truck. When the truck rolls to a stop the street is empty. There’s rustles from behind curtains as the inhabitants peek at the American soldiers that step out.
Jason can’t blame them, these people have gone through enough cruelty at the hands of soldiers just like him. He steps out of the truck and scans the row of houses until his eyes fall on the right door. He steps up to it and knocks before he loses his nerve. There’s a clatter from inside, a young voice calling out in Arabic, his words fall silent when he sees Jason standing there.
His skin is darker than Salim’s and barely contained dark curls cascade down his shoulders but there’s no mistaking it. He can see the resemblance in the curve of his nose, the arch of his brow, and the suspicious look he gives the Marine. Disappointment is clear on his face, he was expecting his father.
“Zain Othman, you’re Salim’s boy?” His voice comes out strained, emotions clawing up his throat. Rachel, a step behind him, repeats his words in Arabic. The boy rolls his eyes,
“I speak English. Who are you? Where’s my father?”
“If I don’t make it out, tell my son I did everything I could.”
“Tell him yourself, I’m coming to get you.”
Jason knew this would be difficult. Choking down the lump in his throat, he removes his hat.
“My name is Jason Kolchek, believe it or not I was a friend of your daddy’s. Is it alright if I come in? There’s a lot I have to tell you.” He hesitates before stepping aside and letting them enter. At the table there’s several books laid out, each with several colored sticky notes marking different pages and Salim’s scribbled annotations in the margins. Zain’s acceptance letter sits there as well. Jason’s eyes find the unopened gift box on the counter, Zain waiting for his father to come home before he opens it. The next breath he takes in aches all the way to his core. Rachel, with a much better handle on her emotions, takes a seat at the table and pulls out several thick files.
“Zain, please take a seat. My name is Rachel and everything that we are about to tell you, you will not repeat to another living soul. I don’t have to warn you of what will happen if you do.” He pales, hands shaking as he pulls a chair out and takes a seat, nervously tidying up his books.
“Jesus, Rachel, don’t fucking threaten the kid.” Jason scoffs, taking the seat between the two. She gives him a cold look that seems to say ‘if you could keep it together, I wouldn’t have to’. He takes one of the files from her and lays it in front of Zain, he owes it to Salim to be the one to tell this story.
“On May 30th, your father and his team came across our team while we were conducting a search in the mountains.”
Rachel, Eric, then Nick climb the rope and emerge onto the surface. Jason all but throws himself out of the hole, only turning back to extend his hand down to Salim. After being underground for so long they all squint against the sun but savor the sight of it.
“We did it. We fucking did it! Lady and gentleman, we have crawled out of hell itself!” Jason crows.
“I have to get back to my boy. He must be so worried about me.” Salim says, the relieved smile on his face that Jason had been correct; they would see the sun again. All too soon, the light seems to fade. They all look back just in time to see the moon slide in place over the sun, a total eclipse. The shrieking sounds below and all relief is shattered.
“Get to the huts, now! Move, move, move!” They make it inside, barring the room with what little they have but already the vampires are reaching in through the holes in their defenses. With no sun, no ammunition, each armed with only a knife and a flare, they take their stand. Jason looks to Salim and his enemy-turned-ally gives him a tense smile,
“It’s been interesting knowing you.”
Zain listens intently, hanging on to Jason’s every word. The files are filled with pictures of their findings down there, the creatures, and the carnage. In another life- a better life- this would all be just an elaborate bedtime story, told to a young man whose heart still chases fairy tales. Jason turns Salim into the knight in shining armor that he proved himself to be. If only Jason could see through the thick fog of his own fucking ignorance and seen it sooner. Zain smiles as Jason retells how he and Salim fought their way through the vampires and how twice in a matter of minutes Salim’s quick thinking saved Jason’s ass. Jason falters for a moment, looking to Rachel for assistance.
“Your father was incredibly brave and resourceful. Even though we met him with distrust and hostility, he gave us understanding and cooperation. He saved our lives, Jason’s more than once.” He gleams with pride for his father, but after a moment it fades to sorrow.
“That was my birthday, he was supposed to be home. I was accepted into a university in London, we were going to celebrate.” Zain stands from the table, crosses the room and retrieves a framed photo. The frame was clearly broken recently, the glass missing and the wooden corners glued back together. Jason takes it carefully, a smiling Salim looks back at him with his arm around the shoulders of a younger Zain.
“We had a fight and I knocked it over. I told him he was never home and that when he was he was smothering me.” Jason sets the photo down and stands, gently laying his hands on Zain’s shoulders.
“Your father loved you, don’t ever for a second doubt it. The only thing that kept him going was the thought of getting back to you. He was so fucking proud of you and told me how much of an amazing kid you are.” Jason reaches into his pocket and hands Zain his father’s lighter.
“I’m sorry, kid, I tried to get him back to you. We thought we were out, in the clear, and then the fucking eclipse. It happened while he was trying to save me, it’s all my fault.” Heavy emotions warps his last few words. Zain’s face crumples as he realizes what Jason is telling him. His knees give out on him and the only thing keeping him standing is the bone-crushing hug the American wraps him in. Loud, agonizing wails tear from his chest and echo out into the street. Noises Jason didn’t think another human being was capable of producing as Zain sobs against him. One hand clenches his shirt in a tight fist, the other holding the lighter.
Before meeting Salim, the last time Jason had cried was when he threw a handful of dirt over his mother’s coffin as a young boy. Now, he cries freely, for Merwin and Joey and Clarice; his fallen comrades and for Salim, the friend he never expected to make. The man who looked directly into the ugly festering mess of Jason’s soul and saw something worthwhile. The man he ran headfirst back into hell for, but couldn’t save.
The six minutes of the eclipse feels like an eternity as they desperately fight the onslaught of vampires. Just as the first rays of sunlight begin to shine through the holes in the concrete walls and the hut’s thatched roof, Jason sees the creature's talons descend towards Salim. He isn’t fast enough.
It slices through Salim’s chest, painting his uniform red. Jason gets between them, jamming his knife in the fucking thing’s jaw and using the momentum of his body to throw it into the pool of light in the center of the room. It bursts into flames and deafening screams but Jason is already kneeling beside Salim.
Jason presses one of his hands to Salim’s chest, trying to hold pressure, but he knew there was no coming back from this. He pulls the man close, refusing to let it end here.
“J-Jason,” Salim gasps, scrabbling for the Marine’s hand. Jason abandons holding pressure in exchange for holding Salim’s hand as tight as he can.
“Don’t worry, buddy, evac is on the way, just hold on. You’re gonna be fine.” They both know it’s a lie. No one will reach them for at least five hours and there’s no one else for miles around. He’s losing blood too quickly and they have no supplies.
“You are still a bad liar,” Salim wheezes, his hand cold and shaking as he presses something into Jason’s palm, his brass lighter.
“Tell my son that I love him, I’ll always be proud of him. Promise me, Jason!” He sounds panicked, drawing in short gasping breaths.
“I’ll tell him, Salim, I promise.”
“Stay with me.” He squeezes Salim’s hand, not giving a shit about the blood staining his clothes or his team standing silently around them.
“I got you, I ain’t going anywhere. Semper fi.”
He holds Salim in their morbid lover’s embrace long after he falls still and silent, until the blood dries on his skin and they hear the helicopters approaching in the distance. Until he feels Nick’s hand on his shoulder,
“It’s time to go, man.” He shakes him off, silent tears dripping off the tip of his nose, not ready to say goodbye yet. A different hand lands on his shoulder, this time it’s the Colonel.
“Pull yourself together, Lieutenant. You did what you could...he’s gone. It’s time to go.” Jason presses his forehead to Salim’s,
“I’ll take care of him, Salim, I promise.”