Survivors
Chapter Fifty-Three

The day for sending the messages came. Everyone was as ready as they could be. The guns had been hidden, all the plans were in place and all the preparations that could be prepared were ... Prepared!

Joe had taken ages to master sending the four letters in morse code. In the end he’d had to sit up practically all night tapping away at the radio set to get it absolutely right.

“Let me hear it once more” said Jack

Joe got out his radio set and tapped out J.A.W.S. in morse.

“Perfect” beamed Jack slapping Joe on the back.

Joe smiled in spite of himself, pleased he’d finally got it right.

“Can we have a few minutes on our own” said Luke. He then turned and said pointedly to Jack “Just the three of us”.

Jack seemed non-plussed for a moment “Err yeah, yeah... Sorry, sorry” he said as he quickly got up and left the room.

“Why did you do that?!” snapped Holly as Jack closed the door.

“Do what?” snapped Luke straight back.

“Throw him out like that!” she demanded.

“Because I wanted a few words with just the two of you. Because there are things I wanted to say that I didn’t want him to hear”.

“Like what?” Asked Holly suspiciously. Luke didn’t reply. “Like what?!”

Luke puffed out his cheeks and then gave a little shamefaced grin.

“Look I know I can be difficult at times, and I know I can be hard to live with, but I just wanted to say something. We’ve been together all our lives and I just wanted to let you know that no matter what happens from now on, I will always, and I mean always look out for you and put you before anything else. You are the only family I’ve got, and you are now the only people I really care about”.

Luke paused, Holly and Joe stood open mouthed, just staring at him.

“I just wanted to tell you that before you set off, because this is dangerous. What we’re doing today is really dangerous, and this is one of the few times we can’t be there to help each other. So I just wanted to say be careful and... And... I lo... Well, you know”.

There was a big pause.

“No” said Joe mischievously “Know what?”

“Don’t be mean Joe” said Holly “You know what he means, and I think it’s really lovely”.

She grabbed Luke and gave him a huge Big Mamma style hug. Luke made a show of resistance at first but was soon hugging her back just as hard. Within a few seconds Joe, who felt a bit left out, threw his arms round both of them and joined in.

“We are going to do this!” said Luke earnestly “We are going to do it!”

“Let’s just make sure we all get back here. No matter what happens, if anything goes wrong, just get back here” whispered Holly “And be careful”.

The hug broke up.

“Right, let’s get sorted!” said Luke.

They called Jack back in.

“We’ve had our little group hug” grinned Joe.

“Yeah? I would have liked to have been in on that” smiled Jack.

The grin dropped from Joe’s face as he shot a furtive glance at Holly to see how she’d reacted. Holly was smiling “Damn!” thought Joe.

“Right” said Jack “Let’s go through the whole thing one more time”.

“Do we have to” whined Joe “We’ve been through it a hundred times”.

“You can never know a plan well enough” replied Jack “So yes we do. Okay? So, transmitters fully charged?”

“Check” they all replied.

“Spare batteries?”

“Check”

“You know your transmission locations?”

“Check”

“You all know your flight plans?”

“Check”

“You have your copies of the message?”

“Check”

“Oh hang on a moment” said Joe patting his pockets “Errr...” He rushed over to a desk and picked up a piece of tatty looking paper. “Sorry” he said embarrassed “Now it’s a check”.

Jack rolled his eyes and Holly looked at Joe with just a hint of despair which did nothing to improve his mood.

“You all have your transmission times and you all have your watches, that all say exactly the same time?”

“Check”

“And finally you all have your own routes back here, that don’t overlap, follow each other, or in any way shape or form lead the Aliens here or towards each other?”

“And check”

“Then my young warriors, I think we are ready. Before you go though I’d like to say something. If we all come through this it will be down to our planning, professionalism and courage. I can honestly say that you are three of the finest soldiers I have ever had the privilege of serving with, and I salute you” – so he did.

There was a bit of an embarrassed silence, which probably wasn’t the reaction Jack had expected or had been hoping for.

“And I salute you!” Said Joe doing a bit of a silly hand wiggling before slamming the back of his hand into his forehead and sticking out his tongue.

They all burst out laughing.

“So on that highly professional note” said Luke “Let’s go!”