Post by Catherine Smith on Mar 21, 2019 17:45:09 GMT -5
Late March 2019
Walking underneath the arches connecting MacArthur and Eisenhower Buildings at the heart of West Point always Catherine a happy feeling, especially when she saw the blossoming trees at the end of the Plain flanking the Washington Monument. It was a reminder of how, despite everything that'd happened the past six years, there was always a sense of refreshment, a sense of revival and renewal as one season - Winter - left and another - Spring - arrived.
Out on the Plain, she could see cadets standing at attention, at least two years' worth by the numbers of young men and women present. Further out, she could see soldiers and trainees doing what they always did: training, training...and more training. Overhead, the occasional helicopter flew past while further out, where the Hudson bends at the S-curve, she could hear the throaty roar of a prop aircraft - she couldn't quite tell which kind it was - as it made its' approach into River Field, now consisting of two 7,000 foot paved runways, complete with hangars, maintenance revetments and concrete berms. In the distance, though she couldn't see it because of all the buildings between her and the Hudson, she knew there were dozens of boats - landing craft of various sizes - with their own facilities for repair and building. My, the more things change, the more they stay the same, she thought as she continued walking, thinking about the past year and everything that'd happened.
The past year had also seen a vast change in the country's reclamation; once confined to an eastern sliver of the state of New York, the United States had now reclaimed sovereignty over most of New York (except NYC and Long Island), Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts east to the Berkshire Mountains, along with the City State of Detroit several hundred miles to the east. Although there were still walker sightings - will that scourge ever leave this world? she thought - they had fallen by fairly steep numbers, though not enough to begin letting their guard down.
And the Monuments Group? Although there were a few stumbles back in Vermont, the overall success of the Monuments Group had prompted President Michner to consider sending them west, though where she didn't know...she did know she still had a primary job as a doctor at West Point and that was where she was headed, though she no idea that the Fates would intervene once again in her life...and in the life of those around her.