Every Pack is a Generation Challenge

April had gotten her assignment, though General Grunt had not told her how she was supposed to bug civilians. She did remember seeing some listening bugs at Erwin’s stand though. Perhaps that would be the first place to go. After her morning jog, she headed to the bar to find his Curio stand around the corner. However, when she got there she was surprised to see someone else behind the counter. A woman with pink hair and very similar clothing to Erwin.

“Hi,” she said. “Can I buy some of those listening bugs?”

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“Sure,” the woman said brightly. “How many do you want?”

“10,” she said and waited until the woman put 10 of them in a bag for her. April paid and then she asked, “So, where’s Erwin?”

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The woman’s smile faded. She looked left and then right, and then whispered. “I can’t tell you here, meet me around back.”

“Uhm, okay.” April looked around, but there was no one around.

She walked over to the side of the stall and the woman introduced herself as Theresa. Then she looked as if she was about to cry and said, “Erwin is…gone!”

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“Gone? What do you mean gone?”

“No one has seen him in over a week now. Of course, no one knows where he lives…but he’s usually always here, at his shop, only he wasn’t…and now…well, here I am.”

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She had just bought the listening bugs. Maybe, this would be the first civilian to plant one on. Perhaps it would help prevent whatever happened to Erwin from happening to her. She took a deep breath and figured she may as well give it a go.

“I’m so sorry. There, there.” She gave Theresa a big sympathetic hug. While she did, she placed the bug.

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Theresa didn’t notice a thing. She smiled and thanked April for her concern. April suddenly felt a wave of guilt wash over her.

April patted her shoulder and said, “Well, it was nice meeting you, Theresa. I hope you find Erwin.”

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Theresa sniffed loudly, but was smiling again. She headed back into the small shack and stood behind the counter again. One of the books there caught April’s eye. Untold Mysteries of Strangerville. It was one of Erwin’s books. He had told her about them last time she was here.

She turned back to Theresa. “Theresa? I think I’ll buy one of these books too.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

On her way back home, she passed by the bar. She could see the usual crowd of patrons and military personnel inside. It wasn’t surprising they hung out there; there wasn’t anything else to do in town other than the occasional hike and a visit to the library. She had spent a lot of time at the Strangerville library as a kid. That had been where she had met Marci. The two of them had played together and talked about books while their parents poured over the various volumes on the shelves, as scant as they might have been.

She had been thinking about Marci and hadn’t been paying attention to where she was going and suddenly ran right into someone walking in the opposite direction, snapping her attention back to reality.

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“I’m so sorry,” she blurted out. She looked up to see a handsome soldier smiling at her. He didn’t seem at all bothered that she had run right into him.

“It’s okay,” he answered. “Probably my fault anyways. Walking and playing on my phone is a bad habit of mine. Though, I guess it turned out for good this time.” He grinned at her and held out a hand, which she shook. “I’m Bradley,” he said.

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“April,” she replied. She found herself momentarily forgetting what she had been doing. Instead, she was imagining going back to the bar and having a drink with Bradley.

As if he had read her mind he said, “Sorry I got in your way. Where were you headed?”

“Uhm…” She looked back at the bar. “I was about to stop in and have a drink. You?” Never mind that she had been headed away from the bar just now.

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He laughed, but didn’t point out that she was going the wrong way for a drink. “I wish I could join you, but I’m on my way to work.”

“Oh. Which division are you in?” she asked him.

“Infantry. I help train new recruits.”

“That sounds exhausting.”

He laughed again and April found herself smiling. He was very easy to talk to.

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“I’m eighth division. Intel,” she told him. Unfortunately, that was all she could tell him.

“Oh yeah?” He raised his eyebrows. “An intel girl? Forgive me, I didn’t realize you were military.”

He looked as if he was about to salute her, but she said, “It’s okay, you couldn’t have known since I’m not in my uniform right now. I’m off today.”

“Well, next time we happen to run into each other,” he chuckled, “let’s get a drink together, April.”

“Absolutely.” She smiled and waved goodbye to him. “Next time then, Bradley.”

They parted ways and April continued on her way home. She didn’t really want a drink now. She’d wait and have one next time with Bradley. She realized there were butterflies in her stomach at the thought of having a drink with that handsome soldier. She remembered the Major she had met her first night coming to the bar. He had been handsome as well, but he was stern and unfriendly. She was glad she had met someone she felt she could be friends with. There was also the female soldier in the airborne unit. Nina, she remembered. Nina had told April that it was her goal to be a pilot. She hoped she would run into her again as well, though maybe not literally. She paid close attention as she walked the rest of the way to her house.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Back at home, she settled down on the bed to start Erwin’s book. He was surprisingly a really great writer. It didn’t feel like she was reading a conspiracy theorist’s take on things that had happened around the town, but rather it felt almost like reading a novel.

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There were some interesting bits about a plane crash that had happened, the crater where the lab was, and some things about aliens. Nothing really caught her eye until she read about a disappearance that happened over 20 years ago. That meant that these disappearances weren’t a new thing, but that they had only started back up recently. The first person to disappear 20 years ago was…

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She sat up straight and exclaimed, “Lyla Grunt?” The general’s wife? She tried to remember if he had mentioned a wife. She thought he did have a wife, but she didn’t think her name was Lyla. Maybe he had gotten remarried.

She kept reading. The story was that Lyla had been struck by lightning while visiting her friend Olive Specter, but no one could confirm Olive’s story because a body was never found. Some people blamed Olive, who apparently had a sketchy history to begin with, and others even blamed General Grunt, however there wasn’t any evidence to convict either suspect and so the case had gone cold.

She shivered. She didn’t think this was something she could ask the general about. But if he had someone close to him disappear too, then she was sure that he would be eagerly looking into the reason behind the disappearances. She wondered if this disappearance was connected to the current ones, and if so, why had they stopped and then started up again?

She decided to take a break from reading and do some research instead.

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She looked up Lyla Grunt, but didn’t find too much except what she’d already learned from the book. She then looked up Olive Specter. She found some much more interesting things about her. She was a widow to not one husband, but four. This led to a lot of speculation about her.

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“Maybe Olive really did kill Lyla…” April muttered, but even so, she felt it wrong to judge only by what people on some forums were saying.

Olive had passed away a couple years ago, but she had a niece still living named Ophelia. Maybe she knew something…It might be worth looking into at some point.

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It was late, and so April decided to have some dinner and head to bed. As she was eating she looked up towards one of the neighbors’ houses. Maybe tomorrow she’d meet some of her neighbors and finish her assignment. To keep them safe she told herself.

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After dinner, she played some games to take her mind off of things before heading to bed.

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~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The next morning on her jog she ran into Mrs. Sigworth, Marci’s grandmother. She stopped to talk to her.

“Mrs. Sigworth. It’s me, April.”

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Mrs. Sigworth gave her a hug. “Oh, April honey, how are you holding up? I had heard you moved to Strangerville. And even joined the military.” Mrs. Sigworth was in the military too, April remembered.

“I’m doing alright. How about you? How’s Christie doing?”

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“She’s not doing well, you can imagine. As to me and Dylan, well, we’re getting on. We’re doing what we can.” She suddenly got serious and said to April, “You be careful. Something strange is going on.”

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April nodded and assured her. “I will. Don’t worry about me Mrs. Sigworth. I’m doing all I can to help find Marci.”

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“I know, we all are.”

April gave Mrs. Sigworth another hug, and without thinking, planted a bug on her. Again, a wave of guilt washed over her. Mrs. Sigworth wasn’t even a civilian, she was military. But perhaps she would help to find out something useful that would lead her to Marci.

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She said goodbye to Mrs. Sigworth and stared up at the mountains.

‘Am I doing the right thing?’ She wondered.

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