Origins: Snapshots In Time 184

Jessica and Kelly had been dead less than a week when Matthew Keller officially resigned from the Corp. He had already long since been on an indefinite enlistment; it enabled him to discharge at any time since he had long ago put in the four years he'd initially signed up for, while at the same time enabling him to remain in the ranks without the hassle of having to re-up every four years. After the incident outside of the Circle Market, though, he had discharged two days following the funeral.

Three weeks later, his older sister Rachael was dead, her husband dead, and three of her six children dead. One was still in Marc's careful custody, and the other two were missing. Isaac was already buried quite a while ago, and then less than a week ago Christine had been killed protecting their parents and James and Victoria.

Matthew entered his study this afternoon with a firm, angry line set into his mouth, and silent but intent footsteps. His feet carried him across the carpeting, and his eyes passed over the cabinet on the back wall where his old gear was locked up. They passed across the cabinet next to it that held the set of firearms he'd collected over the years. Then they settled finally on his desk, and a drawer he had kept locked since his discharge from the Corp.

He had sworn he wouldn't open it again. He had sworn he wouldn't use what was inside of it - or the cabinet on the wall - ever again. He had sworn, like most of his family, that he was just going to take his children and go to ground and disappear. That he was going to do his best to live beneath the lab's radar and hopefully keep his children out of the targeting reticule of Konta and his goonies.

That mindset had come to a crashing, sudden, abrupt and violent halt when Jessica's parents and only sibling had all turned up dead. The man's wife and single child had turned up dead all within hours of each other.

Matthew reached into his pocket, jaw set in a rigid line as he withdrew the key to that drawer and pulled the drawer open. He reached down inside of the drawer and pulled his Scorpion-issued sidearm out of it. For a long moment, he just stood there staring down at it. I should have done this a long time ago. He thought acidly at himself as he turned the weapon around in his hands.

Behind him, Bridgette had already scooped up a wandering Michael and was watching him with an uncertain, uneasy frown on her face. Lucas had stepped inside the room and quietly closed the door when he'd spotted his sister in there. Matthew knew they were there; he knew they were watching. But he wasn't speaking to them yet, and he wasn't looking back that way. Not yet.

He stared at the weapon in his hands and with a gritting of his teeth, reached back into that drawer and pulled out the holster, and several of the ammo packs. Setting the lot down on the desk, he snatched his keys again and moved around the desk to the cabinet on the back wall. Lucas and Bridgette exchanged outright worried glances at that point, but it was Lucas who finally broke the silence in the room.

"Dad? What are you going to do?"

"Something I should have done a while ago, Son." Matthew replied as he unlocked the cabinet and opened the oak doors, starting to pull out the old Scorpion-issued body armor, combat suit, helmet, and the rest of it. "I'm taking you kids to China; you're going to meet that Mrs. Fen you've heard me and your mother speak about. You're going to be staying with her for a while."

"If you're going to start fighting, Dad, I'm not going to just hi--"

"You are GOING to do what I TELL you to do in this case, Lucas!" Matthew snapped, and whipped his head around to stare his son dead-on in the eyes. "This is NOT a subject up for discussion. You will do as I say in this, or you are going to be one VERY sorry young man. DO I make myself clear?!"

Lucas stared back at him, his cheeks flushing red with a momentary spike of anger and resentment... but after a few moments of staring at those icy-burning silver eyes, the boy looked away and averted his gaze down to the floor.

"WELL?" Matthew prompted in a sharp, curt, no-nonsense tone when the boy didn't replyl.

"Yessir..." Came the mumbled reply.

"Glad we understand one another." Matthew turned his head back around and finished pulling the rest of his gear out of the cabinet. "Christine's gone and Isaac's gone. I'm what's left of this family's military element. It's my turn to step up to the plate, Son. I SHOULD have done this a long time ago. I SHOULD have been working WITH Christine in the first goddamn place."

He slammed the drawer of his desk shut emphatically, and his children could only blink in surprise as he stalked past them and out the door with his gear in hand. When the door slammed to his bedroom up the hallway, Lucas and Bridgette just stared at each other.

"This is NOT going to be good." The boy commented dryly.

Bridgette just stared at him. "...I'm calling Grandad. He's going to get himself killed!"

And without another word, she stuffed Michael into her brother's arms and tore up the hallway in the other direction.