Freedom Fight: Beginnings Series Book 9 (18 page)

REALMS OF SORROW AND LOSS . .
.

Hal squinted in near blindness when he emerged from the police station. He had been monitoring the Beginnings transmissions since dawn and he hadn’t realized it was getting that late in the day.

“It lives,” The young voice spoke, a voice that sounded younger than his age.

Hal gave a raised eyebrow look down to the Craig, a short man about thirty. He was one of ten men in Bowman who never sported a uniform. There were four things that inhibited a man in Bowman from fighting, age, health, essential skills, or an unbreakable attitude that wouldn’t fit with infantry and was more suited for menial jobs, such as the case with Craig.

“Craig, what did I tell you about being sarcastic with me?”

“Not to do it.”

“So why did you make that comment?”

“I don’t know. It just was funny when you walked out of there.” Craig laughed a high pitched, inhaling type. “You made this face.” Craig pointed. “Like a . . .”

“Craig!” Hal blasted his name. “Bye.” Hal shook his head and started walking.

“Oh hey, Captain.”

Afraid to respond, Hal turned around, annoyed. “What is it?”

“The doc wants to see you at the hospital. He says it’s important.”

“Is it a problem with one of my men?”

“Nope, I think it’s one of our hidden.”

Hal nodded. “Thank you.” Hal started walking. Again, he stopped and looked back to Craig. “You aren’t lying to me again are you? I’m not going to go to the hospital to find out I’m not needed, am I? I’ll kick your ass so tell me now.”

Craig raised his hand. “Telling the truth.”

Hal moved on, telling himself that if Craig sent him on another goose chase, Craig was going to be used for maneuvers practice.

The medical building sat further from town, just past a huge white house where UWA soldiers stood out front as guards. Hal was saluted by them as he passed and made his way to the small facility. He spotted the only medical person in Bowman. He was a stocky older man, nearly as tall as Hal with wisdom in his eyes. He never was a doctor. A corpsman in the Navy was the most medical training he had until he had happened upon a group of people and after one of them got sick, this fifty-five year old man began to learn all that he could from books.

“Blue.” Hal called him by his nickname as he entered the facility, a nickname given to the man who had gone so prematurely grey
his hair held a bluish tint to it. It was a nick name Hal gave him nine months earlier, and it was one that fit. “Tell me you called for me.”

“Yep, I did.” Blue sported a long white lab coat. “Sorry it was Craig who was the messenger.”

“I’ll recover from that,” Hal huffed. “What’s wrong?”

“The woman with child is having difficulty. She told me that the last child she had carried died because it was born prematurely.”

“Is she giving birth now?”

“No.” Blue shook his head. “I’m giving her alcohol at four hour intervals. The labor has stopped. As long as she rests, we can probably inhibit labor from happening any further. However, she is upset and I wanted to see if you could reassure her somehow.”

“What would happen if she gives birth now?”

“She’s only six months along. The child will die,” Blue stated with certainty. “Bed rest is what she needs, but with her history, chances are she’ll deliver early.”

“How early was her last child?” Hal asked.

“Eight weeks. However, she wasn’t given anything to slow it. We haven’t the medication, but grain alcohol holds the same effect so in essence we’re one step further than she was the last pregnancy. But it’s still not comforting enough to her. I think you know what I need you to tell her.”

“I do,” Hal said, “and I’ll do that for you. Which room?”

“Seven.”

“Thank you.” Hal gave a squeeze to Blue’s arm and walked to the hall where the patient rooms were. He didn’t need to see a room number. The UWA soldier posted at the door was enough to tell him that was the room he needed to go to. Hal knocked once.

“Yes?” The woman’s voice called from the other side.

“Captain Slagel, Ma’am. Permission to enter the room?”

“Yes, Captain.”

Hal opened the door and stepped inside. He closed it and stayed near the room’s door. “How are you today, Monica?”

“Better now.” Auburn haired Monica lay in bed. She had arrived in Bowman already pregnant, her partner killed in a Society attack.

“Blue tells me you’re upset.”

“I don’t want to lose this child, Captain. I fear if it’s born too soon, I will.”

“As you know, there is nothing we can do if nature decides to take control.”

She closed her eyes and nodded once.

“If I assured you that we would seek the best care for the child, would that make you feel better?”

“If you tell me that my child will be brought to the doctors in Beginnings, yes.”

“Then considered it done, if that happens to be the case.”

“Thank you, Captain. I needed to hear that.”

Hal moved back to the door.

“Captain?”

Hal stopped. “Yes.”

“I would like my companion with me while I am confined to this bed. Could you make that possible?”

“I will do that.”

“Will our privacy insured? We will not be bothered or disturbed?”

“No.” Hal gave a half smile.

“I feel open and vulnerable being in such a public place. In my condition, you understand, I should not have these fears.”

“Understandable. I’ll place a second guard on the door.”

Monica gave a snobbish smile, leaned her head back, and closed her eyes.

Seeing how Monica’s sudden resting was his clue to leave, Hal stepped from the room and pulled the door closed. He paused in the hall before going any further, rolled his eyes some in annoyance, and clenched his jaws. After shuddering the irritation he kept hidden inside, he moved down the hall.

^^^^

Beginnings, Montana

With a clipboard in his hands and his headset microphone on, Robbie switched his conversation between his guard and Joe who walked along side of him to the hanger.

“Perimeter nine,” Joe stated. “Did mechanics get there at all yet?”

“They were there when I left.” Robbie moved quickly. “Pretty much everything is done for the afternoon. I’ll go back through it after I get back.”

“Where you headed? Further south?” Joe asked.

“Yeah, I can’t see how that would be though, but we’ve gone over the direct route here too much. They aren’t there.”

“No obvious structures they’re hanging out in?”

Robbie shook his head and handed Joe the clipboard. “We also got to remember. Frank is not going to take the obvious route. Somehow that thought got lost in the . . . hold on Dad.” Robbie held up his hand and adjusted the headset. “Yeah Tower?”

“This is Steve. We might have a problem at the front gate.”

“The front gate?” Robbie questioned and noticed the look on Joe’s face. “Survivor?”

“Nope. It was.”

“Was?”

“Yeah, some little guy came from the woods. He was dragging what looked like a white sack then he went back into the woods without it. By the time I got my binoculars, I couldn’t see him and I can’t see what he left.”

Robbie saw the question on Joe’s face. He covered the microphone. “Tower spotted someone dropping something off at the gate. I’m gonna take a look before I fly out.”

“Want me to?” Joe asked.

“No, I’d rather handle it. We don’t know what it is.”

“Funny, tracking didn’t tell us they picked it up.” Joe said.

“Not for a single signal
. I’ll handle it.” Robbie returned to talking to Steve. “I’m gonna check it out. Did you see where the man went?”

“Like I said into the woods. It was too thick.”

“O.K., I’m checking it out.” Robbie ended his call and walked over to the Jeep. “I’ll be back, Dad.”

“Be careful.”

Robbie nodded in acknowledgment and hopped in the Jeep. He drove it with a look of aggravation on his face, taking the winding road to the front tunnel entrance. So as not to alert anyone who could be standing at the gate, Robbie left the Jeep in the entrance of the tunnel and began to walk.

He could see the whiteness of the object as he walked. His pace was steady as he moved. The closer he drew, he could see something else mixed with the whiteness. He blinked several times, trying to focus at the object that was still a distance from him on the ground outside the gate. Then Robbie stopped walking. “Oh God.” His heart pounded in his chest. “Oh God.” He began to run, calling out as he did. “Down the front gate! Down the front gate now!” Robbie cried out in his race, his legs moving as fast as they could. He exhaled emotional exasperation with every step he took. He heard the buzz of the downing perimeter as he neared even closer to the front gate. Then without stopping, he charged for the fence, flung it open and barreled out. He dropped to his knees. “No.” His hands hesitated before touching down and seeing what he knew it was. The dark blonde hair peeking out of the tightly wrapped sheet was what gave it away to Robbie. He pulled the sheet some and saw the wide open blue eyes.

Ellen.

She was curled up in a fetal position, her hands clenched in a fist, close to her mouth. Robbie touched her neck, feeling around. He closed his eyes when he felt a pulse, a weak one. “Clinic, clinic, come in.” Robbie called as he picked Ellen up. “I have an emergency.” He couldn’t speak as he struggled with his emotions. “Just . . . just be ready. Dad, meet me at the clinic.” Robbie moved quickly through the front gate. “Front gate up! I’m going off air.”

Robbie looked down at Ellen in his arms. He tightly closed his eyes, adjusted her better, and ran as fast as he could, carrying her all the way toward the end of the long tunnel.

^^^^

Dean grinned as he stood by where his new home would be. Two pieces of the modular home were there waiting to be moved and placed together.

“Like it?” Danny asked. “You now have the open view.”

“It reminds me of a Barbie house,” Dean laughed.

“Yeah, you kind of open it up and get the entire feel of it. Want me to leave it like that?”

Dean started laughing. He took a breath and held up his hand to Danny when his phone rang. Unhooking it from his belt, Dean answered. “Hello?” Any and all expression dropped from his face at the same time the phone dropped from his hand.

“Dean?”

Dean didn’t even hesitate to pick up the phone. He merely spun around and raced at top speed through town to the clinic.

Her body didn’t move, except for slight twitching. She was still curled in a ball, only this time on Robbie’s lap as he drove the Jeep. One hand secured her head to his chest, the other the steering wheel, occasionally having to maneuver the wheel with his leg to switch gears. But never once did his hand move from Ellen. “Dad, did you get a hold of Dean.”

“Yeah. I’m guessing he’s on his way. Robbie, what’s wrong. What happened.?”

“I found her.” Robbie’s eye shifted down. “She’s alone. Oh God I’m scared. You should . . . you should . . . .” Robbie swallowed. “I’m almost there. Over.”

The timing could not have been better or worse for Dean. As he reached for the clinic doors, Robbie screeched up in the Jeep. Dean spun on the steps and ran down.

Robbie stepped from the Jeep with Ellen still wrapped in the bloody sheet. Dean’s hand touched her as Robbie raced to the doors with her. Her face was still pressed to Robbie’s chest.

“Dear God.” Joe gasped as he and Henry opened the door for Robbie and Dean. “Robbie, Andrea’s in room three waiting.”

Robbie just ran past and to that room. Dean ran quickly behind.

Henry reached for Dean. “Dean, what’s wrong with her.”

“Henry.” Dean pulled back, walking backwards. “I know as much as you.” He flew to examining room three. Robbie was laying Ellen on the table. “Get her out of that sheet. Andrea, what do you have ready?” Dean washed up.

“Fluids, IV ready to start, anti-infectives, surgical . . .”

Dean turned off the sink when he heard Andrea stop talking. He turned around and saw why. Robbie had uncovered Ellen. Her entire body was covered in blood, fresh and dried, from head to toe. Immediately, her body sprang back into a curled position, her legs held tightly to her chest.

Andrea’s eyes went from Ellen to Dean. “She’s in shock.”

“Robbie, find me blankets.” Dean neared Ellen. Her face was pale and her breaths so shallow her face was nearly blue. “Oxygen, Andrea start oxygen and get me vitals.”

Robbie pulled the sheet from under Ellen as Andrea administered the oxygen. Ellen’s body turned some. “We have a bullet hole, Dean. Looks like it’s still in there.”

“Where?”

Robbie pointed to her arm. “And another here.” He pointed to her back then looked at Ellen chest. “Look like it went straight out.”

Dean examined. “Up and through the shoulder, thank God.” He grabbed his pen light and turned it on. He shined it in Ellen’s dilated pupils. They didn’t change despite the light. Her eyes didn’t blink, they only stared forward. Their luster was gone. “El.” Dean called her. “Ellen, can you hear me. Andrea, what are her vitals.”