Continue on, my friend.

Somewhere over the Atlantic.

*static*

*static*

"Mayday..." *static* "Mayday... Can anyone hear us?" *static*

"Vertical stabilizers lo..." *static* "I've lost longitudinal contr..." *static* "Aileron hydraulics are o..." *static*

"TERRAIN!!! TERRAIN!!!" *static*

**Signal Lost**

12:23 PM US East Coast time zone. The year is 2013.

Farmingdale, New York.

Somewhere, somewhere lonely, and lively. A girl, about 23, sits on a swing at a park. Little children running around, playing children games. The smooth laughter of children carried over by the gentle wind. A pleasant, and happy setting, with nothing but cheerfulness. Something is amiss however, something very important that smogs the setting.

The girl starts to cry. She slides from the swing and falls to the ground, crying more.

Under the wind, she speaks gently, not to anyone, just to herself.

"You promised you'd come back, you promised... Why couldn't you come back? WHY? What will I do now?"

She puts her hand on over her stomach.

"What will WE do now?"

Her name is Catherine. HIS name WAS Jonas. Jonas Lambertly. First LT.

"A promise is a promise."

They were recently married. However, he had to leave to go off to a far away land, some which might call hell.

"Don't leave me here alone."

A man approaches her, about the same age as her. They know each other.

"Hey Cat, get up off the dirt will ya?"

"Why you crying Cat?"

"You know damn well why John, you know damn well why."

"If you're talking about Jonas, then yeah. Yeow, I'm sorry about him, I don't think I could begin to understand, just wished there was more I could have done."

"Yeah, me too."

"Well listen up there Cat, how about you get off the dirt, and we'll go get a cup of coffee and we'll talk it over huh? How about it?"

She looked up at him, miserably trying to smile, it was obvious she failed. She was too overtaken with pain and misery.

"Alright. Oh... and John... thanks for trying to help."

"It's the most I can do."

To be Continued...

Shattered OUT...

[edit on 23-3-2006 by ShatteredSkies]

The honks and beeps of cars outside the diner. Traffic as usual moves slowly, and people expressing their anger for one another through the use of their horns. Catherine just looks out of the window pane; empty. Out into empty space, an empty void of nothingness that one can tell just by looking into her eyes.

"So..." Possibly a failed attempt, but John tries getting some words out of his friend.

"Hmm?" Simple response, yet somewhat lonesome.

"So how's your parents? Are they getting along fine in Calverton?"

"Uhh, yeah, I guess, I haven't spoken to them since the officers came."

"Oh. How did they feel about the whole thing? You know, with Jonas?"

"They showed sympathy, they did what any loving parents would do for their daughter..."

The waitress walks over to them. She takes out her booklet of take their orders. She looks up, then down, and gives a sigh, wishing she hadn't come to this one table, with all it's gloominess. Alas, she was there, and had to make the best of it, she looked back up with a smile, a fake smile, but a smile nonetheless.

"Hello there, and welcome, do the two of you know what you want? Or do you want me to come back later?"

John looks at Catherine, while the waitress looks at both of them, and Catherine continuously stares out into empty space.

To be continued...

Shattered OUT...

John makes an attempt to break the silence.

"Uhh, yeah, I'll have coke and the pancakes... How about you Cat?"

She continues to look out the window and gives the waitress her order.

"I'll some coffee, that'll be all."

The waitress writes their orders, and slowly looks up. She raises her eyebrows, turns around and walks away.

"Well, that wasn't awkward, nope, not one bit." John said out loud trying to bring the place to life a bit, failing miserably.

"Well gee, aren't you the conversationalist? C'mon Cat, you can't be down your entire life, so something bad happens, hey that's life, crap happens all the time, all we can do is go on. Just move on; Jonas would have moved on, I know he would have, he was always telling me to move on. Move along..."

Now he wasn't even speaking to help his friend, he was speaking to help himself. John had been friends with Jonas for a few years now, they had flown together, they had fought together for the duration of their time in the services up until the incident. He was speaking to try and keep the memory of his friend alive still. Cat still looked out the window; almost motionless, lifeless.

She turned her head.

"You always did suck with words." She smiled a little, John smiled back gracous that he had broken some ground.

Then the waitress came back with the coffee and soda.

"You're food will be out in a bit, but for now can I get anything else?"

"Uhh, not, that's just fine, you Cat?"

She looked up at the waitress.

"Uhmm, no, I'm fine." She smiled again, she was beginning to turn around.

To Be Continued...

Shattered OUT...

[edit on 30-3-2006 by ShatteredSkies]

It's about the middle of the afternoon now...

Traffic was picking up and the noise of car's horns and people talking could be heard emanating from the streets and outside. A world that keeps revolving, keeps moving no matter what happens on it. Same goes with the people, for the most part no matter happens people keep going on. No need to stop, why should they? It's not a perfect world, they should make the best of it.

"It's really noisy outside, it always has been."

"Yup, that's what midday traffic will do, so Cat, what you gonna do tomorrow?"

"I don't know yet, I'll take one day at a time, one step at a time, there really is no need to rush anything else anymore."

"Hmm, yeah. I'm going back to base next week. My time here is up."

"Sorry to hear that, it would be good if you could stay a bit longer."

"I'd love to stay, but I can't."

John puts his arms up and yawns.

"Gosh, I'm getting tired, I should go rest or something. I just want my damn pancakes."

Then the waitress came back with the pancakes, the holy-forbidden pancakes that one must gasp at it's presence. Elegance beauty in food.

He looked up the waitress.

"Wow, thanks."

"No problem, can I get you anything else?"

"No, check would be fine."

"Alright, enjoy."

The waitress walked away, John looked at his plate.

"... Syrup, I need syrup. Cha-ching, there we go."

John attacks his pancakes with syrup, drowning them with the sweetener.

He looked back up to Catherine. She was looking outside the window pane again, her coffee was untouched.

"What can possibly be out there that has your eye?"

"Oh, nothing really, just watching life go by. That's all."

"You have your own life to worry about. So how about worrying about it?"

"Gee, been an ass much lately?"

They both smile. They've been friends for years, even before she met Jonas. They have their own brand of humor.

"For your information I have, that's the way things are, don't like it? Too bad, live with it."

He takes a sip of his soda, then stops.

"Wait... where did I get this soda?"

"Uhh, you ordered it?"

"Is that so..."

He takes another sip.

"Yup, I ordered it."

He slices up the pancakes and starts eating the pieces.

"I really don't feel much like coffee right now."

"It's alright, you don't have to drink it."

The waitress comes back and puts their check on the table and walks away.

John looks at it, takes out his wallet, and puts the money on the table.

"Don't worry about the coffee."

"I wasn't going to, you've always paid for me."

"That's what friends are for... Right?"

"Right."

She smiled. Ice was melting.

"I'll finish up here and then I'll drive you home."

"That'll be fine..."

To be continued...

Shattered OUT...

John pulls up to the front of Catherine's house and just stops there and turns the engine to idle. The two simply stear outside the windshield, Catherine puts her hands on the handle to open the door, but stops...

"Uhm, I want to say thank you for being there for me."

"It's alright, that's what friends are for, you know that, I'm there for you, you're there for me, that's how it's always been."

The two continue to look out the windshield directly ahead. Silence swarms in, and then Catherine opens the door and gets out.

John whispers something under his breathe.

"Be alright Cat, be alright, don't get yourself hurt or into trouble. That's the last thing anyone would want."

*Ring... Ring... Ring...*

"Yeah, hello?"

...

"Oh hey beautiful, what you up to?"

...

"Well I was just driving a friend home tha..."

...

"Why are you making such a big deal out of it?"

...

"Fine, I'll stop by the grocery store and then I'll be on my way home, don't worry thin..."

...

"Fine, bye."

John hangs up his phone and releases a big sigh.

"Back to the real world now. Just like it's always been."

He starts the car again and drives off.

To Be Continued...

Shattered OUT...