Scorched Earth

"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness." Desmond Tutu

Windmark's voice rattled around in Walter's head during his restless sleep from his spot on Etta's sofa, causing the pain in his head to throb even louder. He had tried to dull the sound of the man's hollow voice out of his by replaying some of his favorite music in his head, but to no avail. It was still there, tempting him to come clean and spill his secrets. He had fought against Windmark's prodding's for so long that he knew if the interrogation lasted any longer that he would not have made it. One of his eyes and even his nose had started to bleed to relieve the pressure of Windmark rattling around on the inside of him.

He had taunted him, telling him that he was on his side and that they were friends and at one point he was almost tempted to give in just to make all of it stop, but he knew deep down that he had to hold on and keep going for not only his family, but the entire world. There was nothing that he would not do for family. He had gone through great strides to protect them over and over again, but this had to be the hardest test of them all.

The heavy feeling of defeat loomed about on the inside of Etta's apartment. The plan had been lost to him and it seemed like there was no chance of retrieving it. But he couldn't just give up, could he? Everyone was depending on him to think of something. There had to be another way. There was always another way, even if he hadn't been able to think of one yet. Windmark knew that they were legends within to the resistance movement and taking them down would have meant that Windmark would be the winner and all hope would be lost because if they couldn't win against the Observers, no one could.

But what good am I if I can't even remember the sound of music? Windmark stripped everything away from me.

Suddenly a light glistened in his eyes, causing him to stir a little on his sofa, the dull thud in his head getting a little louder, but the curiosity of what it was forced him to open his eyes. It took him a moment for his eyes to focus to realize what he was seeing. It looked as though a light were reflecting off of some kind of prism, causing a rainbow of colors to fill the living room. But what was it? Curiosity welled up inside of him even more than it had before, prompting him to slowly get off of the sofa and make his over to the window to peak outside through the blinds to look for its source. He glanced from side to side, looking for things among the rubble that might reflect something of that color, knowing that it had to be mobile, whatever it was. Then his eyes landed upon a strange looking, as if there were two poles hanging up with a string draped between them and from there, little round disks hung from it.

Could those be CD's? This discovery prompts further inspection.

He knew that Peter would be angry with him for leaving the apartment, but this was of utmost importance to all of them. He needed to hear the sound of music, a sound that seemed so distant to him now but it was something that brought him so much comfort and hope, and he knew that if they were to move forward, he would need this. His soul needed it. It needed to be healed so he could carry on.

Windmark had been wrong about music. Both of them knew that it was nothing more than frequencies of sound, but it was more than that to Walter. Part of him even pitied those who were like Windmark. The Observers would never know the true meaning of love, or how powerful of an emotion that it could be, because it gave them a reason to carry on and continue fighting long after everyone else had given up. But hope, that was an emotion that was nearly just as strong for him. It was a small crack of light in the darkness when all else was lost, and once that light was found, he knew that there would be another way out of all of this.

Walter found himself moments later with his green and black house coat on with a pair of boots that he had left by the door, wandering about the streets amongst the rubble, looking for the disk shaped objects, praying for them to be CDs. The pain in his head seemed to be growing stronger the more he moved around in the bright light from the outside, but he did his best to ignore it.

When he finally found what he was looking for, he couldn't help but just stand there and stare at the spectacle for a brief moment, before he moved forward and took hold of one of the CDs that were hanging from one of the many ribbons that tethered it in place. It was one of the most beautiful things that he had seen there in the future; even if most of the CDs were seemingly broken in half, but the mere fact that they were still clearly present in the future made him feel joyful deep down inside. He wasn't just imagining it; they were there in front of him.

But wait, there was a purse sitting there beside of it that caught his attention. Were there more CD's in there? He stooped over and picked it up and looked through it real quick, not taking him very long to find exactly what he was looking for.

Now to find somewhere to listen to this.

There was a taxi that was nearby but it looked like it had been caught up in the blast that decimated most of the area around where it had been sitting and it was even missing a door. The concrete around it was heavily broken up in chunks in some areas and scorched in others. How long has this been sitting here? He wondered to himself as he took a seat and fished the CD out of the purse and dusted it off.

TRIP MIX 6it had scrawled on the front of it in a black permanent marker with no other indication of what might be on it, but he didn't care what it was, he just needed to hear something and it could have literally been anything as long as he could hear a soothing melody of some kind. It was real, music was real, and he now knew that he hadn't just been imagining it the entire time that he had arrived there in the future.

To his surprise, the CD started to play Yazoo through the speakers just as soon as he popped it into the CD player. Walter felt his heart starting to beat a little faster in his chest as he turned to face the front of the car. It was a soothing yet cheerful sound to his ears that instantly made him feel relaxed enough that he allowed himself to close his eyes and to smile. This is exactly what he needed to hear to get him through. A song about love.

After a moment he let his eyes open back up and yet again, something else had managed to catch his eye. Something yellow amongst the rubble. How had he missed that before?

"Nothing grows from scorched earth." That same cold hollowed out voice repeated to him.

Windmark had of course been wrong about what he had said and what he saw, this tiny little dandelion was proof of that. Against all odds, it had managed to grow there in the middle of the rubble. No other flowers or weeds of any kind were in sight. Where had it come from? How had it got there? How had it survived this long? It was such a tiny little thing, seemingly so fragile to what was going on in the world around it but yet it had somehow managed to fight back against all odds and prevail against everything that had been thrown itself.

Mother Nature is so remarkable. He thought to himself as he continued to watch it sway a little in the breeze that was drifting through the area. Walter felt an abundance of emotions starting to well up inside of him, feeling something there deep inside of him that he had not felt in a long time. It was a feeling of strength, perhaps even courage and confidence; if something as small as that little flower that was peaking up through the 'scorched earth' could prevail, then surely they could too. Nothing was nearly impossible as it seemed, and just like that flower, he knew now that they could win and they would win, if they didn't give up.

Feeling a tear starting to trickle down the side of his face, Walter reached up and wiped it away and replaced it with a smile. God had given him another sign where he was least expecting to find one. The flower wasn't just a tiny ray of light that was peaking though the darkness, it seemed more like the sun that was driving back the shadows that was currently surrounding all of them. This tiny flower didn't realize it, but it was the very light that he had been looking for and his intense desire to hear music once more had been the very thing that had led him to it.

Hope is often found in the strangest of places. He mused, his smile growing wider.

"Thank you…" he whispered.