Transcending the Legacy by Venessa Kimball

our joined hands. With shock in his eyes, he looks up at me for just a moment then aims his gaze straight ahead over looking us. He is pretending to look through us, ignore what he has seen, but I know Xander and that isn’t possible. He won’t ignore it.
    Nate runs his thumb over my index finger softly and looks over at me with those brilliant, warm, blue eyes. “Remember when we first met, walking down that hall in the facility before our debriefing?” he asks.
    His words, the sentiment, they are so authentic , that I forget about our laced hands and everything else happening around us. I only think about Nate; the newbie guardian I met in our facility, seeking out his purpose, his new reality. Flashes of our time in the facility rolodex through my mind. I feel my lips stretch a little as I reflect on that time. It seems so long ago. “I remember. It feels like forever ago,” I say softly.
    Nate’s chuckle is low as he says, “Yeah, it does.”
    He squeezes my hand once again, then releases it. Feeling like I have been pulled out of a dream by the lack of his warm hand, I look at him curious as to what made him let go. Nate tucks his hands in the pockets of his jeans and continues walking by my side, smiling. I look back at Xander to see if he caught Nate release my hand. He is still staring straight ahead as we walk.
    I look back at Nate and ask curiously, hoping he might divulge his thoughts about what happened to him back in the barracks. “What are you thinking?”
    Nate glances at me coyly just like he used to. “What, you can’t get in my head?” he asks teasingly.
    Feeling a little like my old self again, I mutter, “Ha, ha, funny.”
    Nate grins with that classic gorgeous Nate-grin, instantly making me feel warm inside. His comforting grin doesn’t last though. It fades sharply into a grimace that makes my throat constrict with fear.
    “No matter what we will always have those memories. Even if it was for only a short time, right?”
    He is asking me this and all I am thinking about is the burning in my heart and the tears stinging my eyes and threatening to fall. Why does it feel like he is saying goodbye. I can’t look at him, so I look down at my feet and nod quickly. I breathe in deeply trying to clear my head and pinch the tears back long enough to look at him. “Yeah, forever, Nate,” I say breathily.
    His grimace has softened in to a solemn form and his eyes reveal the emotional moment we just shared. “Thank you,” he whispers shakily and quickly walks ahead of me. I think about catching up to ask him why he was thanking me until I realize that he was thanking me for us, our time together.
     
    * * *
     
    The rest of the trek is quick with Nate ahead of me and Xander behind. The flat black, extended cargo trucks are at the lowest level of the compound. This must be what is going to take us out of here.
    “How do we get out of the compound?” asks Sebastian.
    Briggs answers, “From a cut out in the back side of this mountain. We have trailed down to a level in the mountain where it plateaus onto flat land.”
    I’m fascinated with how much Briggs knows about this mountain and how it sets on the land in regards to the flat lands behind it.
    “You really know this compound inside and out,” Ezra acknowledges.
    With his arms crossed, Briggs answers, “When you and your team have a year with nothing else to do except stay alive and dig, you learn more than you want to know about your circumstances and surroundings.”
    After loading the trucks, Briggs leads us into a small cavity off to the right. The cavernous room is lined with crated cargo, more than likely supplies. I glance between Sebastian and Ezra then straight at Daniel and say, “We need to know everything you know about this legacy. I know you kept it from us for our own safety, but now it is our only salvation and I need to know how to fulfill it. Each of us here is directly involved. The legacy has spread further than the