Winter Kill – Epilogue

Ohmygosh!!! I can’t believe that I am about to finish this story. I started it on May 31st, 2019 and didn’t expect it to last as long as it did and become the story that it did!!! Thank you to all the bloggers who allowed me to use them as characters. It made writing the story much more interesting and I hoped I lived up to your characters in real life. I am going to write a comedy short that is set between Winter Kill and the next Azren Chronicles feature-length novel that will introduce some more bloggers for the next novel – including my best bud (you know who you are), so be on the look out for it as it will be a real blast!

Anyway, on with the story!!!

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The sudden silence was unnerving.

Britchy blinked as the aliens planet suddenly vanished and was instantly replaced by billions of stars as they floated through deep space.

She quickly flipped a switch. “Stone? Racquel? Anyone there?” As she waited for a response, she heard a groan and, turning, saw Jones and Rue starting to stir. She realized that they might possibly have a concussion or internal bleeding after all that banging about in the plane, so quickly set her plane on autopilot and put Rue and Jones in two Osmosis Portable Chambers and then quickly went and switched to Manuel Pilot. “Hello? Is anyone there?”

“Britchy! I have never been more relieved to hear your voice!” Stone said. Britchy rolled her eyes, remembering how nervous he had been around her a while back. Wait ’til Christmas, buddy, she thought.

“We still attached?” Britchy asked, referring to when their two ships attached right before they knocked down the house.

“Yep,” Stone replied. “How’s Rue and Jones?”

“They’ll live…I think. They got pretty knocked up when the plane went into a spiral death dive earlier, so I’m fairly certain that there will be internal injuries and some head trauma,” Britchy reported. “But, they’ll be okay until we get them to the doctor with the OPCs. What about Racquel and Bond?”

“Bond’s got a concussion and Racquel is tending to him,” Stone replied.

Britchy breathed a sigh of relief. “So…did it work? Is it over?”

“They’ve been obliterated – that part’s over. But…one of Ver’thad’s underlings tried to take over the mission from Ver’thad and sent out an army fleet to Azren ahead of schedule. I didn’t get time to call it off. We need to go stop them.”

Britchy slowly nodded as she listened to Stone’s words.  He’s right. She then looked over her shoulder at Rue, Jones, and the other injured people on her craft. “But what about all these injured people on my plane? They need a doctor.”

“Hmm. Yeah, you’re right. Then, take them to the nearest doctor, just make sure that they are nowhere near Azren as it’s probably going to get ugly.”

“Copy that.”

---

A few months later…

Bond pulled up infront of his, Jones’ and Rue’s farm house and turned off the engine. “Alright, we’re her-” he fell silent as he saw that Rue’s eyes were closed and her head, wrapped up in white bandages, was lolled to the side, leaning against the front passenger door.

“Shh!” he whispered, turning to Jones, who was just as bandaged up as Rue. “She’s asleep. Party time.”

Jones chuckled. “Peace at last,” he quipped.

“That means I can safely drink my secret stash of beer without fear of interruption,” Bond quietly remarked, savoring the thought. “I can’t believe that she hasn’t worked out that I put it in the cellar.”

“Now I have.”

Bond froze as his eyes cut to Rue, who’s eyes were open and turned toward him as she looked at him with a smug smirk on her face. “W-what?” he stuttered. He swallowed. “You’re meant to be asleep.”

“That’s when you hear all the interesting details,” Rue replied in a teasing voice.

He could have wept.

Jones threw his head back and laughed as the implications finally sunk in. “You pretended to be asleep to see if he would reveal where he had hidden his beer, didn’t you?” Jones laughed, clutching his sides.

Rue simply grinned as an answer and then burst out laughing when she saw Bond’s face.

You’re dead Bond mouthed to her, holding up a finger sternly as he unbuckled himself.

Rue gave him a Please be serious look and climbed out of the car. “I get that a lot,” she deadpanned, causing Jones to nearly drop to the floor in hysterics.

The front door opened and out came Britchy and Racquel. “Hey, ladies!” the trio called out as the girls rushed forward to help Jones and Rue inside, leaving Bond to bring the bags in.

“And where’s my welcome?” Bond called out with a grin on his face.

Britchy held her arms out.

“Uh, I’m good, thanks,” Bond quickly corrected himself. Britchy stuck her tongue out at him and ended up helping him bring in the bags after bringing Jones in.

~

“So…what happened?” Rue asked as she settled down. She and Jones had asked that question, but the others had insisted that they wait until they were back home before answering that question.

“Basically, Ver’thad wanted to use the portal to bring those aliens – the Enktir Liwlians – into our solar system and clean the slate, so to speak, to start over with reptilians.”

Rue was in the middle of drinking some coffee and spit it out violently as she heard that part. She looked to Jones, who had explained that, to see if he was somehow joking. She could see he wasn’t and shook his head. “Why do we have a record of dealing with absolute nutcases?” she muttered to herself, thinking of some of the people they had dealt with over time. That was the cream of the crop, though.

“So, the fleet sent to Azren wasn’t meant to go until the aliens had launched?” Rue asked for clarification.

Bond nodded. “Yes. But one of Ver’thad’s workers rebelled against that order and sent them anyway, trying to take over from Ver’thad herself.”

Rue nodded as she sipped her coffee, absorbing all the information. She then turned to Racquel. “So, those notes you found in Stone’s and Winter’s room…they were very subtle hints about the portal?” she asked.

“Yes,” Racquel confirmed. “Stone had put them there for us to find and – hopefully – work out. Though, I must confess, that I hate it when they make the clues though annoyingly cryptic.”

“So, what’s happening with Stone and Mooney now?” Rue inquired.

“Well, after King Alexei and his sister and General Anastasia Ivanov arrived at Azren with Eden’s military since they had been tracking Ver’thad for years due to past attempts Ver’thad had made against Eden, they revealed that they had discovered that Ver’thad had been going to make an attempt on Azren, and were going to help since Azren was completely off-line. There wasn’t even a fight – after seeing the opposition, Ver’thad’s men willingly surrendered and Alexei and Anastasia have taken them into custody. Stone was offered a promotion by King Dritz, but he refused, saying that he was going to retire. Mooney is being sent to the Galactic Prison where…well, unless he somehow manages to live through his hundred-year jail sentence, he’s not going to be seeing the outside of his pitch-black cell ever again,” Britchy answered.

“Sounds like we saved the day once again,” Rue remarked in a overly-dramatic tone, making Jones roll his eyes. She raised her cup of coffee. “To your tremendous leader.”

“Thank you,” Bond interjected. The others clutched their sides with laughter. Rue threw a pillow at him. “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Bond tutted, shaking his head. “Such terrible aim.”

“You’ll regret that when I hit you in the kisser,” Rue retorted.

“I’ll just get myself another cup of Joe while you do that,” Bond said as he stood up and went into the kitchen.

“So,” Britchy said, leaning back. She looked around and threw up her hands. “What? Why is everyone looking at me like I’m about to do something treacherous?”

The others all glanced at each other, and unanimously decided not to answer that. “What is it?” Jones asked, narrowing his eyes once again at her, a small smile appearing on his face.

Britchy looked at them all as Bond re-entered the room. “I want to join your little space heroes…thing.”

Rue raised her eyebrow, deciding not to comment on Britchy’s description of them. “It would be an honour,” Rue said, and she meant it. She had seen how this beast had handled itself in battle. She turned to the others. “What do you all think?”

“Yeah,” Bond said in a tone that said he thought that there should be no question about the matter.

“Let’s do it,” Jones agreed. He then turned to their lawyer friend. “Racquel, would you like be part of our little…space gang to?” he asked.

Racquel nodded eagerly, a big grin splitting right across her face. “Hell yeah!” She then paused. “So, what are our code names, then?”

Britchy held up a finger and stood up, handing her mug to Bond. “I’m going to be called…Black Widow,” she said in a mysterious voice and tried to strike an action pose, only to slip and land flat on her face.

“How ’bout Scooby Doo?” Racquel deadpanned. Britchy narrowed her eyes at Racquel, who gave Britchy a perfectly innocent angel face.

“You’re officially on the naughty list,” Britchy replied as she picked herself up. “How ’bout…Galaxy Britch?”

“There’s an r?” Jones asked.

Rue couldn’t take it anymore and fell backwards onto the couch in a fit of hysterics.

Britchy raised a finger…and then there was a honk outside.

“Ah! That’s my date!” Jones unintentionally shouted and scrambled out of the front door, with Britchy yelling after him that he wasn’t off the hook yet, leaving Rue to wonder if they were now in more danger from Britchy than with all the villains they had faced combined.

Wiping the tears off of her face – and still giggling – Rue opened her laptop and signed in. Going to YouTube for some music from her top favourite music group in the universe, she happened to glance at the most viral section and one caught her eye of two people in Lederhosen doing something stupid at a museum.

Wait a minute…that looks suspiciously like…

“BOND!!!” she screeched. “Y…you uploaded that video of me and Racquel onto your vlog?!”

“Yeah? And my blog as well,” he shrugged. “You’ve both made me famous, thank…” he trailed off when Rue slammed her laptop shut and stood up. Rue glared death at him as she held out her hand to Racquel while keeping her eyes on Bond. Racquel, without looking, reached behind her and picked up a crowbar hanging on the wall and handed it to Rue before grabbing another one beside it for herself.

“Run,” was all Racquel said.

---

Now, before ANYONE goes accusing me of a violent ending, this is meant to be a pure comedic scene and if you have read the whole story – especially that particular scene at the museum – then you will understand that this actually is funny and well-deserved ending for Bond a.k.a. bottomlesscoffee007. Trust me, it’s all good.

I hope no-one minds the fact that I didn’t actually write out the scene where Ver’thad’s men heading for Azren were arrested and instead left it to bits of dialogue. I just didn’t know how to write and it felt like it was too much to actually write a scene of it after what had happened in the previous chapter, so decided that it would be better to leave it to bits of dialogue to explain. I hope none of you are mad.

Wow!!! I can’t believe that I am actually finished with this story!!! It’s been trying, but it has been part of my pride and joy and I love my baby. Well, I am slightly sad, all I can really say now is…

WWWWWOOOOOOHHHHHHOOOOOOO!!!!!!

It’s been a blast!

Now excuse me while I go and break out the 🍾 🥂 and 🥳

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