by Ray Wench
Becca was not there. He moved on.
At the barn, he slid the door open. He left it open to allow some of the star and moonlight to filter through. It took a moment to find her. Becca was sitting on the hood of a car. He sighed and entered.
“I figured you would want to yell at me some more, so I waited here.”
He sat next to her and put an arm around her. He felt her flinch, but pulled her gently toward him.
“Becca, I can’t even begin to tell you how disappointed I am with you right now.”
She placed her head on his chest. “I’m sorry, Daddy. I didn’t handle that very well.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“When I saw you two going off together, I saw red. I can’t explain it.”
“Yes, you can.”
“I-I miss Mom.” She began to cry.
Mark’s heart melted. He stroked her hair and let her be for a while. In truth, he was lost in his thoughts of his wife. “I miss her too, honey. More than you can ever know.”
“Then why are you trying to replace her?”
“Well, first of all, no one can or ever will replace her.”
“Got that right.”
Mark smiled at that. It faded fast. Now it was time to be hard. “But she is gone. Although her memory goes on in our hearts and minds, she is never coming back. I’m not looking to replace your mother, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have a relationship, friend or otherwise.”
“It was just hard seeing you with … her. I mean, Mom’s only been gone for a little while.”
“These are different times, Rebecca. I know you’ve been through a lot over the past few months. You’ve seen some things and done some things that never would’ve happened before.
“When your mother and brother died, I was devastated. The only thing that kept me going was the thought that maybe you and Bobby had survived. I felt I failed them, and it was my fault that I couldn’t save them.
“When Lynn and her kids came along, they needed my help to survive. Lynn has gone through some very horrible things. Having them with me gave me a chance to have a family again. I’ve developed a special relationship with all of them and I love them as if they were my own. Please treat them like family, because to me, they are.”
“But—”
“No buts, Becca, listen. Lynn deserves your respect. Without her. I wouldn’t be here. She is a very strong and caring woman, just like your mother was. I like her. She is special to me. I don’t know if we will ever take our relationship past friendship, but that will be our decision and no one else’s. Do you understand me?”
“I guess.”
“Of course, you may have already taken care of that with your little performance out there. I’ll be lucky if she ever talks to me again. But this family needs her. If you give her half a chance, you’ll understand her importance here and just why I think she’s special.
“Becca, for my sake and sake of everyone here, you have to promise to give her a chance and the respect that she deserves. We cannot survive if we have internal conflict. To the others here, Lynn and I have become the father and mother, if only out of necessity. Our entire existence here is based on the family dynamic. It’s how we survive. It’s a delicate balance, but we’ve been able to make it work. Will you give her a chance?”
“I’ll try.”
“I hope so. After all, would you want me to tell you who to see? Maybe I should forbid you from seeing Myron.”
She glanced up.
“I love you, Becca.”
“Love you too, Daddy.” She squeezed him tight. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause you problems.”
“Go to bed. In the morning, I want you to give a sincere apology to Lynn.”
Becca moaned.
“I’m serious. Then sit down with her sometime and talk about your concerns and what you’re feeling. She’s a good listener. And believe me, she’ll understand.”
“Okay.”
“Good. Now go.”
Becca slid off the car and gave him a kiss. He followed her out. When he finally got in his bed, he prayed his daughter could control her anger. And although his heart was telling him everything would work out, his brain was convinced the hardest talk was yet to come.
Seventy-Seven
Whatever his nightmarish dreams had been they were nothing to being awakened by screeching tires, honking horns, and a lot of shouting. Mark bolted from his bed, foregoing his pants, but snatching his gun.
He met Lynn coming down the stairs, wearing a nightgown and carrying a gun. “One of the Army trucks just drove up,” she said.
“Get everyone up, but keep them inside.” Mark ran past her for the rear door. A horrible knot formed in his stomach.
He leaped down the back stairs and slowed his pace toward the truck. The passenger door opened and a uniformed man tumbled to the ground. He moaned and rolled. There was blood on his clothes.
Mark ran to him. When he got there, he pointed the gun inside the truck. The driver was slumped over the wheel. Before he could help either of them, he had to be sure no one was under the canvass. He went to the opening and peered in. On the floor lay three men who appeared to be badly wounded. Damn! There must really be an enemy.
“I need some help out here,” Mark bellowed. He ran around to the driver’s side as doors opened and people came near. He guided the driver out of the truck and placed him on the ground. He was bleeding too, but conscious.
“Lynn, we need big time medical help here. Caleb, climb in back of the truck and find out how badly hurt they are. But don’t move them. Ruth and Alyssa, help Lynn gather what she needs.
“Darren, show Bobby and Myron where the work lights are. Set them up in the barn. You’ll need long extension cords. Plug into the garage outlets.”
“Daddy, what can I do?”
“Go grab some sheets.”
Lincoln sprinted to the truck and dropped by Mark’s side. “Aw, shit! How bad?”
“I won’t know for sure until I can get them under some light. Can you help Caleb in the back?”
Everyone was in motion. The new girl, Agnes, came forward and knelt next to Mark. He was surprised to see her. She checked the wounded man’s body. She looked up at Mark, her eyes wide with fear. “I was a nurse-practitioner. This man has a gunshot wound to his shoulder. I can help.”
She didn’t seem too sure of her statement, but Mark was glad for any assistance. “Great, I’m setting up triage in the barn. There are three others in the back. If you can see the extent of their injuries, we’ll know how to transport them.
Becca came with the sheets. Lynn and the girls were working on the soldier on the other side.
“Fold the sheet in half lengthwise,” Mark said.
When she finished, Mark called, “Lincoln.”
Lincoln jumped from the truck and came toward him. “Man, I’m pretty sure one of them boys is dead.”
“Help me lift this guy onto the sheet.”
They picked him up and laid him in the middle. Mark had Lincoln and Caleb carry the unconscious man to the barn.
“What else can I do, Daddy?”
He looked at his daughter. Gone was the hostility. She wanted to help.
“Fold another sheet and take it to Lynn.”
Becca blinked at the name.
“Do you think you can lift one of the wounded?”
Becca frowned and put her hands on her hips. “Really?”
“You’ll have to carry him with one of the girls.”
When she was gone, Mark went to the back of the truck. Agnes was stepping down and Mark guided her. “What’ve we got?”
Agnes wiped her face. “One’s dead. One has a chest wound and will probably die soon. The third one has a leg wound. If the chest wound has any chance of survival, we need to get him out of there now.”
“Okay.” Mark looked around the truck to the other side. “Hey, you, sorry I forgot your name.”
The man came over. “It’s Vin
ce.”
“Yeah, sorry, look, I need your help getting one of the wounded out of the back.”
“Okay, what do you need me to do?”
“Climb in back.” He grabbed two sheets. Scaled the bumper and stepped on the bed. While he folded a sheet he said, “Agnes, if you’re willing to work on the wounds, go to the barn. When you get there, send two of the boys back. Thanks.”
Agnes didn’t speak, but disappeared from view. Mark hoped she wasn’t puking on the side of the truck.
They managed to get the chest wound man on the sheet and slide him toward the edge of the truck bed. When the Bobby and Myron arrived they helped lower the man then carried him to the barn. The leg wound soldier was much easier to handle. Agnes had tied a tourniquet around his thigh that the soldier was controlling. They slid him to the end of the truck and Mark lifted him to the ground. With his arms around their shoulders, the two men walked him to the barn.
All the surviving wounded were there. Lynn was working on the chest wound patient while Agnes assisted. The two large wooden work benches had been pulled to the center of the barn. Halogen lights had been placed around the makeshift operating tables.
“Damn!” Lynn exclaimed. “He’s dead. Dammit.” She moved away from the workbench the body was on. “Boys, move that body. Put him out back for now. Bring me the next worst wounded.”
Caleb and Bobby deposited a gut-shot man on the bench as Myron and Lincoln made room by taking the body.
“Agnes, go ahead and start on the leg wound.”
Mark helped the man to a second workbench. Agnes took a pair of scissors and cut away the man’s pants. While she was working, Mark grabbed Caleb by the arm.
“Go to the house and use the radio to contact the other families. Tell them we have an emergency and need them all here by sunrise. Call Jarrod first and tell him we need the doc, ASAP.”
Caleb nodded and ran.
“I know this isn’t pleasant for anyone,” Lynn said, “but if these men are going to have a chance to live, I need help. I need two people holding each man. They’re going to be in pain, and other than pain pills, there is no way to put them under. I can’t have them moving while I’m digging for bullets.”
The family responded and stepped forward to help. Lynn took a probe and poked it into the wound. The man writhed, pulling against those restraining him.
“I’m going to need some help blotting blood so I can see.”
A hand reached over with some gauze and pressed it against the hole. For a few seconds the blood was gone. Lynn inserted the probe and touched the bullet. She was going to have to widen the hole to extract the slug.
She picked up a scalpel. “Fold that washcloth and put it in his mouth. Okay, boys, hold him tight. Wipe.” The hand shot forward and blotted again. “Be ready to do that a lot.” With precision, Lynn scribed the fine blade along the inner wall of the wound. There was no controlling the screams now. They worked as a team.
The process was made more difficult by the man’s constant moving. Lynn put her face above the wounded soldier’s. “I know this hurts. I wish I could deaden the pain for you. But if I’m going to get that bullet out, I’m going to need you to control the pain for as long as you can. I promise to be quick. Can you do that?”
The injured man nodded and grunted something indecipherable through the towel in his mouth.
“Good man,” Lynn stroked his cheek and returned to the wound.
In spite of the conditions, Lynn was able to extract the bullet. At that point the man passed out.
She poured antiseptic into the wound and wiped it. Without proper tools there was no way of knowing if the bullet hit anything else. It was quite possible it would have struck the colon, but if that were the case it was beyond Lynn’s expertise. She took a flashlight and shone it into the wound. She just couldn’t tell. She was a nurse, not a surgeon.
“Thread that needle for me, please,” she said to her assistant. “I’m going to close this, but we’ll have to watch for signs of more damage,” she said to no one in particular. The needle was proffered and she took it. For the first time, she looked at her assistant. Becca looked back. Neither spoke, but Becca nodded to her.
Lynn finished her work and stepped back. Agnes was struggling to get the bullet out of her patient’s leg.
Lynn moved to take over. While widening the incision, she said, “Take that man someplace where he can rest and put the next man on the table.”
Two hours later she was done. The last man had a clean through and through. “Agnes, make sure there’s no life-threatening damage, clean the wound, and sew him up,” she said.
The doctor arrived and Lynn gave a detailed account of what she’d done so far. When the last man was moved to the garage, or what was now the recovery room, the doc followed to evaluate the wounded.
Lynn sat down on a bale of hay and could not move. Her head hung and sweat dripped down her nose.
Agnes leaned against the workbench too stunned to even cry. Ruth and Alyssa were washing the benches. Everyone else had gone. Someone sat next to Lynn. She was too tired to look up.
“You were amazing.”
Lynn recognized the voice. She turned her head to look at Becca.
“Really, I mean it. What you did, under these conditions, it was incredible.”
“It will be incredible if any of them live once the infections set in.”
“But none of them would’ve stood a chance without what you and Agnes did.”
“I hope it’ll be enough.”
Lynn started to rise, but Becca touched her arm.
“I’m sorry for my outburst earlier. My … mom … she was great, you know, but she’s gone now.” Becca choked on the words. “I just wanted you to know I think my dad’s lucky to have you in his life.”
Lynn stood and looked down at the young woman. There was a smear of blood across her forehead. Lynn used a towel she held to wipe it.
“Thank you,” she said to Becca and then turned and dragged her exhausted body to the house.
Seventy-Eight
The gathered community members grumbled.
“No. No way, no how,” Jerry Martin shouted.
“Why should we risk our lives for them?” Mario Marino yelled.
Adam Brandford said, “Who’s going to protect our families if we go?”
“That’s right,” Tim Grant added. “Our only allegiance is to our families. We’ve got enough problems without fighting someone else’s fight.”
Everyone had a comment, and none of them was in support of aiding the Army.
Mark let it go until it started to die out.
“I understand all of your concerns. I do. The last thing any of us wants is a confrontation. I’m not asking any of you to go with me. I’m telling you what’s going on. From there it’s your decision.”
“Damn right!” Szymanski said.
Others murmured their agreement
“But just listen for a minute. Then I’ll let you go. I do not want to get into another fight with anyone. Most of you already know what we went through before. I have no interest in doing that again.
“However, I want you to think about this. If this threat is real, and obviously it is, and heading our way, isn’t it better to go face them rather than let them take us at our homes, one at a time, with no hope of defending them?”
Mark let that hang over the group for a second.
“I’m not going to wait for that to happen. If we fail, at least our families have a chance to escape and stay together. If we let them come to us, we may never be able to mount any kind of defense to stop them.
“I don’t know what we face. I can only go by what the wounded soldiers told us. So it’s up to you. Each one of you has to think about what’s right. I can’t guarantee someone won’t get killed. It’s war. People die. I can’t even say we’ll make a big enough difference to drive them away. But I do know that if they reach us, we’ll have a lot worse chance and maybe no one survives.”<
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“Why can’t we just hole up here?” Sam Nelson asked. “We can defend this place together. Look how we stood down that general.”
“That’s an option. We can stay here. We could offer some good resistance, but we stood down General West because he didn’t want to kill a bunch of American citizens. He was willing to listen and negotiate. The attackers now are enemies. They will not want to talk. They will attack. If that happens, there will be no chance to escape or retreat. We’ll be in the open. Our only escape route is through cornfields.”
Molly Szymanski offered, “Why don’t we all pack up and leave now? We can relocate before they ever get here.”
“Again, that’s a possibility. But what if they find us again? Will we keep on moving? I happen to like the feeling of having roots. I like having you all around me. Look, if I saw a reasonable way to solve this, I would take it, but I know what has to be done. I’m not asking any of you to come with me. I’m just giving you the information. The decision rests with you.”
A tense silence spread over the group. Then individual conversations broke out between spouses, before spreading to neighbors. The volume increased slowly as Mark watched them. His gaze shifted to Lynn. She had been watching him. With a tight smile, she nodded.
“We’re going with you,” Bobby’s voice shouted over the crowd.
Becca and Bobby walked forward and stood next to their father. Jarrod joined them. One of the women who lived at his house followed him.
“I’m in,” Lincoln said.
Caleb and Mallory joined the group.
Becca stared at Myron. He raised his head looked into Becca’s eyes and stepped forward.
After more debate, four other men joined the small force.
“All right, listen up, everyone. I think all of you should gather what you need and bring it here. Those of you staying will need to build your defenses here. I think you should also have all the vehicles packed and ready in case you need to make a hasty retreat.
“If at all possible, I’ll send word if you need to flee. Do not let anyone go off alone.”
